Twitter Marketing ForConventions Used in This Book How This Book Is Organized Part I: The Future of Twitter in Business Part II: Building and Implementing Your Twitter Marketing Roadmap
Trang 2Twitter Marketing For
Conventions Used in This Book
How This Book Is Organized
Part I: The Future of Twitter in Business
Part II: Building and Implementing Your
Twitter Marketing Roadmap
Part III: Devising Online Strategies for
Twitter Marketing Domination
Part IV: Implementing Twitter Strategies
for Offline Marketing Domination
Part V: The Part of Tens
Appendixes
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I: The Future of Twitter in Business
Trang 3Chapter 1: I Tweet, You Tweet, We All Tweet:Twitter and Your Business
Understanding How Twitter Works
Using Twitter in Your Business
Sharing news and stories
Empowering your fans
Customer service
Finding a fit for your business
Marketing on Twitter
Chapter 2: Getting Started with Twitter
Signing Up with Twitter
Creating a Twitter account
Using the Find Sources that
Interest You features
What’s with the Verified
Accounts?
Writing your 160-character bio
and more
Adding a picture
Trang 4Completing your additionalprofile settings
Understanding Twitter Basics
Compiling and following Twitterlists
Using Listorious to maximize listbuilding
Twitter Software You Can Use
Part II: Building and Implementing Your Twitter MarketingRoad Map
Chapter 3: Combining New and Old MediaMarketing
Applying Old-School Marketing and
Trang 5Sending commercial messages on
Promoted Tweets
What are promoted tweets?
Positives and negatives of
promoted tweets
Deciding What to Tweet About
The five types of tweets
Tweeting about what you know
Chapter 4: Planning Your Twitter MarketingStrategy
Setting a Destination for Your MarketingStrategy
Choosing a target audience
Identifying your unique selling
position
Figuring out what your customers
value
Implementing Your Plan
Crafting your message
Defining the tactics
Finalizing your marketing plan
Trang 6Chapter 5: Being Productive with Your TwitterMarketing Plan
Creating a Time-Management Strategy forTwitter
Avoiding Twitter overload
Setting aside blocks of time
Using Third-Party Tools to Be MoreProductive with Twitter
Don’t read every tweet from the
people you follow
Don’t try to add value to all your
Trang 7Measuring Your Advertising and
Marketing Efforts
Using an analytics packageTwitalyzer
HootSuite analyticsUsing URL shortenersFollowing the right peopleUsing social media–monitoringservices
Tracking and Increasing Your Influence on
Getting in on Twitter trendsTracking retweets with RetweetistEngaging Others on Twitter
Balancing the follow-to-followersratio
Reducing your number of Twitterfollowers
Part III: Devising Online Strategies for Twitter MarketingDomination
Chapter 7: Building Your Personal Twitter Tribe
Building Your Twitter Network
Determining the best way to buildyour network
Trang 8Finding friends and professionalcontacts
Searching for followers based oninterests and keywords
Identifying industry leaders andevangelists
Hunting down your competitionFinding the locals
Following #FollowFriday
Determining who’s worthfollowing
Quantity over Quality
Understanding the value ofquantity in the TwitterverseFollowing the rules for building aquantity-based network
Understanding the negative side
Discovering the art of retweetingConnecting with your evangelists
Trang 9Tracking Your Followers by UsingTwitterCounter
Signing up for TwitterCounter
Searching for followers usingTwitterCounter
Viewing your follower growth onTwitterCounter
Tracking When You Lose Followers withQwitter
Signing up for Qwitter
Understanding why Qwitter is apowerful content tool
Showing Your Followers That You ValueThem
Sharing before asking to share
Asking how you can help yourfollowers
Chapter 9: Reaching Your Customers
Finding Your Customers on Twitter
Searching by subject matter onTwitter
Finding followers by syncingyour contact list
Trang 10Empowering Current Customers to Spreadthe Message
Spreading a message to friends offriends of friends
Understanding viral marketing onTwitter
Creating your own viralmarketing campaign
Driving Traffic to Your Web Site or BlogPublishing blog feeds by hand
Automating your blog feed
Automating your blog throughHootSuite
Retweeting to add value
Encouraging your followers toretweet
Understanding What Etiquette Has to Dowith Twitter Marketing
Chapter 10: Creating Quality Content on TwitterGenerating Quality Content
Tweeting about what matters toyou
Tweeting about what matters toyour brand
Conversing with your followers
Trang 11Developing Your Story on Twitter
Developing your brand storyDeveloping content
Keeping Up with Trends on Twitter
Understanding Twitter trendsMonitoring Twitter trendsThe Art of the Hashtag
Understanding tagsUnderstanding hashtagsMaking the best use of hashtagsTracking the hashtag
Part IV: Implementing Twitter Strategies for OfflineMarketing Domination
Chapter 11: Promoting to Attract Sales Leads
Avoiding Interruption Marketing Tactics
on Twitter
Making the Most of Twitter Keywords
Developing your businesskeywords
Finding people who are talkingabout your keywords
Promoting Your Niche by Using Tweets
Trang 12Writing about sales and deals
Writing about your servicesproactively
Promoting Your Content throughDiscussion
When and where to promote:Promoting the right way
The value of thought leadership
in B2B sales
Chapter 12: Improving Your Customer ServiceMay I Help? Twitter Customer Servicefrom Comcast
Empowering Your Customer ServiceDiscovering why you should useTwitter for customer service
Determining who should useTwitter for customer service
Responding to public complaints
on Twitter
Practicing the Art of Listening
Understanding why it’s important
Trang 13Using Twitter for Customer Service for aSmall Business
Offering Actionable Advice on TwitterHandling customer issues,concerns, cares, or problems
Remembering to say yes
Chapter 13: Relating to the Public
Managing Your Reputation
Following some generalguidelines
Monitoring what other folks aresaying
Using Reputation Management Services onTwitter
Free reputation managementservices
Paid reputation managementservices
Promoting Live Events on Twitter
Promoting your event
Live tweeting your event
Monitoring live tweets at an eventSetting the Proper Tone in Your TwitterCommunications
Trang 14Maintaining a professional tone
Keeping it real: Transparency and
authenticity
Doing Media Relations with Twitter
Pitching a story to journalists
Finding someone to write about
your product
Using virtual press centers
Using Twitter for crisis
communications
Chapter 14: Building Thought Leadership onTwitter
The Big Deal about Thought Leadership
Being a thought leader can help
your career
Being a thought leader can help
increase your sales
The Importance of Your Twitter Bio
Writing the right bio
Avoiding the wrong bio
Becoming a B2B Thought Leader
Sharing your content
Sharing others’ valuable content
Collaboration is key
Trang 15Part V: The Part of Tens
Chapter 15: Ten Do’s on Twitter
Do Be Honest
Do Have a Sense of Humor
Do Interact with Your Followers
Do Use TwitPic
Do Tweet on a Regular Basis
Do Use a Profile Picture
Do Fun Stuff Every Day
Do Stick to a Schedule
Do Say Thank You
Do Add Your Twitter Name to YourBusiness Card
Chapter 16: Ten Don’ts on Twitter
Don’t Create Too Many Accounts
Don’t Give a Hard Sell
Don’t Ignore Others
Don’t Have an Uneven Following/Follower Ratio
Chapter 17: Ten Thought Leaders on Twitter
Trang 16Part VI: Appendixes
Appendix A: Great Twitter Marketing Ideas in 140Characters or Less
Appendix B: The Best Twitter Applications andSupport Sites
Cheat Sheet
Trang 17Twitter® Marketing For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
Published simultaneously in Canada
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About the Author
Kyle Lacy loves everything about social media and the
Internet He believes in the massive potential to communicateand change the world in which we live by using online tools.Kyle started his obsession with social media and marketing at
Trang 20Anderson University, where he helped run a start-up recordlabel called Orangehaus Records With Kyle’s leadership, themarketing team dove into the world of MySpace andFacebook to gain recognition for their artist, Jon McLaughlin,who was eventually signed to Island Records in New YorkCity.
After graduating college in December 2006, Kyle and hisgood friend, Brandon Coon, decided to start a graphic designand marketing company called Brandswag in July 2007.Brandswag started out designing identities for smallbusinesses and eventually turned to consulting on socialmedia In August 2010, Brandswag merged with anothercompany and became MindFrame Six people currently work
at MindFrame, and the company is mainly working onhelping companies and nonprofits understand the world ofintegrated marketing They strive to understand the ideas andmodels that drive measured marketing and campaigns
Kyle loves the idea of educating business owners and C-levelemployees on the power of social media (mainly Twitter) Hewrites a regular blog at www.kylelacy.com and is a regularcontributor to the Personal Branding Blog,http://personalbrandingblog.com His blog has been featured
on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site and in numerous
articles in Indianapolis and abroad In 2010, Kyle wasrecognized as one of the top Forty-under-40 businessprofessionals in Indianapolis and young alumni of the year for
Anderson University Twitter Marketing For Dummies was
also named one of the top Twitter marketing books for 2010.Dedication
Trang 21To my parents and my family (middle-America and thenorthwest) I would not be where I am today without yourcontinuing support and encouragement.
Author’s Acknowledgments
First off, I would like to thank the awesome team at Wiley —Amy Fandrei and Pat O’Brien — for putting up with myhectic schedule and my early, early, early morning writinghabits Also, thanks to Manny Hernandez (@askmanny) forhelping with the content of the book from a technical side.Manny is the man!
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your commentsthrough our online registration form located atwww.dummies.com/register/
Some of the people who helped bring this book to marketinclude the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development
Project Editor: Pat O’Brien
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Trang 22Media Development Project Manager: LauraMoss-Hollister
Media Development Assistant Project Manager: Jenny
Swisher
Media Development Associate Producers: Josh Frank,
Marilyn Hummel, Douglas Kuhn, and Shawn Patrick
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Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
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Publisher
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
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Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher
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Trang 24Greetings, and welcome to Twitter Marketing For Dummies.
You have officially entered into the joyous world ofmarketing on Twitter If you want to think about the tool interms of celebrity, Twitter is the Oprah of social-networkingsites Twitter is huge, both in the number of users andexcitement
This idea of communicating on the Internet is continuallyevolving, and with Twitter, you have the opportunity to reachmillions of people in a matter of seconds The future of onlinecommunication is rendering business owners lifeless because
of how slow they are to adopt new technology forcommunication What if your customers stopped using thephone and moved somewhere else? Would you be ready?Would you read about Twitter if your competitors bought thisbook? Guess what — they already did
This book is full of ideas created by the masses about how tocommunicate through Twitter Success is the only option, andTwitter can help you with your business goals and aspirations
So, is Twitter life, and the rest just details? Not exactly, butTwitter can help you create a sustainable communicationmodel to drive more leads, revenue, and customer evangelists
to your product And the best part is, you don’t have to spendcountless hours researching how to use Twitter to marketyour products I did it for you!
About This Book
Trang 25If you’ve received your citizenship papers from Twitter andare just starting to dip into the world of 140-charactercommunication, this book is for you It gives an in-depth lookinto the world of marketing on Twitter The majority of theconcepts discussed deal with combining Twitter with yourtraditional marketing plan, creating your following of brandevangelists, and finding the best tools for productivity onTwitter Most of all, you discover how Twitter can transformthe way your business communicates with clients (bothcurrent and potential) and increase your sales.
Twitter offers a fun way to communicate with your followers,but it also has huge business potential This book deals withTwitter as a business tool As a famous rapper once said, “Weare makin’ it rain benjamins.” To the layman, this expressionmeans one-hundred-dollar bills are falling from the sky(which probably makes the cash a little awkward to gather)
I wrote this book to help you gain traction on Twitter and todrive revenue to your business If you can successfully marketthrough Twitter, you can drive more leads and potentiallymore business to your door! Do you have a specific topic thatyou want to find out about, such as building your followers?Jump to the chapter that discusses assembling your Twitterposse (Chapter 7, if you want to go there now)
Avoid blinding yourself with the light bulb that bursts aboveyour head when you read this book If you tear a page out topost on your wall, or put sticky notes and highlights all overthe pages of this book, I’ve done my job In fact, flag andhighlight as many pages as you want Consider this book areference guide to help you define and improve your
Trang 26marketing concepts, goals, and communication strategies onTwitter.
Also, this book doesn’t look good gathering dust on abookshelf Use it! (Everyone knows that the color yellowdoesn’t blend well with anything.)
Foolish Assumptions
Every author has to assume a few things about his or heraudience when writing a book I made the followingassumptions about you:
You’re an awesome individual because you picked up thisbook
You either already have a Twitter account or are planning
to create one soon
You own a small business, or you work in marketing orsales for a large business
You want to combine the two preceding bullets and useTwitter to market your business and/or products
You are sending out tweets but have no idea what type ofreturn you are getting on your time investment Further, youhave no idea whether your boss is going to fire you the nexttime she finds out you’re using Twitter
I also assume you have some basic Web-fu skills, such asknowing how to surf the Web I assume that you may haveyour own Web site and/or blog, and that you may even have a
Trang 27few social media sites that you visit and update frequently(such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and so on).
Conventions Used in This Book
I know that doing something the same way over and overagain can get boring, but sometimes consistency is a goodthing For one thing, consistency makes stuff easier tounderstand In this book, those consistent elements are
conventions:
I use italics to identify and define new terms (I even used
this convention to explain the word “conventions” in thepreceding paragraph!)
Whenever you have to type something, I put the stuff you
need to type in bold so that you can easily tell what you need
to enter
When I type URLs (Web addresses), code, or e-mailaddresses within a paragraph, they look like this:www.wiley.com
How This Book Is Organized
The idea of marketing on Twitter has a wide variety ofsubject matter and ideas, which is part of the reason why thisbook is broken down into parts, chapters, and sections The
whole point of organizing the book in the For Dummies way
is for quick reviewing and reading If you want to know aboutcreating one or two accounts, you can go directly to thesection that discusses that topic in Chapter 2 If you want to
Trang 28know about creating a Twitter marketing plan, head toChapter 4.
The following sections describe how the book is organized.Part I: The Future of Twitter in Business
If you need to understand the concepts and future trends ofTwitter as a business tool, this part is for you I discuss theideas of business development, the growing number ofTwitter users, and what Twitter means to your business Thispart also describes ideas about how to use Twitter effectively
for newbies (people who are new to a given situation or
technology) If you’re not new to Twitter, you can skipChapter 2, which discusses how to get signed up for anaccount and create a profile
Part II: Building and Implementing Your Twitter MarketingRoadmap
Part II is the most important part of the book You absolutelymust plan your Twitter marketing strategy before you divedirectly into the churning waters of Twitter marketing.Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool if you plan yourroadmap to success Read and reread Part II to gain theknowledge that you need to successfully implement the rest
of the ideas in this book
Part III: Devising Online Strategies for Twitter MarketingDomination
From building your following to implementingcommunication strategies, Part III takes a look at how you
Trang 29can use Twitter to grow your business Does it matter whetheryou have quantity over quality in your followers? Should youuse the auto-direct-messaging feature? (Please don’t.) Thispart provides many answers for you You need to successfullydevise an online strategy before you try to implement thatstrategy (which Part IV covers) Mastering the online use ofTwitter is your key to success.
Part IV: Implementing Twitter Strategies for OfflineMarketing Domination
Integration, integration, integration Nothing can help youmarket your business more than the combination of an offlineand online strategy Twitter can become much more powerfulwhen you use it to push offline marketing strategies as well asonline strategies If you want to use Twitter to execute a liveevent, add spice to your brochure, or strengthen your offlinenetwork, you can This part shows you how to integrate andstrengthen all your marketing endeavors by using Twitter,online and off
Part V: The Part of Tens
Tradition Plain and simple The Part of Tens caters to a
couple of traditions First, the For Dummies books all have a
Part of Tens, which in this case sums up the more importantinformation to help you on your Twitter journey Forexample, I guide you through the top ten don’ts of Twitter,such as annoying people with a hard sell (Don’t do it!).Second, Internet communication lends itself to placing things
in numbered lists, so the chapters in the Part of Tens areconcise and to the point
Trang 30Hundreds of people contributed to Appendix A Twitter usersfrom around the world gave their opinion on how to useTwitter for marketing You can find more than 100 of theirideas near the back of this book for your perusing enjoyment.You can really make the most of driving business and ideasthrough Twitter by implementing some of these ideas
Applications and support sites are what drive productivity andtime management in the world of Twitter Appendix B hasexhaustive lists of sites and applications that can help youmake the most of your time on Twitter From preschedulingcontent to developing content calendars, the followingapplications revolutionize your usage time
Icons Used in This Book
I use the following icons throughout the book to highlightparagraphs that you should pay particular attention to
A Tip is kind of self-explanatory, right? The Tipicon points out information that can help you use orimplement your ideas differently You may find these simplesuggestions very useful
I look at Remember icons as massive tips toremember These icons mark information that you really
Trang 31should commit to memory when you use Twitter formarketing purposes.
The Technical Stuff icon marks information of ahighly technical nature that you can normally skip over Ihardly ever read the technical stuff! So why should you?Honestly, who reads the directions?
The Warning icon is the equivalent of the warninglabel on a lawn mower that tells you not to stick your footunderneath the blades Warnings help you along your way sothat you don’t cut off your little Twitter toes
The Case Study icon points out real-life examples
of how companies have used the Twitter marketing conceptsand techniques discussed in this book
Where to Go from Here
You’re ready, my young Jedi Go forth into the world ofTwitter and dominate your efforts in marketing and drivingbusiness through the Internet But where should you start?
If you already know the basic Twitter ropes, you can skip Part
I But I strongly suggest that you read Part II before you start
Trang 32trying to use Twitter as a marketing tool You must have aplan in place that measures your Twitter marketing successrate and indicates how you use the tool Part II describes how
to plan and develop a strategy
If you have a specific topic in mind that you want to knowmore about, check the Index or the Table of Contents, andthen flip to that chapter, section, or page and start reading.And, of course, you can always just start your Twittermarketing adventure at Chapter 1
If you have any questions regarding marketing on Twitter,feel free to check out my blog atwww.kylelacy.comor e-mail
me atkyle@yourmindframe.com
Please note that some special symbols used in this eBook maynot display properly on all eReader devices If you havetrouble determining any symbol, please call Wiley ProductTechnical Support at 800-762-2974 Outside of the UnitedStates, please call 317-572-3993 You can also contact WileyProduct Technical Support atwww.wiley.com/techsupport
Trang 34sites on the Internet, but how can you use it to drive business?What’s the difference between micro-blogging and blogging?Who’s on Twitter, and why are they using it? I answer thesequestions in this part.
In Chapter 1, you get a glimpse into the world of usingTwitter for business If you haven’t already signed up forTwitter, Chapter 2 helps you sign up and get going So, get acup of coffee or tea (or a 12-hour energy drink) and jump intoTwitter marketing
Trang 35Marketing your business on Twitter
Throwing out traditional marketing methods
Imagine a world in which over 100 million potentialcustomers are talking, sharing ideas, and shaping new realms
of communication This online platform has blasted throughtraditional marketing and communication concepts andcreated a world in which collaboration and customers areking This world exists as Twitter (www.twitter.com)
Twitter has exploded, with growth rates of 585%year-over-year and over 100 million members as of thiswriting All those Twitter users are potentially waiting for you
to communicate with them When you start using Twitter foryour business, you’re entering a new phase of Internetmarketing in which you discuss your brand on a daily basisand send out your thoughts in bursts of 140 characters or less.You’re on the leading edge of a communication and culturaltransformation in the business landscape of the world Isn’tthis exciting?
Twitter has disrupted the traditional marketing process andplaced the customer in control of the marketing message But
Trang 36don’t fret! The future of marketing is bright — never beforehave you had such possibilities for growing your business.Twitter enables you to find potential customers quickly andeasily and communicate with them with only a fewkeystrokes.
This chapter introduces you to the key concepts of marketingyour business and products by using Twitter (For helpsigning up with Twitter, see Chapter 2.)
Understanding How Twitter Works
Twitter is a social network that gives you the ability to post
messages of 140 characters or less Twitter is a network withmembers throughout the world, and when you send out amessage, Charles in London and Mary in California can read
it at the same time Imagine the possibilities for yourbusiness!
If you understand the concept of sending a text message fromphone to phone, you can pick up Twitter easily The samerules that apply to texting also apply to the world of Twitter,with one exception: On Twitter, you’re limited to 140characters to communicate a concrete thought
Micro-blogging (tweeting)
Twitter is built on the concept of micro-blogging, in which
people write short, frequent posts (often by using a cellphone) that don’t exceed 140 characters Those 140-character
posts are known as tweets Figure 1-1 shows a few tweets
from several Twitter users
Trang 37Figure 1-1: Twitter users tweet about what they’re doing,
what they care about, and whatever they feel likecommunicating
Tweets are a form of micro-blogging that have enabled users
to share massive amounts of content in the form of short textmessages that they send to unique sets of people or entiregroups Twitter is one of the original platforms formicro-blogging, and it has ruled this space since its creation
in 2006 Micro-blogging has increased the speed ofinformation ten-fold, in contrast to writing a blog post orwriting an in-depth consumer report
Blogging is a more elaborate approach toinformation sharing and marketing on the Web
Trang 38Micro-blogging is a short-term approach that’s ideal for quickand thoughtful communication Blogging and micro-bloggingshould work hand-in-hand to create a platform that you canuse to spread your business ideas to your customers andpotential market.
Following others and being followed
When you follow somebody on Twitter, his or her tweets
appear on your Twitter timeline (much like you can see yourfriends’ status updates on your Facebook feed), as shown inFigure 1-2 The big difference between Twitter and Facebook
is that you don’t need other people’s approval before you canfollow them on Twitter, as long as they’ve set their Twitteraccounts to public status
Figure 1-2: You want to follow many people, but you also
need to be sure that you follow the right kind of people
Trang 39Being followed on Twitter has very little to do with beingfollowed in real life, when you feel like someone isshadowing your every move Every time you post a tweet, itappears on the Twitter timeline of all the people who arefollowing you If you’re posting on Twitter as a business, youneed followers on Twitter so that you can get your messageout about your company, products, and services Twitter alsogives you the ability to have conversations with current andpotential clients using the promotional tweets system.
So, you just need to follow as many people as possible andstart tweeting about your products like there is no tomorrow,right? Not so fast You need to have a plan, a strategy to makethe most of Twitter, before you start following a bunch of
people (or tweeple, as they’re sometimes called in the
Twitterverse)
Trang 40Sharing with your followers and retweeting
When you start following others on Twitter, you need to shareuseful information with them so that they want to follow you,too The information that your followers are interested in mayvary depending on their focus and interests But they’reprobably not dying to read a ton of tweets in a row in whichyou praise your products and services: If you take that
approach, prepare to be unfollowed massively on Twitter.
You need to strike a balance between your marketingmessage (naturally, you want to promote your company,products, and services — otherwise, you wouldn’t be readingthis book), useful information about your industry, and somepersonal elements to give people a feel for the human side ofyour company Along with all these elements, you also need
to share useful tweets that others post on Twitter Sendingyour followers a tweet that you’ve received is called
retweeting, and it’s considered part of the social currency on
Twitter You can see an example of a retweet in Figure 1-3
Retweeting goes well beyond giving credit to whoever sharedsomething: It indicates that you respect or like this person’sopinion, thoughts, or whatever he or she tweets about Also,when others retweet something you’ve posted, you can start
to get your message out in the Twitter world — but you have
to start by retweeting messages posted by other people beforeyou can ask them to retweet your messages For a morein-depth look at using retweeting in your marketing plan,check out Chapter 8