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How to Start Twittering

By investing a few hours a week, businesses and organizations can leverage Twitter to create visibility and credibility for themselves, in some cases even leading to sales inquiries and sales conversions.

Case in point: a month into actively using Twitter on behalf of two clients, we were contacted by a company interested in learning more about the technology platform of one client, and referred them on to the client’s sales team.

The more Twitter is seen as a business development tool, the more valuable it will become in this regard as more and more companies jump on board and interactions rise from the mundane to the significant and profitable.

Want to learn how to make Twitter more valuable? Click here to get our f'ree "Top 10 Ways for Making Twitter Work for Your Business. Click Here

MarxCommunications.com

Fast Company Blog: Wendy Marx

Quick: Are You Twittering, LinkedIn… and Using Other Social Media to Grow Your Business?

By Wendy Marx

If you answered, “No,” or a half-hearted “No,” you’re not alone. And if you answered, “Yes,” our hats our off to you.

In today’s Web 2.0, you’re missing a thriving opportunity to grow your business if you’re ignoring social media tools like LinkedIn and Facebook. Tools like these have democratized and flattened the marketing process thanks to the speed, reach and immediacy they offer.

Two recent examples bring this into start relief. When the horrific Mumbai attacks were underway in late November 2008, and as a US Airways pilot was safely landing his jetliner in New York’s Hudson River last month, people on the scene were instantly sending “tweet” update messages and images all over the Internet via their Twitter accounts. In both instances, Twitter members got the news out in real-time, ahead of all news outlets.
Because social media tools have become so ubiquitous and so successful at spreading news and information instantly and virally, companies and executives must find ways to incorporate them into their everyday projects and campaigns.

In this newsletter, we begin a series on the use of social media tools with an article on Twitter, the micro-blogging platform that is growing like wildfire across the globe.

Follow us on Twitter @wendymarx and we'll be sure to follow you back. Connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/marxcommunicatons.com. And check out our blog on personal branding for Fast Company at http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/wendy-marx/brand-u-wendy-marx. Want help building your brand using social media? Email wendy@marxcommunications.com

Wendy Marx is president of Marx Communications, a public relations and marketing communications firm that helps companies and individuals turn PR into ROI. For more information email wendy@marxcommunications.com or call (203) 445-2850.

Harnessing the Power of Social Media Tools - Part 1: Twitter

Michael O'Brien, Senior Account Executive

Barack Obama is doing it. At least 29 members of Congress are doing it. Britney Spears and Dave Matthews (real and fake) are doing it, but David Bowie is most decidedly not doing it – for now.

What are they all doing, along with an estimated 3 million-plus others? “Tweeting” on Twitter.

If you haven’t already, you will soon hear friends, colleagues or business associates talking about twittering, tweeting or even “tweet beeping.” It may be easy to assume they’ve gone soft in the head or become strung out from watching too many inaugural events on YouTube, but they have in fact latched onto a social media and business networking phenomenon of epic proportions.

Twitter is a free micro-blogging application (www.twitter.com) that lets users share up-to-the-second news items, thoughts, ideas, observations, opinions, etc. with those in their extended “twitterverse.” This shared and re-shared information – sometimes banal, sometimes riveting, but mostly in between – comes in the form of “tweets,” to use the ever-growing argot of Twitter. A tweet is a Twitter missive that can be no longer than 140 characters. While this may sound overly restrictive to those prone to blogosphere verbosity, the beauty of a tweet is in its brevity. Also, the tweet can –and often does – include a web link to a page or site that expands on the subject of the moment, which can be shrunk down to fit Twitter’s length restriction using sites like Tiny URL (www.tinyurl.com).

From a PR or marketing perspective, one of the main objectives of Twitter is to collect as many “followers” as possible, i.e. people who are in your twitterverse and thus have access to your tweetstream. The more followers, the greater your ability to influence others and to create a viral spread of anything you care to tweet about.

Which brings us to the “so what” for companies or organizations looking to get their names, ideas, products, etc. into the maelstrom that is Twitter. Using the tool to post about an award, product update, issue or upcoming speaking engagement is a sure-fire way to keep your brand in front of the growing legions of “tweetheads” and grow your mindshare.

However, it is not advisable to use Twitter as a vehicle to directly promote products or services in your tweets; instead, use it as a tool to monitor interest in your company, network and share ideas and build up your brand.

How can you do all this? Read these Twitter tips to learn more:
For the most part, follow those who follow you – this is one of the unwritten rules of Twitter etiquette. However, use some discretion and try to check on the legitimacy or relevance of each user.

Don’t let your Twitter account languish – update it as regularly as you can, without falling into ADD territory or sharing what you had for lunch a la Facebook.

Take advantage of the many wonderful applications that have been created to aid your tweeting. Some of the most popular and useful include:

Twitter Search (www.search.twitter.com), where you can do a keyword search for tweets, sort of the Google of twitterdom
Tweetfeed (www.tweetfeed.com), which lets you set up keyword-based feeds that are updated daily
Tweetbeep (www.tweetbeep.com), which provides hourly e-mail alerts of tweets of interest
TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com), which lets you post tweets, respond to replies and set up searches and get updates in real time
Fleck (www.fleck.com), which, among other things, allows you to bookmark and share websites on Twitter
Twello (www.twello.com), a Twitter directory which sorts uses by industry, allowing you to search for others by this criteria, and list yourself as well
HootSuite (formerly BrightKit) (www.hootsuite.com), an all-in-one tool that allows you to manage multiple Twitter profiles, pre-schedule tweets and measure the hits on your messages.

Mike O'Brien is a Senior Account Executive with Marx Communications, a public relations and marketing communications firm that helps B2B companies and individuals build their brands. For more information, please contact mike@marxcommunications.com.