Curious if Twitter is right for your organization? Accompanying podcast on website. This presentation explains how to market your organization on this free, fast-growing social media site. I go in-depth so you can learn practical Twitter skills such as understanding hashtags, lists and retweeting, managing your tweets so Twitter doesn’t manage you, the dreaded ‘Fail Whale’, and knowing how to attract followers and interact effectively with them. This presentation was delivered on April 13th to the Charleston County Library's Small Business and Not-For-Profit Networking Luncheon.

1. TALKING TWITTER
“Do You Tweet?”

2. TWITTER CAN OVERWHELM
Over 6 Million Users and Over 21 Million Visits Per Month

3. WHAT’S FOR
LUNCH?
It can also be trivial.

4. TAMING THE BEAST
Without Getting Eaten Alive!

5. • Michael Carnell
• Twitter: @carnellm
• Web: http://www.Palmettobug.com
• Also: http://TheSocialMediaMonster.com
• Twitter: @smmonster

6. LISTEN FIRST - TALK LATER
• Peopleare talking about you and your areas of expertise, but
are you listening?
• Use the Search feature in Twitter to set up stored searches
• Go to http://www.google.com/alerts and set up email alerts
• Watch http://www.twazzup.com to easily see Twitter topics
• Use one of the tools coming up to set up watch lists
• You have two ears and one mouth, listen more than you speak

7. GOOGLE ALERTS
http://www.google.com/alerts

8. THE TWITTER LEXICON
• Hash tags - # like keywords in stories - unofficial but
increasingly being used in more that just Twitter.
• For Charleston http://bit.ly/chshashes or http://bit.ly/chshashes2
•@ replies are public and can be read by anyone
• Example, “@carnellm How are you doing?”
•D direct messages - these are private vs public @ replies
• Example: “D carnellm I think your website has a spelling error.”

9. “RE-TWEETING”
• Re-tweeting is reposting what someone else has says
• This can build both your and the original tweeter’s credibility
• Always attribute the original tweet
• Example: “RT@carnellm Twitter is great fun!” or “Twitter is great
fun (via @carnellm)”
• Over re-tweeting is a sign that you yourself have nothing to
say.

10. THE FAIL WHALE

11. SOME EXAMPLES
Hash tag
Reply
Retweet
URL Shortner

12. URL SHORTNERS
• Make long URLs short!
• Example: http://bit.ly/dyMybP
instead of http://
thesocialmediamonster.com/podcast-episode-000-the-prologue/?
utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
• URLshortening services like Bit.Ly will also keep statistics on
how many people click the link
• Tools
like HootSuite and TweetDeck do shortening
automatically

13. TWITTER TOOLS
• Can support multiple accounts, searches, URL shortners, etc...
• HootSuite - Web-based, cross platform
• TweetDeck - Adobe Air app, cross platform
• CoTweet - Web-based, more “corporate”
• Tweetie & Twitterific - Mac OSX apps, smaller than the
others

14. HOOTSUITE
http://hootsuite.com/dashboard/

15. TWEETDECK

16. TWEETIE
• Tweetie for the iPhone
has been bought by
Twitter and is becoming
the official Twitter app.
• Allof these applications
let you manage multiple
accounts.
• Do you need scheduling
or teams? Then use
Hootsuite or TweetDeck.

17. GETTING FOLLOWERS
• Concentrate on quality not quantity
• Don’t try to grow too fast
• Who is your audience (customers, vendors, etc...)
• Publish your Twitter account with your other media
• Answer questions! If you are helpful, people will follow

18. DANGEROUS ROAD AHEAD
• Auto-follow? Do you really want to?
• Do you want to follow every social media person out there?
• The percentages - 10%, 20%, etc...
• Unless you are a news outlet, try to keep follower to
following ratio between 10 and 20 percent
• People will judge you by who you follow

19. AN EXPERIMENT
A worthless account with over 2500 followers!

20. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
• Some Sites That Can Help You Manage Followers
• http://friendorfollow.com- will help you find people you are
following who aren’t following you back or vis-a-versa
• http://twollow.com - auto-follows based on keywords. Beware
• http://socialoomph.com - My favorite. Can do
automatic follow, send greeting when followed, schedule
tweets and much, much more.
• There are lots more out there. Do research before using.

21. TWITTER DIRECTORIES
• Sites to help you find the people you want to follow
• http://www.Twellow.com - The “Twitter Yellow Pages”
• http://www.WeFollow.com - General interest directory
• http://www.ExecTweets.com - Corporate executives
• http://www.Twibes.com - Groups of people forming tribes
• http://www.TwitterGrader.com - See how people rank
• http://www.Twitterholic.com - Research yourself or others

22. WATCH YOUR IDENTITY!
• Security Is Key
• Strong passwords and change them often.
• If team posting, who can post and with what oversight?
• What happens if the Twitter-er leaves? Password?
Conversations?
• Monitor yourself! Know what people are saying about you, and
also know if you have been hacked.

23. THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
• Honesty
• Transparency
• Communication
• Engagement
• Accessiblity

24. PATH
The Palmetto Technology Hub's mission is to
provide technology support and resources to the
South Carolina lowcountry not-for-profit
community. And please, follow us on
Twitter:@SCPath
http://www.scpath.org

25. • Michael Carnell
• Twitter: @carnellm
• Email: carnellm@palmlettobug.com
• Web: http://www.Palmettobug.com
• Also: http://TheSocialMediaMonster.com
• Twitter: @smmonster