Lunch and learn - MarketStar - 2/23/12 - Twitter

1. Building Your Brand On Twitter
Alex Lawrence: Vice Provost – Weber State University
Twitter: @_AlexLawrence (underscore before my name)
LinkedIn: /AlexOnLinkedIn
Facebook: /AlexLawrence
Blog: StartupFlavor.com
Google+: Gplus.am/Alex

2. Street Cred
 51,000+ Twitter Followers (Currently #4 Utah)
 Top 10,000 followed overall on Twitter
 Founded & Sold TwitJump (Featured in TechCrunch)
 100,000+ Blog Readers (started in 2011)
 Started 9 Companies – Sold 8 (9th is #34 on Inc. 500)
 1,000+ mobile apps downloaded
 Average 1,300+ clicks per link and 100K+ views per post

3. 50M Users Put In Perspective
Radio
Internet
iPod Years
Twitter
0 5 10 15

4. Twitter Stats
 500M registered users
 Adding 500,000 new accounts per day
 300 million unique visitors per month
 300 million tweets per day
 1.2 billion tweets per week
 Largest VC raise in history = $800M
 Growing faster than Facebook in US

5. Mobile Market Stats
 Average teen sends 1500 texts per month
 76% of all phone subscribers use texting
 8 trillion texts sent in 2011
 US -- 18% smartphone market In 2009, 44% in 2011
 Over 500,000 iPhone apps, 37% are free
 Within 5 years, mobile internet access > desktop access

6. Mobile Market Stats
 Short form is winning
 Best mobile experience wins
 Twitter is texting on steroids
 Easy to understand and use – can be text only

7. 23% of Time Online (US) = Social
 Average Twitter Users Under Age 35:
 27% check status and post updates 10+ times per day
 40% post updates while driving
 30% use while on dates
 64% post updates at work

8. Advertising $ Follow Eyeballs
1999 2009
Global Internet Ad $55MM $106B
Revenue
Ad Revenue Per User $9 $86
Global Internet Users 6MM 2.2B

9. How Do I Use Twitter For Business?
 Be yourself
 Don’t do or say something you wouldn’t mind sharing
with an employer or partner
 Customers talk to each other online
 It’s not a commercial
 Real photos, custom backgrounds, detailed info
 If you don’t control your brand, someone else will

10. Control Your Brand Or Someone Else Will
 Due diligence on you via social media
 Can you connect with customers?
 Talk to people you wouldn’t normally have access to
 Mark Suster (iActionable intro)
 Hank Haney (golf tips from Tiger Woods coach)
 Robert Scoble (introduction to potential partner)
 Chad OchoCinco (cell phone number)
 CBR Venture Capitalist ($20M raise)
 Scott Anderson (Zion’s Bank CEO)

11. Curation and Follower Growth
 Museum: art = content
 Search and share – best at this grow followers
 Fastest source of news
 In the media = best way to get immediate interaction

12. Activity Equals Influence
 Either in or out
 Insincerity is obvious
 Listen to and talk about/with others
 Time – no quick fix, no quick results
 SEO value  Rankings  Clicks  Customers
 Google – bonuses based on Google+

13. Suggestions and Tools
 Send out using a scheduling tool like Bufferapp.com
 **Connect other networks (Twitter to LinkedIn, etc.)
 Be sure to reply to people every time
 Use a mobile application to share “live” updates
 Setup keyword searches and join conversations
 Put your Twitter name everywhere (cards, email footer)

14. Suggestions and Tools
 Tweetdeck (multi-network)
 Bufferapp.com (scheduling content – FB/Twitter)
 Twentyfeet.com (analytics)
 Crowdbooster (analytics/suggestions)
 Stumbleupon.com for content

15. Takeaways
 Twitter is not a toy for kids – it’s a legit business tool
 Not a fad
 If you aren’t actively engaged now, you are behind
 Employers, partners, investors and customers are there
 The great equalizer – influencers can be you
 You will need to use it for most businesses (now or later)

16. Remember This…
“Realize that the social media
success equation isn’t big moves
on the chess board, it’s little
moves, made every day that
eventually add up to a major
shift.” -Jay Baer

17. THANKS!
@_AlexLawrence
Slideshare.net/AlexanderLaw