Below is live coverage of the Twitter Marketing Tactics from the SMX East 2009 conference.
This coverage is provided by Avi Wilensky of Promediacorp .
We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage, please excuse any typos. You can also interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.
| Twitter Marketing Tactics | (10/07/2009) |
| 10:29 | aviwilensky: Welcome to Twitter Marketing Tactics. Moderated by @dannysullivan.
Speakers - @chriswinfield of 10e20, @tamar of techipedia, @graywolf of Atlas Web Service |
| 10:32 | aviwilensky: Chris is moderating, Danny had to run out. |
| 10:33 | aviwilensky: Chris introduces panel. Will be giving out some free copies of @tamar's new book! |
| 10:35 | aviwilensky: Chris starts his presentation. Discusses how he fields the content from Twitter. Emphasises how you can tap into so many people to gather so much information. Points to example of Woot and Comcast who does an excellent job marketing on twitter, but what works for one company does not work for another. |
| 10:36 | aviwilensky: In less than an hour, gets hundreds of great nuggets of info from all over the world from some of the most brilliant marketers. |
| 10:41 | aviwilensky: Question 1: How do you define marketing on Twitter? @BrentDPayne says it's about the long term. Steady return on efforts. Very rare to get immediate returns. For @martinbowling it's about building relationships and sharing knowledge. For @kennyhyder is about conversions without pissing people off. For @TimDineen it's anti-marking marketing. Have conversation and earn trust. For @davidwallace it's about building the community. For @ylove its about engagement and personalization. Push marketing is probably not effective. For @katemorris it's about conversation and relationships, recurring answer. |
| 10:47 | aviwilensky: Question 2: There's alot of spam on twitter. What's the worst form of it and why?
@ddn says trending topic spam especially on a local level. Abusing hash tags. Hurts the twitter data graph. @bukowsky says stupid games such as the mafia wars. Comes from random people and hard to block. Chris says probably following too many people. If one of his friends sent him that, goodbye - even if its his mother. @audette says spam that steals login creds, like several friends experienced last week. @davewallace porn accounts are a big problem and can damage brand. Be diligent in blocking. @timdineen says false tagging and irrelevant links hidden in shortened urls. Problem with URL shorteners is that you don't know where you are going. Chris says make sure you only click on urls from people you trust. @matthewjbrown says DM spam. @searchbuzz says auto dm's are a big problem. |
| 10:51 | aviwilensky: Question 3 - How are you leveraging Twitter to help you get more links and traffic to your sites/blogs? @steveplunkett says that anchor text via downstream twitter output thru intergrating them into other social media websites. @goodroi says to use twitter as rss feed that i can interact with my followers and using keyword searches to find related writers to connect with. @katemorris says mixing conversation with links. @kennyhyder says to ask people to link to your content. |
| 10:53 | aviwilensky: Question 3: Are hashtags inportant? @yoast uses hashtags for events like this. Very important to connect with people. Great for relationship building. @jasonfalls likes hashtags for specific events. Doesnt like the hashtag spam. @fantomaster uses them to establish authority. Helps structure tweet content, such as Follow Friday. @bukowsky likes to use them for local connections. |
| 10:58 | aviwilensky: Question 5: Is Twitter Search a threat to Google? @brentdpayne rarely googles for products, tech help, or recommendations. he just tweets and gets an answer. people are likely to trust their twittersphere for recommendations, etc. @steveplunkett searches for what people says. @matthewjbrown says its a threat to google. they have the user base already, but hasn't leveraged it. @martinbowling says that real time is a threat. for @factive it's overhyped. @derekedmond says no, google has so many more resources to pull from. @timdineen says yes because its the #1 spot for breaking news. It often becomes the first try search engine. Chris says if they can clean up the spam, it will become a threat. @fantomaster says the real timeness is a threat. @johnandrews says it takes the convo offline FAST leading to less content creation - ie. blogs. |
| 11:03 | aviwilensky: Question 6: How would you convince a company that Twitter is not a waste of time?
@garrettgillas says it helps colleagues and client tool to stay ahead of the curve. talk to your people. @martinbowling says increase in traffic. @bargrainr says find good examples. @tamar says that its valuable to connect with influencers in any discipline. unline facebook people see what you tweet them. @bukowsy convinced his boss to be on twitter and have seen positive results and gets yelled at less. For @charityhistle says se the Georgia Aquarium results - $43k. @nodaybuttoday08 says its free and the quickest way to get info out. @goodroi says low cost. @matthewjbrown says to compare Comcast phone support vs. twitter support. @aviw (me) says to show them the power of twitter search by querying their brand or company name. Follow Chris @chriswinfield and @10e20. Tamar is up next! |
| 11:04 | aviwilensky: Tamar: Participation is marketing. If you are involved in the community, your marketing yourself. Case studies: Graco Baby, Tyson Foods, Home Depot, Jetblue, etc. |
| 11:07 | aviwilensky: Twitter for marketing gain. Need right ideas. Immediate feedback and instant connection. Fast customer serivce. Can communicate with Britney Spears on Twitter but not on FB. API apps are powerful. |
| 11:10 | aviwilensky: Twitter can generate sales. We all know about Dell's twitter success. Can small companies do the same? Mimobot and Namecheap are examples. Mimobot makes cool USB drives in crazy designs. Ran a contest to win a USB key. Has brought arewareness and eyeballs to the company. Saw higher traffic and was worth their while. Namecheap is domain registrar. Also did a contest. Ran several actually. Asked 600 questions over 30 days on the hour - first 3 answers would get a free domain credit. Top 3 winners during promotion won iPods. As of December, they saw a 20% increase in traffic to their site, ton of new links and more signups. |
| 11:12 | aviwilensky: Saturated market example. Apple App store. Convert is an App that came in late to the game. In 1 week they became a top 30 paid app. Twitter gave them access to an older tech savvy demographic. Relevant followers first, messaging later. Offered a freebie that complemented the product. Gave away a limited edition MacBook Pro and they got a ton of followers and saw alot of success. |
| 11:13 | aviwilensky: Twitter is great for customer service. Jetblue helps @tamar all the time, and many others. @ComcastCares is the major case study run by Frank Eliason and his team. Extends to client acquisition too! Story of a person who had problems with verizon cable and vented on twitter. Comcast listened and converted the user. |
| 11:14 | aviwilensky: Twitter for Brand Awareness: Zappos. We learn about their viral culture. Shows twitter.zappos.com which is unfiltered public mentions and employee feeds. Personally thinks Twitter was instrumental in the Amazon acquisition. |
| 11:16 | aviwilensky: Case study: Oh Nuts - a tri state nyc area candy store. Using it for contest and giveaways. Have many products and monitor keywords for biggest products and give advice on helping users. See lots of traffic and purchases from twitter. People call them |
| 11:17 | aviwilensky: Other communications via Twitter: Iran election protests, mumbai terror attacks, hurricane gustav via the homedepot, israel's citizens' press conference. |
| 11:17 | aviwilensky: What works best? Contests. Solid customer services. |
| 11:19 | aviwilensky: Twitter tools: Seesmic, TweetDeck, and many others. Can't name them all. That is all. Buy Tamar's new book here: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596156824 |
| 11:19 | aviwilensky: Graywolf / Michael Gray is up next! |
| 11:21 | aviwilensky: Tactics and tools for commercial accounts. When you run a commercial account completely different than personal account. Beware. Lots of goals with a commercial accounts - connect with customers, find industry leaders, do you want dialogue in public. Don't be afraid to confront people who disagree. Can use it as a sales tool and lead gen but difficult. Promote content, and solve customer problems. |
| 11:22 | aviwilensky: How big can you make your account? Southwest has 700k followers. Unless you have that brand, you won't get to that level. But @Everywheretrip has 90k. Just 1 guy. Can grow even if not well known brand. |
| 11:24 | aviwilensky: Tweet stuff that is not self serving. RT the most self serving links of power users in your vertical. Much more likely to RT your stuff. Help solve user problems. @bbgeeks looks at queries for BB users with tech problems and points them to the right place. Solving problems = making friends. Engage with users, especially people who @ you. Not every @ deserves a response. Don't be a robot. Don't only tweet your own content. Be off topic, people like slice of life stuff. |
| 11:26 | aviwilensky: Dig through other people's followers list. Use directories like wefollow, mrtweet, to find leaders in your vertical. Build a master list of A, B, C level people. Mine their followers. Use AUTO FOLLOW scripts with caution. Twitter may ban you, experiment with your smaller less important accounts. |
| 11:27 | aviwilensky: Social media is time and labor intensive. Want to find automation processes. Plugins for blogs are good but must be careful. Want your tweets to go out in prime time. Schedule tweets in the future. Use Virtual Assistants and grunt labor. Repeat tweets for multiple timezones. |
| 11:27 | [Comment From @meltduplooy]
not a real threat IMO, but not to be disregarded. no wonder Ggl is doing Wave |
| 11:28 | aviwilensky: Traffic from twitter. Most sites he sees shows Twitter in top 5 or 10. Twitter usually has a much higher time on site and PV's. Often better than Google traffic if you do a good job and target well. |
| 11:29 | aviwilensky: Twitter is good for rep management, ranks well for your brand in SERPs. |
| 11:30 | aviwilensky: Tools of the Tweeter: Tweetdeck - helps with multiple accounts. HootTweet and EZTweets. URL shortners with tracking built in and 301. Bitlly is good. Twitterhawk. |
| 11:32 | aviwilensky: Bitly helps you track your twitter RT's and twitter traffic. Thank people for RT your stuff. RT tips: Make them direct and click enticing. Keep tweets as short as possible - leave 15 - 25 characters empty. Jump start the RT proces with friends. Be aware of multiple time zones. If 30 minutes goes by and no RT's - generally it's not going to go anywhere. RT your older stuff. Blast from the past, archives. Resurect old content. |
| 11:32 | aviwilensky: That is all!!! |
| 11:33 | aviwilensky: Time for Q & A. |
| 11:35 | [Comment From Todd]
any suggestions for monetising your tweets? |
| 11:35 | [Comment From Barry Schwartz]
bummed i missed it. great coverage.... feels like i am there, even though i am sick at home.... |
| 11:37 | aviwilensky: @todd - will ask the panel your question in just a moment - can you be more specific? |
| 11:39 | [Comment From Lauren]
What about auto-follow? As a B2C retailer is there a rule to follow or not auto follow? Does having a large following hurt/help authority? |
| 11:39 | [Comment From Todd]
Just started using twitterer.. Are there other programs. Is it reccomended to use these programs? |
| 11:40 | [Comment From @wealer]
any twitter tool out there to analyze/segment/view your followers? |
| 11:43 | aviwilensky: @lauren - becareful with autofollow as Michael said - do not use it on your main account or risk being banned. |
| 11:44 | aviwilensky: time is running out, but if anyone has questions you can ask always tweet the panelists - @tamar @chriswinfield @graywolf |
| 11:45 | [Comment From @wealer]
Thanks, Avi & Barry! |
| 11:45 | aviwilensky: Session is over! Thanks to everyone |
| 11:45 | 
|
