3 ways to use Hashtags!

So what’s the deal with these funky messages and # in all of them?

Yes, those new to Twitter can find it a bit daunting and almost feel like they are looking at code when coming across tweets like this:

@sands: looking forward to @garyvee at indigo tonight #montreal #crushit

1-Hashtags allow people to find you
As I mentioned in the previous post, people are listening on specific keywords and doing searches on particular words. Since you can specify #tags in your searches, this allows people to find you and for you to get found.

2- Real time Search
At any given time, you can click on a hashtag and see how many other people are using that same tag and allow you to find other twitterer’s that may be of interest.

3- Hashtags give your tweets context

For example, if I had tweeted the above post:
@sands looking forward to meeting @garyvee tonight in montreal

I wouldn’t necessarily be found as easily by other people who were interested in all things montreal (unless using the near: in their search).
#crushit is a better example. For a lot of online events/conferences, events will use certain hashtags so that other people interested in these tweets can easily find them based on the hash.

Sound like a lot to get your head around? Just start by observing and slowly start adding them to your tweets.

Nothing beats practice!!

Revealed: Why Twitter is changing customer support

I had a real life twitter experience at work today. We’ve been implementing the strategy discussed in this blog over the last few months and we are starting to see the positive and ‘negative’ sides.

Positive?
We have set up alerts as discussed in the post Three Ways to Monitor Your Brand and we are alerted anytime our company, products or competitors are mentioned in the Twittersphere. This is great when positive things are mentioned but perceived as not so great when negative feedback is received, as I witnessed today.

We were alerted to a customer tweeting negative remarks about our product and their present experience with the software. Our Director of Customer Support was not pleased with the comments as the tone of the tweets were quite vulgar and so he didn’t want to engage in any dialogue with the customer. This is exactly when you want to reach out to show that you are listening and willing to help out. This is what will set you apart since more and more customers are fed up of companies that ‘don’t want to listen’ and that are hiding behind corporate walls. Twitter empowers everyone and levels the playing field, whether you are a large corporation or small enterprise. In the past, when you had beef with something you could tell a few of your friends or coworkers and vent your frustration about a particular company/product/service. Now, with sites like Twitter, everyone has the ability to be heard and has equal opportunity to make or break a product. ‘Word of Mouth Marketing’ quickly becomes ‘World’ of mouth marketing.

There is no negative to this story. Had we not been there and listening we would be oblivious to what customers are saying about our product, both good and bad. By listening and engaging, and reaching out to our existing and potential customers, we can only make our product and service better.

It may take our Director some time to get his head around social media and its impact on customer support but I’m sure in due time he’ll have something to tweet about. 😉

Have you had a similar experience?

Bite Sized Social Media Tip: Aggregators

Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, Dugg?? It can be quite intimidating!

For the newbie and even the seasoned social media maven, it can be quite overwhelming to try to create and use all these accounts on a daily basis. Not to mention remember all those passwords 🙂

Why not just stick to Twitter or Facebook?

Well, part of your audience may only be Facebook or some may only read your blog. Some may only be active on Twitter while others may not even know Twitter exists! You want to be able to reach out to them where they are hanging out online.

Social Media Aggregators allow you to push out and manage your networks from one place and only require one login.. Once you set up your account and add all the social networks you want to participate in, you can then decide which networks you want to post content to, and duplicate the content across several networks without having to log in to each one. My current aggregator of choice is Ping.fm which I’ve set up to update my Facebook Fan Page status as well as my Twitter status.

I would highly recommend you explore aggregators as you build your social media strategy because it will help automate the process and save you time, energy and effort.

Comments?

Twitter Challenge: Tweet in 120 characters or less

Today’s Twitter Tip: Tweet in 120 characters or less

You’re probably thinking: We’re only allowed 140 and even that’s not enough!!

Tweeting in less characters allows for others to comment on your content and retweet it. We’ll get into the ‘art and science’ of retweeting in another post but in the mean time I want you to learn how to do more with less.

Denise Wakeman talks about the 4E’s: Educate. Engage. Enrich. Entertain. We’ll get into these in more detail but in the meantime, think about these categories when tweeting and how you want to interact with your online community.

Example:

How not to Tweet:
HEY CHECK OUT THIS GREAT YOUTUBE VIDEO OF INMATES IN THE PHILLIPINES PERFORMING TO MICHAEL JACKSON’S THRILLER: link…

More effective as:
Inmates in Philippines perform MJ’s Thriller: insert link here

We’ll get in more detailed about URL shortening (so you don’t use up all your characters on the actual URL) but in the meantime..practice, practice, practice!

Twitter Tip: Personalize Your Profile

Before you read this post you have a little homework:

Setting Up Your Twitter Account! Simply go to Twitter and follow the steps.

Ready?

Now comes the part of personalizing your profile. This is done through the Settings tab in Twitter.

Add your picture.

People will respond better to a human face behind your tweets. If you use your company logo, be sure to add context to your profile.

Include in your ‘One Line Bio’ information that describes what you do, who you are and your interests (keeping in mind you are limited to 160 characters!)

For example, The Social Woman’s profile looks something like this:

theSocialWoman

Where the bio information shows information about The Social Woman network.

Another example is: Sandy on Twitter where I have put more details about myself which gives people an idea of the things I’m interested in and allows people to relate to me.

Many people also put:
Wife/Mother, Husband/Father, Business Owner, Lifelong learner…
Be creative! The options are endless (well, within a 160 character limit =)

Not only does this put a human face behind your tweets, it also helps in attracting followers who share the same interests. Twitter is about building relationships..what better way then sharing a twidbit about yourself!

Go ahead now, share =)

Bite-sized social media tips

Having just recently completed The Social Media Success Summit , I realized just how much information there is out there about social media. For the solo-preneur or the entrepreneur running his/her own company who recognizes the importance and value of being online but does not know where to start, it can be very daunting. We are a time starved society inundated with information which while useful can be very overwhelming.

Do I Twitter? Do I create a Facebook page? How do I do this? Is there a way to automatically update this information? What’s the best place to start?

These are all valid questions and my goal is to demystify the world of social media and provide you with bite-sized tips that you can implement easily in your online marketing strategy.

Have any questions you’d like answered? Leave a comment!