Twitter for business the ultimate B2B guide

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Marketing inBusiness:
Twitter for Real Time
The Ultimate B2B Guide

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Twitter for Business: The Ultimate B2B Guide

Twitter for Business:
The Ultimate B2B Guide
Table of Contents:
3  Twitter in the Business World

4  Using Twitter as a B2B Marketing Channel

5  How B2B Companies Can Build Customer Relationships Using Twitter

8  The Six Steps to Building a Successful Twitter Strategy

13  Getting Started with Twitter

15  Seven Keys to a Successful Twitter Campaign

17  Conclusion

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www.optify.net 1-877-2-OPTIFY @optify
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Twitter in the Business World
Every day millions of people and businesses use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with each other.
Twitter helps businesses stay connected to their customers, enabling them to quickly share information and valu-
able offers with existing customers or prospects, gather real-time marketing intelligence and feedback, and build
relationships with customers, partners and other people who care about the company.

If you are coming to Twitter as a businessperson, you are no doubt wondering how Twitter can generate more
leads.

This guide is designed to help Business to Business (B2B) companies
What is Twitter?
use Twitter for lead generation by addressing:
Launched in 2007, Twitter
»»Key reasons your company should use Twitter started off with just a small
»»Unique ways in which Twitter provides value to businesses following of die-hard users, but
within just the past few years, its
»»Practical steps you can take to start driving leads and increasing popularity has grown exponen-
revenue through Twitter today. tially. Like other forms of social
media, Twitter is comprised
of user-generated content—in
Real-time communication is a groundbreaking new arena for customers this case, short text messages
and businesses alike and Twitter is arguably the chief tool in the real-time limited to 140 characters. These
marketing universe. Twitter messages are brief, easy to read, viewable messages or tweets are sent by
by the public, and can be created and received on a variety of devices. Twitter users to a group of inter-
ested recipients, called followers.
Moreover, Twitter messages are really every marketer’s dream because
A Twitter username, also known
they are opt-in by their very nature—users only receive tweets if they have as a Twitter handle, is denoted
chosen to follow a certain Twitter account. by the @ symbol. For example,
Optify is @optify.
While many may dismiss Twitter as a passing fad or a communication
channel used primarily by adolescents (akin to the early stages of SMS or
text messages), Twitter is in fact a broad, proven communication medium that has been embraced by a range of
users. While teenagers and celebrities have flocked to Twitter, so have renowned corporations from JetBlue and
Starbucks to Intel and Boeing. Businesses have already begun to devote the time and resources to supporting
their social media efforts, including Twitter, and for good reason as we’ll see in the following sections.

Twitter in the Business World 3
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Using Twitter as a B2B Marketing Channel
Twitter Lingo: Tweet
No one can dispute the traction that Twitter has gained in the business world.
A tweet is a message sent
But, can it be a cost-effective marketing channel that actually generates rev-
via Twitter of up to 140
enue for a B2B organization? The short answer is “yes,” and here’s why. characters in length. SMS
(i.e. texting on your phone)
The unique characteristics of the Twitter platform enable B2B marketers to: limits each message to 160
»»Market to prospects and customers in innovative ways: As mentioned characters. Twitter takes that
earlier, Twitter is an opt-in communication channel by its very nature. limit and reserves 20 char-
acters for your username,
As such, companies can be sure that they’re only talking with people
leaving you 140 characters.
that are interested in what they have to say. Moreover, the brevity, Users refer to an individual
frequent and conversational tone of Twitter updates let B2B companies message as a tweet, as in, “I
build relationships with prospects and customers in a unique way just sent out a tweet about
our new weekend promo-
»»Drive more traffic to websites. URLs are still the primary calls to action tion.” People use it as a
of Twitter updates. Thanks to URL shortening sites such as verb, too, as in, “I tweeted
bit.ly and ow.ly, it’s easy for marketers to include and track landing page about the stimulus package
this morning.” Alternatives
URLs in their Twitter updates just as they would in e-mail or paid search include “post,” “message”
campaigns. and “update.”
»»Measure the impact and effectiveness of social media as a marketing
channel. Just as they do with any other channel, marketers can now
measure the effectiveness of Twitter as a marketing channel using a variety of technologies and tools that
we’ll discuss in more detail later on.
»»Promote new products (even pre-product release) and receive immediate, real-time feedback from users;
Also, marketers can leverage their users’ suggestions for innovation and build new products based on these
ideas.

Just what is Twitter? Twitter is… An active Twitter program can…
• A listening opportunity • Increase visibility of your company, brands, products and services
• A content syndication platform • Increase your connection to people (aka followers) interested in
your content, products and services
• A real time search utility
• Increase number and quality of links to your website
• A content source for Google and Bing
• Increase targeted keyword rankings
• A major way to stay connected with your audience
• Increase pre-qualified visits to your website
• A growing communication medium

Twitter has: 370,000 new sign ups daily | 95,000,000 Tweets per day | 175,000,000 registered users
http://business.twitter.com/basics/what-is-twitter

Using Twitter as a B2B Marketing Channel 4
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How B2B Companies Can Build Customer Relationships Using Twitter
One of the primary distinctions between a consumer purchase and a business purchase is that the latter almost
always requires that a strong relationship exist between the company and the prospect before a purchase occurs.
Because B2B purchases often have large price tags and may require
an investment in various resources, people want to make sure they are
making the right decision before “pulling the trigger.” Consequently, B2B Twitter Lingo: Hashtag #
sales cycles are long, and during this period, companies must do their A hashtag is the # symbol fol-

best to earn the trust and respect of their prospects in order to make the lowed by a term describing or
naming a specific topic. When
sale. Therefore, it’s important to stay in the forefront of your prospect’s
hashtags are added to posts this
mind with fresh content and an active Twitter stream. is a way of saying, “This mes-
sage is about the same topic as
B2B marketers can use Twitter effectively in 3 key ways:
other messages that include the
1. By listening to what is being said about the company same hashtag.” When somebody
searches for that hashtag they’ll
2. By engaging with customers and the public get all of the related messages.
3. By contributing and sharing their expertise and thought leadership If enough people use the same
hashtag at once, the term will ap-
Listening pear in Twitter’s “Trending Topics.”
Companies often use hashtags
As with any relationship, listening is essential to strengthening your
as part of a product launch (e.g.
company’s relationship with its prospects and customers. Just as you #GiletteMach3), or conferences
would take the time to have a phone or in-person conversation with an and events (e.g. #SES).
interested prospect, using Twitter as a communication vehicle in this way
should be no different.

Listening via social media (such as with Twitter) can be used by B2B marketers to...
»»Educate themselves on conversations and trends occurring in the industry, including tweets by competitors.
»»Find the key influencers, thought leaders and players in their specific markets.
»»Find new customers by searching tweets for specific keywords.
»»Leverage word-of-mouth.
»»Learn what people say about their brand and products.
»»Identify problems, unsatisfied customers or issues with their brand.

To easily listen in on what is being said about your company, you can use Twitter’s search function whether or
not you have an account. Listening can help you quickly learn what people are saying about your company, and
it will also give you a feel for the flow of conversations on Twitter. In addition, listening can give you insight into
how other companies handle Twitter exchanges. Know what your customers and prospects are saying about your
company, both positive and negative feedback, so that you can provide a public or private response and maintain
that relationship, as well as demonstrate to others the kind of quality customer service you provide. Remember
that you’re not the only one listening to conversations about your company on Twitter, so is everyone else.

How B2B Companies Can Build Customer Relationships Using Twitter 5
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To listen in on the conversations happening right now, search Twitter for the
name of your company, product or brand. If you have a Twitter account al- Twitter Lingo: Following
ready, your homepage has a handy search box on the right side. If you don’t
To receive messages on Twitter,
yet have an account, go to search.twitter.com. Once you have an account you follow other people and
set up, you can also save a series of searches so they are easy to find. companies you’re interested
in—which means their mes-
Once you’ve got a handle on the different searches that might matter to your sages as they post (put another
company, start following those accounts that regularly tweet about the things way, their messages show up in
that matter to your company. This helps you educate yourself on the conver- your incoming timeline on your
Twitter home page. Conversely,
sations that are going on in the marketplace, reveals what your competitors
people get your messages by
are up to, and lets you see the trends and issues that face your company or following you.
the industry at large. Within a short span of time, you will quickly discover
the key players, influencers and thought leaders in your field.

In addition, you can find new customers and leads by searching for tweets that pertain to the industries you serve
or the products and/or services you provide. For example, let’s say you are a company that helps other companies
implement customer resource management (CRM) systems. A CIO at a company sends out a tweet about how his
business is having difficulty setting up its new CRM system, which says: “Struggling with our CRM system. Need
help.” If you were to search under “CRM system,” you would find that tweet among others and could possibly
offer your services to that CIO by retweeting (RT) his message with an invitation to talk.

Engaging
Once you’ve mastered the listening aspect of Twitter, it’s time to start engaging with other users and contributing
valuable content that will help increase your followers.

When marketers engage effectively using Twitter they are able to...
»»Connect with influential individuals who can become advocates for their companies/products.
»»Build a wide network that will help them to reach more people.
»»Establish their company and brand as experts in their industry by buidling authority.

One of Twitter’s key benefits is that its conversations tend to be casual and informative, enabling B2B marketers
to communicate with prospects and customers in a very personal way. Even at the biggest corporations, there are
“real” people behind most Twitter accounts, and users appreciate the candor and more personal conversations
they can have in this environment. Unlike other forms of corporate communication that result in anonymous and
impersonal outreach (e.g. press releases), Twitter gives everyone a voice. As such, it becomes very easy to build
relationships with customers, partners and other people important to your business who are using Twitter.

Because Twitter connects you to your customers in real time, many B2B companies also use it as a sales and
customer service channel. For example, let’s say you work for a global accounting firm. If you search for your
firm’s name (or brand), you may find clients posting messages about their experiences with your firm. As a
response, your sales team might choose to reach out to these individuals to share information and financial advice
that these customers might be interested in, which helps in cross- and up-sell activities. Some customers may

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Twitter Lingo: Direct Message
Direct messages—or DMs—are Twitter’s private messaging channel. These tweets appear on your home page under the
“Messages” tab, and if you have email notifications turned on, you’ll also get an email message when somebody DMs
you. DMs don’t appear in either person’s public timeline or in search results. No one but you can see your DMs. With
DMs, you can send them only to people who are following you. Conversely, you can receive them only from people you’re
following. You can easily send DMs from the “Messages” tab by using the pull-down menu to choose a recipient and then
typing in your note. To send a DM from your Twitter home page, start your message with “d username,” like this: “d Fast-
CIO We’ve got a smartphone server you should try.” If you’re communicating with a customer about something potentially
sensitive—including personal information, account numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses etc.—
be sure to encourage them to DM or email you.

also provide you with invaluable feedback that helps your company improve its products and services. Still others
may send messages about issues with your firm’s customer service. Handling these types of tweets both quickly
and effectively can positively impact your company’s reputation. You can provide exclusive Twitter coupon codes,
link to key posts on your blog, share tips for shopping online and announce specials at store locations. By listening
and engaging appropriately on Twitter, B2B companies can help create happier customers, passionate advocates,
key product improvements and, in many cases, more sales.

Contributing and Sharing
As a communication platform, Twitter offers users the unique opportunity to dispense knowledge and opinions to
a widespread audience and with great frequency. Because of this, Twitter makes it very easy for people to become
influencers and thought leaders in their space.

Marketers can use Twitter to influence others by:
»»Becoming a thought leader, mentor or subject matter expert
»»Helping customers learn more about their domain/industry
»»Lead discussions in their industry
»»Syndicate their own content

Twitter makes it easy for users to share their own expertise and knowledge. Because Twitter messages are only
140 characters, this brevity forces users to distill their messages into only the most important, salient pieces. As
you become a “regular” on Twitter and establish yourself or your company as an expert, readers will come to
expect valuable content with every tweet you do. Ultimately, your power to influence through Twitter will continue
to grow as you or other members of your organization build thought leadership in your industry.

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The Six Steps to Building a Successful Twitter Strategy
1. Establish goals
Before setting up a Twitter account, begin by asking yourself what your primary objectives are for using Twitter
(and, don’t just say “because other companies are using it”). Make sure that you have tangible business
reasons for starting a Twitter account because as we’ll explore later on, Twitter should be as accountable and
measurable as any other marketing channel. Do you want to use Twitter to promote your company as a thought
leader? Or, do you want to focus on Twitter as a way to ask questions, brainstorm ideas, and solicit feedback
from prospects and customers? The real-time nature of Twitter
communication makes it easy to reach people wherever they hap-
pen to be and for messages to travel quickly (particularly through Twitter Tips Tricks
the ability to retweet messages, simply by appending “RT” to a
Incorporate Twitter into your
tweet and distributing it through your own tweet update). If you daily routine. Listen regularly for
want to use Twitter as a thought leadership distribution channel, comments about your company,
you might start by establishing goals and milestones for specific brand and products. To make
things even easier, go into Settings
marketing content. If you’ve just launched a product and want user
Notices and make sure that
feedback, you might establish an objective of including at least “New Follower Emails” and “Direct
one product-related Twitter update a day. Or, perhaps you want to Text Emails” are both checked,
use Twitter as a customer service channel. If so, you can set up a so you receive automatic notifica-
goal to answer customer-service-related issues within a few hours. tions of new followers and direct
messages. Finally, be prepared to
When people raise customer service issues on Twitter they gener-
devote time to address concerns,
ally expect a quick reply—within a day, if not within a few hours, offer customer service, or thank
depending on the nature of your business. As such, keep an eye on people for praise or retweets of
your @mentions or direct messages from your updates. For businesses, it’s
a good idea to keep a close eye
followers.
on incoming @mentions because
This is also a good time to ask yourself if your organization has they’re often sent by customers or
potential customers who expect
the resources and time to devote to maintaining a Twitter account. a reply. To reply easily from the
Twitter thrives on real-time communication between its users, so Twitter website, mouse over a mes-
your company should be prepared to devote at least part of every sage and click on the reply arrow
day to maintaining a strong Twitter presence. to start a new message addressed
to the original user.

2. Decide on a frequency for updates
Twitter has largely led the real-time marketing trend, and many who use Twitter send messages many times a
day, if not hourly. However, “live” tweeting may not work for some resource-constrained companies. Similarly,
some Twitter campaigns are more effective when they are set up as a regular stream of tweets over a set period
of time. As a minimum, shoot for sending at least four tweets per day, spaced evenly throughout the day or
focused primarily on key hours for businesspeople, such as the early morning and lunch hours. If possible, try
to tweet whenever you have something interesting to share – research suggests that the “magic” number of
Tweets per day is 24 – but make sure you keep a balance between promotional tweets and tweets about other
people’s content.

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If your tweets are not time sensitive, they can be added to a regular Twitter broadcast. When people employ
Twitter to broadcast, they use the platform to make regular announcements or updates rather than using the
platform as a two-way conversational tool.

Regardless of which approach you choose, be sure to firmly establish how you want to use Twitter, so as not to
confuse or alienate your followers. Moreover, be sensitive to timing from your followers’ perspectives. Without
scheduling your tweets, you may be tempted to post multiple tweets whenever you have the chance, stacking
several on top of each other. This may cause people to focus on your most recent tweet to the exclusion of the
others, or worse, they may lose interest or even become annoyed.

Twitter Tips Tricks
3. Define and organize your subject matter
Regularly creating interesting Twitter updates is key to keeping your Use the “Saved Searches”
followers engaged, but what exactly should you post about? Start with feature to easily track men-
your high-level goals (Key #1), such as building deeper relationships tions of your product, brand,
with customers, getting on the radar of potential new customers or company and more. From your
Twitter homepage, simply run a
partners, providing more responsive and immediate customer ser-
search, and then at the top of
vice, or establishing thought leadership in your space. Try to think of your results page, click “Save this
Twitter as you would your other marketing communication vehicles. search.” A link with your search
An editorial calendar can help you decide when to discuss specific term will appear on the right side
of your page, and whenever you
topics. For example, if you have a product launch happening next
click it, you’ll get real-time results
month, align your tweets with the timing of your launch-related for that query. To delete a search,
activities. click “Remove this search.”

As a general rule, only give your audience information that they need
and can use. Such topics may include industry statistics, news or some form of educational content. When you
send out a tweet make sure it will help your customers improve their businesses in some way. If a large volume
of news and research may be interesting to your audience, try to pick out only the most interesting and action-
able pieces to tweet about. And don’t forget – a lot of great tweets are often links to other content. Just be sure
to give credit where credit is due by indicating a retweet (RT) when necessary.

4. Decide on your follower-gaining tactics
Like other social media platforms, Twitter relies on its users for generating content and interacting with each
other. As such, gaining new followers should be a primary goal of your Twitter strategy. In addition, followers
are the main way to extend the reach of your message and achieve the goals you’ve set in Step 1. In order to
achieve those goals, you will need to align your follower-gaining tactics with those goals. For example, if your
goal is to increase awareness to your brand, your follower-gaining tactics should be aimed at gaining as many
followers as possible. Take on tactics that design to achieve that, like offering small rewards for following you,
follow auto-followers, join lists and other similar tactics. But, if your goal is to better serve your customers and
use Twitter as a customer service tool, your follower-gaining tactics should reflect that by following all your cus-
tomers, adding your Twitter handle to all your customer service materials and advertising your Twitter handle in
your marketing assets.

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In general, try to build your Twitter following by posting messages that your followers will find compelling and
that establish you and your company as a worthy source of content. Remember the value of search in Twitter;
users will often search by keyword, so when possible include the keywords that matter to your business in your
updates, as long as they’re relevant. Once your followers start appreciating your posts, the more likely they’ll be
to retweet them and the larger your follower number will grow. Also remember that people can choose to un-
follow you just as easily. Keep your tweets compelling and participate regularly with other Twitter conversations
when appropriate.

In addition to follower-gaining tactics, you will need to decide on your following
policies. There are four main types of following policies and each can be tied
back to your Twitter strategy: Reciprocal following (aka auto-follow), restrictive following, selective following and
use-case following (follow customers, follow influencers, etc.)

»»Reciprocal following (aka auto-follow): Follow anyone who follows you. Not a recommended policy, but can
be effective in creating and sustaining a followers base at the beginning of your Twitter activity.
»»Restrictive following: The other end of the following policy spectrum; follow a very small number of users,
or don’t follow anyone at all. This policy is more suitable to celebrities and companies who can afford not to
follow other users and will give you the halo effect of a celebrity (similarly to a scarcity strategy where you
create an artificial demand). If you can pull this off – way to go!
»»Selective following: The more common policy used by most “regular” users. Follow users who are relevant
to your industry, business and products. Follow based on their contribution to the feed and to your goals.
»»Use-case following: Similar to the previous policy, but based on use cases and not just relevancy. For
example, based on this policy you will follow all your customers regardless of their contribution so they will
follow you and enable the DM function to allow private tweeting between your company and that user.

Make sure you distribute the appropriate policy to your company and make it clear internally, especially if you
have several people using Twitter on behalf of your company.

5. Manage Twitter Resources
An important part of your Twitter strategy should be its integration with your existing internal processes. For
instance, if you receive product feedback or questions on Twitter, how are you planning on connecting these
people with your customer service team? Similarly, will one person or department be in charge of your com-
pany’s Twitter updates, or will the responsibility be shared? If you don’t have a designated “social media”
department, you should determine how Twitter would fit into your organization’s current processes as soon as
possible.

Down the line, you may also want to consider having separate Twitter accounts that focus exclusively on
specific subjects or goals, such as providing customer service or offering deals that will move your inventory.
Of course, this should be a later-stage consideration---Twitter works best for businesses when they start slow,
devoting a few minutes a day to see whether and how it’s valuable to them and whether it’s worthy of further
investment. (Note: There is more on the subject matter in our Getting Started section)

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6. Metrics and Measurement Tools
As with any other B2B marketing channel, it’s important for you to establish success metrics for your Twitter
efforts. Success with Twitter is much more than the number of followers you have. Part of your success on
Twitter depends on the quality of your engagement. The metrics you set should be a reflection of the goals
you’ve set up for your Twitter strategy. The measurement tools you pick should be able to easily track and
present those metrics, so you won’t have to spend time collecting and analyzing the data.

Examples of success metrics with Twitter based on goals

Goals Metrics

Increase Brand Awareness • Reach (followers + RT * RT’s followers)

• Followers

• Branded

Drive Traffic • Visits

Generate Leads • Leads

Nurture Leads • Visits and returning leads

Improve customer service • Twitter conversations

• Positive mentions

• Changes in customer satisfaction polls

Use as help channel • Number of Twitter conversations

• Number of DM

• Number of mentions of your help #

• Change in visits to help section on your website

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As far as quantitative metrics go, Twitter lends itself to measure-
ment in a few ways, especially if you’ve already defined your Twitter Twitter Lingo: ReTweet (RT)
goals for the next three months, six months, one year and so on.
To help share ideas and give praise
The following points can help you assess your progress toward via Twitter, you can repost people’s
messages and give them credit.
meeting these goals: People call that retweeting (or RT),
»»Keep a tally of questions answered, customer problems resolved and it usually looks something like
and positive exchanges held on Twitter. Do the percentages this: “RT @Username: Original mes-
sage (often with a link).” Retweeting
measure the change over time? Is Twitter having a positive effect
is common and it’s a form of conver-
on your business? sation on Twitter. It’s also a powerful
way to quickly spread messages and
»»When you offer deals via Twitter use a unique coupon code, so
ideas across Twitter.
that you can tell how many people take you up on that Twitter-
based promotion. If you have an online presence, you can set
up a landing page for a promotion to track click-throughs and
conversions. Third-party tools, such as Optify, can help determine how much traffic your website is receiving
from Twitter.
»»Track click-throughs on any link you post in a tweet. Some URL shortening services (such as bit.ly and
tinyurl) let you track click-throughs.
»»Make a chart that tabulates raw data like number of followers, number following, number of tweets, total
tracked clicks on tweets and so on.
»»Make a list of your top ten tweets based on clicks.

As for measurement tools, there are plenty of tools that can provide you with tracking and measuring capabili-
ties for the metrics you’ve decided on. Optify can fulfill most of your requirements and can track visits, leads,
mentions, campaigns and gives you the data to calculate reach.

Other tools include:
»»TweetVolume: Helps you identify keywords you might use in a tweet and which
are the most prevalent on Twitter.
»»TwitterCounter: Provides charts to show Twitter follower growth.
»»Twinfluence: Measures the combined influence of your Twitter account and fol-
lowers, has definitions of key statistics and provides valuable benchmarks for
B2B Twitter users to track

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Getting Started with Twitter
If you’ve determined that starting a Twitter account is the right move for your company, it’s time to get started!

1. Create your Twitter account
Go to Twitter.com and fill out the four fields on the sign-up page.
If you’re creating a company account, use the “Full name” field to Twitter Tips Tricks
type in your company name. That will help people find your com-
pany on Twitter (You can add your own name in the bio field, as Add your mobile phone to your
described below). Twitter’s username is the handle by which you’ll account, so you can tweet from
the road. Customers can also fol-
be known on Twitter, such as ShareATT or JetBlueCheeps. Choose
low you from their mobile phone by
the shortest name that best describes your company or this particu- texting “follow @YourUsername” to
lar account, and remember to stay true to your brand. Twitter does 40404. If you have a smart phone,
not allow so-called name squatting, so if somebody who does not like an iPhone or a Blackberry,
download any of the numerous
work for your company is holding or using your brand name inap-
Twitter clients for those platforms.
propriately, contact Twitter to get it sorted out. After you’ve signed
up, the site walks you through a couple of screens to help you find
people on Twitter you know or might be interested in.

2. Fill out your profile completely
Before you do anything else, click Twitter’s “Settings” link to get a page where you can fill out a few more
details to help people recognize your company. Most of the fields are self-explanatory. Pay special attention to
the “Bio,” which lets you summarize who you are in 160 characters. If there are other people at your company
on Twitter, you can list their @usernames here as well. Before you leave “Settings,” check out the picture tab,
which is the place to add your company logo or your photo. On the design tab, you can upload a background
image for your Twitter home page and tweak the page’s colors. Because the bio gives you just 160 characters,
companies often use the background image to share additional contact info, and it serves as additional brand-
ing for your business.

3. Find highly relevant people and companies to follow
Whether or not you chose to follow anyone in the sign-up process, now’s a good time to search for people and
companies of specific interest to you. You can use the “Who to Follow” link at the top of the home page, or use
the search box in order to find people who are talking about your company, brand and products. You can also
use the search feature to discover people in your industry by plugging in keywords related to your industry or
area of expertise. When you find interesting messages related to your space consider following those accounts.
Don’t worry too much about the number of people you’re following—just follow a few whose updates you really
want to read, introduce yourself and let your conversations grow organically. By default, when someone follows
you you’ll get a notification email from Twitter outlining some basic information about this user. Anyone can
turn off those notifications, though (under Settings Notices), so don’t assume people will know you’re on
Twitter just because you’ve followed them.

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4. Post your first message
On your Twitter homepage, in the box at the top, type in a message. As you type, the counter on the bottom-
right corner of the box guides you down from 140 characters. When you’ve got a message ready to go, hit
“Tweet” to post it. For a first message, consider trying something like, “Excited to start tweeting. Let us know
what you want to hear about from us.” Once you’ve posted that first message, you could follow up with some
“hello” mentions to people you know on Twitter, and perhaps post a link to an interesting news story about
your industry. Remember to use a URL shortener such as bit.ly before posting the link in the update box.

Twitter Tips Tricks

Don’t spam people. Twitter’s following model means that you have to respect the interests
and desires of other people on the service, or they’ll decide to no longer follow you. The most
common way to run afoul of that understanding—and to appear like a spammer—is to send
unsolicited @messages or DMs, particularly when you include a promotional link. Of course, if
you run an account that focuses explicitly on sharing exclusive coupon codes or sale information, you’re probably OK
posting promotions. But tread carefully, and consider explaining in your bio or background how your account works
and its purpose. You can test the waters by sending just a few promos to start, and then continuing if and only when
people show interest.

To make sure you’re not spamming folks, we also suggest you avoid the following practices:
»»Posting the same update throughout the day
»»Posting the same update to multiple accounts
»»Following and unfollowing the same people repeatedly, as well as following and unfollowing those who don’t
follow back (these are both violations of Twitter’s terms of service).

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Seven Keys to a Successful Twitter Campaign
Twitter campaigns organize your tweets around a specific event like a press release, product launch, webinar,
conference or other event. We’re seeing tremendous interest by companies to use Twitter to promote their events,
handle QA for live events like webinars and schedule tweets in advance for maximum effect.

What’s the blueprint for a successful Twitter campaign and how do you measure success?
1. Choose the right words
The words you use in Twitter can have a big impact on your success in
attracting attention. With the integration of Twitter feeds into Google and Bing,
the words you use for Twitter should be words you expect your audience to
search.

For example, if your webinar is about online marketing, should you use the
term Internet marketing, online marketing or web marketing? A quick look
at the search volume on these terms will show you that internet marketing is
used four times as often than the other two terms. Optify’s Keywords Application enables a quick start on this
type of research. Make sure you’re consistent in your tone and style. Write a few drafts, send them around for
people to comment on, verify your tone and style are aligned with who you’re and what your brand is all about.

Your Twitter account is part of your brand. Treat it accordingly.

2. Give the right (and useful) information
Give accurate, true and reliable information about your event. Check your links, check your landing page,
make sure your landing page reflects what your tweet is saying and vice versa.

Don’t forget to give the technical information – day, date, time and the appropriate link to all the information.
Point links from Twitter directly to your registration page.

3. Tweet frequently, but not obsessively
Don’t over tweet about your event. A good frequency about an event is once a day in the days prior to the
event. Frequency should be lower if your event is more than a week away. You want to build excitement, but
not overdo it.

4. Use a unique hashtag (#)
Think of a unique hashtag for your event that will help people follow the traffic that is associated with your
event and not get lost in the cluster of tweets about the subject of your event. Verify that your hashtag is not
being used at the moment to avoid confusion. Make sure it’s related to your event.

We endorse using a hashtag to flag questions and communicate during your event via Twitter. Followers of your
followers will see your questions and answers, so you will potentially get a big impact from a few questions.

Seven Keys to a Successful Twitter Campaign 15
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5. Plan and schedule your Twitter campaign
Twitter is a real-time service, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t plan ahead. Optify enables you to schedule
your Twitter campaign in advance. This means you can stay connected, even if you’re offline and you won’t be
chained to your PC (or Mac). Optify’s Twitter for Business application enables you to schedule and automati-
cally launch your campaign.

Don’t forget to add a reminder on your schedule as well. A common and good practice is to drop a reminder
on the day of the event and 30 minutes before the event starts.

6. Point to a great landing page
A great landing page is critical. There should be a logical link between your
tweet and your landing page. It should be easy to read and understand and
provide all the information right away.

Don’t make anyone jump through hoops to get the info they need. If you’re us-
ing a registration page, give enough details about the event so people will want
to register. Make registration easy and fast.

Note about webinars: If you’re using a hosted service like GoToWebinar, capture lead information on your site
before sending them to a hosted page.

7. Track g Monitor g Analyze g Repeat!
Using Twitter for business can have a big impact generating leads for your business. The most important thing
is to experiment and learn from your mistakes.

Seven Keys to a Successful Twitter Campaign 16
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Conclusion
Twitter has already proven its value as an innovative tool for B2B marketers. From its “opt-in” nature to the
real-time communication it supports, Twitter can be used to:

»»Build relationships with prospects and customers in an informal, genuine way
»»Drive increased traffic to your website and landing pages
»»Serve as a thought leadership platform for your company and industry
»»Measure the effectiveness of social media marketing campaigns
As with any other marketing strategy, using Twitter for B2B marketing campaigns requires goals, objectives, suc-
cess metrics and commitment in order to ensure success. Once these are established, B2B marketers can use
Twitter to accomplish their marketing objectives in new and innovative ways that drive leads and increase revenue.

Twitter Resources
3rd Party Applications: Online Resources:
»»TwitterFeed - Send your blog feed to Twitter »»The Newbie’s Guide to Twitter
http://twitterfeed.com/ http://news.cnet.com/newbies-guide-to-twitter/
»»TwitPic - Photo Sharing for Twitter »»Mashable’s Guide to Twitter
http://twitpic.com/ http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
»»Bit.ly - A URL shortener http://bit.ly/ »»7 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid on Twitter
http://www.imediaconnection.com/22655.asp
»»Twiogle – Search Twitter and Google simultane-
ously http://www.twiogle.com/ »»Olgivy’s Take on Twitter Best Practices
http://blog.ogilvypr.com/2008/08/the-creation-of-
»»Optify’s Twitter for Business application - A Twitter twitter-best-practices-round-1/
management application
http://www.optify.net/twitter-for-business »»35 Twitter Tips from 35 Twitter Users
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/01/25/35-
»»TweetDeck - Connects to both your Twitter and twitter-tips-from-35-twitter-users/
Facebook networks
http://www.tweetdeck.com/ »»137 Small Business Twitter Tips
http://smallbiztrends.com/2009/07/137-small-busi-
»»Echofon - Manages unread tweets ness-twitter-tips.html
http://www.echofon.com/ »»Twitter Help Center
»»UberTwitter - Twitter client for mobile devices http://support.twitter.com//
http://www.ubertwitter.com/ »»Twitter 101 - A Special Guide
http://business.twitter.com/twitter101
Books:
»»Everything Twitter By Monica Jones
»»Twitter: Free Social Networking for Businesses By
Daniel Clark
»»Twitter Power By Joel Comm
»»Groundswell By Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
»»Twitter Marketing for Dummies By Kyle Lacy
»»Twitter Marketing By Steve Weber

Conclusion 17
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About Optify
Optify enables business to increase traffic from organic search Contact Us
and social media, convert traffic to sales and share results with Call: 1-877-2-OPTIFY
easy-to-use, real time marketing software. Optify’s integrated, Twitter: @optify
hosted service enables professional marketers to find and track Email: info@optify.net
target keywords, optimize their website for search engines, Visit our website: www.optify.net
monitor website visitors, automate Twitter campaigns and track Start Free Trial: www.optify.net/sign-up/
results, and gain insights into which online marketing channels
are driving the most qualified leads. Sales teams can automati- Follow Optify
cally qualify and score web leads, focus sales efforts with real optify.net/facebook
time lead scoring and alerts, align marketing and sales, and optify.net/twitter
close more deals by assigning the right leads to the right sales
optify.net/linkedin
person. Optify is simple to set up and includes free phone,
optify.net/blog
e-mail and Web support. For more insights on how to market in
real time, visit the Optify Lead Generation Blog.

Guide References
About Optify’s Twitter for Business Application Content:
Optify’s Twitter for Business application is a full Twitter client Twitter
Twitter 101 for Business — A Special Guide
that allows you to monitor the Twitter feed, track visits, leads, http://business.twitter.com/twitter101
re-tweets and followers. You can Schedule tweets in advance
Twitter
and assign them to a campaign. Optify enables you to create Twitter Help Center
and track Twitter campaigns to support any marketing initiative http://support.twitter.com/
including webinars, trade shows, product launches, and press Optify
releases. 7 Keys To a Successful Twitter Campaign
http://www.optify.net/social-media/7-keys-to-a-
successful-twitter-campaign/
With Optify’s Twitter for Business application you’ll be able to:
Images:
»»Search, monitor, and follow keywords, influencers and Twitter Logos and Icons
http://twitter.com/about/resources/logos
competitors
»»Optimize your Tweets by choosing the keywords that work Cute Twitters Icon Set
http://www.mirkku.com/tweet/
for you
100+ Remarkably Beautiful Twitter Icons And
»»Track visits and leads generated from Twitter
Buttons
»»Measure your Twitter efforts to determine ROI and http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/100-remarkably-
success beautiful-twitter-icons-and-buttons/
»»Syndicate your content and extend your reach Free Twitter Bird Speech Bubbles
»»Save time by creating and scheduling Twitter campaigns http://www.thewebdesignblog.co.uk/downloads/
free-twitter-bird-speech-bubbles/
»»Get your Twitter team on the same page by allowing
Twitter vector icons massive icon set
multiple users to see the same feed and contribute from
http://www.iconshock.com/icon_sets/twitter-vec-
the same application tor-icons-massive-icon-set/

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Twitter for business the ultimate B2B guide

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