Curt Courtwright

Personal Learning Project(Twitter)

Com 509/609

Reasons: Why Twitter?

1. I know nothing about Twitter other than a person can “tweet”

2. I want to learn a new technology that is common to millions of others

3. It can provide a great resource to get information to others

4. It can be a great resource for public relations

5. Everyone is doing it—why not me?

The Ways I Will Learn The Basics

1. Create a Twitter

2. Ask friends

3. Look at others Twitter account

4. Use Google to search for Twitter

5. Use Twitters Introductory Video

Ways To Learn How To Use TwitterIn Corporate Public Relations

1. Research published books

2. Find bloggers that blog about this topic

3. Look at other corporations Twitter account(Ex: Starbucks, Coca-Cola, RedBull)

4. Research web pages that contain valuable information

What I Hope To Learn

1. What Twitter accounts should contain

2. Learn the Lingo

3. What the best examples of a company’s Twitter is

4. How to create links to important information

5. How to “retweet”

6. What information to Tweet about

7. How companies use Twitter on a public relations level

Hashtag

Tweet

Retweet

@

#Bio

RSS Feed

So What Have

I Learned?

Twitter is an information network made up of 140-character messages from all over the world

This is the Twitter page I have created. There isn’t much here yet but will be in weeks to come. I plan to start networking and get my Twitter community to grow.

Lingo@: The @ sign is used to call out usernames in Tweets

Bio: A short personal description used to define who you are on Twitter

Follow Count: Means you subscribe to their Tweets or updates on the site

Hashtag: The # symbol is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet

Tweet: A message posted via Twitter containing 140 characters or fewer

Retweet: A Tweet by another user, forwarded to you by someone you follow

RSS Feed: Really Simple Syndication(web feed formats used to publish

frequently updated works)

Widget: A bit of code that can be placed anywhere on the web

Source: The twitter glossary

Why Use Twitter In PR?It helps spread the message to a much wider

audience than any other traditional public relations mode

It is a medium that can provide great customer service, therefore, leading to a good public reputation & strong public

relations

Why Use Twitter In PR?A great way to have a conversation with your

market . Allows you to make and manage connections with prospects, customers,

bloggers, and other audiences

Able to monitor conversation that audiences are saying about your company. It will either

reinforce their good feelings or help with their negative comments if you follow and

make conversations with them

How To Benefit Your Company Using Twitter

Monitor Conversations

Participate in Conversations

Start Conversations

Provide Product or Service Information

Promote Stories & News Through Twitter Feed

How To Benefit Your Company Using TwitterGive Live Updates on Events or Conferences

Research Your Followers To See What They Are Buying or Looking At

Get The Companies Brand Out to Allow Expansion

Everyone Else is on Twitter/ A Company Can Gain Competitive Intelligence

Promote Your Blog Content

Give Feedback to Your Audience

Examples of Successful Twitter Pages

16 Tweets19,940 Following93,247 Followers2,800 Listed

Source: Twitter

Examples of Successful Twitter Pages

•22Tweets •80,607Following•1,120,567Followers •16,621Listed

Just In Seattle, Washington Alone

Source:Twitter

What Businesses Are Saying About Twitter“Finding people on Twitter is actually easy, but

tedious to set up. I started by making announcements on the message board that I frequented to let everybody know that they could now follow me on Twitter. And then,

once I was on Twitter, I’d find [Twitter accounts for] websites, like Naturally Curly, who have a target audience similar to mine, and I’d follow

their followers. Or I’d add people who were following natural hair blogs like Afrobella. [My

following] just kind of grew from there.”

Chanel Huston, owner of Boutique de Bandeaux

“Take your time. There are different levels of interaction. You

don’t have to jump from step one, expecting that everyone’s

going to be tweeting at you and following you. It’s such a dynamic

world that it’s going to be changing every day. Even the

platform just changed in the past couple of weeks. Figure out what you want to do with it, find the

right people, find your space and it will all fall into place.”

Alexandra Moskovitz, Marketing Manager at Epicurean Management, owners of Italian restaurants L’Artusi, and Anfora wine bar

Source: E. Swallow/ Mashable

What Should Your Tweets Consist Of?•Share links to cool stuff your followers will like.

•Engage your followers directly: ask questions, throw a statement out there, do something to trigger a conversation.

•Directly addressing something someone else has tweeted with your own reply.

•Tell people about promotions, discounts, news, blogs, webinars, & news.

•Retweet others when they post tweets you like and want to share.

•Use multimedia tools, such as Utterli, TwitPic to bring some variety to your tweets.

Source: Twitter

When Should You Tweet?

“If [the tweet] is a direct question to us, I’ll respond

99% of the time. And I like to follow people. We have

14,500 followers, and we follow 12,000 people, just so I

can pick up on comments, views, and everything.

Tweeting is all about preference and depends on what type of business you are

working for. It also depends on how much time you have. If you are a person

who travels and is accessible to a cell phone then it will be much easier than a person who is working at a restaurant.

The best solution is to “tweet” as much as possible but sometimes that is not an

option.

Lev Ekster, owner of Cupcake StopSource: E. Swallow/ Mashable

ReferencesCapstick, I. (2010, March 17). Pr pros use twitter to reinvigorate brands, engage in conversation. Retrieved Retrieved November 1, 2010 from,

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/03/pr-pros-use-twitter-to-reinvigorate-brands- engage-in-conversation076.html

Courtwright, C. (2010, October 20). Twitter [Online Forum Comment]. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/#!/Curt0002

Idugboe, D. (2010, June 28). How twitter is changing public relations. Retrieved November 2, 2010, from http://smedio.com/2010/06/28/how-twitter-is-changing-public-relations

Swallow, E. (2010, July 12). Why twitter is a big win for small businesses. Retrieved October 22, 2010 from http://mashable.com/2010/10/21/twitter-small-business/

The twitter glossary. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2010, from http://support.twitter.com/entries/166337-the-twitter-glossary

Twitip.(2008, November 06). What should you tweet about?. Retrieved October 22, 2010, from http://www.twitip.com/what-should-you-tweet about/

Twitter tutorial - getting started . (2009). [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YGp4cWdndc

Volpe, M. (2008, March 05). How to use twitter for marketing & pr. Retrieved November 2, 2010, from http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4034/How-to-Use-Twitter-for-Marketing-PR.aspx