Why your customers don’t use Twitter, and what you need to teach them

Despite the media reports, not everybody uses Twitter, and the people that do, don’t do it in a productive way.

• According to the report Twitter Tally by eMarketer, the number of adult Twitter users in the US was 6.0 million (3.8% of internet users) in 2008. In 2009, it’s expected to be 12.1 million (7.4%), and in 2010, 18.1 million (10.8%). Even though there is an increase, this isn’t a great amount of people.
• Despite some figures claiming huge growth in the number of Twitter accounts, it’s questioned how much people actually use them.

Not all people are “early adopters” – the mainstream do not currently see the value of Twitter

Although a huge number of people are now on social networking sites, with Twitter this is not exactly the case. People read about it ad nauseam in the newspapers and other media, but do not warm to it quickly. The reason being is that people find it hard to figure out what it is all about. Its (much discussed) rather vague statement of "What are you doing?" does not immediately present its usefulness. Questions the uninitiated ask are:

• What are followers?
• Who can I follow, or what do I follow?
• Why is following important?
• Can I only do this from my web browser?
• AND CRUCIALLY - Why should I spend my time using this? This is increasingly important as social networking users are becoming more savvy and efficient in the way they use such technology.

Part 1 of the solution: explain why Twitter is valuable

Educate your customers that Twitter is used to give out special offers, information - things of value. Explain that there is a lot of noise, but amongst that there is information of real worth for their lives.

A great example of this is Dell, who even have their own Twitter portal. Here, a multitude of specially targeted Twitter channels have been created. People subscribe to the ones that are important for them. Want to know about Dell homesales in Japan, Australia, China or New Zealand? There’s a channel for you. Want refurbished Dell computers in the Republic of Ireland? There’s one for you.

The value for customers is that they only get relevant information, they get great offers, and they get news of it instantly.

Part 2 of the solution: in the context of adding value, answer the newbie questions for them

To be able to educate your customers about Twitter is great not only because they will use it to receive information from you, but also because they will permanently associate Twitter with you. This could potentially have a great word of mouth effect, in that all their Twitter uninitiated friends who they speak to directly may be referred directly to your website.

Part 3: Now tell them and show them how to do it

• Tell them to get an account
• Tell them to follow you
• If necessary, tell them to get SMS updates from your channel
• Tell them about retweeting
• Engage them in conversation!

Twitter, Social Media Return on Investment, and Mobile Internet

Image by Will Lion via Flickr

This post is addressed to the small and medium sized enterprises that might be a bit unsure as to how Twitter can provide them with a return on investment...

As I have blogged about in the past, one of the places where I go to find information (other than online) is the British Library. I popped along last week to have a read through some of the market reports from Mintel, eMarketer, KeyNote, and a few more besides. There were three things that interested me from reading these reports:

• The fact that although some statistics show massive growth in Twitter, the amount of effective users is questionable.
• A belief amongst marketers that social media (including social networking) is not yet proven as an effective marketing technique, in terms of both measurement and return on investment (although Dell has been successful, and companies such as Skittles, Cadbury and Starbucks have jumped on board).
• A frustration that the marketing potential of mobile internet has not been fulfilled.

I've decided to address some the concerns regarding Twitter, social media ROI and mobile internet in seeking to answer the question: how can using Twitter deliver a return on investment for a small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs)?

The reason why I have decided to try to answer that question is for the following reasons:

• During the current economic climate, social media presents itself as a cheap way of marketing for SMEs, as opposed to traditional methods of generating sales.
• Twitter, as far as social media is concerned, an easy tool to use as an example.
  
• Although using Twitter and other social media sites are cheap, the tools available online present great opportunities in targeting the right kind of customers.
  
• Businesses need to be proactive in encouraging their customers to use social media to connect with their products and services - otherwise in due course, someone else will.

In answering the key question, three blog posts with leading questions will be written:

1. Why your customers don't use Twitter, and what you need to show them
2. Why you might not consider Twitter for marketing, and what you need to do
3. Seeing if it was worthwhile - ways to calculate your return on investment.

This is a work in progress, so there are bound to be changes to this post and the upcoming ones. But stay tuned, and if you have any suggestions about Twitter or other social media return on investment, get in touch.

Updating social media from your Blackberry, iPhone, or other mobile device

Image by scottpowerz via Flickr

The tips below are aimed at the novice, or for those who haven't yet exploited the power of mobile social media.

One issue with regards to using social media is that it's best to use it regularly. This means that you have a constant flow of content to the web to update, entertain and educate your audience. In fact, it's a vitally important way of saying, you're there and you care.

So what if you're on the road?

Here's my tips on how to use your mobile device to keep your audience updated.

Blog by email
Most blog providers have a post from email function. This means that, as long as you can email (so, if you have a Blackberry, iPhone or similar), you can post to your blog.

With Blogger you can even set your email up only to save drafts. This way you can "mind dump" your thoughts, and then edit them when you can, adding media content (such as that from Zemanta.com - this post was created exactly that way).

Post photos by email with Flickr
Flickr users can post by email function, similar to above. If there's a photo you want to get online, snap it with your camera phone, and email it to the appropriate address. Edit the subject line to give a title, and add tags by simply stating "Tags:".

Twitter by text or Twitterberry
Twitter is a fantastic platform to get your message across. And you can do it by text from your mobile phone. This means a 3G phone (or other one with a browser) is not needed to post. And rather than text, you can also use applications (such as Twitterberry) to keep things up to date on the blogosphere.

Bookmark with Delicious using Viigo
If you're into your RSS feeds, and like to share them using Delicious, I'd recommend using a mobile RSS reader with post to Delicious functionality. Viigo is one such example. Or just point your mobile browser at http://m.delicious.com

Facebook apps for mobile devices
There are quite a few applications for Facebook for a variety of different mobile devices, such as Facebook for Blackberry or Facebook for iPhone. Although they have their limitations, they are are still very useful, and the apps themselves get constantly updated, so the functionality continues to improve.

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• What Drives Consumer Adoption Of New Technologies? (Read the great conversation in the comments - avc.com)

How do I use a blog to get my message online?

Image via Wikipedia

Following on from the previous post, I'm going to discuss how you can use your blog to get your message online.

So, at the outset, a blog seems simple. Go to a blog hosting site (such as Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr etc.), type in a few words, and hey presto there it is. Unfortunately, to make your blog work for you, you need to incorporate a few tactics.

Like I've previously said, there is an absolute mountain of information online which can tell you what you need to do, so I have distilled it into a few points below:

1. Make sure your blog has a purpose
Like with Twitter, it's crucial that your blog has a specific purpose. Unless you a famous celebrity where people are actually interested in what you ate for breakfast, it's unlikely to gather much interest if your blog is an amorphous, undefined list of posts.

If your blog currently has no raison d'etre, go away and think about it now!

2. Know what your audience are after
This is basically about providing what your readers are looking for. But how do you do that? What do they want?

• The Old Fashioned Way - just to start off the list, why not simply ask what your customers want. And an even better way than just emailing them - ask them in person! Get constructive feedback from anyone. And incorporate it into your next blog posts.
  
• Google Reader - subscribe to lots of RSS feeds on your industry/niche. When people start writing about something, you will know about it. Then comment further on it, writing comments on other people's blogs.
  
• Google Alerts - instant email alerts about any search term you want. You can also customize it by region. For example, if your business involves desktop speakers in the UK, your Google Alert would read "desktop speakers site:.uk"
• Keywork analysis - a good way to direct people to your site is to know exactly what key terms they are looking for. For example, someone looking to buy desktop speakers might search for "computer speakers", "[insert brand name here] speakers", "[insert brand name here] desktop speakers" and so on. Although there's a lot of paid for software available, you can use Google's Keyword Tool for free. Knowing the keywords that will bring people in, and incorporating them into your blog with a little bit of knowledge of how Google works, is a sure fire way to success.
• Twitter tools - if your business relies on up-to-the-minute feedback, there are several great tools to find out who is talking about what on Twitter - examples include Tweetmeme, search.twitter.com and Twitt(url)y. Tweetmeme, for example, works through the concept of "retweeting" - basically where someone duplicates what someone else has already tweeted. And the best thing is, you can subscribe via RSS for any retweet feed that comes in. Absolutely fantastic.

3. Provide the content your audience want in a way that is engaging and entertaining
So you've done the research on what your audience want to hear about. Now it's your task to write up that content. Here's a few ideas on what makes good content:

• Edit it for ease of reading - this means embolden subsections, write it in bullet points, create numbered lists etc. As people don't spend ages on websites, as they can easily click away, you need to grab their interest and hold them on to the page. Editing your blog post correctly is a good way to get started.
• Embed media - add pictures, videos, anything that gives depth to your post. Why not upload some photos to Flickr and then incorporate them in your blog? A really easy way to do this is to use Zemanta.
  

4. Get the word out there - but do it tastefully
The thing about blogging is people tend to not like spamming style behaviour. This includes, but is not limited to the following:

• Only using social bookmarking sites to bookmark your own content
• Going and following absolutely everyone on Twitter so they follow you back (and then in some occassions, promptly defollowing them as soon as possible)
• Putting up awful content, and then stuffing the whole page full of revenue generating click links

However ways you can put the word out there include:

• Put RSS or email subscription options on your blog.
• Tell everyone you meet (and who might want to know) about your blog
• Engage in conversation online with people who blog about similar things
• Use the right keywords to bring people in
  

Above all, try to blog genuinely. Even if you have ulterior motives with your blog, please try not to waste people's time. It is very easy to gain a negative reputation.

5. And a final note...
Try not to let your blogging turn into a humourous yet negative lifestyle choice.

How do I use Twitter to get my message online?

Image via CrunchBase

From the looks of things, everybody seems to be using Twitter nowadays. Demi Moore used Twitter to get tickets to Britain's Got Talent. Stephen Fry used Twitter to let over 200,000 people know he was stuck in a lift.

So the question for the rest of us is - how do I use Twitter to get my message online? Whether it's just to ask someone to call the lift engineer out, or to further your business, Twitter can help.

The answer to this seems initially simple - just send a "Tweet". But effective Twittering is much more than that. Below are a few tips I've gleaned and attempted to distill from the best websites out there.

1. Have a purpose for your Tweets
Before you set out sending updates from your mobile phone or trying out the latest platforms to Tweet, know why you are doing it first. If you are in the Jiffy bag industry, try to tweet about Jiffy bags. This helps make sure the message you are sending out is universal.

I have to say, I don't always stick to this... but it's a habit that is best to get into.

2. Tweet regularly
If you've got an audience that follow you, or people who just want to do some research on you or your company, having a good quantity of previous Tweets for them to observe is crucial. If your message is consistent over a lot of tweets, you'll do really well.

3. Add value to others like no one else can
What makes you stand out? What can you tell people that no one else can? If you're an expert in one thing, and no one else is giving that knowledge out for free, here's your chance - go for it!

4. Help others with your Tweets
Don't only use your Twitter account for self promotion - instead, help to promote the work of others. People will be grateful for and respect this.

5. Connect with others in your niche - and if it's a big niche, find a microniche
Twitter's biggest "niche" is probably something like either "politics", or in a rather story within a story way (for want of a better term), social media. To try and get into the big leagues with that, as a new guy, would be near enough impossible.

However, there is always a way to break it down into a sub niche or microniche. For example, "social media" could become "social media in London" or, even smaller, "social media in North London". I believe as most people operate their businesses within a small geographical niche, they should look at breaking down their message into something area specific, and connecting with people in that way. And why not - dare I say it - go meet these people in person! I'd recommend starting your own Meetup group to get the ball rolling.

Of course, the list above isn't exhaustive - for those who want more detail, be sure to check out the below web sites:

• How to use Twitter - tips for bloggers - An excellent article from Problogger
• How to use Twitter to grow your business - An excellent article from Copyblogger
• TwiTip - A blog dedicated to Twitter tips
• Newbie's guide to Twitter - if you're completely lost, or just want to know how to get started really easily, click here.

And the articles below are excellent too - I've had a read through all of them, they're all written in the last month, and they are well worth checking out. So go ahead! And soon you can use Twitter to get your message online.

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• Get More Followers by Spending Less Time on Twitter (menson.wordpress.com)
• Where do you find an audience for your blog? (buildabetterblog.com)
• Getting True Value Out of Social Media (kylelacy.com)

Why the random articles on the blog?

You might wonder why I seem to post rather random articles occassionally on this blog. Like my previous one on the multi purpose hook on a Swiss army knife. Well, there are two reasons:

1. It interests me - or at least it interested me at the time.
2. It allows me to see how successful I can be in providing people with the information they need.

Take the last post for example. The top two search terms were:
"what is the purpose of a hook on swiss army knife" and "victorinox multi-purpose hook whats it for". Quite niche terms - and I managed to get result #4 on Google for "Multi purpose hook swiss army knife". Which basically means people have managed to find my site, come to it, and access the information.

Why is this important?
For those looking to increase their presence on the web, if they have a niche interest or area, by creating content on a regular basis - in line with the key search terms that their customers or audience uses - people will come by to their website. And from that visit, hopefully people will buy what is on offer there.

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• Google Trends for Websites. (smtusa.com)
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Uses for your Multi Purpose Hook on your Giant Swiss Army Knife

The Victorinox Climber: Image by capcase via Flickr

As I was browsing to purchase an Amazon DVD, I noticed something rather obscene on the front page... The Wenger Swiss Army Giant Knife... could this be true? It absolutely was.

This got me thinking about what the multi purpose hook on my personal Swiss Army Knife, the Victorinox Climber, could be used for. I found a list of things your Swiss Army Knife can do, and as for the multi purpose hook, the following was useful:

• Coat hanger
• Parcel carrier
• To pull things that would hurt your hand
• Shoe lace extractor - for when the laces on your boots get really tight or caked with mud, particularly at the end of the boot
  
• Tent peg extractor
• A useful tool to ponder with when bored
  

Any more ideas on what the multi purpose hook can be used for on the Swiss Army Knife, let me know and I'll add them to the list.