A DIFFERENT TYPE OF AGENCY

As a collective, The Factory Interactive is fueled by a passion for developing enduring messages conceived through a marriage of design and technology. At the core, we are explorers of possibility and architects of memory. We create rich immersive experiences that increase message retention and reward the audience. Our mission: give personality to products, resulting in a stronger, more effective brand.

_{May 8, 2009}
All The World’s A Twitter – How’s Your Business Twitt’etiquette. _{By jason}

With the explosive growth of Twitter over the last few months (worldwide visitors to Twitter.com increased 95 % in the month of March to 19.1 million) many companies are standing on the sidelines wondering how to get started and are plagued with questions.  What’s a tweet;  do I need to follow everyone; will @Oprah show me some love; what the heck is #followfriday ?  Are you riding the 140 character wave or being swept out by a sea of change. Here are a few tips to help you make some sense of the Twitterverse and Tweet with confidence.

1. Complete your Bio.
Most new Twitter users do not fill out the small but important section that says a bit about who they are.  Other users hover over your icon to get a glimpse into your Twitter profile & this bio is a great way to entice them into checking you out.  If you have a website or blog include it as this is a great way to increase traffic to it and it can help with SEO.

2. The secret is in the sauce: Be valuable.

Don’t broadcast – engage.  Twitter is great for two way communication, so remember that fact when you Tweet. No one wants to hear just your sales pitch over & over. Be cognizant of that fact & share useful information via your Tweets. Don’t be schizophrenic. If you are trying to be an expert on a subject, then stick to it as much as possible. A few personal bits of info are good but should not overpower the expertise you want to be known for.  users may also Retweet your posts so make sure you are being presented in a favorable light (save the vegas story for another platform). In other words limit your signal to Noise ratio and you will quickly amass new followers.

3. Don’t forget to use #hashtags/
Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets.  You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag. Hashtags were developed as a means to create “groupings” on Twitter, without having to change the basic service.  Hashtags.org provides real-time tracking of Twitter hashtags. Opt-in by following @hashtags to have your hashtags tracked.  (source: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Hashtags).

4.  You don’t need to follow everyone.
Be strategic and follow those people that are likely to follow you back or share similar interests. This way you are communicating  to an eager audience of like minded individuals.  Exceptions to the rule: these 237 Twitter users that will follow you back http://tinyurl.com/cm68vr.

5.  No thank you Mr. Roboto.
Avoid applications that auto respond when people follow you. They can feel fake & you’ll miss opportunities to engage in conversation with new followers. There are many Twitter users that will block you for sending auto-responders, so be wary of this fact and use at your own risk.

6.  Learn the Twitt’etiquette.
There are a number of unspoken rules on Twitter.  Learn about them before you make newbie mistakes. For example, give credit to users when you ReTweet, (RT) don’t hijack someone else’s message as your own, use Direct messages (DM) for personal conversations instead of posting to the user’s publicly viewable account.  Here is a list of Twitter terms to get you started (http://twictionary.pbwiki.com/)

7. Make your messages easy to Retweet.
A Retweet is when someone takes your Twitter message and tweets that same message to all followers in their own Twitter network. Retweeting allows your message to spread throughout the Twittersphere. This is great for blogs, articles etc. so keep your tweets short & invite users to retweet your post (a simple “please retweet” works well).  If you use WordPress for your blog, add the TweetThis WordPress plugin. It places a “Tweet this” link at the end of your articles so readers can post to their network of followers.

Our next two posts will continue the Twitter theme;  we will show you 10 tools that help you make the most of Twitter discuss the best ways to build brand credibility via social media, see you soon.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: advice, business, digital strategy, guides, SEO, social media, twitter, Viral Marketing — @ 11:22 am

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