Tweets from the Suites: How Execs Use Twitter
March 22, 2010
In CEOs Take on Twitter, Business Week looked at the Twitter pages of some C-level execs, and asked them for brief comments about their Twitter use. The result was actually very interesting. Since almost all of the people they looked at are in the high tech/social media/PR/etailing sector anyway (think Zappos, TechCrunch, Sun), it’s perhaps not surprising that they are tuned in to the Twitterverse. But taken together, their insights about tweeting make up a pretty good index of what makes Twitter important.
The sole outlier in this tech-heavy group was Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers. (For those who don’t follow the book trade, Thomas Nelson is the leading publisher of bibles and Christian books.) Hyatt describes himself as an avid blogger—and a quick review of his Twitter page reveals frequent tweets that mix the personal with the informative. Most important: They do not appear to be churned out by staffers.
The Business Week story appeared in August of 2008, so in a way it’s old news. But the time lapse permits us to see what has happened to the profiled tweeters in the meantime. And we find out that Michael Hyatt—whose stats in the article were Following: 146, Followers: 1,059, and Updates: 2,045—now has (wait for it) 74,776 Followers and has racked up an impressive 9,809 Tweets. He is Listed 2,124 times.
Hyatt’s Twitterstream is a textbook example of how to convey personality online (“We just finished Vespers. Now off to a birthday party.”) and engage community (“I’m giving away 50 free copies of [book title].”) He answers nerdy questions (“Yes, I just used the Amazon Associates tools, plus a little CSS styling.”) and describes relatable experiences (“We had such an amazing evening. There is something so healing about being with people who know and understand you.”) Along the way he slips in PR for his blog (“I have two ads left for sale on my blog for March . . . ”)
He retweets his family’s updates (daughter Marissa is chronicling her attempt to quit smoking) along with links to useful content (“7 Ways to Build Your Author Brand Online”), relevant events, and topical stories. Last but not least—and best of all, or worst, depending on how you look at it—he ghost-tweets a Twitterstream for his dog, @NelsonHyatt. Sample: “I can’t believe @MIchaelHyatt left me in the car while he went browsing in the bookstore. Hello! Obviously, I can read!”
@Nelson has 464 Followers and he answers all their comments.
@Michael almost never mentions Thomas Nelson directly, by the way—just an occasional oblique reference, like this one from 15 minutes ago: “I’m sitting in a Nonfiction Publication Board, discussing five prospective new books. Excellent proposals!” That tweet demonstrates exactly how to evoke positive impressions of a company without appearing in the least promotional.
I’ll follow up on some of the other Tweeters profiled in Business Week, and if there’s anything interesting, there will be another post. But in the meantime . . . anyone who wants to see corporate tweeting done well for a mainstream company should take a look at Hyatt’s achievement. Though it’s not the only good approach, it’s an example of one that works.
(Thanks to rvacapinta for the original boardroom photo. It’s been modified a bit for this illustration.)
Is Twitter the New Rolodex?
March 19, 2010
Recently I realized just how Twitterized I’ve become. I saw a blog I liked (One Louder, by Microsoft “Employee Evangelist” Heather Hamilton) and felt rather desperate when I didn’t find a Twitter bird on the site. Thinking it through, I found that Twitter (via Tweetdeck) is now the way I “file” people/websites I want to keep in view.
I still have a very nice set of categorized pages that gather RSS feeds–and almost every website/blog on earth offers RSS, so no problem there. But in truth I don’t look at those pages very often any more. I use them like a library, visiting when I want to browse or find something in particular. So if I were to put One Louder on a feed page, I would probably forget all about it until I went there to look for something else.
On the other hand, when someone I follow tweets about a new post on their blog, the tweet appears in the appropriate column on my deck display, and I can tell pretty fast whether I want to look at it or not. If I do, the post is a click away. And that’s just one of the many ways Twitter can be useful even if you don’t ever tweet.
I didn’t invent the Twitter/Rolodex connection, of course. In fact, a Fast Company blog post last year gave a nice example of how Twitter works as a a “living Rolodex that responds to you.” And around the same time, another blogger gave a good example of how Twitter has become “the new rolodex for every journalist.“
If you think back to the original Rolodex, its great virtues were simplicity (each card holds the indispensable information, with no frills) and consistency (every card has the same information arranged in the same way). Of course you could also scribble on the back of them, but that’s a matter of taste . . .
Twitter offers some of the same attractions. Everybody gets the same number of characters, so it’s a level playing field–and you can absolutely count on tweets being short! Few things in life are so certain.
At the same time, following a resource on Twitter adds a dimension of information by surfacing what they notice and choose to tweet. It’s amazing what you can figure out about an individual or company by just observing their Twitterstream for a while! And with the advent of Twitter lists and Twitter managers, you can now organize your Twitter Rolodex in many different configurations—for example, put the boring people all on one list and filter them out. They are still in your “file,” but you don’t have to see what they tweet.
Heather Hamilton wrote a post about why she is reluctant to engage Twitter, and I think she probably speaks for a lot of people who have the same concerns. But the potential usefulness of Twitter doesn’t really become apparent until you actually get into it, mess around with different approaches, and stick with it for a while. That process lets you figure out what role—if any–it should play in your work/life.
(Many thanks to Hannes Grobe for the original photograph of this cultural icon. It’s been reworked a bit here.)
Are You Talking to the Right People about Your Brand Online?
March 19, 2010
Every company is trying to jump on the social media marketing bandwagon having finally realized that if your brand isn’t a topic of conversation on the social Web, then you’re missing a big opportunity to build brand awareness, recognition, purchases, and loyalty. But are you talking to the right people about your brand online? That’s the truly important question that you need to constantly monitor and re-evaluate to ensure your social media efforts aren’t for naught.
One of the first steps I always tell my social media marketing clients who are just getting started on the social Web is to take some time finding your best customers and prospects online. Where are they already spending time on the social Web? Once you find them, join the conversation and start hanging out with them just as you would if you were trying to build relationships and network in person. Once you get on their radar screens and develop relationships with them, you can start pulling them over to your branded destination for more conversations. They won’t seek you out or follow you until they know you and know what kind of value you bring to the online conversation.
There is a second part to finding people to talk to and build relationships with on the social Web that is often overlooked. You also need to consider the roles each person that you connect with online plays in the larger online community. Their roles should affect how you communicate with them. I like the breakdown of social media personalities from Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s Groundswell to help understand online behaviors and how they can impact your communications strategy. In their book, they identify the Social Technographics Ladder, which is broken down into six categories of people based on how they participate on the social Web as follows:
- Inactives: At the bottom of the ladder are inactives who do not participate on the social Web at all, meaning they don’t create or consume content of any kind.
- Spectators: Spectators consume content. They read blogs, watch shared videos, listen to podcasts, and so on, but they don’t participate in an active way. In other words, they are passive social Web participants.
- Joiners: Joiners have profiles on social networking sites but aren’t particularly active in using those profiles once they create them.
- Collectors: Collectors participate on the social Web by consuming content and adding modest additions to content created by other people. For example, they read blog content by subscribing to RSS feeds and they participate in online polls and voting.
- Critics: Critics consume and create, but they do so in a reactionary way. In other words, they comment on other people’s blogs, contribute to forums, edit wiki articles, and post reviews of services, all of which are fairly reactionary methods of participation.
- Creators: Creators are at the top of the social Web participation ladder. They are the true content creators who write their own blogs, create their own Web sites, publish their own online videos, create podcasts, and so on.
When you look at the six behavioral personalities defined above, you can better understand how the roles people play online makes them more receptive to different types of messaging. For example, Critics and Creators are the most powerful online influencers. They are the most vocal online audience and they can help you spread your messages. The information and conversation that you engage them with should be very different than your interactions with Spectators or Joiners.
People from every group could be customers and can learn about your brand from the social Web (even Inactives could indirectly hear about your brand offline from someone who heard about it via the social Web). However, just as you modify your messages when you network and build relationships with people in person, you must do the same on the social Web. In other words, do your research and know who the influencers are. Only then can you effectively interact with them and other groups on the social Web.
Image: Flickr
A Handy Guide to Content Marketing. Plus—Employer Branding in a Nutshell
March 17, 2010
I hadn’t thought that much about the definition of “content marketing” until I visited the Junta42 site for another reason, and realized that I wasn’t sure exactly how they were using the term. While scouting around for clues, I found an abolute gem buried in one of the many (many) layers and offshoots of the site.
Junta42 is a content-marketing matchmaker (projects-to-vendors), and their site is super-rich in content about content. But there is such a thing as too much abundance! Luckily, though, I did discover the Content Marketing Playbook and recommend it very highly. Subtitled “42 Ways to Connect with Customers,” this nifty ebook has a page for every imaginable kind of content, from white papers to webinars. And! Each page has a brief case study that links right to a relevant example of the content type. So if you’re not completely clear on what an “Online Media Site” might be (Item 31), you can click right over to an example at Proctor & Gamble’s HomeMadeSimple.com.
For every content type there’s a handy cheat sheet, explaining what it is, who/what it’s good for, who/what it’s not good for–and ending with three quick tips. A cruise through this book provides a great refresher on content forms that are already familiar (blogging, newsletters, podcasts, etc.) and should also offer every reader at least a few new ideas. Get up to speed on magalogs, wikis, widgets, and more.
Suggestions: (1) Open/download the PDF version. You can page through the book via the website, but there’s a lot of visual distraction. (2) While visiting Junta42, bookmark their guide to the “Top 42″ blogs about content marketing. (The list is also an example of Playbook Item 11, the “Industry Ranking System.”)
Speaking of cheat sheets—there is an exceptionally concise summary of employer branding on the website of Singapore-based Human Resources magazine. It’s smart, short, simple, and clear. Here’s a highlight:
Generally, companies can focus on four types of employer branding messages:
Focus on offers: “At our company, you get more than what you get elsewhere. (E.g. benefits, culture, and career opportunities)”
Focus on personality: “You can find people who are similar to you in our company.”
Focus on values: “Values are important to us. If you share the same values, you can live according to what’s important to you here.”
Focus on tasks: “At our company, you will get the chance to do what excites you and you will love it here.”
This article provides a nice refresher for those already engaged with employer branding, and a useful starting point for those new to the topic.
All in all–two free reads that offer a lot of value.
(Thanks to Arnero for the . . . illustration. Wondering what it is? Me too. By title, a “Combustor with guide vanes.” No idea what that means, but it’s really cool to look at!)
Potato Chips and Flickr — A Happy New Social Media Marketing Tactic
March 17, 2010
Flickr is the most popular online photo sharing site, but it has yet to be fully leveraged for social media marketing. The reason lies in part due to the restrictions of use that the site has in place to ensure that everyone who spends time there is uploading valid images that add to the community rather than detract from it. PepsiCo’s snack food division, Frito-Lay, is trying to find the secret to marketing via Flickr with its new “The Happiness Exhibit” campaign. Check out the Web site here and the Flickr group here.
Consumers are being asked to upload photos of themselves, friends and family to Flickr (or to Flickr from Facebook) while enjoying happy moments in life. Some of the images will appear in People magazine and on Lay’s product packages later this year. The campaign integrates well with Lay’s “Happiness is Simple” initiative that has played out in advertising and marketing over the past year. The new digital component of the initiative on Flickr will be promoted with ads on Hulu, iVillage, Yahoo! and YouTube as well as on some Lay’s product packages.
This particular campaign has a big budget push behind it, and partnerships have been made between Frito-Lay, Flickr, and Yahoo! to make it happen. The campaign was announced by press release on March 15, 2010, and by March 16, 2010, nearly 6,000 images had already been uploaded demonstrating that people like the idea of sharing photos without a lot of encouragement. It certainly helps that a lot of people already have Flickr accounts, but the point is that people love to share content they’re proud of, and photos are included.
How can you leverage photo or content sharing to market your brand? It’s something people clearly like to do? Can you create a campaign around sharing — an activity that your customers are already doing? It’s quite an opportunity.
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