Online Marketing Blog - Latest Comments in Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Carter Murray — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:46:51 -0000

I agree. Twitter is a great tool for social bookmarking.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Jenn Deering Davis — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:27:57 -0000

It's awesome that a blog post you wrote a year ago still has so much comment activity! I guess that means you've got good content. :)

It's been really interesting to watch how Twitter has evolved over the past 18 months as more and more businesses have started to use it as a marketing and community management tool. Some of them are doing a great job, following many of the guidelines posted here, but some are definitely missing the point.

I've been particularly interested in how companies are using Twitter in third-party applications. We recently launched CheapTweet, a site that aggregates tweets about retail deals, specials and sales. CheapTweet users can find, save and vote on deals. On Twitter, stores can post information about their deals, but only their Twitter followers see that information. With CheapTweet, a store's deals are distributed to a much wider - and generally motivated - audience. It's just one example of how Twitter can be extended beyond the simple post and reply model, which I think is happening more and more often.

CheapTweet is at http://cheaptweet.com

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Cheavor — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:36:53 -0000

I totally agree with the tips outlined in this post. All of them are fantastic ways to use Twitter. I especially agree with the method of following interesting poeple on twitter, and most of them will follow you back.

* It's worth noting that a Great way to use twitter is as a mixture of Personal & Business/Promotional reasons.

* If you Only post links to promote OR Only post random thoughts, chances are most of the interesting people won't follow you.

* BUT, if you mix it up a bit with both Personal thoughts & Business/Promotional tweets, You'll come away with a fine blend and great results.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Barb Chamberlain — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:12:00 -0000

This is a great post even a year later--glad @DBSInteractive Tweeted it today! I just established a Twitter account for my campus and need to get it launched the right way, so I'll be following lots of the links for more.

For those who are into data, go to the Center for Media Research blog section at www.mediapost.com/blogs. Create an account and log in to get access to a free study "Walking a Day in Subscribers' Shoes," on age groups and their media/marketing preferences.

Bottom line of the study is that there are some groups with a strong aversion to direct marketing in the SMS world so you might actually hurt yourself if you come on too strong.

They highlight six personas & how they interact with different media:
Wired Consumers
Young Homemakers
Retired
College Students
Teens
Established Professionals

@BarbChamberlain

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Chris Vendilli — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 23:09:17 -0000

Hey Lee,

I know this is like a year after your original post, but heck, I figured "why not?" Right?

Here's a few more twitter tips to add to your helpful list:

#1.) Go grab a free account at www.twitterfeed.com and get it all setup to work with your blog. You can use this free service to AUTOMATICALLY post the title of every new blog post you make to your twitter profile, along with a link back to that blog post. It's tremendously valuable.

#2.) Go grab a free account at www.tweetlater.com and setup an "auto-welcome direct message" by following the instructions. In that message say something like "Thanks for following me on Twitter. I appreciate the follow & you're welcome to come check out my blog at www.ProFromGo.com/blog"

#3.) Post when you feel like it and just go on there to have fun, because you've already implemented two awesome tools that are going to take care of AUTOMATICALLY getting you traffic. By just going on there and exchanging thoughts & ideas with other users you'll quickly attract new followers.

If you like these tips I have lots more that I included in a free report titled "The Twitter Report" along with some helpful videos too...

IT'S FREE, so you have nothing to lose. If anything it will save you time tinkering around with Twitter because we've already figured it all out for you & documented our recommendations in this helpful guide along with videos:

http://www.TwitterHints.com

Let me know what you think. I'm easy to get a hold of...

Sincerely,

Chris Vendilli

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

James — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:10:46 -0000

Really informative article, it helped me a lot, had to come back a few times and readi it again. keep up the good work, thanks

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Ela — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:48:25 -0000

Great post
When I had a first look at twitter, it didn't become a pasionate aboat it? Why? It seemed that there is lots of irrelevant details of twitters lives such as I have just landed in NY etc. From my point of view there was too much information to get through. I have changed my mind, I had a look at several twitters sites and Twitter is about bringing people together and it features a vibrant community with lots of interesting info and news. you convinced me that it's high time I included twitter into mix marketing:)

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Marjolein Hoekstra — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 16:37:17 -0000

Hi Lee,
Now that's weird, I never consciously ticked that box to protect the updates. I opened the account immediately. Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Lee Odden — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 13:21:34 -0000

Thanks Marjolein! Updates on that second tool/account are protected.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Marjolein Hoekstra — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 03:30:54 -0000

Just for fun, I created a couple of Twitter resources myself that people may want to check out:

a Twitter news radar: http://snipr.com/twitter_grazr - this list consists of over 50 blogs and news feeds from Twitter-related sites and services, displayed in an embeddable Grazr widget.

a Twitter account that follows about 100 Twitter accounts from Twitter tool developers: http://www.twitter.com/twto... - open the With Others tab to get a time line from all accounts subscribed to.

I'd be curious to get your feedback to these two initiatives.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Wayne Smallman — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 07:22:49 -0000

I was a relatively early adopter of Twitter, which made sense for a while.

Most of the reasons that people quote as why Twitter is relevant are the very reasons I'm not on there any more.

For me personally, Twitter is more hassle than it's worth, and it's barely social anything, micro other otherwise.

Pownce is micro-blogger. And with the insane character limit in Twitter, it's atto-blogging at best...

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Zena Weist — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:40:03 -0000

Thanks for the useful post. It captures the Twitter essence.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Lee Odden — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:34:03 -0000

Ha, it was weird. It was certainly unexpected right in the middle of the day out here in the burbs on the lake.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Sarah Van Elzen — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:16:25 -0000

Those Minneapolis bike thieves - you've gotta keep your eye out :)

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Lee Odden — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:11:01 -0000

Hi Sarah, yes that was it. :)

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Sarah Van Elzen — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:08:32 -0000

"It’s tempting to post something to get it off your chest as I did when a bike was stolen outside my office window and I pulled it out of the truck as the thieves drove away - all during a conference call. I felt I had to tell someone and I certainly couldn’t interrupt the guys from Intel, Ogilvy and iProspect I was on the call with."

Was this the Bulldog PR University Web Traffic audio conference? We wondered why you fell off for a little while there...

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Lee Odden — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:30:01 -0000

Hi Robin, thanks for that. I hope it's useful. I already have a number of additional Twitter resources to add.

Thanks Charlie.

Boris, Twitter is not for SEO - directly anyway. Besides, the SEO so many are practicing these days is on it's way out, dead.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Boris — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:59:18 -0000

Is Twitter useful for SEO? After all my site is B2B and none of my clients Twitter... So far anyways...

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Chandra — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:20:52 -0000

Thanks for the insight on Twitter. Sounds like a sure thing to add to the marketing mix. I'm taking a professional internet marketing course in SF and I'll be sure to share this resource with the group!

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Charlie Anzman — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 03:14:02 -0000

Nice job Lee ! (Just added you :)

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Robin Seidner — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:00:01 -0000

Thanks Lee, these are great. I was on a panel in Portland just this past Thursday, and many of the attendees (PR folks) had no idea of Twitter. I will make sure to point some to your post, thanks.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Lee Odden — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:20:41 -0000

Thanks Vince, Barry and John.

I'll have to admit there's quite a bit I've not included as far as actual "how to's" but at least posts like this might get more people using Twitter, which helps everyone.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

John Clinebell — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:06:13 -0000

Thanks for the tips! We're definitely going to start using Twitter for our real estate marketing blog.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

Barry Welford — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:45:43 -0000

Great article, Lee. I was a doubting Thomas for quite a time. However it has my vote, particularly if you're about to do something out of the ordinary. Who knows in this huge Internet world may just spot it and make the link.

Re: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR

vince bank — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:44:04 -0000

Super article Lee - I agree with your comment Twitter not being another place to dump messages. I've recently blogged about how some politicians are blowing it with a blast approach; social media involves gentle courtship!

Thanks for your insights, Vince Bank