Twitter® Marketing For Dummies®

Twitter® Marketing For Dummies®

Released November 2009
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9780470561720

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Book description

An introductory guide to effectively using Twitter to grow your business!

The field of social media marketing is exciting, cutting-edge, and...open to almost anything! Twitter's style of quick remarks lends itself to a carefree, conversational tone, ripe for passing along a plug, sharing a suggestion, or referencing a recommendation. This fun and friendly book is an excellent first step for gaining insight on how to effectively use one of the most popular social media tools to expand the success of a business.

In addition to covering the basics of Twitter, this easy-to-understand guide quickly moves on to techniques for incorporating a Twitter strategy into your marketing mix, combining new and old media, building your network, using Twitter tools, and measuring your success.

  • Examines how Twitter's style for character-count caps and real-time posting allows for unique marketing opportunities

  • Analyzes several real-world examples of successful strategies for marketing on Twitter

  • Discusses ideas for promoting brands on Twitter, building a following, communicating better with followers, and driving traffic to a Web site

  • Shares the top Twitter applications

So get chirping and put Twitter to work for your marketing needs today!

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. About The Author
  3. Author's Acknowledgments
  4. Publisher's Acknowledgments
  5. Introduction
    1. About This Book
    2. Foolish Assumptions
    3. Conventions Used in This Book
    4. How This Book Is Organized
      1. Part I: The Future of Twitter in Business
      2. Part II: Building and Implementing Your Twitter Marketing Roadmap
      3. Part III: Devising Online Strategies for Twitter Marketing Domination
      4. Part IV: Implementing Twitter Strategies for Offline Marketing Domination
      5. Part V: The Part of Tens
      6. Appendix
    5. Icons Used in This Book
    6. Where to Go from Here
  6. I. The Future of Twitter in Business
    1. 1. I Tweet, You Tweet, We All Tweet: Twitter and Your Business
      1. 1.1. Understanding How Twitter Works
        1. 1.1.1. Micro-blogging (tweeting)
        2. 1.1.2. Following others and being followed
        3. 1.1.3. Sharing with your followers and retweeting
      2. 1.2. Using Twitter in Your Business
        1. 1.2.1. Sharing news and stories
        2. 1.2.2. Empowering your fans
        3. 1.2.3. Customer service
        4. 1.2.4. Finding a fit for your business
      3. 1.3. Marketing on Twitter
    2. 2. Getting Started with Twitter
      1. 2.1. Signing Up with Twitter
        1. 2.1.1. Creating a Twitter account
        2. 2.1.2. Using the Find People Email search
        3. 2.1.3. Finding people to follow
        4. 2.1.4. Writing your 160-character bio and more
        5. 2.1.5. Adding a picture
      2. 2.2. Understanding Twitter Basics
      3. 2.3. Twitter Software You Can Use
  7. II. Building and Implementing Your Twitter Marketing Roadmap
    1. 3. Combining New and Old Media Marketing
      1. 3.1. Applying Old-School Marketing and Principles
      2. 3.2. Working with New Media Tools and Techniques
        1. 3.2.1. Understanding the potential of social media
        2. 3.2.2. Keeping your message real
      3. 3.3. Tweeting to Find Warm Sales Leads
        1. 3.3.1. Searching for potential customers
        2. 3.3.2. Turning prospects into warm leads
        3. 3.3.3. Sending commercial messages on Twitter
      4. 3.4. Deciding What to Tweet About
        1. 3.4.1. The five types of tweets
        2. 3.4.2. Tweeting about what you know
    2. 4. Planning Your Twitter Marketing Strategy
      1. 4.1. Setting a Destination for Your Marketing Strategy
        1. 4.1.1. Choosing a target audience
        2. 4.1.2. Identifying your unique selling position
        3. 4.1.3. Figuring out what your customers value
      2. 4.2. Implementing Your Plan
        1. 4.2.1. Crafting your message
        2. 4.2.2. Defining the tactics
          1. 4.2.2.1. Performing a competitive analysis
          2. 4.2.2.2. Creating a business profile, personal profile, or multiple profiles
        3. 4.2.3. Finalizing your marketing plan
    3. 5. Being Productive with Your Twitter Marketing Plan
      1. 5.1. Creating a Time-Management Strategy for Twitter
        1. 5.1.1. Avoiding Twitter overload
        2. 5.1.2. Setting aside blocks of time
      2. 5.2. Using Third-Party Tools to Be More Productive with Twitter
        1. 5.2.1. TweetDeck
        2. 5.2.2. HootSuite
        3. 5.2.3. Ping.fm
      3. 5.3. Making the Most of Your Time on Twitter
        1. 5.3.1. Don't agonize over what to say
        2. 5.3.2. Don't read every tweet from the people you follow
        3. 5.3.3. Don't try to add value to all your tweets
        4. 5.3.4. Do spread out your marketing tweets
        5. 5.3.5. Do stick to a schedule with your tweets
    4. 6. Measuring the Success of Your Marketing Plan
      1. 6.1. Measuring Your Advertising and Marketing Efforts
        1. 6.1.1. Using an analytics package
          1. 6.1.1.1. Selecting an analytics package
          2. 6.1.1.2. Installing an analytics package
        2. 6.1.2. Using URL shorteners
        3. 6.1.3. Following the right people
          1. 6.1.3.1. Blocking a Twitter spam account
          2. 6.1.3.2. Figuring out which accounts are spammy
          3. 6.1.3.3. Getting Twitter involved
        4. 6.1.4. Using social-media monitoring services
      2. 6.2. Tracking and Increasing Your Influence on Twitter
        1. 6.2.1. Getting in on Twitter trends
        2. 6.2.2. Tracking retweets with Retweetist
      3. 6.3. Engaging Others on Twitter
        1. 6.3.1. Balancing the follow-to-followers ratio
        2. 6.3.2. Reducing your number of Twitter followers
          1. 6.3.2.1. Unfollowing with Twitter Karma
          2. 6.3.2.2. Unfollowing with Twitoria
  8. III. Devising Online Strategies for Twitter Marketing Domination
    1. 7. Building Your Personal Twitter Tribe
      1. 7.1. Building Your Twitter Network
        1. 7.1.1. Determining the best way to build your network
        2. 7.1.2. Finding friends and professional contacts
        3. 7.1.3. Searching for followers based on interests and keywords
        4. 7.1.4. Identifying industry leaders and evangelists
        5. 7.1.5. Hunting down your competition
        6. 7.1.6. Finding the locals
        7. 7.1.7. Following #FollowFriday
        8. 7.1.8. Determining who's worth following
      2. 7.2. Quantity Over Quality
        1. 7.2.1. Understanding the value of quantity in the Twitterverse
        2. 7.2.2. Following the rules for building a quantity-based network
        3. 7.2.3. Understanding the negative side of list building
        4. 7.2.4. Building the following that your business needs
        5. 7.2.5. Qualifying out of the quantified
      3. 7.3. The Pros and Cons of Auto-DMs
    2. 8. Leveraging Your Twitter Tribe
      1. 8.1. The Power of the Retweet
        1. 8.1.1. Discovering the art of retweeting
          1. 8.1.1.1. Using the proper format for the retweet
          2. 8.1.1.2. Obeying the rules of the retweet
        2. 8.1.2. Connecting with your evangelists
      2. 8.2. Tracking Your Followers by Using TwitterCounter
        1. 8.2.1. Signing up for TwitterCounter
        2. 8.2.2. Viewing your follower growth on TwitterCounter
      3. 8.3. Tracking When You Lose Followers with Qwitter
        1. 8.3.1. Signing up for Qwitter
        2. 8.3.2. Understanding why Qwitter is a powerful content tool
      4. 8.4. Showing Your Followers That You Value Them
        1. 8.4.1. Sharing before asking to share
        2. 8.4.2. Asking how you can help your followers
    3. 9. Reaching Your Customers
      1. 9.1. Finding Your Customers on Twitter
        1. 9.1.1. Searching by subject matter on Twitter
          1. 9.1.1.1. Tweet searches
          2. 9.1.1.2. Bio and keyword searches
          3. 9.1.1.3. Location searches
        2. 9.1.2. Finding followers by syncing your contact list
          1. 9.1.2.1. Exporting your e-mail contacts
          2. 9.1.2.2. Uploading your contacts to Gmail, Yahoo!, or AOL
      2. 9.2. Empowering Current Customers to Spread the Message
        1. 9.2.1. Spreading a message to friends of friends of friends
        2. 9.2.2. Understanding viral marketing on Twitter
        3. 9.2.3. Creating your own viral marketing campaign
      3. 9.3. Driving Traffic to Your Web Site or Blog
        1. 9.3.1. Publishing blog feeds by hand
        2. 9.3.2. Automating your blog feed
        3. 9.3.3. Retweeting to add value
        4. 9.3.4. Encouraging your followers to retweet
      4. 9.4. Understanding What Etiquette Has to Do with Twitter Marketing
    4. 10. Creating Quality Content on Twitter
      1. 10.1. Generating Quality Content
        1. 10.1.1. Tweeting about what matters to you
        2. 10.1.2. Tweeting about what matters to your brand
        3. 10.1.3. Conversing with your followers
      2. 10.2. Developing Your Story on Twitter
        1. 10.2.1. Developing your brand story
        2. 10.2.2. Developing content
      3. 10.3. Keeping Up with Trends on Twitter
        1. 10.3.1. Understanding Twitter trends
        2. 10.3.2. Monitoring Twitter trends
      4. 10.4. The Art of the Hashtag
        1. 10.4.1. Understanding tags
        2. 10.4.2. Understanding hashtags
        3. 10.4.3. Making the best use of hashtags
        4. 10.4.4. Tracking the hashtag
  9. IV. Implementing Twitter Strategies for Offline Marketing Domination
    1. 11. Promoting to Attract Sales Leads
      1. 11.1. Avoiding Interruption Marketing Tactics on Twitter
      2. 11.2. Making the Most of Twitter Keywords
        1. 11.2.1. Developing your business keywords
        2. 11.2.2. Finding people who are talking about your keywords
          1. 11.2.2.1. Twitter search
          2. 11.2.2.2. Twitter trends
          3. 11.2.2.3. Other search tools
      3. 11.3. Promoting Your Niche by Using Tweets
        1. 11.3.1. Writing about sales and deals
          1. 11.3.1.1. How to tweet about sales and deals
          2. 11.3.1.2. When to write about sales and deals
        2. 11.3.2. Writing about your services proactively
          1. 11.3.2.1. How to write proactively
          2. 11.3.2.2. When to write proactively
      4. 11.4. Promoting Your Content Through Discussion
        1. 11.4.1. When and where to promote: Promoting the right way
        2. 11.4.2. The value of thought leadership in B2B sales
    2. 12. Improving Your Customer Service
      1. 12.1. Can I Help? Twitter Customer Service from Comcast
      2. 12.2. Empowering Your Customer Service
        1. 12.2.1. Discovering why you should use Twitter for customer service
        2. 12.2.2. Determining who should use Twitter for customer service
        3. 12.2.3. Responding to public complaints on Twitter
      3. 12.3. Practicing the Art of Listening
        1. 12.3.1. Understanding why it's important to listen on Twitter
        2. 12.3.2. Using an RSS feed to track your brand
        3. 12.3.3. Investigating popular RSS readers
      4. 12.4. Using Twitter for Customer Service for a Small Business
      5. 12.5. Offering Actionable Advice on Twitter
        1. 12.5.1. Handling customer issues, concerns, cares, or problems
        2. 12.5.2. Remembering to say yes
    3. 13. Relating to the Public
      1. 13.1. Managing Your Reputation
        1. 13.1.1. Following some general guidelines
        2. 13.1.2. Monitoring what other folks are saying
          1. 13.1.2.1. Some evangelists are communicating with others on our behalf. Should we stop them?
          2. 13.1.2.2. Someone is talking badly about us. Should we stop them?
      2. 13.2. Using Reputation Management Services on Twitter
        1. 13.2.1. Free reputation management services
        2. 13.2.2. Paid reputation management services
      3. 13.3. Promoting Live Events on Twitter
        1. 13.3.1. Promoting your event
        2. 13.3.2. Live tweeting your event
        3. 13.3.3. Monitoring live tweets at an event
      4. 13.4. Setting the Proper Tone in Your Twitter Communications
        1. 13.4.1. Maintaining a professional tone
        2. 13.4.2. Keeping it real: Transparency and authenticity
      5. 13.5. Doing Media Relations with Twitter
        1. 13.5.1. Pitching a story to journalists
        2. 13.5.2. Finding someone to write about your product
        3. 13.5.3. Using virtual press centers
        4. 13.5.4. Using Twitter for crisis communications
    4. 14. Building Thought Leadership on Twitter
      1. 14.1. The Big Deal about Thought Leadership
        1. 14.1.1. Being a thought leader can help your career
        2. 14.1.2. Being a thought leader can help increase your sales
      2. 14.2. The Importance of Your Twitter Bio
        1. 14.2.1. Writing the right bio
        2. 14.2.2. Avoiding the wrong bio
      3. 14.3. Becoming a B2B Thought Leader
        1. 14.3.1. Sharing your content
        2. 14.3.2. Sharing others' valuable content
        3. 14.3.3. Collaboration is key
  10. V. The Part of Tens
    1. 15. Top Ten Do's on Twitter
      1. 15.1. Do Be Honest
      2. 15.2. Do Have a Sense of Humor
      3. 15.3. Do Interact with Your Followers
      4. 15.4. Do Use TwitPic
      5. 15.5. Do Tweet on a Regular Basis
      6. 15.6. Do Use a Profile Picture
      7. 15.7. Do Fun Stuff Every Day
      8. 15.8. Do Stick to a Schedule
      9. 15.9. Do Say Thank You
      10. 15.10. Do Add Your Twitter Name to Your Business Card
    2. 16. Top Ten Don'ts on Twitter
      1. 16.1. Don't Auto-DM
      2. 16.2. Don't Say It on Twitter When It's Better Said in Person
      3. 16.3. Don't Gather Too Many Followers Too Fast
      4. 16.4. Don't Forget Your Marketing Strategy
      5. 16.5. Don't Follow for the Sake of Following
      6. 16.6. Don't Use the Web Platform
      7. 16.7. Don't Create Too Many Accounts
      8. 16.8. Don't Give a Hard Sell
      9. 16.9. Don't Ignore Others
      10. 16.10. Don't Have an Uneven Following/Follower Ratio
    3. 17. Top Ten Thought Leaders on Twitter
      1. 17.1. Jay Baer
      2. 17.2. Chris Brogan
      3. 17.3. Jason Falls
      4. 17.4. Loïc Le Meur
      5. 17.5. Jeremiah Owyang
      6. 17.6. Katie Paine
      7. 17.7. Brian Solis
      8. 17.8. Scott Stratten
      9. 17.9. Gary Vaynerchuk
      10. 17.10. Carrie Wilkerson
    4. 18. Top Ten Tools to Use for Twitter Productivity
      1. 18.1. bit.ly
      2. 18.2. HootSuite
      3. 18.3. Nearby Tweets
      4. 18.4. SocialToo
      5. 18.5. TweetDeck
      6. 18.6. twhirl
      7. 18.7. Twilert
      8. 18.8. Twitter Grader
      9. 18.9. TwitterFriends
      10. 18.10. Twitterrific
    5. A. Great Twitter Marketing Ideas in 140 Characters or Less
      1. A.1. Marketing
      2. A.2. Promoting Your Brand
      3. A.3. Building Relationships
      4. A.4. Engaging in Conversation
      5. A.5. Retweeting
      6. A.6. Following and Followers
      7. A.7. Using Twitter Wisely

Product information

  • Title: Twitter® Marketing For Dummies®
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: November 2009
  • Publisher(s): For Dummies
  • ISBN: 9780470561720