Telling Your Story: Helping your customers achieve their goals

Telling Your Story
& help your customers achieve their goals!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Don’t ask the wrong question!

How can my business use Facebook & Twitter?


There is a better question

How can Facebook & Twitter to help my 
customers achieve their goals?


Business Decision

Deciding to use a tool is a tactic.

How your business decides to use that tool is a 
strategy.

Have policies and goals in place to best execute 
your strategy.


The conversation dynamics have changed


Twitter
What is Twitter?
According to the official Twitter FAQ, "Twitter is a community of friends and strangers 
from around the world sending updates about moments in their lives. Friends near or far 
can use Twitter to remain somewhat close while far away. Curious people can make 
friends. Bloggers can use it as a mini‐blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make 
Twitter tools of their own. Possibilities are endless!"
Micro‐blogging is one of the most common terms used to describe Twitter.


Twitter
Micro‐bloging ‐ blogging 140 characters at a time

Each entry to twitter is like a mini blog entry
Share your information ‐ your story
Informal & personal
Update as often as you wish


Twitter
How to post your first update
1. Go to http://twitter.com and sign up
2. Follow the instructions and complete your profile in it’s 
entirety ‐ including design! Start Here
3. Type your update into the "What are you doing" box Follow Instructions
4. Click the update button Complete ENTIRE profile

Your tweet will post to your profile page and you should 
see it in your timeline. 


Twitter
Post an update ‐ call them tweets
Twitter always asks the question, "What are you doing?"  
Each answer to that question is considered a Twitter status update, or 
what people often call a "tweet."  
Each update is 140 characters or less. 
Once you've signed up, just type your first tweet in the web box. 
Twitter keeps track of how many characters you’re using in the 
update! 
Click update to post the update to your timeline, your followers’ 
timeline & the public timeline.


Twitter
What do people tweet about?
Everything! From the most mundane (going to sleep) to the most personal, 
(having a baby!) people say it all on Twitter. You don't have to say exactly what 
you're doing, you can say whatever you want. Share random thoughts, post a 
link, say what you're listening to or what you dreamt about.  You can post 
something as simple as "Eating a sandwich."
News breaks first on twitter ‐ usually from those who were involved or 
witnessed the event.


Twitter
But why would people do that?  
People like to share. Companies, news agencies, celebrities, and even 
the President have information to share!  They use Twitter for fun, but 
also to share important information.  
Twitter is a way for companies, celebrities and other organizations to 
communicate with people.  


Twitter
Why 140 characters?
Just so happens that 140 characters is the perfect length for sending 
status updates via text message.  The standard text message length in 
most places is 160 characters per message.  20 characters are reserved 
for people's names, and the other 140 are all yours!


Twitter
What is following?
Following someone on Twitter means getting their updates in your personal timeline.  
If you follow Tina, you'll get her updates on your homepage when you log in, or on 
your phone if you've added it.  If you follow someone, they can send you private 
tweets, too.  See who follow you on your followers page, and make changes to who 
you follow on your following page.


Twitter
What is following?
Follow people you know ‐ follow the people they know ‐ follow people who interest 
you ‐ most importantly ‐ follow the people who follow you!


Twitter
What are followers & just who are they?
Followers are people who receive other peoples' Twitter updates. When you post an 
update to your Twitter account, your followers will get it on their home page and/or 
phone. Mutual followers can send each other private messages, and you can even 
choose to get notified by email when someone new follows you or sends you a private 
message.  

Your followers are going to be your 
fans ‐ your loyal customers. The ones 
who are willing to help in telling your 
story!


Twitter
What are followers & just who are they?
47% Male / 53% Female
70%+ users are 18‐49 years of age
Over 60% are college educated
35% of twitters live in urban areas
Median age of a Twitterer is 31
Median age of a MySpace user is 27
Median age of a Facebook user is 26
Median age of a LinkedIn used is 40
Source: Social Media Today, March 2009 - http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/78505


Twitter
How do you begin to have this “conversation”?
Ask relevant questions
Answer questions
Link to interesting news stories about your product/service/industry
Post educational content about your product/service/industry
Tweet about interesting ways customers are using your product or service.
Link to your blog
Distribute press releases
Give away tips and tricks about your product
Promote specials that are valuable
Introduce others
Be engaged in the conversation!


Twitter
How do you have this “conversation”?
Between replying & direct messaging to twitterers who are actively discussing your 
product/service.
Replying is done by putting the @ symbol in front of the person’s name ‐ this is 
broadcast throughout the twittersphere!
Replying is called mentions ‐ users see when they’ve been mentioned and by who.
To send something directly to a user, put a “D” in front of their name and this will be 
sent privately to the user.


Twitter
Another way of initiating conversation is to feed your twitter account with information 
about your product/service/industry.
Use something called twitterfeed [http://twitterfeed.com] to post RSS feeds into your 
twitter account.
Be careful to balance this automation with conversation ‐ people are here to talk ‐ not 
be force fed information.


Twitter
It’s a good idea to retweet tweets about your product/service/industry
To retweet you’ll just put an RT and then the @ symbol infront of the person’s name 
on twitter and their post ‐ remember this has to fit into 140 characters or less ‐ so you 
might have to do a bit of tweaking on the tweet
Remember ‐ with @ symbol in front of their name it’s a mention and they’ll see it in 
their timeline ‐ be positive!


Twitter
It’s a good idea to retweet tweets about your product/service/industry
Retweeting builds and strengthens relationships on twitter
Retweeting is seen as a compliment


Twitter
Other conventions when posting
Posting URLs ‐ web addresses ‐ are a great idea to generate traffic to your 
website.
URLs can be long and take up valuable characters ‐ most URLs posted to twitter 
are shortened using a URL shortening service.
To do this, find a service such as TinyURL.com, paste in your long URL to the 
service, then copy the shortened URL into twitter ‐ saving you valuable 
characters.


Twitter
Other conventions when posting
We’ve learned about @, D, & RT but there are also hashtags which are 
represented by the # sign.
Hashtags help group your tweets in to useable data such as categories, trends 
and are also searchable in search.twitter.com. Use hashtags like so: #haiku, 
#followfriday, etc.  
Hashtags can occur anywhere in the tweet.


Use Twitter to 
research & 
prospect
search.twitter.com
Search out your 
industry, your 
business, your 
product ‐ what are 
they saying?
They’re saying 
something ‐ they 
tend to talk a lot!


Twitter
Get some Apps!
There are numerous ways to post to twitter. 
Not every tweet has to be posted into the web interface.
You can post from desktop applications such as TweetDeck and CoTweet
You can post from any mobile phone using text messages or from smart‐
phones using apps like Tweetie and TwitterFon
Applications can give you MUCH more functionality!


Look 
Interesting!
Complete 
your profile!
Add graphics, 
an avatar and 
information 
relevant to 
your 
business!


Twitter
DO NOT BLOCK YOUR UPDATES!


Twitter
Twitter can be ...
An easy, free method to accompany existing marketing plans
A broadcasting tool to get information about your product/service/industry 
into the hands of those who want it the most
A way to create and maintain relationships with your customers
A tool to monitor your brand ‐ as well as your competitor’s brand
A conversational tool ‐ your fans and not so fans are talking about you right 
now on twitter ‐ join the conversation.


Twitter
Points to remember about Twitter
Spam is just as annoying on Twitter as it is in an e‐mail. Don’t spam ‐ you won’t win 
any friends that way.
Use direct messages with care. Make sure that the receiving party is wanting a 
direct message ‐ unwelcome direct messages are really frowned upon.
Remember to be respectful and smart. Tweets are out in the open ‐ they’re indexed 
and searchable. Mean what you say & say what you mean.
Twitter is NOT instant messaging ‐ it’s great to have one on one conversations on 
twitter ‐ but at a certain point the conversation needs to go  to direct messages so 
you’re not ignoring/annoying your followers


Twitter
Points to remember about Twitter
Complete your profile!

One good tweet is equal to thousands of good impressions ‐ make them all count!

Be active with traditional networking ‐ that’s right ‐ use twitter to facilitate face to 
face opportunities!

Your Twitter page should be branded like your webpage

Be authentic ‐ tell YOUR story!


Twitter

You’re ready to fly the nest and join the conversation!


Facebook
What is Facebook?
Facebook is a global social networking website that is operated and privately owned by 
Facebook, Inc.[1] Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their 
personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks 
organized by city, workplace, school, and region. The website's name stems from the 
colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic year by university 
administrations with the intention of helping students get to know each other better.

‐wikipedia


Facebook
What is Facebook?
Profile
Friends
Wall, Status, Pictures
Groups, Pages, Events
Notes, Applications


Facebook
How to get started
1. Go to http://facebook.com and sign up
2. Select the “Create a Page for a celebrity, 
band or business.”


Facebook
simply fill out the 
information asked.
Make sure you tick 
“I am authorized to 
create this page”
Enter in your name
Click “Create Page”
Your business page 
is now created!


Facebook
You’ll be asked to either 
create a personal account to 
manage your business 
account or link to your 
personal account at this point.


Facebook
Your business page 
is now created!
Notice the “Link 
Your Page to Your 
Twitter Account”


Facebook
Branding is important ‐ make 
your Facebook page look like 
your website.
Complete your profile ‐ add 
logos, pictures, contact info, 
website information, etc.

For managing & editing 
your page


Facebook
Manage & Edit
There are a lot of ways to 
customize the experience for 
your fans.
This is the “back end” of your 
page where you will add 
events, notes, photos, etc ...
Visit http://facebook.com/
username to set a 
personalized facebook URL.


Facebook
Publish!

Once you’ve completed EVERYTHING on your page ‐ publish!


Facebook
How do we attract fans?

We want to attract fans to 
our product or service!

Post quality questions, 
advice, something to prompt 
conversation, etc ...


Facebook

By adding Favorite Pages 
that are relevant to our 
product or service we can 
increase our fan count.


Facebook

Have exclusive content on 
your page!


Make it easy & obvious for your fans & followers that you 
are using Facebook & Twitter!


Facebook
What are fans & just who are they?
The 35‐54 year old demo is growing fastest, with a 276.4% 
growth rate 
The 55+ demo is not far behind with a 194.3% growth rate
The 25‐34 year population is doubling every 6 months
There are more females (55.7%) than males (42.2%) 
The largest demographic concentration remains the 
college crowd of 18‐24 year olds (40.8%) which is down 
from (53.8%) six months ago.
Source: iStrategyLabs, January 2009 - http://www.istrategylabs.com/2009-facebook-demographics-and-statistics-report-276-growth-in-35-54-year-old-users/


Facebook
What to post?

Post links to your Press 
Releases

Post links to events

Post links for a call to action

Examples of your product in 
the news (good news of 
course) or in action.


Facebook
What to post?

Most importantly we want to 
have a conversation!


Facebook
Remember this page?
Now that we’re all set 
up we want to go 
ahead and link our 
Facebook page to our 
twitter account!


Facebook
Linking Facebook & 
twitter
We want to be able to 
harness the power of 
conversation and easy 
broadcasting in twitter 
with the rich media 
experience we have in 
Facebook


Facebook
Linking Facebook & twitter
Be careful in what you choose to do.
We don’t want our fans & followers to be 
overburden with our posting.


Conclusion
I grew up in a small town of 1000 people ‐ very close to the local convenience store of the 
time, the old corner store.
They knew my sister & I, my cousins, my family ‐ we had a tab!
We knew them ‐ they came over for dinners ‐ as kids we all played together.


Conclusion
The old corner store is gone now ‐ but I still remember spending the days of my youth 
there.
These shops gave way to the SuperMarkets and SuperDuper markets of today.
Production, marketing, sales have all been scaled up


Conclusion
The one thing as businesses as a whole has lagged in scaling up is the relationships we 
have with out customers.

Do you want fries with that?


Conclusion
Facebook, twitter + the myriad of other social websites gives business the tools to help 
scale up relationships!


Don Hazelwood
http://www.facebook.com/don.hazelwood
@donhazelwood

don.hazelwood@gmail.com


Telling Your Story: Helping your customers achieve their goals

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