Social Media: Twitter 101Social Media: Twitter 101LAAMA Christmas Luncheon: DEC. LAAMA Christmas Luncheon: DEC.

17, 200917, 2009

Sahar ConsultingSahar Consultingwww.saharconsulting.com

@saharconsulting

What is Twitter What is Twitter

Twitter is a micro-blogging application started in 2006, became popular beginning 2009 when celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and his competition with CNN to acquire the 1st million followers erupted, followed shortly by Oprah; joined the fascinating world of Twitter. Twitter is the most used word in the English language in 2009.

The updates on Twitter are called “Tweets” & Can’t beMore than 140 characters.

Why to care about Why to care about TwitterTwitter

Twitter is the fastest-growing social-media site, with an estimated 14 M unique visitors/ month. Most of the users are age 25-54, largest segment the 45-54 age groups.

Twitter like any other social media platform is not an advertising medium, it is about 2 way conversations , building & nurturing relationships.

How Businesses use How Businesses use TwitterTwitter

Businesses use Twitter to meet potential customers and leads. Twitter can also be

used to:1) Develop and promote a brand 2) Interact with a customer base

3) Track what people are saying about a company and its brand

4) Create buzz around upcoming events5) Promote other created content, including

webinars, blogs6) Develop direct relationships with bloggers

and journalists for potential PR placement

Where to Start: Where to Start: @name@name

Sign up for a Twitter account

1- Start by choosing a username as short as possible as it counts within the 160 characters, choose your real name or the business name for @name & add the real name in the settings. Choose a password, then sign in.

What Next: Fill BIOWhat Next: Fill BIO

Go to Settings at the top of the page, the different settings items will show:2- In Account: Enter your details as Email etc…, fill out your BIO (160 characters) , make sure to add keywords relevant to your business, industry and clients.

Add a professional Add a professional picturepicture

3- Add a picture: click on Picture in settings, browse your computer for a professional nice picture, suggested that you use the same picture on all your social media profiles. A JPG, GIF or PNG of max. 700k. Save

Personalize your Personalize your backgroundbackground

Still in Settings, go to Design, on the bottom of the page, click on change background image:•Browse your computer.•Upload either your logo or a picture you can use as background•Save it, choose as a tile background or single picture.•OR

Personalize your Personalize your background2background2

Some free services like ww.twitterbackgrounds.com you can have a free background if you use your logo or picture, or $4.95 if they upload up to 20 pictures for you as a background, or $99 if they totally personalize the background for you. Make sure it follows the theme of your brand.

Follow people/ be Follow people/ be followedfollowed

Start by following the people you know, enter your different Emails, servers and passwords. Twitter will send them Follow notices. Then start following people of interest to you:1- Study the ratio between people’s followers and who they follow, avoid the lopsided ones.2- Look at the frequency of their tweets/ posts not too often, not to little. Take your time adding people you follow.3- Use applications as www.twellow.com to find people using Keywords.

Find people of interest to Find people of interest to followfollow

Find the top users on Twitter as they will give you more exposure and visibility if they either follow you back or reply to you-Find them on www.twitter.grader.com/topusersCourtesy of Hubspot.com

People that follow youPeople that follow you You are not obligated to follow anyone that

follows you. Don’t follow everyone. Choose quality versus quantity. (look at

Zappos)

Some terminology before you Some terminology before you startstart

Replies: Responding to a specific person by using @theirname .

Direct Messages: or DM are private messages that other tweeters can use to reach you privately, it can only be exchanged between people that follow each other.

Retweets: RT:@username tweet, when someone re-sends your tweets.

Trending Topics: Twitter will always show the top 10 trending topics.

Favorites: Save your testimonials

Some terminology before you Some terminology before you startstart

Tweeple – Are the people that are tweeting. Mistweet - This is a Twitter message you wish you hadn't sent. Even if you delete unwanted messages they can still appear in searches.Tweetup – When some Tweeple get together for an "in person" meeting. Twitter has a new official Tweetup page, but it was down as I wrote this. You can also follow the Twitter Tweetup account to get the scoop on upcoming events. Twoosh - It is a perfect, 140 character Tweet. Twitterbait – Every now and then some users will bait a popular user into sending them an @username response. This gets the baiter's username in front of the more popular poster's network of followers and can result in quite a few new followers.

How it looks on a How it looks on a profileprofile

Credit to Hubspot

Engage your Engage your followersfollowers Rules of engagement:1- Your tweets have to offer value2- Link wisely helpful links3- Quotes can be inspiring but not all the time4- Be yourself, add humor5- RT others important tweets, copy their tweets

and add RT in front of the tweet6- Answer your Direct messages DM7- Thank whoever mentions you (To check that

click on @yourname)8- Don’t use automated direct messages they feel

spammy

Search BoxSearch Box

The Search Box: where you can search for your keywords, industry leaders, ongoing conversations, groups, and chats.

Applications to organize Applications to organize profilesprofiles Increase profile features, have more control

on your tweets, follow groups, handle multiple accounts:

1- www.tweetdeck.com: Desktop software that lets you create a new column that filters the hashtag or chat name.

2- www.seesmic.com: beautiful desktop client for Twitter with a slightly translucent and tabbed interface.

3- www.ubertwitter.com: is a company devoted to delivering highly functional Twitter clients for mobile devices (For Blackberries)

TwitterTwitter

The bird that connects and promotes all other social media

channels/ networks.

Thank you

Looking forward Tweeting with you

@saharconsulting

Prepared by:Prepared by:

Sahar Andrade@

Sahar Consultingwww.saharconsulting.com

www.linkedin.com/in/saharandradewww.saharconsulting.wordpress.com

www.twitter.com/saharconsulting