A Beginners Guide To Twitter

Social Media In Your Business

A guide to Twitter

What do you want to achieve today?

What are three things you want to learn today? 1. 2. 3.

Social Media Marketing

Write down your objectives for using social media _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________

Objectives

Tell your businesses story Source new, and retain existing, clients/customers Network faster Build your online visibility Listen to what is being said about your brand Feedback about existing products and crowd

source information about new products Position your business as a resource Increase sales Industry authority Drive traffic to your website Build strategic alliances

What is Twitter

Twitter describes itself as a place where you “create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers”

What is Twitter

Online cocktail party – lots of conversations, lots of topics

Follow people with similar interests Start or join a conversation that

appeals to you

What is Twitter

It’s an online social networking and microblogging service

Users send and read 140-character text messages

Can include photos, videos, and web links

These are known as “tweets”

Why Join Twitter?

Shared interests – sport, celebrities, food

Information sharing Opportunities – employment,

competitions Direct engagement with ‘anyone’

Getting Started

www.twitter.com

Getting Started

Getting Started

Username Maximum of 15 letters

[these are used in your 140 characters] Shorter is better Easy to remember

Getting Started

Follow 5 People

Follow 5 People

@sonyacole @getbeef @pukekuraraceway @smtaranaki @Taranaki_NZ

Follow 5 more

Keyword

Use a relevant keyword to find 5 additional people to follow, e.g. your industry, your favourite past time, your region, other interests

Follow the top 5 results

Following 10

You can unfollow at any time Everyone you follow gets notified

you followed them, but not if you unfollow

Use existing contacts

Existing contacts

Twitter can search your existing contacts email accounts to ascertain whether they are on Twitter. We’ll skip this today in the interests of time but you can return to this at a later stage

Avatar and Bio

Avatar and Bio

Your Avatar [profile picture] appears next to all of your tweets. It’s important to ensure it accurately reflects your brand

If you are your brand use a professional headshot to clearly identify yourself or use your business logo

You bio is only 160 characters long so ensure it’s concise but informative

Avatar and Bio

Twitter profile

Your first tweet!

140 not enough?

Sometimes 140 characters is just not enough to get your message across

You can use a little trick/cheat to tweet over several tweets by using #ttrtpt [this tweet refers to previous tweet] or the newer shortened version #trpt [this refers to previous tweet]

Replying

How to reply to a tweet

Replying to a Tweet

When you follow an account you will see their tweets in your timeline

You can publicly respond to their tweet by ‘replying’

Starting a tweet or a reply with @andtheusername will only be seen by people who follow both your account and that of the person you are tweeting

If you want to make your tweet visible by everyone following you then use a dot before the username .@theusername

Notifications

Notifications

This is where you see all tweets that are addressed to, or mention, you

These are filtered out to assist you with responding to tweets directed at you

Interactions

RT – Retweet If someone tweets something you want

to share with those who follow you, or to endorse the tweet, you can retweet it (reshare), with or without a comment

It’s personal preference where you place the comment, I usually comment at the beginning of the retweet

Modified Tweet

If the original tweet is too long to easily retweet you may need to modify it to indicate you’ve made a change to the original tweet. Replacing RT with MT indicates you’ve made a change to the original message

Please feel free to modify my ‘typos’ before you retweet ;)

Direct Messages

Direct Messages

If you want to send a private message to someone you follow, you can DM them. Only they will ever see the tweet. They must follow you back to be able to use this function

Hashtags

#Hashtags The topic of your tweet A summary of your tweet Brand association Searchable

If using more than one word there are no spaces #lettersonly

Twitter Defines Hashtags

Definition: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

Using hashtags to categorize Tweets by keyword:

People use the hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their tweet to categorize those tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search

Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other tweets marked with that keyword

Hashtags can occur anywhere in the tweet – at the beginning, middle, or end

Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics

Using hashtags correctly

If you tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your tweet

Don't #spam #with #hashtags. Don't over-tag a single tweet. [Best practices recommend using no more than 2 hashtags per tweet]

Use hashtags only on tweets relevant to the topic

Hashtags for good

In times of emergency having a single hashtag to follow can assist with passing on information – Taranaki Civil Defence [@TaranakiCD] has a hashtag policy in place for local civil emergencies

Large international events such as the Commonwealth Games or Olympics also create hashtags so you can easily follow their updates

When Hashtags Go Wrong

#Susanalbumparty This was the hashtag used for the

launch party for Susan Boyle’s Album

What to tweet

This comes back to your objectives for being on Twitter but some ideas 1) Activities and goals 2) Questions and polls 3) Retweet 4) Photo tweets 5) Help others 6) Thank yous 7) Think aloud

What not to tweet

You will be judged on your tweets so strong opinions are best left out out the twitterverse

Badmouthing your competitors Generally negativity is a no-no If you wouldn’t say it to your

mother, then don’t say it on Twitter

How often to tweet

More than once less than 100! Less broadcasts and more

engagement

Happy Tweeting!

Thank you

Question and Answer Session