Yesterday, Natala Menezes (@natala) from Microsoft adCenter joined me on GoodKarma on Webmaster Radio. You can download the podcast or just click play below.

Webmaster Radio
Twitter for News Vanessa , along with Natala Menezes from Microsoft AdCenter talks about how she has been reading Twitter to find out the news of the day , and she discusses the Best 5 Twitter Services You Might Not Know Show Host: Vanessa Fox Show: GoodKarma Channel: Internet Marketing

We talked about all things Twitter and took questions and comments from both the chatroom and (fittingly) Twitter. Thanks to everyone who chimed in and sent us @ tweets.

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a microblogging platform that Natala describes as “social text messaging”. You send out short messages (via SMS, IM, web, or a third-party app) about what you’re doing, what you’re wondering about, maybe a question that you have, and anyone “following” you gets the updates in any one of a number of ways. (For instance, you can add an app in Facebook that causes your Twitter updates to show up there.) You can also track particular keywords (for instance, you can get twitters from anyone talking about your brand).

For more details about Twitter and how to use it, see Chris Brogan’s Newbie’s Guide to Twitter and Caroline Middlebrook’s Twitter Guide.

In short:

1. Create a Twitter account.
2. Find some people to follow (your friends, bloggers you find interesting, maybe me…). You can find people on Twitter by searching for them, by looking at someone’s profile and skimming their followers list, or by finding profile links on bloggers’ home pages.
3. Decide whether you want to get Twitters to your phone, via IM, or if you want to skim them via the web interface. You can choose this for each person you follow. You may find, for instance, that you want to get Twitters from friends on your phone, but Twitters from those in an industry you’re interested in professionally via the web interface.
4. Start twittering!
5. Make sure people can find you. Add a link to your Twitter profile on your blog, or add the Twitter widget that shows your latest status (see mine in the lower left of my right sidebar).

How is it useful to search marketers?
You can use Twitter for search marketing in several ways. An obvious one is reputation management. There’s a lot on the web about me competing for first page ranking on a search for my name, but somehow, my Twitter profile comes in at number ten. Natala’s Twitter profile ranks number four for her name on Live Search.

Individual Twitter statuses can rank as well. You might write a short blurb about a particularly interesting blog post you wrote or new product page on your ecommerce site for an opportunity to rank in addition to the page itself.

And Twitters can drive traffic. You have to be careful about this. Many people, for instance, have unsubscribed from Guy Kawasaki’s twitters because they feel he simply spams his followers with links all the time. If you use WordPress, you can install a plugin that automatically Twitters links to new blog posts, but be cautious with this. Michael Gray (@graywolf) does this, but that’s not all he Twitters. He also updates with lots of other interesting information and thoughts. Search Engine Land (@sengineland) does this as well, but they are strictly a news site, so the assumption is that anyone following Search Engine Land on Twitter is expecting notifications of new stories. I occasionally Twitter about new blog posts (I’ll likely Twitter this one), but I really only do this when I write something that I think might be of extra interest. Otherwise, I Twitter about needing more coffee.

I have found that when I post a link on Twitter, I get a good amount of referral traffic, so people do click on them.



On the show, Natala pointed out that she gets Twitters on her phone, and it’s often not convenient for her to click links. I only get a few Twitters on my phone. I mostly scan the web interface, where it’s easier to click links, although if I get a link on my phone that seems particularly interesting, I’ll save the text message so I can look it up later.

How is it useful for brands?
Todd Friesen (@oilman) wondered if Twitter could ever become a really useful marketing tool. Brands can use Twitter in a number of ways. If nothing else, you can use it to track conversations about you. Natala, for instance, mentioned that she often Twitters about Alaska Airlines, as she flies a lot (I have no idea what that’s like; heh). Alaska could track mentions of them to see what people are saying – if they’re having good or bad experiences and how discussions about those experiences are impacting brand perception. Rick Klau (@rklau) of Feedburner tracks mentions of his product and Twitters back answers to questions that people have.

You can easily track a keyword by texting or IMing “track + keyword” to Twitter (for instance track feedburner). If you want to track over the web, you can use Terraminds to search Twitter for your keywords, then subscribe to the RSS feed of that search.

Brands like Jet Blue (among others) use Twitter to offer exclusive promotions and sales. Drive, a short-lived TV show, Twittered details about show production during airtime to generate interest.

You can also use Twitter as part of your overall community engagement strategy. Get involved in the conversation. Become part of the community. If it’s true that we can’t actively engage with more than 200 people, then Twitter is a great way to get connected to that 200, who each are connected to another 200, who each are… Well, you know.

Susan Reynold’s recent frozen peas campaign in support of the American Cancer Society is a great example of how Twitter can virally spread a message. As is Greg Boser’s recent Twitter “joke” at Pubcon.

How is it useful for personal social interaction?
Many people use Twitter to stay in touch with their friends. For instance, you might Twitter that you’re thinking of heading out to a local bar for a drink and is anyone around to join you? At the airport last night, Natala Twittered a question about the weather in Seattle (we were about to fly back) and she got at least four responses in around 10 minutes.

How is it useful for current events?
On the show, we talked about the recent death of the ex-Prime Minister in Pakistan (actually, we mispoke and said the Prime Minister and in short order, got a Twitter from Deepak Singh (@mndoci) correcting us!). Natala said she first heard the news via Twitter. Current Buzz talks about how journalists aren’t allowed into the country and have found it difficult to get accurate details, but a dentist inside Pakistan has been Twittering as “teeth” with the latest news.

I learned about the latest earthquake in San Francisco from Twitter. And I often get news I wouldn’t otherwise see from Twitter.

How do you balance personal and professional tweets?
Several people asked this question during the show including @SEMaven. This is a hard question (the same question could be asked of any kind of online interaction, such as blogging and forum participation). I think it really depends on the person and the situation. How separate to you want to keep your personal and professional life? Are you representing a large brand or yourself? If you’re representing a large brand, you want to come across as authentic, but you probably want a separate personal account.

Stuart Maxwell (@stumax) asked “what should I tweet?” Are some updates too personal? If you choose to maintain one account for both professional and personal use, you may seem more genuine, but you also have to be aware of how noisy your Twitters might come across. For instance, if you send a lot of personal replies to friends, those who are following you for industry news might unsubscribe. Michael Gray recommends that no more than 20% of your Twitters be off topic.

What addons exist for Twitter?
An Bui (@anwith1n) wondered what the most useful third party apps for Twitter are. You can use a number of third-party apps for posting and reading Twitters. If you’re a visual person, you might like Twitter blocks, which graphically shows you updates and Twitter “neighborhoods”. In addition to receiving updates via the web, SMS, or IM, you can also Twitter from Outlook, your Blackberry, your iPod, or a standalone client, such as Twitteriffic (for Mac) or Snitter (for either Mac or PC).

You can use Hashtags to tag your Twitters with an event tag, much like people tag pictures of events on Flickr. Twitter Hacks has the latest Twitter tricks.

Tweeterboard shows you the top 100 Twitterers and gives you stats on about 2600 people. How is this useful? If you’re a top Twitter, you become more visible and can gain more followers. And you can use the stats to find out who is most influential for your niche as guidance for who to reach out to. Jeremiah Owyang has some tips on becoming more popular on Twitter. Be interesting and useful. Make your Twitter profile visible on places like Facebook and your blog. Follow others. Ask lots of questions. Reply to people. Basically, get actively involved.

Use Terraminds to set up an RSS feed that alerts you when people are talking about your brand and keywords you’re interested in.

You can use a Twitter widget to display your latest updates on your blog (see mine in the lower right sidebar) and can use a plugin to automatically update Twitter with your latest blog posts. CShel, in the chatroom, recommended Alex King’s WordPress plugins for Twitter.

What’s the best way to manage being connected/not connected? Is it rude to check your twitters during Christmas dinner?
Marc Levin (@dogballs) wanted to know how to check your Twitters at the dinner table without being yelled at. I used to only read Twitter on the web, but I’ve started getting Twitters on my phone lately, and to be honest, I really sort of like it. Here are my tips:

• You don’t have to subscribe to everyone via phone or IM. I set all direct messages to be sent to my phone (direct messages go only to you, rather than to everyone) and all Twitters that are replies to me (I do this by tracking my username). I also have a few friends set to go to my phone. I read everything else on the web.
• You can set Twitters to go to your phone only certain times of day. I, for instance, have them turned off at night, so I can sleep. If you’re on your computer during the day and get Twitters more easily there, you could have the phone option turned off during those hours.

As for Twittering during Christmas dinner? That probably depends on how tolerant your family is of your technology addiction in general. I tend to text and email a lot, but I’ve been trying to cut back lately. I might need a technology patch.

How mainstream is Twitter?
Well, Natala’s mom is on it, but she’s pretty hip. Twitter was a key plot element in a recent episode of CSI, so it’s definitely gaining in popularity. Even though it may not have millions of users yet, enough influencers use it who will see interesting tidbits and blog about them for their readers that you can definitely reach a large audience with it, albeit sometimes indirectly. For instance, going back to the Jet Blue example, only 555 people are following those Twitters, but some of those 555 are likely travel bloggers who post about the more interesting deals.

More questions?

• What’s the difference between a direct message and a reply? A direct message is like email — it goes only to the person you send it to. You can do this by texting or IMing “d” + the person’s username or by accessing that person via the web interface and clicking “message”. You reply to someone by sending a Twitter that includes “@”, followed by the person’s username. This message can be seen by anyone, but shows up on the person’s Replies tab.
• But how can I follow you? Great question! Just go to my profile and click “follow”!
• Do I have to get Scoble’s updates to my phone? It’s true that I don’t follow Robert Scoble, and yet I often randomly get his Twitter updates on my phone. I don’t get all of them, just a sporatic sampling. I have no idea why. No else I’ve talked to has a Twitter account with default Scoble enabled, so you can likely choose whether or not to add him yourself.

Tags: Twitter

This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Blog, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.