Lyndit Marketing
Sure, I have drank the kool-aid. I have gone down the Niagara falls of Twitter in a barrel. I have become passionate–maybe even borderline addicted to Twitter–and I can tell you one thing: I am no expert. Show me an expert Twitter guru from Mount Olympus and I will show you a taco–because Twitter can be used just like a taco; they both can be tools for conversation. As Twitter itself is not the skill; the skill is communication.
However, I have learned to ask a lot of questions, be genuine and support the greater community.
What Twitter is:
- Source of current news
- Source of hilarious people
- Networking tool
- Brand builder
- Friend connector
- Super awesome
That isn’t the most complete list in the world. Yet, overall Twitter has really kept me connected to some of the greatest, most inspirational people in my industry as well as some other local rockstars. Twitter is precisely what you want it to be; from networking with designers, branding and marketing experts to finding support on a annoying technical puzzle you need help solving.
When you begin to climb up Mt. Tweeter, you will find that at first you may feel you need to read EVERY TWEET. Okay, lets just agree now that unless you have limitless amounts of time you will NOT be able to keep up. This is not a contest, please don’t try. You might go blind. Twitter is a 12-liter turbocharged text sending Godzilla monster that is basically taking over the world as we know it. Don’t worry. Everything will be okay.
Please refrain from 12-year-old texting style of communication Little abbreviations are annoying and are not welcome. MKAY?
For businesses, this is the moment to let your brand shine. The question I will emphasize is — How do you want your brand perceived? Stay clear of delivery pizza tweets.
“Do you want to try our double cheese , triple meat, deep fried heart clogging pizza with carrots on top for only 3 easy payments of $19.95?”
No.
Share news about your company, behind the scenes videos, and pictures. Show your community who the brand really is and who is behind it. This is not a job for any one poor soul. Bring in a team of people with energy to engage in brainstorming and planning sessions about and around the vision of the brand. This team will be essential as backups, researchers, content generators and all around supporters of the brand’s mission to better serve the customer.
So without going on with four more pages of my ideas here are some excellent resources that have summed up the Twitter 101 course.
Twitter Guides:
Twitter’s Guide for Business’s
I totally agree, except there’s one thing I just can’t get over… it’s the speed bump in the parking lot at the bottom of Mt. Tweeter: Time.
How do you stay active enough on Twitter and still get work done?
So far, it seems to be a one-or-the-other proposition for me, and I haven’t yet seen a helpful enough tip/strategy that makes sense.
Help? (gulp!)
Hey Adam! Great question. The speed bump is normal. Where are you in your online marketing campaign? Twitter? Facebook Fan page? Are you doing PPC?
Managing your time marketing your brand online is going to be determined on how what kind of value you see your time investment is worth. For me I rely heavily on RSS feeds to stay up to date with the latest and greatest.
With that I used delicious tool bar which sends bookmarks I find interesting directly to Twitter. I also take a few minutes throughout the day to a do a little scanning of tweets, responding when appropriate.
If it seems a bit overwhelming I recommend at the VERY least grabbing your brand, or company name on the major social networks -> Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
Thoughts?
Thanks, Lyndi… hmmm. Maybe it’s the sporadic nature of Twitter that’s tripping me up. I feel as if I need to stay tuned in if I want to understand the conversation, but staying tuned in means breaking up work into lots of little chunks, and that doesn’t work well for my flow. (Being a “creative”, I need uninterrupted time to be productive.)
I guess I’m still forming my overall strategy, and figuring out how I want to approach it. (I do have the twitter/facebook stuff set up, but not YouTube – I didn’t even think about that one.) I’d like to be able to “be on Twitter” enough to grow and maintain connections, like I used to, and yet not have it rule my life, or destroy my attention span and productivity, which it kinda did! Which is why I’ve let it slide for so long now…
Maybe I’m holding out for an example of someone who uses Twitter successfully without being omnipresent, or checking it 5+ times a day. Is that unrealistic?
(p.s. I have read the Twitter 101 and Mashable guides – helpful, but not 100% solved. Oh, and no PPC or any of that… I’m getting plenty of referrals to keep me busy, knock on wood!)
Hey Adam, are you a fellow Crossfitter?
Oh, heck yeah! That’s how I got to following you on Twitter to start with.
Adam – Then you already have an excellent sense how to balance your time with your energy. Think of your marketing campaign similar to your weekly workout scheduled. Spend an hour every day focusing on certain elements to make yourself a well rounded creative and marketing individual. You you imagine working for a few hours then going and doing a WOD? No way… you need to set aside time, and mental focus to be able to perform well in both areas. No worries. You got this.
I like the analogy, and it makes sense. I guess my preconceived notions about how Twitter “should” be used (drop in and contribute often, every day) have gotten in my way; instead, thinking of it as a daily WOD—some days it’s a 5×5 Press, the next it’s a Filthy Fifty—makes it seem more doable.
Now, when it comes to consistency… I never miss a workout, because my passion drives me out of bed at 5:30 every morning (well, four days a week). And I used to be that way with Twitter, too — I was on TweetDeck more often than I checked email. Gotta find that passion again to get back into the conversation.
Thanks, Lyndi!
Your welcome Adam. I am looking forward to hearing about many more of your marketing and Crossfit adventures.
Hi Event Marketing! Thank you for the very nice compliments. Good Bing bring people to lyndit.com is awesome. I will check out your website.
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