Creative Agency Secrets

I have had some great comments from readers to this series about Biz Dev and Twitter.  In case you missed it How to Twitter part 1 ; How to Twitter part 2 ; How to Twitter part 3.

And to wrap up the series, I am going to summarise other great resources that may help you use Twitter to find more customers. 

New York Times ran an article that covers some of the same ground that I recommended.  It also includes these two categories:

Engage customers. Run contests, solicit feedback and thank customers for supportive messages. Jetblue does all three. (By the way, JetBlue doesn’t identify the person or people who Twitter under its account, but best practices suggest you should.)

Provide customer service. Wesabe, a personal finance site, has long used Twitter to respond to complaints and to let customers know when it’s fixing problems. Comcast doesn’t post, but it does use Twitter to respond to customers who have complained about the company.

Chris Brogan has 50 Ideas on using Twitter for Business this includes some nice arguments both for and against using it!

Jeremiah Owyang categorises his advice into "baby steps" and "running" for the more and less sophisticated user options.  I like his observations about how brands can track conversations in different media but use their corporate website to aggregate the threads.  Rowperfect has added its Twitter feed to the sidebar of the blog page as a simple first step in this direction.  Here is one of the comments he got.

Rubbermaid has been using Twitter for a few months. We started slow, but just last week things took a quantum leap.

I created a post that listed the professional organizers I (Rubbermaid) was following on Twitter. This in turn generated huge buzz within the professional organizer community and, BOOM! The connections became very solid. Online conversations turned into phone calls. Invites to meetings were offered. Discussions about Facebook groups started, etc..

Below is a comment from a professional organizer who summed up the events nicely.

@ProfOrganizer: @DrDeClutter Yep, @rubbermaid gave super buzz to Twittering professional organizers & linked the few of us who aren’t already pals. Yay!

He also links to Dawn Foster's Brand Plan for Twitter and Tara Hunt's Tweeting for Companies 101  She had a nice list of things to tweet about.

So plenty of reading fodder for you.

Now onto some real stuff that people have made happen [apologies to the pedants for the Americanism].

@Documentally tells me "I have probably got 80% of my work and 100% of my sleep deprivation through twitter this year."

@problogger uses Twitter to get new ideas and feedback from his readers.  He recently asked 

Question - if you could make one change/addition/request of Problogger.net what would it be? 

And some things for the obsessives (i.e. those who are really getting into Twitter) to end with

A site that claims to log the top Twitter users worldwide Twitterholic

And an app for iPhone users Twittelator

And a meme generator Twemes where you can make global tags for Twitter.  Check out #barcamplondon5 and #ncdd2008 You'll find me on the Barcamplondon5 one and I am reading the ncdd2008 because they are discussing such interesting stuff.  Nearly as good as being there (not really… but you get the gist!).

And Twitterless to find out when people stop following you.

If you want to back up your Twitters and keep a record of the people following you and their published data (URL, location, what they say they do) use Tweetake to create a spreadsheet of all the information.

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

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

I've been online with Twitter for a few months now and here are 5 top tips on how to use it

1. Find top bloggers in your space and follow them.  Read the links they post - you often get the scoop early and can be commenter #1
2. Browse your favourite bloggers and see who follows them and browse their Twitter home pages and see who follows them - good for finding new interesting folk you didn't previously know
3. Tweet your blog posts and 'advertise' them online quickly via Twitter to get early readers who follow Tweets more regularly than Bloglines
4. Use tinyURL where possible to save characters
5. Always thank followers - and if you know them, follow them.  if you don't know them, read their home page, browas as in #2 above and decide if you like their stuff before following.

Steve Gillmore has written a neat summary of Twitter's progress and how he has used it during a live podcast with some uber-bloggers.

And a couple more because I thought of them….

6.  Don't write direct messages to anyone unless you REALLY know them

7.  [for non-US users] Turn off the SMS messages for days when you are at the computer - save up those rationed 250 SMS messages

8.  Watch out!  Twitter is compelling…. you'll get hooked ;-) 

Later… Found I am one of only 45 people following the BBC Radio 4's morning Today Programme on Twitter @todaytrial ….. interesting they only follow other BBC programme twitter sites and so NO Chance of dialogue…. which might enhance the programme….. they do read out the odd email during the show.