Frequently, when I meet with business decision makers I hear things like “social media just seems like a bunch of 20 somethings wasting time talking about nonsense” or “I just don’t see any business value in Twitter.” That got me to thinking to the point I decided to create another video to focus on business applications of Twitter.
Once you’ve watched the video, I hope you’ll share your feedback with us below.
A recent project by CoachDeb and Warren Whitlock on Twitter opened my eyes to Twemes, and I thought it might be a good video topic. Below is a short video that shows how to create a thematic conversation thread on Twitter which can help you gather quality information and expand your Twitter universe in the process. After you’ve watched the video, please share your comments below.
Adam DesAutels also video blogged about the TwitterHandbook.com live chapter creation experiment. You may wish to check out Adam’s video, too.
Since I’ve been on a Twitter kick of late, I figured it might be a fun exercise to expand upon the previous Twitter video with another one that shows four free websites you can use to increase your own Twitter universe with people that share your interests or have something in common with you.
As always, your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
I’m taking a stab at video for a change to demonstrate one way to expand your Twitter universe to include people with similar interests by using Summize (you could use Tweetscan to accomplish the same goal). This video isn’t a polished prize, but I hope it helps some of you that are still on the fence about Twitter to at least give it a shot by finding folks to connect with that may interest you and vice versa.
I welcome your feedback.
I (Roger) have been involved with social media for awhile now in various forms (MySpace, Facebook, blogging, LinkedIn, etc.), but I didn’t get consistently involved with Twitter until a month ago or so. Now I’d consider myself a Twitter-holic.
At first, I just didn’t get Twitter. 140 characters to tell people “what I’m doing right now?” My first reaction was “who cares?” which gave way to “stalkers ought to love this thing!” that finally gave way to “open your mind Roger, and give it a legitimate try; there has to be a way to leverage this thing as a business tool.” So that became my self imposed initiative.
I attended my first Louisville Social Media Club event and noticed how everybody referenced their Twitter ID on the sign-in sheet. So, armed with that information I set out on my second Twitter voyage (the first one failed because I had no followers, and I wasn’t following anyone) by adding a lot of the SMC Louisville attendees to my “following.” I also added some of the people they were following to my list (the social networking aspect in play here), and a lot of those folks reciprocated which began to open my eyes on how powerful the service could be. I have since grown my list to over 100 followers and am following 175 or so on there now. Anyway, the point of this post is to show how Twitter is generating quite a bit of traffic to our blog, and that would have been impossible without sharing my “following” so the background info is relevant.
Earlier this week, I attended the Cincinnati Social Media Breakfast and met more wonderful people to add to my Twitter list. I reviewed the event and have been amazed at how much traffic that one post has generated. Other sites have referenced the review, and that was all made possible through Twitter. Nobody would have even known who I was if it weren’t for the service, and nobody would have known I wrote a review of the social media events I have attended if it weren’t for Twitter. In the “old days,” I would have had to send each attendee an e-mail with a link to the blog post then hoped they visited the site and took it upon themselves to link to it somewhere.
Roughly 30% of our blog traffic has been Twitter based. In looking at the web analytics just now, the other sites that have directed traffic to our blog are a direct result of “tweets” on Twitter letting others know about the various blog posts that they now reference on their blogs. They took the “tweet” to the next level, and it’s possible to trace 75% of our existing blog traffic back to Twitter. It’s the real-time information share that makes Twitter so powerful, and it makes it so much easier for those connected to cross promote one another in multiple media. The service provides tremendous benefit if viewed from that perspective.
Twitter is something to seriously consider if your business is looking for additional web traffic sources. It can provide a tremendous benefit to your business if the people you put in place to utilize Twitter handle it properly. It’s like anything else in the social media or SEO universe–time and consistency are keys to success. It’s not a light switch technology that will pay immediate dividends so keep that in mind before embarking on a Twitter journey.
Got a Twitter business success story of your own? Please share it with us.
Here are some interesting posts to read that touch upon the concept of Twitter as a traffic generation tool:
This morning (April 29, 2008), I (Roger) attended a social media breakfast in Cincinnati at the Holiday Inn in Newport that was “headlined” or “emceed” (whatever term you’d prefer to toss in here works for me) by Albert Maruggi. One of the primary reasons I decided to attend was that I’ve listened to Albert’s podcast, The Marketing Edge, for quite some time and have enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s always nice to meet the human behind all of it in person versus text in an e-mail, blog posting, or Twitter exchange. Additionally, there are a few people that I’ve interacted with on-line that I thought would be nice to meet in person so this was a great opportunity to do that although early mornings are extremely rough on me and always have been.
Early morning whining aside, here’s a rundown from my perspective of the event:
The group that made it out for the event wasn’t large in numbers, but it was obvious that there were a lot of talented folks that had opinions about social media and its place within business. WIth apologies ahead of time to anyone I neglect to mention, here is a list of people in attendance along with links to their business , primary content outlet (such as a blog or podcast site) or Twitter profile (in case you wish to follow them).
The conversation began with Jason Falls sharing his experience about Twittering about Robby Gordon for Jim Beam for the Baja 1000 and how this took Jim Beam to a new level of marketing and created a unique following. Other drivers’ crews got wind of what Jason was doing and sent him updates to Twitter about them as well. This spurred on further conversation about Twitter and how it can be used for business in addition to getting to know someone better.
The recent earthquake in the Ohio Valley that shook Louisville and the Ohio Valley a bit was discussed. It was mostly agreed that all of the information the media, local and national, was begging for was readily available on Twitter if anyone elected to look there, but they seemed to request information and personal stories through more traditional mechanisms such as the telephone and e-mail. Jason estimated that it took something like 37 minutes from the time he first noticed something on Twitter about the earthquake to when a media outlet reported something.
Albert offered up the Next Newsroom initiative and how that may impact journalism as we know it today which sparked a good portion of our friendly debates this morning.
There was a lengthier debate about citizen journalism and how that can be effectively managed and embraced by traditional media. The suggestion was made that print media HAS to get their story right the first time whereas on-line media (blogs in particular) can go back and edit their story should there be inaccuracies. In print, this can be very damaging so traditional media errs heavily on the side of caution and verifiable sources before running with a story. Things will likely remain this way for print because of the ramifications of erroneous reporting.
It was also suggested that it’s nearly impossible for traditional media to open up the publication gates to allow herds of citizen journalists into the fray because the average reader won’t automatically get the fact that it’s not a trained writer and that the facts may not be 100% verified versus someone expressing their thoughts and opinions like they can with blogs and social media.
Albert stated that the Next Newsroom Project is offering training for citizen journalists so that they are more responsible with their reporting and can become a valued resource to the community they aim to serve. Something to keep an eye on.
Overall, this was a top notch meeting and a lot of healthy debate took place. I’m glad I made the trek and met more interesting people that I can socialize with on and off-line. I am looking forward to interacting more with those in attendance this morning and learning various perspectives on social media as they pertain to business. Thanks to all of you!
If you were in attendance, what was your take? Did I miss something major? Did I spell your name wrong? 
Please let me hear from you.
For the longest time, I’d hear others opine about how much they loved Twitter and how it has enabled them to get to know others relatively quickly, but I’ve been on the outside looking in because I just didn’t “get it.” I’d curl my lip and say “what’s the point with that service?” or “who would want to share what they’re doing all the time so stalkers could easily stalk them?”
That all changed about two weeks ago when I decided to really invest of myself into Twitter to see what all the buzz was about and try to figure out how business clients could benefit from the service. It was as much self-education and mind expansion as it was figuring out the why behind all the buzz. It’s not like I HAD to like the experience, but I wanted to give it a shot instead of dismissing it at every turn out of ignorance.
Well, my education has grown into great affection for the service, and I’m regularly “tweeting” to those that follow me and vice versa. It really is a great way to get a glimpse into someone’s life without being nosy or prying into their space. Since you can control what you share with others, it’s not like you’re opening your diary for the whole world to see or compromising your own safety by sharing what you’re up to. Sharing just enough doesn’t equate to sharing intricate details. For instance, let’s say I’m heading to eat at Jersey Mike’s (one of my favorites)–I could share that I’m heading there, but I don’t have to share which Jersey Mike’s that might be.
On the flip side, I could see how this might benefit those interested in developing stronger relationships with their local following, and that has business implications worth pursuing. A lot of today’s business is conducted across great distances so this represents an opportunity to deepen relationships with people you may never physically encounter yet you can know as much about their lives, if not more, than their friends at home. It works equally well for local contacts, too. It’s much easier to “tweet” the entire following and encourage them to join you somewhere than it is to call or e-mail each person. If they’re open to meeting with you, they have the option of showing up without having to make a big to do about it. Hooray for that! As someone who hates the telephone, this is a very easy way for me to spread a brief message without requiring a lot of legwork and coordination. I’m all for minimizing hand holding opportunities.
You can also ask quick questions of your following and get short responses in fairly quick fashion. This can be especially helpful if your group is a particularly savvy one–good advice for free is never a bad thing.
Anyway, I encourage you to follow me on Twitter if you’re so inclined and jump into the fun when the mood hits you. The more you involve yourself, the more the service may appeal to you. Then again, you may be like me a month ago and think it’s a gigantic waste of time. I’ve been transformed since and see several benefits of being involved, but that doesn’t mean everyone will follow the same path as me.
