Social Media Marketing

Tip #3: Automation (wherever it is appropriate)

Reduce the time it takes you to research what is happening in the Twitterdom, speed up your own Tweeting, get yourself followed automatically, and build ranking faster and easier.   There are several automation type tools available to help build your Twitter for business presence without having to hire a back room full of people:

• TweetBeep –Set up alerts for various keywords, people, different attitudes, and links.

• Search.Twitter.com (used to be called Summize) – Search for your keywords, click a button and you have  a custom RSS feed that you can read via your favorite feed reader, or put on your Google or Yahoo home page. A synopsis available on what’s happening.

• Tweetlater – one of the more versatile tools related to Twitter. A quick list of services include; emailing a digest of Tweets (like TweetBeep), Pre-scheduling tweets to keep your tweet stream flowing, pre-saving Tweets or common snippets of tweets for faster Tweeting, Automating direct messages to people that follow you, setting up an auto-follow and  managing multiple Twitter Ids at the same time.

• Twitscoop – extends what search.twitter.com can do with both real-time searches of specific keywords as well as what the overall Twitterdom is talking about using (the Tweet Cloud). It also shows you the hot trends in the cloud.

• Twellow -  This is another research tool that extends Twitter for business use, Twellow searches people’s profiles or what they are Tweeting about under specific, predefined categories, or a general search.  Twellow will also show you geographically where people are Tweeting from in the US and Canada.

• Remember the Milk (RTM) – A real unique and cutting edge use of Twitter. RTM is a Task management service (set up reminders, tasks, things to do, etc.) for an individual or a small team or business. You can interact with Remember the Milk through Twitter. You simply follow the Twitter ID @rtm and then send it commands like retrieving your current tasks, adding new tasks, setting up automated reminders, even sending tasks to other Twitter users. This is a great adaptation of Twitter for business use.

Stay Tuned for the Last Part…

Follow Urvi on Twitter

Tip #2: Participate (be Relevant, contribute, share, respond)

For a business or business person to be relevant in the Twitter conversation going on, they need to participate. Ask questions and elicit responses; respond to other user’s questions. Tweet not only your own relevant contributions but retweet (RT) other Tweets that you find valuable. Promote and/or attribute others where there’s a reason to do so. You can build a following faster if you appear trust worthy (easiest way to do that is by actually being trustworthy), know your subject matter and don’t look like you are just out the get them to buy something.

The graders and ranking sites look at both your following as well as your activity. There’s a number of search tools that will help you here to see who is talking about what and who is specifically responding to you (for example with @replies). These tools can help you determine where you might want to jump into a conversation and build that relevance. This is important in being noticed by searches from other users. You build following with contribution, relevance, and responsiveness.

The number of keywords in your tweet cloud is also important. Are you an active Tweeter? If so, what are you tweeting about? Are you relatively consistent in what you discuss? There’s a big difference between using Twitter like text messaging and blogging each trip to the grocery store and using Twitter for business with a targeted, specific approach to your online identity and the topics you take on. Again, the grading web sites will pick up on this targeted approach and quickly move you to “elite” status in your chosen keywords if you Tweet with some forethought.

Part 3 and 4 to be released later this week

Follow Urvi on Twitter

Following up from the last set of Social Media Marketing webinars where we covered the basics of Twitter and other Social Media tools and sites, I have been getting questions about using Twitter for business purposes. In response to those questions, I wanted to write out a short list of Twitter for Business best practices and some of the most popular tools that make these practices possible. This list of tools, techniques, and what is possible is changing and expanding almost daily with the explosion of Twitter usage and discussions of Twitter merging with some other site/partner. Thus I expect to stay current on using Twitter for business purposes we will need to repost more on this topic from time to time.

Tip #1:  Be Real
It is important that you completely fill in the registration and profile information when signing up on Twitter. If you set up your Twitter Id as a business name it is less real than using a personal name. If you still want the business name in there, you could possibly add the company after the persons name (like Dell computer has been known to do with names like “PatrickAtDell”). In the profile section, post your website. I wouldn’t recommend a short URL here if you can avoid it since this is your brand and the full link helps in your SEO rankings. Also in the profile section you enter in relevant search terms in your profile description.

With the profile limited to 160 characters, you want to get the relevant keywords included. By doing so you don’t have much space to talk about the business specifically. However you can also squeeze in more content about your business including other websites, urls, logos, or content by uploading a custom Twitter background. Be aware though that the search engines and tools people are using to find you will not pick up words or content located in the background image. That’s why the keywords have to be in your description.

Finally and possibly most important is that you need to upload a picture. People want to see who they are communicating with, even if you are representing a company. If Twitters don’t think you are real, they are less likely to be interested in following you and learning more about your business (we are Twittering for Business here remember). If you try to hide with no picture, just a logo, an incomplete profile or no description, the cynical side of social media marketing will take over, people will assume the worst and they won’t follow you.

Stay Tuned for More…

Follow Urvi on Twitter

Heads up! We have a venue change for Social Media MI this Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009.

Our Temporary location change will be just south of Troy Community Center on Livernois at the Marriott, Residence Inn.

We have some very fresh and exciting information to share with you this month! This months event is FREE to ALL! Guests welcome so bring some friends! Coffee and water will be provided.

Training subjects:

1. Are You LINKEDIN? – Effectively Using LinkedIn featuring Urvi Mehta

2. Social Media Leadership – Setting The Standard in Social Media featuring Doug Firebaugh

Please join us this Thursday for Social Media Training

Where:

Marriott, Residence Inn Troy

2600 Livernois Road
Troy, MI 48083
(248) 689-6856

Time: 6-7 PM Networking | 7-9 PM Training

We look forward to seeing you there.

Regards,

@urvimehta

Social Media Michigan February Meeting

Join Social Media Michigan for their monthly meeting this Thursday, February 19th at the Troy Community Center in Troy, Michigan. Meeting will be from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. The February meeting will cover the topic: Are You LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a Business oriented social networking site founded in Dec 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professional networking. As of Feb 2009, it has more than 35 millions registered users, spanning over 170 industries.

LinkedIn allows you to connect with and discover connections. It is primarily a business to business network where the average income of its user is $130K. These connections are Serious about Business.

In Thursday’s meeting at Social Media Michigan, Come and learn how to use LinkedIn allows it users to do the following:
• Build a professional network
• Stay in touch with connections
• Find job opportunities
• Grow relationships
• Improve business insights
• Build authority
• Detect leads and opportunities

Also, learn the importance of using LinkedIn Recommendations, Groups and Answers

So don’t miss this Thursday’s Meeting for Social Media Michigan.

First meeting is free so come and check us out.

Social Media Michigan is an organization for entrepreneurs to discover and implement social media marketing strategies to enhance their bottom line.

Social Media Michigan Meets on the 3rd Thursdays of each month at the Troy Community Center.

For more information on Social Media Michigan, please visit
http://www.SocialMediaMi.com