Introduction to Twitter Video Podcast

This our first video podcast.  It’s not Hollywood quality, but we’ll get to that someday (maybe).  This is an introductory podcast on Twitter aimed at marketers who have heard about it but haven’t yet jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.

Twitter is a micro blogging platform used by individuals and businesses to communicate rapidly about anything they want.  You can search for people and businesses using keywords.  As you find people of interest you can choose to “follow” them in Twitter.  Each person you follow is sent an email notice with a link to your Twitter profile.  They can choose to follow you (or not). 

Optionally you can require that people send a request to follow you.  This is the way to create a private Twitter community.  The default is that anyone can follow you.

Twitter is being embraced by early adopter businesses.  Examples of companies using Twitter include Oracle, Apple, Comcast and the Los Angeles Fire Department.  Locally in Tampa Bay, ABC Action News uses Twitter to communicate breaking news throughout the day.

A small company who is using Twitter effectively is inbound marketing pioneer, Hubspot.  Several staffers at Hubspot are actively “tweeting” throughout the day.  Additionally, Hubspot has a company branded Twitter profile used to communicate new blog posts and updates on company activities.  They get it!

One big advantage of Twitter is access to good content.  If you build a following of people with common interests you will benefit from links they provide to interesting content such as blog posts and articles.  You should be one of those who contributes good content to your community.  Your following will appreciate it.

I liken Twitter to “many to many instant messaging.”  Businesses can use Twitter as an effective platform by setting up private communities of subject matter experts who help each other out.

Follow Bernie Borges on Twitter: http://twitter.com/berniebay and Chuck Palm on http://twitter.com/chuckpalm

 

Why You Should Tweet

Twitter is a free micro-blogging service.  It’s similar to instant messaging.  You type your message, limited to 140 characters.  Unlike instant messaging, your message is published to all those who are “following you.” 

The premise of Twitter is answering the question “what are you doing now?”  Many people using Twitter for personal reasons use it to post random thoughts. 

You can set up a public network or private network of followers in Twitter.  In a public network you can use Twitter’s search function to find people you want to follow.  Type keywords to find people whose profile includes your keyword and browse and select people to follow.  Each person you select to follow will be notified and they can check out your profile and optionally choose to follow you.

You can use Twitter from your computer and from your mobile phone. 

I have been using Twitter about six months now.  I have some observations and ideas to share here.

I have noticed that those who use Twitter, really use it a lot!  When you post a comment, your are “Tweeting.”  Hey, I didn’t make this up!

Personal use of Twitter can be very entertaining.  People leave random thoughts about whatever (including yours truly).  But, people also leave comments with links to useful content.  Do you want to follow a celebrity?  If he/she has a Twitter profile, you can.

The greatest value in Twitter is the instant pushing of a message to a community of followers.  While, many people are not yet even aware of Twitter, its popularity is growing like crazy.  In fact, Twitter is known for having frequent outages, usually not lasting long.

Here are some ideas to consider for using Twitter in productive business applications:

Customer Support
Your customer support manager can invite customers to follow him or her in a private community.  As events unfold throughout the day posts can be made and customers can follow and respond.  Good conversations can unfold.  Most importantly, the customer appreciation for the community development can strengthen loyalty and future sales potential.

Sales Support
A sales manager can set up a private community of sales reps, and the supporting cast – product managers, sales engineers, select executives, etc. For sizeable sales teams spread geograhically around the country or globally, a Twitter community can provide real time responses to sales situations.  Using computers and mobile devices, Twitter conversations can provide really useful and timely sales support. 

Marketing Support
Similar to customer support, a marketing team needs input from the market.  Input from selected customers, sales people, suppliers, etc., can be an ongoing communication process using a private community in Twitter.

Technical Support
Most product development teams have some technical members.  A private Twitter community allowing those members to share thoughts in real time can foster community and provide valuable input.

Thought Leadership
Executives, consultants, authors, speakers and anyone with subject matter expertise in a discipline can enjoy a Twitter community.

How is Twitter different than blogging?
It is much more real time than blogging.  Each entry is limited to 140 characters.  But, it is a form of blogging.  That’s why it’s called micro blogging.  Twitter access through your mobile device is a big difference which really allows productive, real time communication.

Whatever you do, don’t get on Twitter and promote yourself, your products, your company or anything!  An occasional link to your own content is ok, as long as it’s good content, not shameless self promotion.

Are businesses using Twitter?
Yes. While I don’t have an exhaustive list of businesses to share.  Here are three just to paint a picture (one is a municipal government agency). 
http://twitter.com/apple_news
http://twitter.com/Oracle
http://twitter.com/LAFD

Recommendation

Go to Twitter and register youself or your company.  Search for companies or people using Twitter.  You never know what you may find.  If you don’t find what you’re looking for, try again in the future.  Remember that Twitter is still young and growing.

Here are some Twitter tools:
Tweetdeck: http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/
This Adobe Air application helps to organize your Tweets and makes it very easy to do direct replies to people, and track your replies. 
Twhirl: http://www.twhirl.org/
This Adobe Air application allows you to use Twitter the same as you use Instant Messaging.  As your Tweets come in, you see them in the lower rigth of your screen.  You can add Twitter posts here, rather than going to Twitter.

Expect to see more Twitter applications as it continues to grow.

Are you using Twitter yet? 

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/berniebay
 

 

 

Do You Tweet?

If you’re not familiar with Twitter, it is thee dominant micro-blogging service. The only other player is Jaiku. They were acquired by Google, and we’re still waiting to learn more about Google’s plans for them.  We know it has something to with their mobile strategy….

Twitter users type message to each other (known as tweets) in short sentences (140 characters max) what they are doing right now. The early Twitter adopters were people with time on their hands twittering about lunch plans, restaurant experiences, bad dates, and just whatever they were doing in the moment.  Since tweets are accessible through SMS and MMS, the tweets have become prolific among the tech savvy crowd. 

But wait! Twitter isn’t just for the Silicon Valley types. Anyone with a desire to connect with others in a quick way, while reinforcing their name and brand, will find it useful.

Twittering allows us to understand people better. Twittering is a form of a conversation. Is any conversation with your customers bad? Twittering can open dialogues which may not otherwise open up because they are “in the now” and “about the now.” Twittering with customers can strengthen customer relationships, build trust and lead to new opportunities.

Have you noticed that we’re calling micro blogging Twittering. This is like saying I’ll Google a keyword.  But, I digress…

I’ve always defined micro blogging as a multi person IM chat.  Micro blogging is real time like IM but it’s one to many. You invite people into your Twitter group(s).

So, here are some business applications to consider for Twitter.

A product manager Twitters with the people in a beta program to get real time feedback of the product and allow real time interaction with the Twitter group.

A customer service manager Twitters with a select group of customers around a certain topic to get real time feedback on the topic.

A sales manager twitters with a geographically distributed sales force to get real time feedback from the field and assist in real time sale situations.

Are you starting to get the picture?

This sort of reminds me of the iPod. When the iPod was launched all the advertising showed hip people dancing to music. I have had an iPod for almost one year now. I am not that hip and I don’t listen to music with it.  But, I do listen to a lot of podcasts which I subscribe to in iTunes. So, the “product extension” factor is evident here.

So, do you get the picture now? Twittering has real business value. You just have to give it a whirl. Now, if that doesn’t sound unhip, I don’t know what is. I told you, I’m not very hip.

Give it a whirl. www.twitter.com.