Twittering Your WayThrough the

Economic Storm

Houston Interactive Marketing Association13 January 2009

Tim Walker

5,000,000(ish)

(& growing)

Itinerary

What Twitter IS

Twitter for BUSINESS

Twitter TOOLS

Takeaways“bit by bit”

“transparently & authentically”

“monitor & engage in conversations”

@HIMAtalk

What Twitter IS

•“like IM’ing a group”

•“free-form chat room”

•“microblog”

• questions & answers• funny stories• pictures• links• quotations• discussion• . . .

Two questions

Whom should I follow?

Two questions

Whom should I follow?

Should I use automatic welcoming DMs?

More•Network effects

•Strong & loose ties

•Play + discovery

Twitter for BUSINESS

Create a customer!

Purpose Plan

DO

WHAT to do: mindset

• To be of USE.

• To hear the TRUTH.

• To find and serve CUSTOMERS.

WHAT to do: function• Marketing

–Not “campaigns”!–Not advertising!

• Branding• Word-of-mouth

WHAT to do: function

• P.R.

• Media outreach

WHAT to do: function

• Sales

• Support

WHAT to do: function

• Industry analysis

• Competitive intel

HOW to do it• Openness

–Personal & humble–Admit mistakes

• Transparency–Financial interests–What I’m getting into

What not to do

Emulate . . .

Emulate . . .

Emulate . . .

Emulate . . .

Emulate . . .

Emulate . . .

Emulate . . .

Emulate . . .

The commonality:

LISTENING

Remember . . .

We’re having a

CONVERSATION,not a MESSAGING

session.

Caveats•Compliance

•Corporate standards

•Follow-up!

More•Networking

•Careers

•Crisis mgmt.

Twitter TOOLS

Tool categories

• Shorten / track links

• Search

• Desktop & mobile clients

• Social tools

Shorten links

Shorten & track links

search.twitter.com

search.twitter.com

Desktop client

Client + search

Mobile clients

• iPhone: Twitterific, Tweetie, TwitterFon

• Blackberry: TwitterBerry

• And plain ol’ SMS!

Social tools

Social tools

Social tools

Social tools

@HIMAtalk

Takeaways“bit by bit”

“transparently & authentically”

“monitor & engage in conversations”