Twitter Marketing

The complete guide to a successful Twitter marketing campaign

Twitter is a microblogging service that's changing the way we communicate. Marketers recognize its value, and Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day offers marketers, advertisers, brand managers, PR professionals, and business owners an in-depth guide to designing, implementing, and measuring the impact of a complete Twitter strategy.

Expert author Hollis Thomases acquaints you with the Twitterverse, its conventions, and its fascinating demographics and statistics. She then teaches you step by step how to effectively craft successful branding and direct response strategies that can be scaled to any organization and its objectives. Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day uses interesting case studies, success stories, anecdotes, and examples to demonstrate how to use Twitter metrics in order to inform strategic direction. You'll discover how top companies-large and small-have leveraged this exciting communications platform.

• Twitter has become a phenomenon with 32 million users, including major companies such as Apple, JetBlue, and CNN
• This step-by-step guide explains the demographics, shows how companies are using Twitter, and explains how to scale the approach to your enterprise
• The detailed coverage includes the basics for Twitter newcomers and explores all elements of a successful strategy
• Expert author Hollis Thomases shows how to set goals, develop and implement a plan, attract followers, and measure the impact of a campaign
• The in-depth book explains how to maintain momentum and explores such issues as contests, promotions, and crisis management

Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day is the ultimate guide to succeeding one tweet at a time!

Foreword xix

Introduction xxi

Part I Get to Know Twitter 1

Chapter 1 Understand Twitter 3

Twitter History and Definitions 4

Twitter’s Technology 10

Twitter’s Rapid Ascent 14

Twitter’s Financial Future 16

What Makes Tweeps Tick? 17

Twitter’s Culture 33

The Main Points 37

Chapter 2 Who’s Using Twitter for What? 39

Demographics 40

Individual Users 43

Bots, Games, and Memes 56

Small and Home-Based Businesses 60

Not-for-Profits: Charities, Causes, the Arts, Houses of Worship, and Associations 62

Academia and Higher Education 63

Government 64

Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations, and Communications Professionals 65

Media Outlets 67

Sports and Entertainment 70

Corporations and Brands 72

The Main Points 85

Chapter 3 Twitter, the Multipurpose Platform 87

What Twitter Can Accomplish 88

Key Questions to Consider for Branding 119

The Main Points 125

Part II Month 1: Master Twitter Fundamentals 127

Chapter 4 Week 1: Get on Twitter 129

Monday: Create an Account 130

Tuesday: Find People to Follow 147

Wednesday: Learn Twitter Lingo 153

Thursday: Access Twitter 161

Friday: From Lurking to Leaping 163

The Main Points 167

Chapter 5 Week 2: Find and Attract Followers 169

Followers and Following 170

Monday: Use Basic Search to Find Followers 173

Tuesday: Add New Friends 179

Wednesday: Attract Followers 185

Thursday: Syndicate Your Tweet Content 195

Friday: Tools to Help Build and Manage Followers 197

The Main Points 203

Chapter 6 Week 3: Use Twitter Search and Other Tools to Improve Your Experience 205

Search and Other Tools for Twitter 206

Monday: Master Twitter Search 206

Tuesday: Use Tools to Enrich Your Tweets 215

Wednesday: Analyze Your Twitter Activity 227

Thursday: Experiment with Other Useful Twitter Tools 236

Friday: Fun with Twitter Tools 241

The Main Points 246

Chapter 7 Week 4: Track and Monitor What Twitter Generates for You 247

Twitter Metrics 248

Monday: Understand What to Track and How to Review It 248

Tuesday: Alerts—Simple Tracking Tools 255

Wednesday: Advanced Tracking Tools 260

Thursday: Compile Tracking Data 267

Friday: Review, Analyze, and Respond to Tracking Data 270

The Main Points 275

Part III Month 2: Develop and Launch Your Strategic Plan 277

Chapter 8 Week 5: Develop a Successful Twitter Strategy 279

Monday: Study Brands Succeeding with Twitter 280

Tuesday: Different Approaches to Develop Your Strategy 292

Wednesday: Study Strategies for Market Verticals 296

Thursday: Twitter’s Role in Your Overall Marketing Strategy 302

Friday: Avoid Pitfalls 303

The Main Points 307

Chapter 9 Week 6: Establish Goals and Get Corporate Buy-In 309

Monday: Establish Objectives 310

Tuesday: Measure and Report Upon Your Objectives 314

Wednesday: Determine Tweet Topics 317

Thursday: Assign Resources 322

Friday: Get Company Buy-In 325

The Main Points 328

Chapter 10 Week 7: Get Your Brand Started on Twitter 329

Monday: Claim Your Brand’s Twitter Name 330

Tuesday: Set Up Your Brand’s Profile 335

Wednesday: Your First Brand Tweets 342

Thursday: Engage Your Brand’s Followers 347

Friday: Summarize Best Practices 352

The Main Points 355

Chapter 11 Week 8: Monitor, Measure, and Valuate 357

Monday: Review Your Twitter Stats 358

Tuesday: Analyze Your Website Traffic 362

Wednesday: Analyze Actions 366

Thursday: Valuate 370

Friday: Review Case Studies 372

The Main Points 378

Part IV Month 3: Maintain Your Twitter Presence 379

Chapter 12 Week 9: Institutionalize Maintenance 381

Monday: Hold Weekly Meetings 382

Tuesday: Implement Weekly Action Plan 386

Wednesday: Oversee Production Requirements 388

Thursday: Prepare Documentation 390

Friday: Deliver Results to Management 391

The Main Points 393

Chapter 13 Week 10: Prepare for Crisis Management 395

The Reality of Twitter Crises 396

Monday: List Potential Crises 401

Tuesday: Create a Fire Drill 403

Wednesday: Write a Twitter Crisis Management Action Plan 406

Thursday: Know How to Really Say “I’m Sorry” 408

Friday: Distribute Your Crisis Action Plan 410

The Main Points 412

Chapter 14 Week 11: Develop a Direct Response Promotion for Twitter 413

Monday: Define the Need 414

Tuesday: Define Campaign Components 421

Wednesday: Move to Production 425

Thursday: Work Your Announcement Strategy 426

Friday: Launch Your Campaign 427

The Main Points 429

Appendix A Twitter-Related Glossary 431

Appendix B Twitter-Related Tools and Resources 439

Appendix C Tips from Tweeps 447

Appendix D Social Media Guidelines 453

Index 457

About the Author

Hollis Thomases, award-winning founder of Web Ad.vantage (www.webadvantage.net) and a leading expert in Internet marketing and social media, has helped Check Point Software, the Starlight Children's Foundation, Visit Baltimore, and others in the health, retail, nonprofit, and government sectors develop and implement successful social media and online marketing strategies. She authors a ClickZ column and is a frequent conference speaker and presenter at key industry events such as Search Engine Strategies, American Marketing Association, the Public Relations Society of America, and others. Follow Hollis's tweets at www.twitter.com/hollisthomases.

Craft and Implement a Winning Twitter Marketing Strategy

A Step-by-Step Guide

Twitter has rocketed into the mainstream and is vastly changing how your customers view products and brands. Learn how to leverage Twitter for your business with this smart, practical guide from social media expert Hollis Thomases, who shows you how to design, implement, and measure a winning Twitter strategy from start to finish.

After walking you through Twitter basics, she explains how to craft strategies that can be scaled to any organization or market— including travel, retail, restaurants, healthcare, and service-oriented businesses. Learn how to create a winning, goal-based plan and then implement, maintain, and adjust your plan while avoiding common pitfalls. This detailed how-to helps you:

• Explore the fascinating demographics of the Twitterverse and see how to reach potential customer
• Master Twitter basics, understand tweeting dos and don'ts, and leverage useful third-party Twitter applications
• See how a slew of top brands such as Starbucks^®, Zappos^®, and Planet Hollywood^® are successfully using Twitter
• Prioritize your objectives, create a plan, and get corporate buy-in
• Leverage contests, promotions, tweets with multimedia, and other proven ways to improve engagement and foster conversation
• Let the tweets flow and then track and measure everything from retweets to mentions to increases in web traffic
• Analyze results and frame reports in terms of your key metrics, whether in dollars, traffic, conversions, or other goals

You'll also find:

• Creative ways to map your marketing goals to Twitter metrics, so you can really find out what's working
• Real-world "From the Trenches" case studies that illustrate successes to learn from and mistakes to avoid
• Useful Twitter tools that will help you manage and measure your efforts

Praise for Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day

"This book walks you through Twitter processes and strategies step by step, from setting an account to setting actionable business goals. Whether you're a Twitter newbie or a seasoned power user, there's something in here that will help you use Twitter more effectively—and more profitably."
—Rebecca Lieb, VP Econsultancy and author of The Truth About Search Engine Optimization

"This terrific book is a godsend. It's filled with practical advice and hands-on exercises that will help companies of all sizes tap into Twitter's marketing potential."
—Bo Burlingham, Editor-at-Large of Inc. magazine and author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of Big

"Hollis Thomases has created an extremely practical guide to Twitter for neophytes and serious marketers alike. She clearly and completely demystifies the service. This is an indispensable B2B guide for large or small businesses seeking to build effective social media marketing campaigns on this rapidly growing platform."
—Greg Sterling, Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence