Monday Morning Marketeer, Business Uses for Twitter

Monday Morning Marketeer, 6-15-09 Business Uses for Twitter

So all the TV commercials on twitter are leading you to believe it is just for teenagers or parents trying to be cool enough to communicate with their kids. But are there really business applications that can help you market your business?

In tough economic times, I hear business owners tell me that any interaction that they have on line or off has to have a direct result or some type of return on investment.

What business owners are finally beginning to realize is that even with your time you must be concerned about your ROI or return on investment. Even though Twitter is free it is different for every person, business, and situation as far as what you get back for the time you put in.

First you must look at your goals…
.What do you hope to obtain with your twittering, what ROI do you want from your time?

If you are investing time, when do you want a payback and what do you want that payback to be? Are you looking for something along the way? If you are a Machiavellian, you are always looking at the end result. Isn’t all business promotion about the end result? But there are purists who will tell you it’s all about the journey and that’s the beauty of twittering. It’s about building relationships. If used in a creative, entertaining and informative way, the realy beauty of twittering will unfold for you. The return on investment will be in the building of relationships, the cultivation of new clients, the extension of your network.

Every expert I know is touting Twitter as a social media tool that is evolving into an “everything tool”….business, research, news, events, communication, media distribution. So there is not much that cannot be done on Twitter….the only limit seems to be the imagination of the twitterer.

. For most users the real challenge is not in finding ways to use Twitter but in finding unique, interesting and follower garnering ways to use twitter.

Most Business Twitter users, if not all, are looking for exposure for a product, service, or cause. Quantifying exposure can be very difficult, because exposure is not just about purchasers, visitors, subscribers, or followers it is about quality. The measure is in the quality of your message, your followers, and your reach. How many people are being exposed to you and your message, who is sharing it, talking about it, who are your advocates?

From 50 Ideas for Using Twitter for Business
Chris Brogan, Community and Social Media blog
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business

Copied some of my favorites here. Not in chronological order.

“First Steps

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. We want to see you.
3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
4. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
5. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out. “

Ideas About WHAT to Tweet, (also from Chris Brogan and not in order, just my personal favorites.)

1. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
2. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
3. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
4. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
5. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
6. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
7. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.

Try Not to Give Yourself the Crazies (again Chris Brogan) read the entire article for all 50 great tips at: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business

1. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
2. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.

Sometimes I think this guy is an absolute genius, however my senior brain can only deal with a few tips at a time.

From an On Line Discussion “Brand Uses for Twitter.” (If you go to the entire discussion on Linked In, you will get some wonderful tips from actual users in the trenches.)

Adam Denison
We at General Motors (@GMblogs) have been using Twitter since January. During the North American International Auto Show in Detroit we did live "Tweeting" from the press conferences so people not at the show could see what was being said real-time. We've done this for other events as well.
What's been most successful for us, though, has been using Twitter for two-way communication with consumers. We usually try to Tweet some sort of question for our followers everyday. These questions can be vehicle-related (i.e. What's your favorite convertible?) or just for fun (i.e. What's your favorite roadside diner).
Adam Denison
GM Social Media Communications
@AdamDenison
@GMblogs

Ellen Gerstein
I'm @elleinthecity. I work for John Wiley & Sons, a publisher in the NYC area. There are quite a few Wiley people using Twitter. I'm in marketing, and I use it for finding new and creative ways to talk with my current and prospective customers. @chriswebb is an editor who is on twitter to find new authors. He also tweets as @wrox, one of our imprints, and uses twitter to talk with authors and customers. We both use it for instant market research ("Would you buy a book on X?", "What cover would make you more likely to buy this book", etc). I find myself becoming more and more reliant on it to conduct day to day business.

Danielle Sullivan
“… thought I’d share a little about what our Baskin-Robbins team is doing to join the community and the results we’ve experienced. For about a year, we’ve been monitoring and working to build relationships with bloggers. We respond directly to bloggers posting about our brand, ice cream in general, or anything that might show them that the dialog we can engage them in will be meaningful and relevant.”
Danielle Sullivan
@BaskinRobbins


Some suggestions from the Monday Morning Marketeer for Business uses of Twitter:

• Running a half day special, tweet it!
• Interviewed on a radio show, tweet it!
• Send out your news!
• New product, tweet it!
• Brief Testimonial, tweet it!
• How about offering customers that give you a testimonial a gift certificate to tweet the testimonial!
• How about tweeting about the great things your B to B clients are doing?
• Tweet about your networking, business associates and strategic partner and if they are really reciprocal, they will tweet about you.
• Whatever you do, tweet at least once a week, put it on your calendar. I learned from my friend Heshe Segal of JetNetting Connections, not to follow people who do not update or haven’t in over a month.
• Do use a third party application to manage what you do, Tweet Later, Twitter Deck, HootSuite, try them out, see what works for you.
Just some ideas to get you interested in Twitter in hopes you will try it, you can hear additional tips and what others have said at:

http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer


This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer
Blog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannequinnsmith

MondayMorningMarketeer, Business Blogging, Why and How

MMM 8-3-09, Business Blogging, Why and How

What is a blog?

It’s pretty well accepted that the word "blog'' is derived from the term "web log.'' In essence, a blog is a web page or site that's part online journal--hence the term "log''--and part open forum. Some bloggers post new updates constantly; others write updates weekly, monthly or only occasionally. The trick of course to successful business blogging would be to update regularly.
Most blog entries are short and sometimes include photos or links. The idea of a blog is to get your readers to interact so most bloggers allow comments. After all blogging is part of social media and that means comments are part of the social part of this definition.
The blogosphere (the network that contains blogs on the internet) contains blogs on practically every conceivable topic. Some blogs exist on the website of an individual or business, while others are hosted on public blogging sites, like Blogger (also known as BlogSpot) and Word Press. There are also many professional sites like Pro Blogger and most forms of social media allow you to blog. To name a few: LinkedIn, Facebook, Ning Social Networking Groups.

Why You Should You Have a Business Blog.

Why not is a better question?
First of all, it’s absolutely free advertising and in any economy, down or up, free is never a bad thing.
Second, you can engage with current and potential customers in a unique way with no pressure.
Third: You can communicate your strengths of your product or service, your expertise; establish yourself or your company as an expert in your field. You can also tout the successes and talents of top employees.
Fourth: You can often convey a better understanding of your business over what happens on the website or in often expensive advertising.
Fifth: This is a great cost free way to augment your marketing and advertising.
Sixth: A blog can help you gain insight into customers' needs and interests. You can then use this information to develop new products or services or fine-tune existing ones.
Seven: A blog can make your company appear more dynamic and personable. A website promoting your products or services is an essential marketing tool. But a blog, in effect, gives your company a personal voice, which also can help boost not just customer interaction but customer loyalty.
Eight, A blog can become a brand or can become a niche brand or service brand for your company,

Tips on Creating a Business Blog

1. You may not use it at first but please do choose a domain name that matches your blog and can be turned into a brand that is easy to type and remember.
2. Host your blog in the country that you are interested in doing business in and the language that you do business in.
3. Research keywords in your niche to find out the things that you may want to blog about and also what tags you want to place on your blog.
4. Consider basic SEO and make your content social media optimized
5. Then develop a strategy in how you’ll target your keywords
6. Decide what your goals are for your blog. Do you want exposure, do you want branding: Do you want to increase sales in services or products?
7. As you have a business plan for your business, develop a plan for your blog as to what types of articles you want to write pertaining to what your goals are and how you want to educate your readers.
8. Optimize for social media, search on social networks to see where they talk about your niche market
9. open an account on Twitter and join Follow Me on Twitter
10. Start developing content with great titles and quality information
11. Start marketing that content on social networks and article submission sites. Technorati is a great place to start.
12. Start building an audience, use your e-mail list to announce your blog and topics also use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.
13. When you start receiving comments you can turn the questions you receive in articles, what a great way to target what your readers want to read.
14. When you start receiving comments it’s a sign that your audience is turning into a community
15. Start leveraging that community – offer them something so cool that they will go tell the others, a coupon, a free white paper, a special offer, a free seminar, a meet-up, use your imagination
16. Stick with your blog – it will take a while. Rome was not built in a day and neither was an audience, not even for the most talented celebrities, they all started somewhere.
17. Commit to publishing new content in a consistent way and at consistent times. Your readers will begin to expect it and if you do not they will go away.
What are your business blogging tips and suggestions?
Add your comments here or e-mail me if you prefer to be more private at: infoatmondaymorningmarketeer.com

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960
Blog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannequinnsmith

Imitate Your Competitiors with a Niche Twist

Let’s talk about how you can explode your business with new profit that won’t cost you anything because you are going to copycat what your successful competitors are doing. Only you will have a niche with a twist. As I said in the description for this version of Monday Morning Marketeer, plagiarism is illegal, however, imitation is the best form of flatter.
You could add a whole list of truism here: If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, why re-invent the wheel and if she can do it, I can do it.



A rather well known author once said that there is nothing new to write about under the sun, just a different way to write about it.
I have been in various businesses since 1976 and some of them extremely successful. Mostly I attribute this ability to continually re-invent myself in various businesses to my ability to think outside the box, do things that others won’t do so that I can have what others don’t have, extend myself always to others because what I teach I manage to perfect but also my ability to be somewhat of a chameleon. I have always managed to assimilate things that others are doing but yet make them my own. Some call this unabashed copycatting but I call it a niche twist.

And where do I get these niche twist ideas to start with? I am constantly observing the habits of other successful business owners. They are not always competitors but they always have some synergy to what my business is. I subscribe to countless newsletters and I at least try to scan all of them, even the long sales letter, infomercial type stuff. As a matter of fact, that’s probably where I got the idea for the information I am sharing with you right now.

As a marketeer I subscribe to advertising, marketing, information technology, sales and self-enhancement news letters always with the goal of every day getting better and better in every way. These are just a few, often I subscribe to financial letters and public opinion newsletters, internet marketing, blogger news, just to name a few.

This is how I discover who is successful, how they are doing it, what trends are out there and I am also able to establish my own perfect customer persona. This is also how I find new applications and figure out a way to niche twist what others are doing to suit my circumstances. As I have said before plagiarism is illegal but an adaptation of new technologies or applications or updating old ones to create a new spin on a new or old idea is perfectly acceptable.

With my technology show I am constantly looking for new technology that I can use to market my products and services. When social proof video hit the marketplace and podcasts became the rage for techies and kids, I found a way to utilize that technology. I now have five Talkcasts thanks to a friend who decided to do an organization show on Talkshoe. She no longer does it, but I am approaching 5,000 downloadable listeners that I can track.
Could I have done an organization show, heck no? But I could talk about Positive things in Pittsburgh and get guests to talk about them.
Most of my news for Positively Pittsburgh Live Talk Cast is culled from e-mails sent to me by lists that I subscribe to.

I find my technology guests pretty much in the same way from the networking and social networking groups that I frequent.

I also get Google alerts on things I am interested in and many times pick up good ideas there.
When clients ask me to look at their web design often my research for them teaches me things that I can niche twist for them or me. I am always on the look out for new graphic ideas, fonts, lay outs and what is the first thing that I see on a successful website. How can I adapt this for myself or my clients?
Also what are they doing badly that I could improve upon?
Is there something that stands out and attracts then I figure out a way to incorporate that into one of my projects, again by adaptation not copycatting or exact imitation, do you thing others are not copying you? Come out from under your rock.

A few years ago I heard the owner of Red Hot Copy talk about a swipe file of really appealing copy or advertisement. I do the same thing. I tear out pages in magazines and create files on great items that I find on the internet, so when I run out of ideas I can go to my magazine or my internet swipe files. All successful marketers do that.

I also have a box of neat things that I get in goodie bags at conferences so when I am looking for an ad specialty for a client or myself I am not constantly trying to come up with something unique, I just niche twist what I have already found.

I also watch other people’s offers to get ideas of what they are discounting, extra services that they are providing, what they are giving away for free. I learned long ago as a child to observe people. I was very shy and so I would sit and watch and make up stories in my mind of who they were and what they did. Sometimes if you will be like a child exploring things with that absolute sense of wonder you will find some great things to copycat or imitate. Observing others success is a great way to increase your bottom line without spending money, and then niche twist it. Find out how you can use similar tactics without exact copycatting and niche twist it for your particular business.

Your calls to action today:
1. Do not assume that a less successful business has nothing to teach you, they may be really good at one thing that you are not. Find it, modify it, and turn it into success for yourself.
2. Dale Carnegie said, "How do you learn how to be a millionaire — ask a millionaire!" Find out what successful businesses are doing and how they are doing it and niche twist it for your own success.
3. Don’t discard those long sales letters, scan them for one good idea you can use.
4. Remember there is nothing new under the sun, except that you find a new application, a new niche, a new turn of technology, that’s where great ideas come from and ideas are usually free.
5. Expect that if you have a great idea someone will copy it. So why aren’t you doing the same but making it uniquely your own?


This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information: © Joanne Quinn-Smith, Monday Morning Marketeer 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960 or
www.positivelypittsburghlivemagazine.com on the Monday Morning Marketeer Channel.
Blog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com