1. January 23, 2013
Shannon Scanlan
Business Services Librarian
Arlington Heights Memorial Library

2. Why Social Media is Good for Business
Social media is a constant source of ideas, resources and
recommendations.
Twitter is a tremendous tool for connecting
and networking with users who share your interests, job
skills, geographical area, business products etc...
Twitter users can get instant results on what is being
communicated about their business and products.
Customers can go to Twitter for service and technical
support.
Social media updates are short and concise showing that
you value your customer’s time.

3. What is Twitter?
A social networking site for communicating and "micro
blogging".
Over 500 million registered users.
Users “tweet" short messages of 140 characters or less.
Users "follow" other users, once followed their tweets will
appear on your homepage.
Direct messages can be sent between users who are
following each other. A good choice if a user would like to
send a private message to someone instead of sharing it
with everyone.
The use of hashtags (#) allows people to find similar topics
and tweets such as #Chicago or #WhiteSox.

4. Why, Who, When
Who in your company will create content, respond,
monitor?
How much time will you commit to Twitter?
Create a purpose for your business on Twitter. Marketing,
hiring, brand recognition, community involvement,
customer service, interaction with customers, thank you's,
coupons...
How will you build your community?
 Invite customers you already have to check out your Twitter page.
 Insert a link to Twitter in your email signature, on your website,
marketing materials etc...

5. Jumping In
Setting up an account
Your name
Your user name
 Select a short, easy to remember Twitter name
 Chose a name similar to your business
Password
Email address
Twitter will ask you to share email addresses with them so they
can check to see which of your contacts are using Twitter (You
can skip this step).
You can then start tweeting, change your account settings, add
a picture, personalize the background of your profile page and
start following people.

6. Learn the Lingo
@ include the @ symbol before a user's Twitter name
to mention them in a Tweet.
RT stands for "retweet", use when retweeting another
user’s content.
d, include "d" in front of a user's Twitter name to
send them a direct message.
 # is a hashtag such as #Follow. Hashtags connect
topics.

7. Locally Who is Using Twitter?
 Arlington Heights Memorial Library
 @ahml
 Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce
 @Arl_Hts_Chamber
 The Arlington Heights Police Department
 @ArlHtsPOLICE
 Arlington Cards
 @Arlingtoncards
 Arlington Dog House
 @ArlingtnDogHouse
 The Volunteer Center
 @VolunteerInfo
 Arlington Park
 @Arlington_Park
 Shannon's Pet Sitting
 @ShannonPetSit

8. Letting Your Customers Know
Via email and icons on your website:

9. Company Customer Service/Support
Account
 A business can create a customer service Twitter account to address
questions, product support, compliments, complaints etc...

10. Job Postings

11. Spreading the Word
Thank You’s
Get the Word Out
Hot Topics

12. What People are Saying about You

13. Giveaways and Coupons

14. Combine with Foursquare
(a location based service)

15. Tools for making it easier
Buffer
Manage multiple accounts, track analytics
Hootsuite
 Monitor social media accounts, schedule messages and
more
Tweetdeck
View and manage Twitter accounts as well as other
social media sites such as Facebook and Linkedin

16. Hootsuite
A browser based tool that allows registered users to
publish to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace,
Foursquare and Wordpress
Apps for iPhone and Android phones
Includes a URL shortener
In use since December 2008
You can access your Hootsuite account from any
computer with an internet browser

17. Tweetdeck
A desktop application for use with Twitter, Facebook
Users view updates in customizable columns
iPhone and iPad versions
In use since July 2008

18. Articles of Interest
3 Tools to Simplify Your Social Media Marketing
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-social-media-
management-tools/
26 Tips for Managing a Social Media Community
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-
community-management/
7 Tips for Better Social Media Time Management
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/7-
tips-for-better-social-media-time-management-
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