Just a friendly reminder to get on the Twitter train sooner rather than later, if you haven’t done so already.

If you’ve been resisting it, or you’re annoyed because you think it’s just another time-sucking nuisance, or you’re stuck in “I just don’t get it” humbug, it’s OK. Yes, Twitter can be a powerful tool for your biz, but aspects of it ARE silly, and you’re probably not going to see any gigantor results any time soon.

On the other hand…

It’ll take you five minutes (maybe 10-15, if you like to poke around, are patiently tentative, or are of the mindset that whatever you put up there live is your defining moment in cyberspace, to be either applauded or poo-pooed by millions of people just waiting to judge your every move). Once you’re in, you can start to see how it could work for your biz. Everyone’s using it differently, and most everyone doesn’t know what they’re doing, either (even if the claim they most certainly do!).

I’ll be writing a more informative article on the subject soon, but for now, just get started. It’s a good, safe, easy way to get into the social marketing party. If you plan on being in business for the next couple of years or decades, you’re going to have to start somewhere.

Start with Twitter.

Al and I are stumbling around it, making some cool connections, experimenting with different ways to use it for ourselves, clients, and niche interests. (And yes, it’s already proven to bring new revenue into our biz.) Last night we launched another account to see if we can use it to accelerate a real estate sale in 2009. We’ll let you know how it goes, if it proves to be effective in any way.

Anyway, I got their “Welcoming you to Twitter!” email, and i thought it couldn’t hurt to post it here, just in case you’re a Twitter tire kicker and want a sneak peek at what the Twit peeps themselves have to say to their rapidly increasing membership. Hope it’s of some use to you!

Hello, new Twitter-er!

 

Using Twitter is going to change the way you think about staying in touch with friends and family. Did you know you can send and receive Twitter updates via mobile texting, instant message, or the web? To do that, you’ll want to visit your settings page (and you’ll want to invite some friends).

 

Activate Phone & IM: http://twitter.com/devices Invite Your Friends:  http://twitter.com/invitations/invite

 

The New York Times calls Twitter “one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet.” TIME Magazine says, “Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app,” and Newsweek noted that “Suddenly, it seems as though all the world’s a-twitter.” What will you think? http://twitter.com

 

Thanks again for signing up!

 

- Biz Stone and The Twitter Team

http://twitter.com/biz

 

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 20th, 2008 at 11:04 pm and is filed under Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Disclaimer first - I’m digging social media. I’ve dipped my toes into Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter (connect with me on them via the sidebar links), and I’m ready to start swimming out into the deep water in 2009.

So when I say that people should stop making a big deal about “Social Media Marketing Strategy,” I’m referring more to the “Strategy” aspect of that phrase.

I’ve been talking to clients and allies recently, and hearing things like, “I need a social media strategy, but I don’t know what that looks like.”

Here’s the sneaky little secret: Social media - whether it’s networking, bookmarking, photosharing, microblogging, or what have you - is just a tool.

That’s right, I said it. LinkedIn is just a tool. Twitter is a tool. Facebook calls itself a “social utility.” How tool-like can you get?

Of course, they’re AWESOME tools - the relationship-building equivalent of a Leatherman, or even Steelgrip Starkey’s “All-Purpose Power Tool.”

They’re also made for specific uses. They’re not straight-up sales tools like, say, direct mail. They’re for building audiences, relationships, trust, street cred, expert status, visibility, education opportunities, lead generation, and anything that helps a prospect take the next, low-risk step in a deeper relationship with you.

If anything in that list is something you need to grow your business - and since your audience is adopting social media more deeply and broadly than ever - then social media tools should be a part of your broader marketing strategy.

But don’t get hung up on what a “Social Media Marketing Strategy” is or isn’t, what’s included or excluded. The fundamental questions are much the same as they are for traditional marketing, such as:

• What’s my goal?
• How will I measure success/progress toward that goal?
• Is my audience there? (Or will they be?)
• Is my competition there? (Or will they be?)
• How much time and money am I budgeting for this?

Granted, the use of social media tools (the “execution,” if you will) is much different with traditional media than with social media, and you have to be prepared for that. But when it comes to strategy, per se, all you’re doing is deciding to add social media tools to your marketing mix.

Easy, right? 

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 5:17 pm and is filed under Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

If you ever want to borrow a book from us, expect to be put on camera.

That’s what Acorn Creative’s Chief Nut Kevin Skarritt learned when he dropped by to borrow our copy of Naked Conversations for his series of blogging webinars. We sat him down by the fire and, with Buddy the Awkward Dog chewing a dog toy in the background, grilled him for his top 3 social media predictions for 2009.

Want to learn more about portable profiles, media ROI, and which social networking site will be hopping next year? Just watch…

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 10:36 am and is filed under "A-Ha!" TV, Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

It started simply enough, when I signed up for an account. Then I could tweet from their website.

And then I enabled my cell phone, and I started tweeting while waiting to pick up my son at the bus stop.

Then I added BeTwittered to my Google homepage, so I could tweet between headlines, weather, and stocks.

Then I got tired of looking at a terminally blank Facebook status box, so I subscribed to Ping.fm.

Supposedly, tweeting from there would have updated both my Facebook status and my Twitter page, but I haven’t seemed to get it to work very well. So I installed the Twitter application in Facebook, which lets me tweet from within Facebook.

And then I started wondering why I kept getting automatic replies from some folks I followed, which led me to TweetLater. Now, I not only have an autoresponder that thanks people when they follow me, I also have a way to pre-load and schedule the release of tweets - like pre-loading and post-dating updates to a blog.

Speaking of blogging, nothing else since has made getting your content, message, mission, and vision out to the world been so easy.

That is, until Twitter came along.

I hope the owners of Twitter figure out how to monetize it, because I’d be so sad to see it go away…

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 7:10 am and is filed under All About Content, Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I shouldn’t be blogging right now.

For one thing, it’s 11:21pm on Sunday night, and the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays are in Game 7 of the ALCS.

For another thing, I’m a 1/2 pitcher into a blendie margarita. (Woohoo!) Yum. Life is good.

But I have to come clean, because what’s happening right now — what Allen and I are doing as I type, on our living room couch, next to our dog, in front of the Sox game — is so ridiculous I might pee laughing.

We’re passing my laptop back and forth, tweeting and answering tweets, changing out usernames each time, and laughing all the way. What’s making us snortle?

• Allen just sent a Haiku to Timothy Ferriss (author of The 4-Hour Workweek — a definitive must-read for ANY lifestyle entrepreneur. Don’t walk, RUN to your nearest bookstore and get it!) at Tim’s request.
• We found out our biz coach, Melanie Benson Strick, liked our input on a recent coaching call she invited us to speak on.
• We discovered the mysterious deal w/ “hash tags” in a Twitter post, thanks to Kristine Wirth
• Brian Clark of www.CopyBlogger.com and a fellow www.Junta42.com lister unwittingly encouraged us to mix a new cocktail “afterhours”
• We found a guy who’s embarking on a quest to become the first “Earth Emperor”
• We marveled at the fact that Guy Kawasaki has more than 21,000 followers AND followees
• Allen schooled me on the whole “@ replies” thing, where suddenly you find out a bunch of people have responded to previous tweets, and you had NO idea whatsoever

Now, none of that stuff by itself seems very funny, or serves as a compelling reason to start tweeting yourself. Not only is it slightly imbecilic, but it takes us away from giving our full attention to the game, the present moment, and each other.

However…the simplicity behind Twitter — a “micro-blogging” site that allows you to write as many posts as you want — providing they’re EACH under 140 characters — is downright HOT.

You can pop over and scan and reply to and play with anyone and everyone w/o any real social expectation. You can make connections, and not lose a whole afternoon stressing about how you’re phrasing any part of your communications. You can be a VOYEUR into others’ lives, and indulge in the magic of inexplicable synchronicity. You never know who’s listening, who’s tweeting, who’s up, who’s active, who CARES. All you have to do is…well…WHATEVER YOU WANT. And it’s alllllllllll good.

It’s the best of all worlds — utterly silly, yet secretly POWERFUL, with tons of potential for your life and business. A line here, a comment there, a note, question, response, or insight here, there, and everywhere, and *BOOOYAA* suddenly you’ve made a bunch of really amazing connections, without any of the sweaty, icky effort.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 11:28 pm and is filed under Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.