A simple slide presentation outlining the experience and personal views of David Laud demonstrating how business owners and managers can make best use of twitter

1. for business
presented by
@davidlaud FCIM Chartered Marketer

2. Twitter
Contents
– Some general negative views of twitter
– What is it? - facts and stats
– Who’s talking on Twitter?
– Who should you talk to?
– What to avoid
– Good practice
– What do you tweet?
– When should you tweet?
– How can you make it work?
– Analysis
– Useful resources
– Summary

3. Twitter - Negs
• “I don’t get it!”
• “Waste of time”
• “It’s like walking down the street shouting
out random things to strangers”
• “It’s for people with too much time on their
hands”
• “If I allow it in my business staff will spend
all day on it”

4. Twitter – Facts & Stats
• Started in 2006
• 140 characters per tweet
• 80% of accounts are largely dormant
• Only 17% will send a tweet in typical month
• Average Twitter user has 27 followers, down
from 42 followers in August 2009
• 100 million accounts worldwide but only 15-20m
active
• User numbers have doubled in last 12 months
• More women are on Twitter 55% to 45% men
and tweet more frequently

5. Twitter Conversations
• Techies swap links and chat;
• Boasts about professional success;
• Marketers and publishers pushing their
content at people;
• Celebrities’ micro blog on minutiae.
• Flirting, personal chat and gossip
• Help, advice, support sought
– Genuine connections and networks

6. Twitter Targets
• People who like people!
• Networkers
• Connectors
• Altruists
• Experts
• People who share the same interests
• Future employees

7. Avoid
• Obvious and annoying self promoters
• Spammers
• Flirts “xox” nb I know a good family lawyer!
• Follower junkies, you’re only a number
• Celebrities – unless you’re genuinely
interested or see an opportunity
• Damaging your reputation
• Damaging your business #Habitat

8. Good Twitter Practice
• Create an account – seek followers and watch
conversations
• Be brave and use a photo, it significantly increases the
follower count
• Establish if it’s something you could invest time in
• Talk to people you know who tweet
• Find a level that fits you and your business
• Consider creating additional accounts for specific
products/ services/ functions get others involved
• Don’t “over” promote, be yourself, personality works
• It’s not all about business
• Use as part of a of viral campaign

9. Good Practice contd.
• Always shorten any hyperlinks eg http://bit.ly/
• Set aside a few moments during each day to check your account
• Always check mentions and direct messages
• Don’t set up an automated direct message when someone follows
you - impersonal
• Lists – as you grow your follower base you can organise them into
specific lists
• Get feedback from those who tweet a lot and find examples of
businesses who’ve used twitter to positive effect.
• Keep it contained and don’t over promote – be careful not to wear
your followers out with promotions.
• Follow Friday - #FF is a good way to promote good contacts in your
network and those that you feel have made a positive contribution.
• Check you’re listed on Twello –and ensure the profile is correct, it
often automatically adds your account. Twellow is the yellow pages
of twitter.

10. What to Tweet
Think of yourself as a broadcast channel and adopt a style to suit your
business objectives
• Entertain – share light hearted content
• Inform – provide timely newsworthy updates, check BBC
each day
• Respond to requests for help, support your network
• Don’t bombard followers with press releases
• Promote yourself but don’t overdo it offer value to your
network – use the 1 in 6 rule. (1 advert for every 6
tweets)
• Use the # (hashtag) appropriately, only on subjects
you’re talking about

11. When to Tweet
There has been a great deal of debate over the best time to Tweet.
My view is that there are certain obvious times in the working day.
• First thing in the morning, lunchtime and about 4pm.
• As for days, there are conflicting reports but the consensus appears
to be WednesdayThursday/ Friday as peak days followed by
Wednesday. To be sure use www.tweetstats.com
• Fewer tweets are sent at weekends and they tend to be of a more
social nature.
• If you have a number of influential followers it can be useful to know
when they are “online” and ready to see your tweets. Keep an eye
on their tweet timeline by visiting their profile and seeing when they
tweet.
• If you have a blog or important announcement/ promotion you can
schedule your message to be sent 3 or 4 times in a 24 hour period
but we would suggest no more than that.

12. Making it work
Twitter is but one method of driving traffic to you and your business –
be sure to integrate it with all other online and offline marketing
• Your blog – www.wordpress.com
• Your LinkedIn profile – www.linkedin.com
• Your YouTube Channel – www.youtube.com
• Your Facebook page – www.facebook.com
• Add links to your account(s) to your e-mail footer
• Add links on your website
• Add account information to your printed media
• Include account details in advertising online and offline

13. Analyse and adapt
Keep an eye on the traffic you’re generating
• Followers, who are they? Are you following them back?
• Who’s re-tweeting your messages?
• Who’s responding to your messages?
• What are people saying about you and your business?
• Who’s visiting your website from twitter and how long are
they staying?
• Use Google Analytics to drill into the impact of social
media on your website

14. Useful Resources
There are literally hundreds of applications to help you manage your twitter account and add value to
the experience. The difficulty is in wading through the forest of solutions to find those that best
suit your needs. Here are a few that we would recommend.
• Shrink hyperlinks – http://bit.ly/ or http://tinyurl.com/
• Managing multiple social media sites or business accounts:
– Desktop:
– Tweetdeck http://www.tweetdeck.com/ great for multiple views of multiple accounts
– Hootsuite http://hootsuite.com/ – even more functionality and analysis but you pay for it
– Seesmic http://seesmic.com/ neat app for keeping on top of multiple accounts
– Smart Phone: -TwitBirdpro http://appsto.com/twitbirdpro
• Searching to see who’s following/ not following – Justunfollow http://
www.justunfollow.com/login.do
• Analysis of your profile – Twitalyzer http://www.twitalyzer.com or www.twitstats.com
• Who’s talking about your business – Social Mention - http://socialmention.com/
• Adding pictures – www.Flickr.com
• Adding video – www.youtube.com or www.dailymotion.com
• Adding sound – http://www.Audioboo.fm

15. Summary
• Listen and learn from active, successful
business twitter accounts, there’s no shortage of
support for new joiners
• Create a strategy and objectives for your social
media marketing
• Don’t be afraid of taking part
• Personality first but protect the brand
• Involve others - provide guidance
• Be creative, be positive and have fun