Building an Online Community with Twitter

Leslie McGraw, CEO of Les Go, gave a fun and interesting presentation on Building an Online Community Using Twitter at LA2M.  McGraw works as a journalist and marketer with a variety of different groups.  “Social media allows me to communicate with all these different groups,” she said.

Leslie McGraw

To build a community it’s valuable to think about the various communities you interact with regularly McGraw suggested.  Keyword, name and hashtag searches can uncover people and organizations in your wheel house.  

Using the Discover button and localizing Trends makes Twitter even more personal and can be a source of tweet topics, following and follows.

McGraw described Twitter as “right now in the world,” and added “If it’s awkward to explain to your boss or your parents, it’s not for Twitter.”  McGraw recommended “Bring life and action to your tweets.  Use things that are happening now, things that people can do or discuss.” 

She suggested topics relating to people, places, movement, activity, dialogue, events or holidays.  Not all events have to be immediate.  Some can be ongoing, like a challenge event.  Choosing to engage one of your Twitter followers can also add interest McGraw explained. 

Foursquare adds movement to Twitter.  Other 3^rd party apps connect Twitter to Facebook so one automatically updates the other.  Some 3^rd party apps used by McGraw include Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Klout and Quora.  It’s helpful to employ 3^rd party apps but you want to use them without looking like a machine said McGraw. 

McGraw recommended having separate business and personal Twitter and Facebook accounts. “You have your business hat on when you are on your business page,” said McGraw. 

As a business tool, McGraw suggested connecting business events to holidays through Twitter.  I

t can also be used as a connection tool between staff, interns and volunteers.  The more your group tweets together and uses common hashtags, the larger your business will look said McGraw.

Tweets are limited to 140 characters, but for tweets to be retweeted, characters need to be limited to about 125 McGraw explained.  Because characters are at a premium abbreviations are important.  McGraw listed several commonly used word and expression short forms.

b/c = because, b = be, b4 = before, chk = check, cld = could, abt = about, cre8 = create, detweet = describe a tweet, f2f = face to face, fab = fabulous, fav = favorite, nts = note to self, prt = please retweet, tff = thanks for the follow, wtv = whatever, yoyo = you’re on your own, yolo = you only live once

For more Twitter terminology and information McGraw suggested the Quick Reference Twitter Dictionary.  You’ll find McGraw’s entire presentation in the LA2M archive.  You can follow Leslie McGraw at @lesgo4it.

  

Covering Live Events with Social Media

It seems like everyone is involved with event planning.   Whether it’s through work or volunteering, event involvement is part of the picture.  Promoting an event is essential to successful results, no matter how that’s quantified.   Social media has become a cornerstone of event promotion.  It’s a vital tool in the promotional toolbox. 

Richard Retyi, Social Media Director at Fluency Media shared his expertise on using social media to promote and cover live events before a receptive audience at LA2M.  Retyi’s has impressive experience in working with social media for a who’s who of big name clients.

Richard Retyi

Retyi’s talk was an enlightening and practical step by step tutorial in maximizing social media benefit for live events before, during and after.  Any successful marketing effort begins with planning whether it’s for your own event or if your organization is part of an event.

Begin by researching who will be there and what social media channels they use.  Look for participants, influencers, speakers, bands and whatever applies to your event, Retyi recommended.  Include their feeds in an online hub that will aggregate all things informational and social surrounding your event. 

The hub you create can be part of your website or a separate site.  The hub should include access to all important event information, explained Retyi.

Create a FourSquare geo location and most importantly a hashtag that is short and specific to the event.  Use other media like email to round out your promotional picture, Retyi suggested. 

Retyi said when it comes to planning for the day of the event you need to ask yourself, “What do you need and what will work best for the event?”  He said, “You need to plan your equipment and support for the equipment and prepare for the weather.” 

Advance preparation also includes knowing what channels will be used and staffing for appropriate coverage.  “One person on site can tweet, get information and take photos,” but two is more ideal explained Retyi.

“Twitter is where live events live.  Twitter is a quick glimpse with photos, it gives people a flavor,” said Retyi.  Tweeting 5 times per hour and every other hour posting on Facebook and using on online photo book is about optimum for most events, explained Retyi.  Google+ and Instagram are also good social sharing assets.

“Make sure to send all posts to your online hub for complete updates,” said Retyi.  Photography doesn’t need to be fancy. “Get creative.  You aren’t a professional.  You aren’t getting the highest quality with mobile. So get unique,” advised Retyi.

Coveritlive can generate a unique live interactive experience that allows for live chat, video and more.  Google Hangout can be used for live backstage chat, Q & A and more.  Moderate and display tweets and meet ups to add another dimension, suggested Retyi. 

Build a pre-event play list on Spotify if you are promoting a music event.  Utilize Turntable.fm to create an off line music experience that replicates a live show.  These are some of the tips and tools Retyi suggested to make your event audience experience unique on and off site.

Once the event is concluded Retyi recommends doing a wrap up.  “A photo heavy blog is easiest.  The next time you do the event you can push people to the post.”  WordPress or Tumblr are suggested blog sites. 

Storify for curating hashtags, photos and tweets is preferred.  “Curate your work as a repository to use in the future,” said Retyi.  Event generated content can be re-purposed on your website, in an e-newsletter and other collateral channels.

Retyi said you can gauge the success of your event and social media promotional activities by looking at impressions for hashtags, how many impressions the account got and how authoritative the re-tweeters are.  He also suggested looking at what were the most re-tweeted tweets, as well as engagement with photos on Twitter and on Facebook.

You can follow Richard Retyi at @RichRetyi.  To view the entire presentation, go to the LA2M event archive.

  

10 Digital Marketing Resources to Impact Business Success

Derek Mehraban, LA2M founder, CEO of Ingenex Digital Marketing, author and instructor at Michigan State University did exactly what any great teacher would do.  He gave just enough information to educate and tantalize the LA2M audience on April 18^th.  Mehraban chose 10 Digital Resources to Impact Business Success from his handy book, New Media Driver’s License Resource Guide.

Mehraban has taught digital media strategy to over 1000 students and along the way many of those students have suggested informative resources on topics like web design, blogging, SEO and digital PR.  Many of the resources are included in the Resource Guide as well as resources suggested by professional colleagues. 

The book is intended to be used with www.newmediadriverslicenseresources.com which lists web sites that provide more in depth expertise on the topics included in the book.

Derek Mehraban

Mehraban focused first on SEO.  Andrew Miller offers excellent advice on not only standard web site optimization but also mobile optimization in his post http://www.yoursearchadvisor.com/blog/optimized-site-now-what/.  He also explores converting visitors to customers, building email relationships and soliciting feedback.  All of these are important topics for marketers and business owners.

Mehraban pointed out www.techmeme.com as a resource for cutting edge tech news.  The site was started in 2005 by Gabe Rivera as an automated news curation service.  In 2008 Techmeme added human editors to enhance the algorithmic collection method.  Techmeme is considered a leading news source for the fast evolving world of technology.

David Meerman Scott offers his helpful free marketing strategy planning template on his site www.webinknow.com at this link http://www.webinknow.com/2010/07/free-marketing-strategy-planning-template.html.    Mehraban said, “Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.  It’s a long haul discipline of daily tasks” 

The marketing strategy planning template offers a daily marketing to do list to keep marketing and PR efforts on track explained Mehraban.  A diagram of suggested digital marketing tools, strategies and interconnections is also included with the template.

Mehraban said www.Techsmith.com/snagit is a handy tool for capturing and sharing information on your screen with others.  It can be used for instruction, documentation and collaboration.  www.techsmith.com also has video and audio editing and sharing products as well.

Successful and engaging blogging can be a real challenge.  Mehraban suggested reading 50 Can’t Fail Techniques for Finding Great Blog Topics at www.copyblogger.com/brainstorm-blog-topics. 

He said, “Blogging is an important tool.  It’s interactive or it could be.  It’s instant, it’s free and it could be at the core of your strategy.”  He used the Ingenex blog www.thedigitalbus.com as an example of a blog working to improve engagement through content.

Mehraban noted www.gregverdino.typepad.com as a resource for understanding the shift in marketing from mass media to micro messaging.  Greg Verdino recommends reaching out to customers and potential customers with individualized, personal marketing, especially Gen Y.  This strategy can be applied to both B2C and B2B. 

In his book, MicroMarketing, Verdino uses the example of Ford loaning 100 new Fiestas to 20 something’s active in social media.  Each participant was required to engage in a series of activities and spread the word through social media contacts.

Included in Mehraban’s book are Greg Verdino’s top picks for social media resources.  Among those are www.DarrenHerman.com.  Herman is a media, advertising and technology entrepreneur.  A link on Darren Herman’s blog connects to a YouTube video of marketing pioneer and genius David Ogilvy. 

Ogilvy talks at length about big media and big agencies using the wrong concept in marketing.  Ogilvy says mass marketing isn’t effective, big media and big agencies don’t think in terms of selling.  He recommends having a direct marketer vet ad copy before it’s presented to a client.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br2KSsaTzUc is the link to watch the video.

Mehraban suggested reading a short article on Siliconrepublic regarding the social media strategy of the President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign.  The social media strategy of the campaign revolves around individual interaction, contact and group self selection.  Mehraban recommended visiting www.BarackObama.com to explore the complete array of social media use.

Mehraban’s final recommendation was an article on www.Brainsolis.com entitled The Three C’s of Information Commerce: Consumption, Curation, Creation that is found at http://www.briansolis.com/2010/11/the-three-cs-of-social-networking-consumption-curation-creation/.  The article covers different types of web users, on line behavior and activities, Mass Connectors and Mass Mavens.  Within that context, marketers and businesses need to understand the “egosystem” in order to effectively engage their audience, influence, brand and market.

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ou can follow Derek Mehraban at @mehraban.   

Google Tools for Non Profits

Colby Chilcote is an Adwords representative for Google’s Ann Arbor office.  One of her passions is helping nonprofits with their marketing.  Google’s policy of allowing employees to pursue other interests during work time has made it possible for Chilcote to work with nonprofits and spread the word about Google tools available to nonprofits. 

During her talk at LA2M on March 22 Chilcote detailed tools for nonprofits available through Google that generally fall into 2 categories.  Google Adwords marketing is offered free of charge to those nonprofits given a Google Grant.  Most Google apps are free of charge to organizations of 10 and under.  Google apps include YouTube, Google Earth, Google Voice and Google office programs like calendar, word processing and Gmail.

Chilcote described Google.com/nonprofits as the main hub for tools and information for nonprofits.  On the website, nonprofit groups will find case studies, information about available tools and an application for Google Grants.

Chilcote explained Google Adwords marketing.  She said it is based on businesses and organizations bidding on keywords related to their products and services.  When some searches for a topic in Google, the organic results are shown in the middle of the page and are derived from a search algorithm.  Search results listed on the right hand side of the page are advertisers and those listings are based on keyword bids.  The highest bidder is listed first and the advertiser is charged if the viewer clicks on their ad.

When choosing keywords for Google Adwords, it’s important to be specific, Chilcote said.  The more highly specific you are in choosing words that relate to your organization’s products and services the lower the cost for the Adwords bid and the greater the likelihood your organization will be listed near the top.  Adwords can be focused on key geographic areas also.

A Google Grant allows nonprofits to use Adwords free, explained Chilcote.  The organization must be a 501c3 with no commercial interests.  Organizations can apply for a Google Grant on the Google.com/nonprofits page. 

Nonprofits create their own Adwords ads.  The program is self managed by the nonprofit.  Organizations can have ads specific to certain key word searches.  Adwords marketing can be used to meet common nonprofit goals like increasing awareness, soliciting donations, promoting events and increasing membership.

Chilcote pointed out that Google Apps are available for laptops, netbooks and mobile.  Applications like calendar, documents, Gmail, chat, talk and more allow for extensive collaboration but can be structured by privacy settings.  Since the content and programs are stored in the cloud access is available from anywhere and storage isn’t an issue.  Nonprofits in the Google Grants program have access to the business version of Google Apps, Chilcote said.  Google also has a library of document templates for newsletters, mailing lists, invitations and more.

Interested nonprofits should visit Google.com/nonprofits or sign up for an appointment on the calendar for Google’s Ann Arbor location at this site https://sites.google.com/site/googa2officehours.  Businesses interested in Adwords can call 1.866.2.Google.