Creative Agency Secrets

And so I hope that now you have set up your own account.  Here are some advanced features that may be helpful as you progress in Twitter usage.

Business on Twitter website - A great web resource with tools, articles and advice on using Twitter for busines. This article is worth reading.

Article on software tools to make your Twitter life easier including automatic thank yous to followers, Status update loggers, desktop aggregators, Skype and iPhone applications.

Searching Twitter - helpful when you are just getting started and want to find followers /people to follow who are interested in the same things as you.  Do a search and then follow the links to the personal pages of each one that interests you and decide whether to follow them or not.  

Or get this list emailed to your inbox thanks to David Sterry, you can go online to TweetScan and set up search phrases / words.  I get one email weekly for up to five search terms.

Hashtags

Now if you are running or attending an event that merits its own hash tag, create one and get others to include it in their tweets.  #bwe08 is Blog World Expo '08 and here are the search results for that string #bwe08 . I like being able to see all the people who are 'together' online at an event even if they don't know each other.  Gives a nice all-round view of the gig.

Internal use only

And lastly, if you still think Twitter is a step too far for your organisation, why not break your colleagues in gently by installing an "internal use only" version of micro blogging? Yammer does just that.  I am trying it out with some East Anglian social media colleagues right now.

Part 4 How to Twitter for Business Development

Was browsing around the Jiglu website and decided to actually read the terms and conditions of service docuemtns.

What a surprisse.  Written in normal language with careful explanations about how they will and won't serve you and use your information. 

Here's an extract.

We are very conscious that most people are asked to click on terms of service without ever being given a clear idea of what it is that they are allowed to do, or not, unless they have practiced law for some significant period of time.

This strikes as a little unfair, and so what we intend to do here is to set out what you can and can't do with our service, and what we are allowed to do.

Don't get this wrong, just because this is written in friendly language doesn't mean that we are going to allow you to do anything at all with the service. In fact, quite the opposite. We are rather proud of it, and don't want anyone trashing it, thank you very much.
Ok, so here goes.

A breath of fresh air.

Speak the language your customers understand.  Good life lesson there!

Hopefully you've done a little 'experimenting' with Twitter over the past week. I promised a round up of the five companies using Twitter and what they've been tweeting about.  This is intended to give insight and ideas about how you might use Twitter for your business.

@dot_design The Devon based design agency. Follows 1996 people and has 267 followers. 

• They trailed their blog in general terms three times asking for RSS subscribers.  
• Re-tweet a post from someone else.  Useful tool to help your contacts get their message out more widely - you 'amplify' their message by repeating it to your audience

This is a little one-sided and self-promotion focused which is reflected in the balance of followers and followed.  But they are clearly working hard to use this new channel.

@Redcatco a People and Technology business in London. Follows 234 people and has 277 followers.

• They have 2 Twitter profiles, a personal one @bjme as well (can help to separate business from personal viewpoints)
• Has been in New York with the Digital Mission run by Chinwag.  [this was so interesting I just spent 20 minutes reading about it]
• Changed the picture background to the Digital Mission logo.  Nice touch.
• They are blogging the Digital Mission, not one of the companies on the team - but being there in good company where UK firms show off their wares to the US is mega cool.  This is a useful trick that I use occasionally - if you want to get into events that you can't afford to pay for, offer to blog it for the organisations' website.  Gets you a free ticket and profile on someone else's website.

A sophisticated and experienced online marketer shown by the intensive use of interlinked channels to show what they are doing and to give good profile to the Digital Mission event they are blogging.

@Rowperfect a sports products retailer.  Follows 59 people and has 21 followers.

• Trailed a blog post written on their site
• Launched some new products.  (Presumably in concert with other marketing communications activities.)
• Book launch for a new account of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race

Just starting out but seems to be getting some traction with people interested in their niche.  Not much 'conversation' with other users compared to @redcatco and @xumii.  But this can develop with more followers.

@xumii a digital content for the mobile phone company.  Follows 116 people and has 56 followers.

• Linked to a press write-up about their product
• Trailed a new version of the software
• Attended a trade show including tweets about where to find us, vote for our product in a competition and named companies they are working with
• A thank you note for a commentator "Thank you for your review of Xumii, appreciate you digging in and kicking our tires. More to come. :)".  I like this because it implies that the review wasn't wholly complimentary but manages to convey that they are open to constructive criticism by users.

Good spread of activities including direct conversation, promoting new services and opportunities to meet face to face.

@tomscreenwm the publicly funded agency to promote film in the West Midlands.Follows 59 people and has 21 followers.

• Trailed new film submissions for a competition
• New website design launched
• Promoted a film about Northern Soul seeking extras and a set visit. 

I liked this because it's a nice balance between showing off their work (website, blog post) and acting as a communication channel for their partners who need extras.

And so there you have it.  One week in the life of five businesses using Twitter as part of their marketing communications.

Now, what will you do?

Part 3 How to Twitter for Business Development

From time to time I get work with a mergers and acquisitions company and today I've had an email from them asking for my help. 

If you ever come across, or know of, a small brand/packaging focused company, or unit, or team, who would be up for a discussion do let me know. I have a client who wants to bring such a unit into his company.

Small units in the sector are going to find it tough going this year and next as the economy worsens and projects get cancelled or delayed so there may be a mutuality of interest here. Anyway, as I said, probably a long shot but do keep in mind in your travels round the industry.  

And so here's the challenge.  Can we, using social media tools, find the perfect team for him?

Firstly - get in touch if you are a team who want a conversation about being acquired 

Secondly - spread the word.  Tweet, Jaiku, blog, email and ole fashioned phone.  Let's use the network to find the perfect team for this job. If you can keep track of the chain of connections, that'll help me illustrate the power of the network later on.

P.S. any replies are strictly confidential.  I reserve the right to write a future blog post about how this progresses but you can remain anonymous if you choose. 

I have been on twitter for about six months now and am beginning to feel confident about the tool and how businesses can use it.

This post is not about how to get yourself set up (there are plenty of videos on YouTube and blog posts to teach that) but about watching and learning from other businesses who are using it to find new customers and as a business development tool.

Assuming you have a twitter account here are several things you can do to leverage it as part of your online profile building and business development.  If you don't have an account, just browse, check back to a few twitter pages of people / companies you know and use this as part of your market assessment and review.

Going through my twitter new followers I have found @Dot_Design and one of my clients is @Rowperfect and @redcatco and a mobile firm @xumii and @tomscreenwm Screen West Midlands.

[note that on Twitter your user name is ampersand+user name.  I am @rebeccacaroe ] To find anyone's unique twitter webpage the URL is http://twitter.com/username. 

First - what you write in your profile is important. 

When people get 'follow' requests, it's probably the first thing they read about you and what they use to decide whether you are interesting or not.

And your URL.  Make sure the link goes to the page you want on your site.  

Second - think carefully about what you will Tweet. 

If you are representing a business, it isn't just about sales, it is also about what you are doing as a business, promoting blog posts, new products, new hires.  BUT Twitter is not a PR feed.  Think of it as a secondary blog, a place where the "personality" and opinions of the business can be aired.

Third - who will write the updates? 

It probably should be a fairly senior person so that their understanding of the new things the firm is doing can be aired without needing constant approvals from up the ladder.  Set out some rules so that the role can be shared around and continuity maintained.

Fourth - and now to actually writing something.

Twitter limits your updates to 140 text characters.  Nicely concise but also a constraint.

Consider this nice Tweet from @xumii

"Adding some mobile folks to my following list as we are interested in
hearing what excites you and wonder if one day it will be us. Ha." 

So what's so nice about this.  First, it describes a good social media action/activity - adding mobile folks to my following list.  This means that they are actively finding people who work in the mobile media industry who are already on Twitter and following their updates.

Each time you write an update (140 characters or fewer), it goes into your twitter stream.  All your followers can read it on their home page.  And a summary page of your tweets is also created go to the link 'updates' on the RHS sidebar of your home page to see all your updates listed.  Your most recent update is listed under the 'Currently' section on the RHS of your home page. 

A visitor to your page only sees your updates.  Your home page lists all the people you are following's updates [you don't usually need to read your history of updates].

If you want to conserve characters use TinyURL to shorten links that you want to post.

Fifth - how to find and follow

Start by searching for people whose twitter ids you know.  Look at the bottom RHS and there's a full list of followers and people they follow.  Take some time to browse these two lists.  When you find one you fancy following, click on the "Follow" button at the top of the page.  Their icon gets added to your list. 

When someone clicks to follow you, this prompts an email (if you have the option enabled) to go to that person to say that you are following them.  

When you are just starting, politeness states that you follow back those who follow you.  When your list gets long and subscriber updates fill your computer screen within minutes, then I advise being selective. 

This is how I decide who to follow.  Check back to their profile and website link.  Are they in my industry, do they write interesting stuff, have they got a load of interesting people following them or is there some other compelling reason to follow them?

On some companies' websites they have a Twitter widget installed which lists the five most recent updates.  If you click this it'll take you to their twitter home page and you can follow them. You can get the code for this from the Settings on your Twitter page.

Sixth - some considerations about what to write

My view on Twitter is that it has two main purposes

1 - to show off the 'little things' about your business that aren't worth writing a full blog post about but are interesting nonetheless.

I think this shows off the personality of your organisation.  Your nice things to talk about - new hires, funny jokes, little happenings, new customers, anniversaries.

2 - use it to 'trail' big things on your site or blog and to give some advance publicity to a different audience from your company database and RSS feed readers.

There are definitely a very different group of readers who find me on Twitter compared to you, the readers of Creative Agency Secrets.  I love this.  It has given me access to a new target market.  Twitter, for me, is easier to update regularly than blogging because it is short.  

Going forward, I will review these business Twitter users and draw out some examples to illustrate some of the things companies are using Twitter for.  You may choose to follow or mimic them or create your own.

Go forth, and Twitter!

Part 2 How to Twitter for Business Development