Twitter - now what ?
You can download a PDF of this whitepaper here.
It's safe to say that the vast majority of people will have heard of Twitter. Even if you're not signed up yet, Twitter is all over the media with tweets often used as quotes in major stories. As a result you might have signed your company up to Twitter, but now what?
First and foremost, this isn't a guide on how to sign up to Twitter or what a re-tweet or hashtag is. There are plenty of these guides already out there (http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/) and for what is essentially a relatively straightforward topic to understand, it's hard to add much value. Instead this white paper will look at what you can get out of signing up to Twitter, how you should go about using it and what to look out for.
What do you want to get out of signing up?
This is the first thing you need to clarify before going any further. Put simply, signing up to Twitter is unlikely to increase sales or directly result in coverage. What it can do however is to raise your brand's profile, build relationships with key journalists, analysts and figureheads and give you a direct line of contact to your customers.
Twitter is as much a tool for broadcasting as it is for listening, if not more heavily weighted towards the latter. Not only can you learn a lot, you'll get a much better idea of how to use it and what to do than you can from any guide. The challenge here is making sure that you're listening to the right stuff. There is a lot of irrelevant noise out there and, as much as we all love comedy photos of kittens, it isn't going to help you or your business.
Who to follow?
Key to getting the most out of Twitter is knowing who to engage with and how, and making sure that you're looking out for the right conversations and people. If you know who your top journalists are then this is a good start. If not, this will be something your PR agency can help with. As a result you can spot when people are writing relevant stories and get yourself some interviews - something that we have done at EML many times for our clients.
Once you've started following your journalists, then it's a good idea to look at who they're following - essentially who they want to listen to and who they find interesting. You can also set up search terms on relevant key words and phrases related to your industry which will give you a good idea of who is talking about the subjects that matter. This also allows you to spot interesting conversations and join in where appropriate.
What to actually Tweet about?
Do the media and your customers want to know what you've had for lunch? No. Do they want to see a constant stream of company news? Again no! Do they want to know your opinions on industry news and the events affecting your customers? Yes. This isn't to say you shouldn't also put up company news and the odd bit of office banter, but it should be more than this - Twitter is a conversation tool and a stream of press releases and internal jokes is of little interest. At EML we have two separate accounts on Twitter, one for client news, @EMLpr and one for conversation, @putsimply.
Rather than trying to think up interesting things to say, the best way to get involved is to comment on the updates of the people you are following. Agree, disagree, or add something extra from your own angle. This is a great way to start and will get you noticed and help you build up your own followers. Have a look at @putsimply and hopefully this will give you an idea of what I mean.
In terms of what not to say, at EML we have put together guideline documents for some of our clients but it's pretty much all common sense. Remember that everything on Twitter is searchable through Google, so anything you say is viewable by your customers, journalists, analysts, investors and even employees. Stick to this logic and you won't go far wrong.
If done properly and sensibly, engaging in social media activity like Twitter can help drive your news, raise awareness with your target press (and those outside of it as well) and even generate sales leads. Following the guidelines above will give you a good foundation to get started but the best advice is to get out there and start Tweeting.
So what are you waiting for?
