Sunday, 5 July 2009

Tweetcamp London: a review

Last weekend over 100 people met up for the London TweetCamp, generously hosted by GumTree and sponsored by mymuseli, Sun Startup Essentials, Addlestones, PayPal and Yelp. Some were colleagues and friends in real life, but many were 'friends' and / or 'followers' who communicate online through Twitter.

TweetCamp provided an inclusive and welcoming place for people active and interested in Twitter to meet up, network and put faces to Twitter names. In true Bar Camp style, discussions were loosely guided and encompassed a range of subjects including: What people use Twitter for; The do's and don'ts of Twitter; Trends; and Business benefits.

For those reading this who don't know, Twitter prompts users to fill out a micro-blog posting using only 140 characters (this includes spaces and punctuation). Postings can be extended by the use of hyper-links to blogs. Conversations take place on Twitter either through private Direct Messages or in public. In order to talk to someone or get their attention, it is vital to the person's account name (Twitter handle) in the posting e.g.: '@toni_jane have you seen the Radian6 YouTube video?' By including Toni's handle in the Tweet, it enables the message to be searched more effectively and therefore discovered by Toni.

TweetCamp enabled free, unrestricted conversations to happen, online relationships could be explored face-to-face, and valuable insights shared. Interestingly though, at the end of the day when each participant was invited to contribute a summing-up comment, Tweet-speak prevailed.

One of the key aspects of the Twitter online community is that (in the main) people genuinely want to collaborate and be useful. And that was certainly true of the spirit of the day which would not have happened without the amazing and generous organisation by @farnhan, @cyberdees and @jonin60seconds, and brilliant facilitation by @benjaminellis.

So thank you all - and for me, Twitter has already become a more meaningful landscape having met some more of its inhabitants.

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posted by thebluedoor at 14:43 0 Comments Links to this post

Friday, 26 June 2009

Twitter: how can a business use it?

"Twitter - so what is the point?" Being involved in digital PR, this is a challenge I hear all the time, partly driven by articles appearing in newspapers written by armchair pundits who don't use it but certainly have a negative opinion.

At thebluedoor we use Twitter alot. Each of us have our own Twitter account and we also have a rather underused company account too. My Twitter name is @AbigailH - please do follow me and let me know if I can help with any Twitter questions that you have.

In order to understand Twitter and its benefits I would advise that you stop reading articles in papers and start using it. Here is some tips that might help you get started:
  • Go to Twitter - it's free - and register your own name (or as close as possible) and your business and its brands. Even if you don't intend to use the latter, owning them means that you are protecting them from someone else who might have malicious intentions to spam your brand
  • Watch the demonstration video, it is a great starting point
  • Fill in your profile and don't forget to put a link to your website or blog
  • Use a free application e.g.: TweetDeck / Twirl in order to see conversation
  • Follow @hashtags and create business relevant hashtag e.g.: #Habitat (* see below). Hashtags help conversations to be visible
  • Follow @MrTweet in order to ‘find’ followers / friends
  • Live-Tweet events / news / general industry information, as well as key business information to gather more attention
  • Perhaps add links into your Tweets that point into your business’s key online areas. Remember to use key words – there are SEO benefits in Twitter
  • Track the ROI by looking at your website's analytics
  • Refer to key opinion formers and include their Twitter handle e.g.: @stephenfry. If they are using TweetDeck they might see them and sometimes (if you are lucky!) respond / engage accordingly
  • Twitter is great for testing ideas, gathering feedback, and asking questions
  • Remember that this is Web 2.0 i.e.: it is talking and listening, not just pushing out company news! – otherwise people will not be interested

* = Habitat got into hot water earlier this week by using inappropriate hashtags such as #iranelection in order to piggy-back a topic that was being discussed (trending).

Twitter does not replace face-to-face communication, but is a very powerful digital networking and collaboration tool for businesses. And in the spirit of that final point, I'm attending tomorrow's TweetCamp in London and am very much looking forward to meeting up with people (many for the first time) who are active on Twitter. If you are going, I can't wait to meet you. And if you're not, there is sure to be lots of live Tweeting going on, so watch out for the #tweetcamp tagged Tweets.

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posted by thebluedoor at 13:45 2 Comments Links to this post

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