Twitter and Twitter School

What better way to start again after the summer than a reminder that social media is here to stay and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon!
Hearing Imogen Woodford, Bath’s social media training & consultancy expert again at Box Business Breakfast on Wednesday reminded me about some of the tips surrounding Twitter. If you need some help with your social media, do contact Imogen; she has launched some training sessions with her Twitter School in both Bristol and Bath which you can follow in their entirety or dip into the topics that are relevant. But some are getting booked up already, so do check out…

Twitter Guidelines

Think before you tweet
You are not in a private room; people are listening
What goes on line stays on line. There’s a US website which picks up (somehow) all tweets removed by politicians even if up for only a few minutes.
It can be costly if you get it wrong
Don’t use Twitter (or any social media for that matter) when you’ve had a drink
Keep far away from your keyboard when you are cross about something

Twitter Practicalities

You can now check out your analytics on Twitter – go to analytics.twitter.com (don’t go for the paid ads above this site) – to see what effect your tweets are having
When using a hashtag to categorize Tweets by keywords, do check out the hashtag first to ensure no one else is using it for a completely different cause; really important to consider how they will be received. See also Twitter’s help page
If you get something wrong, be honest and say so “Tomorrow’s Q&A is cancelled. Bad Idea. Back to the drawing board” has much more resonance than some lame excuse of some inappropriate comments/activity
You can find content related to your interests here
Use of .@, also known as dot@, period@. The dot before the @ ‘breaks’ Twitter’s built-in threading (connecting your tweets together). Without it, your tweets beginning with @name won’t show up to all your followers unless they happen to follow both you and the person you are replying to. But it’s not suggested to use it all the time; ask yourself “do I want all my followers to see this” and ‘dot’ accordingly, or not! But of course anyone going to your own profile will see all your tweets, irrespective of the .@ use
The only way to ensure a tweet is truly private is to DM (direct message) someone.

Content across your business Social Media

I still like the ‘rule of threes’ I’ve worked with over the years

The largest chunk about you and your business, what you do, who for and how you help solve their problems. It is key to keep this focussed so people do understand your business and what you do.
A smaller chunk with offers
And lastly another smaller chunk about random content that will sustain interest. Otherwise you can find that people will just switch off, especially if you adopt a ‘shouting’ mode of ‘buy me, buy me’.

Twitter Style

My favourite mnemonic: S H I T which applies all through business, but really importantly in sales and through social media. No, I’m not swearing at you; it stands for
SINCERITY, HONESTY, INTEGRITY AND TRUST

The 5 Stages of a PR Disaster

Beautifully sketched by Tom Fishburne of marketoonist.com.