Twitter 101

: A practical guide

Whether your company is Business to Business or Business to Customer, there are numerous professional uses for Twitter.

Communicating with consumers, clients, alliance partners, media or suppliers will allow you to further establish your online brand and manage your reputation.

Before jumping into the conversation, like most social networking sites, it is important to stand back and watch the conversation to learn social norms and conventions. A few ideas to get you started:

Getting Started

Perform Key Word Searches. Consider searching for subject matters that are related to your company and see what as being said. You will start to understand the general sentiments of the social community, or "twitterverse", towards your industry.

Look up your competitors. See if the competition is currently using Twitter. You can find out what information they are posting as well as what is being said about them.

Take a look at yourself. See what is already being said about your company. This will help you formulate your company's Twitter objectives, while gaining some valuable feedback on your operations, customer service, sales and marketing.

Look for trending topics. You will find Trending Topics on the right hand column of your Twitter page. This is a phrase or topic that has the largest number of tweets at the given time. It may be because of a political or social event or occurrence, or the result of a concerted effort by users to raise a topic's popularity. You can view worldwide trending topics as well as localized information for some countries or cities.

Domestic or international? Look for topics that are of particular interest in the specific markets you do business. What are the key issues surrounding your potential customers and contacts?

Find persons of interest. Perhaps look up business leaders, politicians, subject matter experts or even celebrities to learn more about their uses of social media.

Establish Your Account

Twitter only allows one account per email address, however, you can create both personal and corporately-branded accounts by using different email addresses. Some larger companies may also have multiple accounts to address specific issues. An example is Telus, which has @TELUSsupport, @telusmobility, @TELUSHealth and @TELUSBusiness, among others.

Create your profile. The process is pretty straightforward. Your 160-character bio should be professional, yet also convey a personal side, including interests. Creating a thorough profile, including your location will help people to find you through the search function and using the same headshot as you have for other sites will help people identify you.

Customize your page design. Twitter will offer themes that you can use to visually embellish your account. Instead of using a generic look, consider finding a third party site that offers free, unique themes or better yet, have one that displays your company's branding, including the addresses of your various social media accounts.

Find accounts to follow. As mentioned above, consider key persons of interest that you would like to follow. To find them type in their name, email address or Twitter account. There are also several third party directory services, such as Twellow which will allow you to search for Twitter users by profession, interests, location and category. It will also suggest users to follow based on keywords and followers of those individuals you are already following.

Public or private? Your Twitter posts are public and can be found on Twitter as well as in search engine results, so keep this in mind before tweeting anything you don't want the world to see. You can send @ messages, where you would include the person's user name (e.g. @username) within the post, so they will get notification that you've referenced them. Only if both users are following one another can you send a direct message, or DM, that is a private tweet for that user only.

To list or not to list. In following people, you may wish to create various lists in which they appear. As you gain more followers, these lists will allow you to quickly see what is being said within a certain group or community. For instance, you may wish to create a group of clients, industry experts, media or just individuals whom you find interesting. In addition, you can see how many people have listed you.

Business Strategy

After monitoring the conversation, following users and hopefully having users follow you, it is time to start sharing information. The thing companies need to remember is that social media is about creating conversations, not simply engaging in one-way communication, like traditional marketing. Your account should therefore be about sharing information, but also engaging with social networks and responding to queries and dialogue. You will therefore be able to build relationships with customers, suppliers, alliances and media -- all publics that can help your business grow in local and international markets. But the opportunities don't end there. You'll also learn that Twitter has many more business uses.

Twitter connects you to your customers -- or potential customers -- in real time. Previously, traditional media channels controlled the message, leaving the consumer with few opportunities to express opinions or feedback. Letters to the editor were among the only ways an individual could share an experience -- whether positive or negative -- about a company to the general population. Twitter has allowed customers to have an immediate voice, and it is up to you to respond and convey your company message to potentially millions of people worldwide. By doing so, you'll break down many of the barriers that have traditionally been built between company and consumer, while reinforcing friendly relationships and loyalty.

So what are some of the potential business uses? The following 15 ideas will get you started, but are just the beginning.

1. Expand your network. After establishing a solid group of related industry and professional contacts you follow, keep abreast of their tweets and source possible offline groups or associations you can join. By leveraging online conversations to create offline relationships, you can expand your network and possibly source new business opportunities.

2. Position yourself as a thought leader. Tweet specific industry or economic information, including personal blogs or third party sources to establish credibility and positioning as a thought leader. Consider hosting free webinars or seminars and promote them to your followers. Also link your presentations and videos for added credibility.

3. Source business opportunities. Perform a key word search and find the conversations occurring around your company's product or service offering. For instance, if your company is involved in tourism, find individuals planning a trip to Vancouver and suggest local restaurants or attractions. The indirect, soft-sell technique will position your company as a resource and help anchor it within your industry.

4. Direct sales. A more firm form of selling on Twitter can be via direct sales, where, as above, you source individuals based on a certain subject matter, then offer a corresponding promotion. Using the above example in the tourism sector, you can contact individuals on Twitter and offer them a discount at your food service or retail location upon their arrival.

5. Listen to your customers. As mentioned, Twitter offers a platform for individuals to voice their concerns. You may find that customers contact you directly, or more often, they may voice a complaint for their followers to see. By monitoring what is being said, you have the opportunity to engage customers and deliver solutions that are transparent to the online community. It is therefore important to address the issue publicly and either resolve it through Twitter or take the complaint offline. This may involve greater collaboration between your customer service and marketing/public relations departments to ensure the right delivery is achieved.

6. Conduct market research. After monitoring the conversation for a while, identify your biggest brand or industry advocates as well as the naysayers. Monitor their feeds for general commentary and find out more about the lives of your current and potential customers.

7. Keep an eye on the competition. Monitor your competitors to stay current on their latest products, services or marketing campaigns. See what is being said about them online, analyze their response to the situation and develop best practices. You will also be able to communicate with your competitors' dissatisfied customers and offer your own solutions to their problems.

8.Communicate with employees. Consider sharing company news and HR developments to your staff via Twitter. While not aimed to replace traditional corporate communications, like team meetings or newsletters, this additional tool will allow you to share useful information while also highlighting favourable news to external audiences.

9.Recruit employees. In addition to highlighting what makes your organization special to potential recruits, hiring managers are able to advertise open positions, source applicants and seek referrals. Companies can also contact individuals they think may be a good addition to their team. Social media on the whole has also sparked controversy with hiring managers monitoring candidates' online activity as a supplement to the formal reference check.

10. Highlight upcoming events. Do you have an upcoming product launch, AGM or sale? Twitter allows you to promote your event to your followers. If you are participating in a conference or trade show, encourage your followers to stop by your booth by offering an incentive, giving you the added benefit of establishing an offline relationship with your followers.

11. Host a conversation. By adding a hashtag (#) to a key word or topic, individuals will be able to follow a particular stream or conversation. Consider this tool if you are hosting a seminar or event to allow individuals the ability to access information even if they are not there in person. This is common during live sporting events or political elections, but can also be used at a conference to share information with participants. In fact, Twitter experienced its tipping point at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in 2007 when organizers used it to share information with attendees.

12. Manage vendor relationships. While the benefits of using Twitter for customer service have been outlined, consider communicating with your vendors, where you are the customer. If you are having challenges with one of your suppliers, engage them online. Not surprisingly, this will often lead to faster resolution.

13. Create conversations. Encourage your staff to use Twitter, including company leadership and line managers. By creating a corporate culture that is transparent and offers the opportunity for feedback and dialogue, you'll not only strengthen employee engagement, you'll also profile your company as a great place to work.

14. Engage word of mouth marketing. Encourage followers to retweet (RT) or use a hashtag (#) to promote your company by offering them an incentive to do so. For instance, you can offer followers the opportunity to be entered in a draw for a prize if they promote your product or service to their contacts. As Twitter content also appears in search engine results, there are additional SEO benefits to this strategy.

15. Increase awareness and fundraising. For charitable organizations, Twitter offers a platform to raise funds or awareness for a specific cause. Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Twitter was a primary tool to share breaking news as well as generate donations to help relief efforts. On a local scale, consider using Twitter to highlight case studies or initiatives while expanding your fundraising efforts worldwide.