A live blog of the Wednesday Keynote address at SMX Social Media in Las Vegas, December 5, 2012
By Del Harvey, Director of Trust and Safety, Twitter (@delbius)
Broadway Books in Portland was on the brink of shutting down. @everydaydude in 2008 tweeted “buy a book, no buy 3, and I’ll buy you a burrito.” The bookstore was mobbed and turned around. It’s not crazy that a tweet can do a whole lotta stuff.
Ability to connect = Success
And if you’re connecting successfully, you’re probably not one who will run afoul of Twitter’s spam team. Connecting successfully also gives you the ability to:
1. tell your brand’s story
2. expand your audience
3. strengthen loyalty
4. increase brand exposure
It’s not only what you tweet but how you tweet it.
The most popular ineffective ways to tweet.
1. Multiple unsolicited @replies
2. Duplicate posts (especially with #random #hashtags in the repeats to try to jump on trending tweets)
Best Practices and How-Tos
1. host a chat. Create a real-time forum to drive meaningful brand-relevant conversation.
2. Run a contest.
3. Announce a sale. Include a ooupon code & encourage sharing it.
The Success Shortlist:
EPIC
– Events: A shared moment your audience can participate in.
– Participation
– Interests
– Content
These are the big opportunities to make that ideal connection that will build your influence in ways Twitter likes.
More at http://bitly/abilitytoconnect
I’d also add another ineffective way to tweet would be to just RT, and not have any original thoughts. I see this a lot. I don’t need people to RT me stuff I read everyday from SEOMoz or SearchEngineLand.
I’m also not fond of the group thank you’s, following a Twitter chat, etc. (Even when I’m thanked.) Are you supposed to thank the person for the thank you? Not a good use of Twitter real estate space…or goodwill, in my ebooks.
Yeah, Judy, that’s a problem all over in e-communications. I hate getting emails that just say “thanks.” Then I feel if I don’t respond, I’m the impolite one! But if I do, it just perpetuates a never-ending chain of useless responses.