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06.10.09 Is Your Company Tweeting?  By David BerkowitzDuring a late lunch (for me) or an early dinner (for my wife's grandparents) at Applebee's in Reading, Pa., I was distracted from figuring out how to eat my riblets when I heard the conversation inevitably turn to Twitter. It wasn't the most senior members at the table who were interested in tweeting - thank goodness,as that would have made me fall off my chair faster than an Applebee's Top Shelf Long Island Iced Tea. Instead, my uncle, an optometrist, had been hearing about Twitter and wondered if he should tweet professionally. When I answered Uncle Glenn, I brought up a number of factors that he should consider when evaluating the service.I also compared his situation to that of Jeff, my father-in-law, a plastic surgeon in Dallas. Glenn and Jeff have several things in common: small businesses in health care targeting older-skewing customers who aren't particularly tech-savvy. There are key differences though, and those are described below. Here are ten factors Glenn, Jeff, or anyone else should consider when deciding whether to tweet: • Domain squatting:Is there any value for you to register your business name or even real name (if you own your business or are the face of it) as a Twitter username? I covered this recently, and there are a number of reasons why you should, even if you don't plan to actively use it. • Brand mentions: Is anyone talking about your actual business already? For a small business, this isn't as likely, but you absolutely must check. For this search and others discussed here, use Twitter Search at search.twitter.com.While Twitter offers search functionality on its own site, it's only available to registered users, and Twitter Search is more robust.
• Topical mentions:Are people on Twitter discussing topics relevant to your business? For Glenn, this might mean posts about getting glasses. For Jeff, it might be concerns about aging, or about certain products like Botox. These signal opportunities where you can respond and be a resource. I once tweeted about a friend needing a Word Press programmer; the person who responded wasn't following me but was getting alerts for relevant terms, and he wound up with the gig. • Location mentions: If your business is based in or focused on a certain city or region,search Twitter to see what people are saying about it. Then use the advanced searchfeature to find posts from people based within a certain area. There may be ways to be a resource about your area. You should also run location-specific searches for your brands and relevant topics. The potential reach also matters; Glenn's target is residents within a small radius of Reading (population: 83,000), while Jeff's customers live in and beyond the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, home to one-quarter of all Texans. • Target audience: If there are lots of relevant mentions, click the user names to see if they look like they could be in your target audience. If the volume of tweets is high enough, you'll find a sample of people who are sharing information about themselves, whether from their Twitter profiles, the links to their sites, or what they're talking about. Continue reading this article. About the Author: David Berkowitz is Director of Strategic Planning for 360i and oversees the Search Informed Marketing firm's Emerging Media Practice. Every Tuesday, he pens the Search Insider column for MediaPost, with over 100 articles published to date. He often speaks at events covering marketing, media, and technology; his previous engagements include Ad:Tech, Consumer Electronics Show - Digital Hollywood, MediaPost's Search Insider Summit, and many others. He has also blogged extensively with MarketersStudio.com, MarketingVox, nowEurope, AdTechBlog, and others. >. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news. |
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