Tweet This!

Twitter for Business

© 2009 Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR

All rights reserved. Use of any content or any duplication or republishing without the express permission of the author is strictly prohibited.

For updates and to learn more about the latest information and news about Twitter as well as other social media platforms, visit my Web site at: www.tweetingmybusiness.com

For updates and information surrounding this book, follow: www.twitter.com/tweetingthis

Manufactured in the United States of America.

For information, please contact:

Brown Books Small Press
16250 Knoll Trail, Suite 205
Dallas, Texas 75248

www.BrownBooksSmallPress.com
972-248-9500
A New Era in Publishing™

ISBN-13: 978-1-612547-78-7
LCCN: 2009911583

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Second Printing, 2011

Author contact information:

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR
Follow me on Twitter at:
www.twitter.com/blogging4jobs

To my husband, Greg, and Baby Ryleigh.

Preface

One: What Is Twitter?

Two: Joining the Twitterverse

Three: Basic Twitter Applications

Four: Twitter for Business

Five: Twitter Tips

Six: Twitter Resources

Seven: Legal Considerations

Eight: Advanced Twitter Techniques

Nine: Achieving Twittertopia in 30 Minutes a Day (or Less)

Appendix

Twitter Glossary

Resources

About the Author

Over the course of my career, I have used tools such as chat rooms, blogs, Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as a form of communication and as a way to inexpensively recruit candidates and promote events. Because I have been a relatively early adopter, friends, colleagues, and businesses have looked to me to help them leverage these online tools to recruit employees and grow their business.

Fast-forward to December 2008: my husband, Greg, and I were nine months pregnant with our first child. It was late morning when my water broke on December 12, and I posted on Twitter the following: “My water broke. Heading to the hospital.” When Ryleigh came into the world very early the next morning, we announced her arrival through both Twitter and Facebook. Over the course of 2009, Twitter became my place to engage others, seek comfort, and build and grow both business and personal relationships. In April of this year, when my husband lost his father, I turned to Twitter to find comfort with my virtual support network.

Since I first logged on to Twitter in the summer of 2008, it has grown and changed dramatically. Quantcast.com estimates that from October 2008 to September 2009 Twitter’s traffic grew from 5 million users to 27 million in the United States alone. Facebook, another popular social media platform, boasts more users than some small countries with over 100 million in the United States. Even still, businesses are most surprised by the fact that the largest growth for both these platforms comes from the 35- to 50-year-old demographic and not the 18–34 crowd.

The concept of Tweet This! was developed during the first few weeks after Ryleigh was brought into this world. I was on maternity leave from my corporate job. It became clear during my time off that there was a need for a Twitter business resource for the small- to medium-sized business, entrepreneur, and consultant. With that in mind, over the course of several months I began working on a Twitter manual which then quickly became a book. I hope that you will find Tweet This! to be an easy-to-read resource for the beginning to advanced Twitter user. I have worked hard to provide a variety of case studies that emphasize the importance of time management and getting the most out of Twitter for the small business. The strategies discussed have been tested by a number of business owners and experts, including me.

I hope that you will find this book, and Twitter, to be valuable resources to grow and shape your business. My book has led my family and me on an incredible journey that has resulted in me leaving the corporate world, realizing my own dream, and starting my own consulting practice.

So sit back and enjoy Tweet This!

This book couldn’t have happened without so many people. I’d like to recognize and thank, first and foremost, my wonderful family: my husband, Greg, who supports me in whatever I do; my daughter, Ryleigh, now ten months old, who has forever changed our lives in so many ways; my parents, Terry and Leigh; and my sisters, Jamie and Julie, and their families. I love you all! I also want to thank my in-laws, Barney and Shirley, who taught me to live and love every day. Barney, you will never be forgotten. I’ve appreciated everyone’s help and support in so many ways.

After my family, I’d like to thank a list of amazing and special people who helped me do this: Irma’s Burgers, Bill Vick, Dave Gardner (who also served as a case study and editor), Sheri Guyse, Becky McCray, Matt Galloway, Mark Stelzner, Samuel Gordon’s Jewelers, Daniel Gordon, Ryan Parrott, Trichology Salon, Greg Welchel, The Oklahoma Gazette, Chris Wilson, Eddie Roach, Sharlyn Lauby, Giovanni Gallucci, Angelika Movie Theatres, Latoicha Givens, Brian Blake, Kevin Jessop, My Workster, Oklahoma Humane Society, Harvey Jenkins, and Edmond Active.

And finally, I’d like to thank my publisher, the Brown Books Small Press, who helped me make my dream a reality. Cynthia Stillar did an amazing job of keeping me focused and had a great eye for detail.

To everyone, I am deeply grateful.

Twitter was a service originally created for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? It was originally developed for use with SMS text messaging. Twitter users post tweets––posts written in 140 characters or fewer.

Think of Twitter as a virtual cocktail party or water cooler. It is a place where people come to get to know each other and stay connected and up-to-date on the latest news and information. I use Twitter to promote my new blog posts, upcoming seminars, and articles I have written. I also use it to develop new relationships and follow those within my industry or others that I admire. Twitter can be used a thousand different ways for a thousand different reasons.

Here are some common uses for Twitter:

Picture yourself driving on the highway as you make your way on your morning commute. As you weave in and out of traffic surrounded by thousands of other morning commuters, a billboard sign grabs your attention. The Hard Rock Café is coming to your town. You make a mental note to yourself to visit the Hard Rock Café Web site when you arrive at work. Later that morning after checking e-mails and voice-mails, you visit the Hard Rock Café Web site and casually mention it to several of your co-workers in person and by e-mail. Word quickly spreads throughout your office and circle of friends, and by the end of the day, the new Hard Rock Café is the talk of the town and among your family, co-workers, and friends.

Twitter is exactly like that. It’s a virtual highway or stream of information called the Twitter Stream. Twitter users weave in and out of the stream of information. Someone’s “billboard,” or tweet, grabs a Twitter user’s attention, causing dialogue between Twitizens––also known as Twitter citizens––leading them to a Web site mentioned within a tweet or the user’s bio.

Restaurants and companies like the Hard Rock Café use Twitter as a way to inform the Twitter Stream of new information and develop relationships with their customers directly. One restaurant local to the Oklahoma City area that has had success in using Twitter to promote their business is Irma’s Burger Shack. Irma’s Burger Shack has two locations and uses their Twitter account, @irmasburgers, to tweet their lunch specials and engage their customers. In July 2009, @irmasburgers boasted 656 followers, certainly not a large number in comparison to other national chains like @pizzahut which has over 14,000 followers. Irma’s Burgers began using Twitter in January 2009. Their success story centers around selling out their lunch special in just 45 minutes after sending a tweet out on Twitter. Lunch special tweets are now sent out daily.

Using This Book

This book has been created and formatted with small businesses, consultants, and nonprofits in mind. Modeled after my own Twitter for Business class––also called “Tweet This!”––this book takes into consideration the time and immediacy that business professionals face when choosing to make the jump onto the social media platform, Twitter. Because business professionals can use Twitter thousands of different ways, I’ve chosen to feature a variety of businesses from a diverse group of industries. Use these case studies to help develop your business’s Twitter strategy to market, grow, promote, and develop an online presence.

At the back of this book is an appendix with helpful tools and worksheets to organize your creative thoughts, goals, and ideas while creating your Twitter business plan. Don’t wait to log onto Twitter until the conclusion of this book. Dive right in and enjoy Tweet This!

History of Twitter

In 2006, a think tank company called Obvious Corporation, formerly known as Odeo Corp., created Twitter. The concept behind Twitter was born during a day-long brainstorming session focused on reinventing the company. The brainchild behind Twitter was @jack, also known as Jack Dorsey. And it was during this brainstorming session that @jack described a dispatch service that connects people to each other by phone through using text messaging. Work on the project began in March 2006. Twitter was created as a way to communicate using a social media platform derived from SMS—text messaging—and was originally called “Twttr.” While SMS text messaging allows for 160 characters for each text message, @jack and his team decided upon 140 characters so the remaining 20 characters within the text message could be used for the Twitter account holder’s username.