Stuart Crawford, VP of Business Development with Bulletproof InfoTech shared strategies with entrepreneurs and small business owners in Calgary on how to get started with Twitter and use it more effectively in their business.

1. The Ins and Outs of TwitterHow you can use Twitter for business successfully! Stuart R. Crawford Vice President, Business Development Bulletproof InfoTech403.206.2233 stuart.crawford@bulletproofIT.ca

2. Questions before you start What areyour business objectives? Are you open to hearing what your community has to say - for better or worse? Do you have a regular source of content (copy, links, photos, podcasts, video etc) Do you have the time to invest in building your community? Are you prepared to maintain your Twitter community on a regular basis?

3. How I view Twitter “Twitter is a great tool to build a community. It is not about getting the most followers, but about connecting with people who find you interesting and who you can serve, online!” Stuart Crawford Bulletproof InfoTech Calgary, Alberta

4. Why Twitter for Business? Twitter reaches over 18 million people worldwide How many of these are active? How many are in Calgary? How many of your peers are on Twitter? How do you reach these people? Is Twitter right for your business? Your customers expect to find you on Twitter

5. There is no right or wrong way to use Twitter! The key is to just use it!

6. The platinum rules of Twitter Share information of value You wouldn’t like getting sold to constantly Never, Ever, EVER…use Twitter.com to follow conversations IT WILL DRIVE YOU CRAZY! You will miss what is being said Be a THOUGHT LEADER and show you are a leader, start trends and offer insight on existing trends

7. What can Twitter be used for? Lead generation Client service Trend spotting Up-to-the-second news Keep in touch with vendors, sponsors and clients What else can Twitter be used for? How about promoting events? What about sharing happenings with your clients? Can you use Twitter to share information?

8. How to get started? You need to get started in order to use Twitter Go to http://www.twitter.com Click on SIGN UP NOW Create your account Tip: Keep your business account, personal account, SIGs separate

9. What else you need to do? After you have created your account Upload a logo or picture Customize colours to match your brand Setup Twitter wallpaper What you must have Logo What you do Contact information Call to action

10. How do you build followers Start following others in Calgary and area Follow industry leaders in your industry Offer advice and reply to those looking for help Post to communities, special interest groups and re-tweet valuable information How do you find communities or topics? Introducing the “HASH TAG” Makes sense of the noise on twitter Allows you to search for information or communities Examples #YYC #CDNWIN7 #FLAMES

11. Use Twitter search to find people talking

12. What do you have to say?

13. What do you say? Something happening in Calgary Bulletproof InfoTech – The Ins and Outs of Twitter, register now http://ol.wy/5tf4f #YYC Client does something great A great client of Bulletproof, XYZ Gas just went public, check them out http://www.xyw.ca, XYZ.TO on #TSX General information Are you concerned about H1N1, read this report http://www.h1n1.ca #YYC #H1N1

14. How do this turn into revenue? Directly, it doesn’t What you are doing is… Becoming an information source The more people who know you Becoming “Agent Zero” Building a trusted following This is the new way of doing business All things being equal Know, like and trust Is Twitter part of your marketing plan

15. Connect with Clients and Customers

16. Share valuable information From your blog or RSS feed Any blog or RSS feed can automatically be configured to connect with Twitter http://www.twitterfeed.com Create multiple Twitter accounts Helps focus your posts on areas of interest Share items of interest from your community Share what impacts you or your community Share items of interest from your clients Share events in your community Twitterviews

17. Use a Twitter Aggegator My recommendation is hootsuite.com Web based Multiple accounts Create columns to help you follow what is happening People you want to watch Mentions Search subjects or keywords

18. More you can do now Add your Twitter posts to your website or blog Add social media contact information to: Your website Your business cards (@stuartrcrawford) Your email signature Anything else you can think of! Think about how to leverage video, pictures and audio into your tweets

19. Questions and Answers Contact Stuart R. Crawford Bulletproof InfoTech 403.206.2233stuart.crawford@bulletproofIT.ca @stuartrcrawford @bulletproofIT @calgarybusiness

20. Additional Stuff Not presented

21. Do’s & Don’ts Do: Use your blog as a way to deepen the Twitter conversation Do: Ask questions Do: Think “cocktail party” Do use ! :o) LOL to indicate sarcasm Do: break your blog into sections or bullet points and tweet about each of them separately Don’t: Be afraid to repeat yourself Content

22. Do’s & Don’ts Do: shorten your tweet to 110/120 characters to allow for retweet attribution Do: use a link shortener to track what gets clicked Do: quote closely to verbatim, but don’t be afraid to edit Do: add your own opinion using [brackets] Do: Use “via” when crediting your content source The Retweet

23. Miscellaneous Do’s Tweet most things in public Add period for tweets you want seen by everyone ( .@freerangemom ) Set up a separate email account for all of your social media mail Use Internet Explorer as your browser Add @address to your email signature, business card Play with #. Not just for conversations or events, it also tags an idea like #fail. Use ^ to denote who is tweeting on a shared account Do….

24. Miscellaneous Don’ts Send DM “thanks for following me” Give out passwords to 3rd party apps unless you are absolutely positive they are above board Assume DMs (or anything else) is confidential Think deleting tweets gets rid of them (unless you are the President) Don’t….

25. Tools http://www.bubbletweet.com/ – embed video in your tweets http://favotter.matope.com/en/ – see who likes what you have to say http://www.twazzup.com/ – monitoring, trending, thought leaders and more http://twittermass.com/ – paid service that does the same thing as Monitter.com does for free http://twtpoll.com/ – one of several twitter poll apps http://www.twtapps.com/ – twitter event invites and more http://ping.fm/ – one stop broadcasting tool http://hootsuite.com/ – link tracking, delayed tweets and more http://www.retweetrank.com/ – how you rank on RTs

26. Tools http://budurl.com – best stats http://bit.ly – most used, twitter supported http://snip.url – link testing www.tweetburner.com – most social www.twitturly.com/ – tracking www.tweetmeme.com/ –blog RTs Link Shorteners

27. Tools www.twollow.com www.twello.com www.wefollow.com www.socialoomph.com www.localtweeps.com www.monitter.com www.tweepsearch.com Following