You're on Twitter, Now What?

Twitter can be a pretty daunting place. Now that it has become somewhat known and a celebrity in its own right, other celebrities want to associate themselves with it. Many companies and brands are now on Twitter as well. Having a Twitter account may be all the rage, however there is something to be said for the power of focus.

Consider this - Twitter is

• searchable content
• a series of micro impressions
• a presence tool
• a social network
• an information hub
• an idea exchange
• always "on"
• quick, short, and not always on the mark
• sound bites where you provide the context
• and more... (feel free to add)

Keeping up with it all is not impossible, yet it may be foolish, especially if you are planning a strategy around your participation. Your focus then depends on what you want to accomplish. We've discussed business uses and we asked if it was time for corporations to have a presence on Twitter. We also talked about the role of Twitter in brand management.

While when I asked why you joined Twitter, many people talked about joining the conversation, sharing resources, and meeting others as the top reasons for doing so, I do wonder if there is a measurement associated with that goal. And if it matters.

One of the reasons for my participation is connecting people, so I work on finding ways to make introductions during conversations to help others build a network and find content/ideas.

Companies and organizations generally join for slightly different reasons. Some of which are:

• competitors are there
• agency said it was a good idea
• everyone is talking about it
• opened an account to reserve company name
• and more...

However, once people sign up as representatives of an organization, especially if that company does not have a clear idea of what they are trying to accomplish, people tend not to participate actively. One of the reasons might be that Twitter does not scale well in commercial terms before your stream becomes a string of commerce.

A company wants to market and is trying not to spam, yet representatives may not have the time to dedicate effort and attention to learning through observation and experimentation. All learning happens through participation. This is especially important for social media - emphasis on social. See for example how media people are using Twitter.

The burning question is about who you should follow. I'd suggest people (and/or organizations):

• who produce and share useful content
• who fit within your stated interest
• you already know in real life or through their blogs
• who are interested and curious
• and more... (feel free to add)

The other thought is that as you use the tool and discover other ways to engage with people there, your strategy may change. What started as an experiment to observe and learn could become an important part of your integrated marketing communications.

There has been quite an evolution with blogging, why wouldn't there be one with Twitter? One of the important layers online in addition to content and community is commerce. Twitter as a CRM tool would be quite messy, however. It needs to be integrated by respecting its intended role and usefulness.

How do you decide who you continue to follow? I follow people who engage in conversations with me and provide an opportunity to interact.

Because conversations between many parties are really hard to track on Twitter proper, it takes more effort to organize such opportunities. I've worked on many formats so far, and have yet to crack the code. FriendFeed is better for that, but it has not reached critical mass for me.

However you decide what your strategy is, do dive in - there's no better way to figure it out, than to do it for yourself. And do pay extra care to being clear and explicit on Twitter, because the truth is 140 characters.

[image courtesy of Thomas Hawk]

Comments

[Matt Batt]

This is such a relevant post as I've personally experienced a rush of questions from clients, prospects and peers about Twitter and how to use it. Your point about setting goals is DEAD ON! Personally, I feel that this is why so many people that jump into Twitter without any direction see it as a chaotic mess.

Valeria, thanks so much for starting this conversation as these messages so dearly need to be conveyed to the Twitter community. - Matt

[Carolyn Ann]

You hope Twitter figures out a way to make money and stay in business. A need for instant gratification overcomes you, and the truth must come in 140 characters or less, otherwise you're screwed. Allegory, metaphor and irony all die off because they don't fit into 140 characters (including spaces). Your thinking becomes staccato and grammar and spelling (yes, I know grammar includes spelling) become easily dispensed niceties. You live by sound bites and develop an unhealthy fondness for electronic boxes that allows you to Twitter. Your world becomes the photons from that box, and the people that enable and control the form of those photons.

You also adopt a strange convention where names are preceded by a symbol.

Occasionally, someone uses it for something important. But without the context that more than 140 characters can provide - you're left with a detached story.

Mind you, I don't like Twitter. :-)

Seriously, Twitter is a popular tool, but it doesn't have a business model that allows it to stay in business! It's current reliance on angel investors and ad sales that make so little sense they're laughable, it all makes me wonder when the adults will show up. Unless someone like Google or Yahoo buys it, I wouldn't necessarily count on it being around for much longer.

In the meantime, I'd suggest a strategy that minimizes Twitter usage. I know from experience how easily managers get upset when they think something is wasting employees time! (While it's around, it would make a reasonable customer service tool, but not for complex problems.)

The more I think about it, the more concerned I get. What's to stop a company from collecting endless reams of Twitter posts from someone who has contacted them? It brings to mind the telemarketing calls that got so bad Congress had to pass a law banning them! Imagine that world, but in Twitter - and with no self-restraint on the part of some. That's a scary thought. (Perhaps if Twitter can find the money, they might want to think that one through. Although there's nothing anyone can do, currently, about a company storing and mining endless Twitter posts for strategic knowledge. All in the name of "getting to know their customer better".)

Carolyn Ann

[Suzi Craig]

Here, here Valeria!

For small businesses and entrepreneurs, getting started is daunting and I often echo your advice when asked "what do I do first?" with the answer, "join the party, it's an open invitation, but be sure to bring something good to share."

It's difficult for folks to wrap their head around the blurring lines of social interaction + business, yet they do it in person all the time. Somehow having a keyboard as conduit for conversation freaks people out. In person, good conversations always make things happen. It's no different on the 'net. Getting folks to start playing in a way that is comfortable for them so they can learn from that play is the fastest way to kill the fear.

[Jon Clements]

Just picking up on the contention that "Twitter as a CRM tool would be quite messy", I had a live example this week that actually worked very well. It's not an exact science, but when you're dealing with people in a transactional environment, when is anything precise?
Anyway, here's a blog post about a coming-of-age Twitter/customer moment:

http://pr-media-blog.co.uk/listen-with-twitter/

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Matt - Twitter is probably the most fascinating tool in the social media mix, yet the concept is so simple - expose everyone to your instant messages. Do that, and you see the paradigm change in behavior. It will be interesting to see how it evolves over time.

@Carolyn Ann - well thought-out comment! Just this morning I was reading this post at Wired about how Twitter could go for years without earning a dime, according to its investors http://tinyurl.com/b5hfee. Over the years, I've given away so much information about myself as a customer to companies - and they still managed to miss every single time. It might be because of the inability to truly listen.

@Suzi - the other problem for small business owners is the potential time sink. They are usually juggling so much at once. You are right, the lines between business and social have blurred for years on the golf course, for example. The permanence of what is written in a digital format does worry some (or it should).

@Jon - indeed, listening is one of the best things on Twitter. Thank you for sharing the link with the example.

[@earlygirl]

Maybe it's just me, but I do still view Twitter as an interesting social experiment, not a business. Maybe it belongs under another entity that can use it as a value-added service.
I love the experimental feel of the site. Similar to the old corporate team-building exercise of building a ship from rubberbands and paper clips, the 140 character limit pushes our creativity in communicating complex thoughts. Twitter's intent is to spark one-on-one conversation, but wallflowers can also use it as a free-flowing feed (a la RSS) of interesting thoughts and discoveries.
Thanks for the great post Valeria!

[Vincent Lejeune]

I don't know if it has been mentioned but http://www.twibs.com is an annuary specialized in company using twitter. It's pretty interesting. Mainly US companies... only 4 000 at the moment.

I animated a presentation concerning micro-blogging last week & i found out a lot of usefull cases where twitter has been or is used.

Comcast cared is one of my favorite.

[Matthew Bibby]

For managing twitter I recommend TweetDeck: http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/

You can have multiple columns of tweets up at anyone time (or operating behind the scenes).

At the moment I have the following columns open:

All Friends

Replies

Direct Messages

TwitScoop: http://www.twitscoop.com/

A search for 'Bushfires'

(I live in Victoria and the bushfires are really bad at the moment, see here: http://bit.ly/fMhdG )

As well as a few searches for different businesses I am associated with / am researching.

What is great about this is that you can TURN TWITTER OFF for a while in order to get some work done. When you go back to twittering there will be a wealth of information and quality tweets.

TweetDeck made twitter 'work' for me.

Cheers,

Matt.

[Jeff Paul Internet Millions]

Now this is very interesting, impressive and never thought of. In simple words well done for providing creative information.