Twitter: beyond the basics (in plain english)

There's a lot being written about twitter these days, but I still think that the language used can be complex and potentially off-putting to new users. Writers also dwell a lot on the advanatages of using twitter, but not enough on HOW to use it.

In my last twitter post I described how to get started on twitter. For those of you who've now dabbled a little, here are a few pointers on how to use it more effectively, and efficiently.



Direct Messaging (DM)

This allows you to send a private message to one of your connections. It's similar to an email except it's done through twitter by typing D before their username (e.g. D kwroisin How are you today?). If the recipient is using one of the packages below, they'll see the DM on their screen. Otherwise they'll get an email telling them to log into twitter to view their new DM.

NB: Don't confuse this with putting an '@' before their username: this addresses your tweet directly to that person (e.g. @kwroisin how are you today?) but everyone else can see this message. Unlike this, DMs are private.


Using Hootsuite (or similar) for twitter

The http://www.twitter.com/ website is not the easiest way to use Twitter. It shows the last tweets by your followees in order of most recent first, and not a lot else.

What you might want to do is sign up to one of the twitter 'clients' which allow you to view several information streams at once. Hootsuite is very popular, as is Tweetdeck. I chose Hootsuite because you just need to register an account: Tweetdeck requires a software download to your computer.

I now have three tabs open on Hootsuite. The first tab (or my home page) has three columns displaying: New Tweets, my Direct Messages, and Mentions (of me or of my tweets).

One thing that puzzled me before using Hootsutie is if someone addresses me directly (e.g. @kwroisin, see above), I won't see it if I'm not using twitter at the time. However, Hootsuite stores these messages in its Mentions column, so I can see them any time, whenever I log in.

If you use MS Outlook all the time for your email, then you can download this software which allows you to use and manage twitter in a similar way to how you use and manage your Outlook emails. If you use gmail then you can use Twitter Gadget to interface with twitter. And of course you can use your phone and your iphone and more...


Using Hootsuite (or similar) to view all your social networks

The second tab open in Hootsuite shows my Facebook page, with all my Friend's updates. The third tab shows my LinkedIn page, and all the activity there.

This means that (1) I'm more up to date with what's going on in my networks and (2) I spend a lot less time logging in to various networks, entering my username and password forty times a day. What a relief.


Using Hootsuite (or similar) to schedule your tweets

If you're going to be out of the office or busy at work and you don't want to be very silent on twitter then there is a solution. Hootsuite (and other twitter clients) will allow you to schedule your pre-written tweets for whatever time you'd like to post them. So, for example, I'm at an all-day meeting on Thursday. On Wednesday, I compose four tweets and instruct Hootsuite to post them at two hourly intervals the next day. It now appears to others that I'm always at my desk and consistently coming up with interesting things to tweet about.


Finally...

There are even more tricks to using twitter efficiently but the ones above are more or less essential. For more on twitter ettiquette and how to benefit most from twitter, watch this space.

Market research - what's it all about?

The other day a colleague commented to me on how many businesses pursue a marketing strategy without having researched their market and their customers.

I feel quite strongly that many business managers, especially in SMEs, don't have any experience of formal market research. For some, the easiest way forward is often to avoid the unknown.

Getting the customer's opinion on your new product, brand, or business idea is obviously vital - if they don't like it then you must stop, listen and adapt what you're doing. As Seth Godin says in his excellent blog, the lizard brain in all of us tempts us to forge ahead with what we want to do, what's easiest for us to do, even if at the back of our minds we know that the right thing to do is something else completely.

The successful business manager will always pay attention and react to to what their customer says they want, and the only way to hear them is through market research.

So, here's a short sharp shot at unveiling the mysteries of research. To find out more, just contact KnowledgeWorks.

There are two main types of research: Secondary and Primary. (For more info on secondary research check out this earlier blog post.)

Primary research. So called, because it's about talking directly to the primary source of information i.e. the end user or the target market. There are two main types of primary research: qualitative and quantitative.

- Qualitative research is about understanding how customers feel about something. Focus groups are often used for this: these are sessions with eight to ten people lasting for around an hour where the subject (the business idea, brand or advertisement etc) is discussed and explored at length. Sometimes in-depth interviews are also used in qualitative research: these are one to one and will reveal a wealth of sentiment about the subject.

- Quantitative research is all about numbers and measurement and typically involves asking a relevant group of interviewees what they think of something. It answers questions such as ‘how much’, ‘how many’, ‘how often’, etc. This type of research is normally carried out in the form of a (face to face, over the phone or online) survey or questionnaire.


[There are many excellent research tools that will facilitate communication with your customer/consumer, this is just an overview to get you started]

With thanks to Real Insights for Colette's input to this post.

Looking good on LinkedIn

So many people just post a basic profile on LinkedIn (and on twitter too, but that's another story), gather three or four connections and leave it there. Job done.

This is a pity, because a little more time at the start will give you a lot more reward for your efforts.

Here are a few pointers to get you going on LinkedIn, if you haven't done so already:

1. Fill out the work experience section on your profile
Spend an hour or two re-hashing your CV to fit into the work experience fields. A long and interesting career looks impressive, and the LinkedIn page formatting makes it easy for readers to scan. A short and gap-filled career makes you look either (a) a bit dodgy or (b) lacking in committment to even a basic thing like getting your LinkedIn profile completed.

2. Join some groups
Spend some time browsing through the groups to find a few that fit. Again the formatting makes group updates very easy to scan and pick up anything relevant to you.

3. Get an easy view of blog posts made by your connections.
This is an easy way to keep in touch with what your connections are up to, and it makes the LinkedIn home page a little more interesting when you log in. [Add Application - on the bottom right of your home page].

4. See your tweets.
If you're on Twitter you can now connect your account with linkedin, so your twitter updates are displayed on your LinkedIn homepage. Again it makes it more interactive and informative.[Add Application - on the bottom right of your home page].

5. Get recommended
Ask some (trusted) colleagues for recommendations, but be aware that you can't edit anything they say. I'm a bit wary of this feature, as it's open to false recommendations by people's friends etc. Better to have a couple than to leave the space bare though, overall.

6. Post a picture
I can't help thinking there's something a little suspicious about people who won't post their photo on their LinkedIn profile. Is it because they're not bothered enough about networking on LinkedIn to dig out a picture (or are they on the run??)

More soon on the more advanced benefits of using LinkedIn for business. If there are any! (and yes I believe there are, so watch this space).

Time to link, blog and tweet?

Apologies for being so quiet, the office has been busy and I also went to Cork to meet with these guys: ThinkTank

Number 1, what a great name for their business, Number 2, how refreshing to meet a team of truly talented, fun and down to earth people and Number 3, yes going to Cork does feel like going to a different country! More on ThinkTank soon.

Being out of the office and then trying to catch up with things on my return has eaten severely into my tweeting, blogging and linkedin time. So one of the things I'm going to recommend to you, valued reader, is how much time each day it makes sense to devote to online business networking.

It's all very well to spend (recessionally-quiet) hours each day building an online profile but if you're serious about it then, even when you're busy doing 'real' work, you need to maintain some level of reliable and regular presence.

Here's the breakdown of time I'm currently spending on online networking:

- Blogging is the least time consuming (once you build up the habit). Having said that, this might depend on how much you enjoy writing. If you don't, then think of delegating this to a colleague. The time consuming part of blogging is reading other people's blogs, which is a necessary in order to stay up to date and maintain your industry knowledge (which in turn enables you to blog well). Maintaining a reasonably up to date blog is currently costing me 2-3 hours a week.

- Linkedin had been looking very easy on the hours, until I began to join some groups. Now the topics for discussions are all around, difficult to resist and very time consuming. I think I'll have to keep fine tuning the number of groups I belong to, and aim to partake in an average of one or two discussions every week or so. I'm aiming for 2 hours a week here too.

- Tweeting is extremely time consuming, and still difficult to get to grips with. I'm still not sure if I'm going to recommend twitter as an valuable networking tool for business - I need to give it more time (more on this soon). In the meantime though, I'm going to try to restrict myself to three hours a week.

All in all that adds up to seven to eight hours a week. Ridiculous. For a small business owner/manager, this is simply too much time to spend on one aspect of marketing.

So, I'm going to try to figure out how to cut that time down (possibly dropping twitter altogether?!). Stay tuned for more on: how to cut down online networking time and get a real-life life...

twitter: baby steps

I've found a lot of articles on how to get the best from twitter, but at an advanced level. There wasn't a whole lot on how to get started (or if there was, it was in bite-sized tweet language with lots of mysterious abbreviations - irritating until you get used to it, and how was I to get used to it if I couldn't figure out the darn thing in the first place???)

Okay, rant over. Here is a very basic guide on how to get started on Twitter, and not embarass yourself too much in the process.

1. Go to www.twitter.com , and register a relevant username that's not too long or too difficult to spell. Write a brief and catchy profile about yourself and link to your website.

2. Log out.

3. Go to your favourite blogs, news sites, industry sites - wherever you usually read about your business or industry online. If they're bloggers, look at the list of blogs that THEY read, and read them. Make a long list of the names of people whom you find interesting and informative.

4. Return to Twitter, and look these people up. Read their recent tweets and if you still think they're interesting then click on the Follow button. This means that anything they write (or tweet) will appear on your home page.


Now, and only now, are you ready to participate.


5. Read the tweets that appear on your home page. Follow the conversations and if you have anything of value to add then type it into the box at the top of your screen. Everyone knows you only have 140 characters so I don't need to tell you that!

6. Keep it simple at the start, just read and converse about the topics they introduce. Be polite and professional. Tweeting is actually very conversational as you get going, so try to converse politely. Don't push your company. If people find your tweets interesting then they'll look you up.


A short piece about the logic of twitter which I hope you can follow:

Say I am following Enda, George and Brian on twitter, so I see all their tweets. But of course, all of their connections see their tweets too, not just me.

So, if for example George posted an important resignation notice on twitter, Enda won't see if it he's not connected to George. If I think it's relevant to my conections then I can Re-Tweet George's notice. This is a little like forwarding an email on. By typing the letters RT at the start of the message and copying in George's notice to the tweet, all my connections will now see the tweet containing George's news. [This is a nice way to spread the word about a good tweet someone has made. It might be a link to a good blog post they've made, or just an interesting piece of wisdom.]

So, now my other connections, Enda and Brian, have also seen George's tweet.

They've probably got lots of connections of their own, so if they like they can ReTweet (RT) George's message too. This means that in a short space of time, a tweet can spread across twitter like wildfire.

Okay, that's enough for one blog post. There are more complex features of twitter which I'll post on soon. Watch this space.

Research Vouchers

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Total Voucher covers 3 full day's research by Roisin Bell and costs E1,000 plus vat.

Research tasks under voucher scheme:

- Market sizing research
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- Product research and analysis
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- For inclusion in business plan
- For inclusion in funding application form
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Research Vouchers are targeted at businesses, small and large, who need more intelligence on their market.


For more information just contact us.

More on Twitter, and it's not good

Ok I'm not encouraged. Over on his blog, Frank Fullard reports on new research collated by the Economist magazine:

- 10% of twitters generate 90% of tweets (compared to 30% on other social networks)

- 20% of those who have signed up have never tweeted at all

- over 50% tweet less than every 74 days.

My interpertation of these statistics is that regular tweeting will only reach a certain audience, likely to be those who are online a lot and who are heavy users of social networks. Great if this is your target market, but what if it's not? Is the whole exercise then a waste of time and resources?

The most common benefit that seems to be quoted for regular Twitter use is: if you're travelling, waiting for a plane or train, or staying in a new city etc then tweeting your whereabouts might win the attention of an old aquaintance who will come and keep you company.

Sigh. Not a key twitter-selling point in my opinion (when would I get to read my book?!)

It's not encouraging, but still, I've been tweeting for just a few days now. I'll reserve judgement for the moment!