Using Twitter for Business Research

I’m currently working on a client project to promote an author contest that runs until the end of March.

One of the suggestions I made was to use Twitter as a way to build awareness since the contest is open to anybody who has a published book they want to promote.

After doing keyword research, I set up some auto-follows in TwitJump and did a couple searches on Twitter.

The two biggest reasons I performed these searches was for business research.  I wanted to know -

1.  Who are the big Tweeters in this market vertical…

2.  Are there any industry specific hashtags I should be using in the tweets.

Just a couple searches for my highest traffic, relevant keywords gave me all the answers I needed.  I can now start following some of the relevant people that are connected to these big Tweeters.  I can also email or @reply to them with news of my clients contest and their press release.

Additionally, I know which hashtags are going to carry more weight and relevance to my tweets so I can be sure to add them for maximum effectiveness.

Note to self – do this for all your clients!

The Direct Message Dilemma

For those of you that don’t know, there are three ways to communicate on Twitter -

• the broadcast tweet everyone can see
• the @ tweet everyone can see, but is directed at a particular person
• the direct message or DM.

The honest truth is there are a lot of spammers on Twitter, but they’re pretty easy to manage by creating lists or unfollowing.  Direct messages on the other hand are a real dilemma.  I’m using a service to autofollow people based on targeted keywords.  That means I’m building a list of people to follow in hopes they will follow me back.  If they don’t within a certain period of time, my software automatically unfollows.

The dilemma is during the follow, I get sent a direct message and it pops up in my email.  Every single autofollow that has sent a direct message has been automatically generated or spammy.  People who use Twitter ignore direct messages.  I send them straight to the trash.

How can a marketer use direct messaging effectively if nobody reads them?  I don’t think they can.  So should we ignore this useful piece of technology?  Perhaps.

I know I don’t have a direct message set up.  I have seen a few interesting ones.  My favorite was the one that admitted it was a bot, but invited me to connect on Facebook.  I didn’t, but I still thought it was a good idea.

Matt Singley has a suggestion for Twitter, allow a separate controller for direct messages so a user can turn it off without unfollowing.

Please give your users the ability to turn direct messages on and off globally, and when on, give us the ability to select who can and cannot send us direct messages. I want to be able to follow people without them having the ability to send direct messages to me.

What do you think about direct messaging on Twitter.  Have you found an effective way to use it?  Do you know about it?  Do you read them?  Let me know in the comments.

Did Social Media Lose Ted Kennedy’s Senate Seat?

The big news in politics yesterday was the contest for Ted Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat in Massachusetts.  Kennedy held the seat for a number of decades, but the race turned out to be quite tight in the ordinarily “blue” state.

On Monday, the Huffington Post suggested it could come down to effective use of social media.

So it’s fascinating to watch Martha Coakley’s campaign for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts basically ignore new media in favor of the old playbooks that elected Ted Kennedy to the seat.

Of course there is much more to the race: Politics and platforms and personal connections are important. But didn’t Obama for America teach us that the Web has the power to push a candidate over the top? Obama also showed the importance of young people (whose communications of choice is digital).

Much like I did the other day, the author credits Barack Obama’s win in 2008 to effective use of technology; particularly Internet based technology.  He went forward with some social media numbers;

As I compare the morning before election day, @MarthaCoakley has 3,520 Twitter followers compared to @ScottBrownMA with 10,214 followers. Coakley counts 14,487 Facebook fans to Brown’s 76,700 fans. Advantage Brown by more than three to one.

Brown didn’t win the election with a three to one margin, but he did win.  Now both sides are trying to figure out why.

Brown won 52 percent to 47 percent. Turnout was exceptional for a special election in January: More voters showed up at the polls Tuesday than in any non-presidential general election in Massachusetts since 1990.

The Huffington Post credits Brown’s social media campaign and points out Coakley pretty well ignored the opportunity.

How do college students communicate? Facebook and SMS of course! Yet these two forms of communications played absolutely no formal part in the rally. The brochure that was handed out had no web addresses or social media sites. At the rally, Coakley fans were asked to vote. They were asked to volunteer at phone banks. They were asked to talk to neighbors and friends.

But were the many college students in the crowd told to talk up the Coakley campaign on Facebook, the college student communications tool of choice? No. Were people at the rally asked to tweet? No. Were they asked to join Coakley’s fan page? No.

The Coakley campaign is underestimating the importance of social media and the new rules of marketing and PR.

That strategy looks like a blueprint for political social media campaigns.  Ask and you shall receive.

This is a valuable lesson moving forward for political campaigns of all stripes.  In Utah, Democrats are seeking to unseat a non-elected Republican governor and gain the statehouse for the first time in 30 years.  If social media is any barometer, Peter Coroon’s vibrant Facebook page is out polling Herbert’s ghost town of a page 2,368 to 219.  One of these candidates “gets” social media.  One doesn’t.  Guess who I think will win in November, despite the perceived odds?  If Massachusetts can elect a Republican to replace Ted Kennedy, a Democrat leading the state of Utah isn’t farfetched.

The rhetoric is heating up on both sides after Tuesday’s loss in Massachusetts.  In an email sent out today to Democrats, Mitch Stewart wrote,

Yesterday’s disappointing election results show deep discontent with the pace of change. I know the OFA community and the President share that frustration.

We also saw what we knew to be true all along: Any change worth making is hard and will be fought at every turn. While it doesn’t take away the sting of this loss, there is no road to real change without setbacks along the way.

On the other side, Republicans are crediting the win to voter discontent with the new Presidential administration and the healthcare debate.  I submit, it’s the effective communication of issues and platforms to voters and TV ads and robo-calls are not the way to do it any more.  Advertising is advertising whether you’re a small business, big business or political business.  If the old way of advertising is failing for businesses, it’s going to fail for you too.

People are fearful of change.  They don’t like change.  In today’s advertising world, change is social media.  Don’t be afraid of social media, embrace it.  They say Google is your friend.  I say Facebook and Twitter are too.

Utah SEO Presentation – Article Marketing

View this document on Scribd

Business networking after hours

At Cafe Trio!

801-634-4950
Http://seobyswaby.com
Http://nigelswaby.businesscard2.com
@seobyswaby

Article Marketing Class

I’ll be teaching a class on article marketing this Tuesday at BetaLoft in downtown Salt Lake at 2 pm.  It’s free to attend, but space is limited.  If you’re interested, please RSVP on Meetup.com or Facebook.

Here’s what you can expect to learn:

The “what,” “why” and “how” of article marketing.

Topics covered include:

How to title articles for maximum impact.
Which article submission sites to use.
Is there a duplicate content penalty?
The quandry of quality vs. quantity.
How to write interesting articles that will get published through syndication.

Plus much more. Don’t miss it!

For those that can’t attend, I’ll publish the Powerpoint afterwords.

How To Write Google Ads – The Perfect Formula

It’s not often I give away a piece of information as critical as this, but I’m going to do it anyway.

Twice this week I was called into consult with clients by my SEM partners who only sell paid search.

They needed to know why their campaigns weren’t working.  A successful SEM campaign has three components:

1.  Keyword research

2.  A compelling ad

3.  A compelling landing page.

Today I’m going to discuss the three components of a killer Google ad campaign.  You’ve already done the keyword research, so now it’s time to write that ad.

Google ads are tricky because you’ve got 75 characters to capture the reader’s attention, build trust, make an offer and get them to click through to your landing page.  That’s about half a tweet!

Here’s how you do it.

1.  Capture attention by using capital letters at the beginning of each word.  You can’t use all caps.  You can also use punctuation like a ? or !, but not bunched together.

2.  Build trust by repeating the search term in your ad title.  Google automates this for you.  Use it.

3.  Make an offer that capitalizes on the why of your business.  You’ve got two to four words to explain.  Be brief.

4.  Specific call to action.  Do you want your visitor to click through to your landing page or call you?  Let them know!

Here’s an ad I just found:

801 Phone Finder

Search Free Any 801 Number
Cell, Landline, Unpublished & More.
www.Intelius.com/ReversePhoneLookup

Does it meet the criteria I mentioned? 

It repeated my search term which included 801.
It gave the “why” or unique selling proposition – cell phones, unpublished, etc.
It gave a call to action – search free.

I would have changed the link at the bottom to make the URL simple, but that’s just me.

There you have the easy and effective way to write pay-per-click (PPC) ads for Google!

Bonus:

Writing ads is trial and error, so multiple testing has to be put in place.  What kind of ads are your customers going to click on?  I don’t know!  Let’s test.  Google makes it easy and shows the best performing ads more frequently.  Be sure to write multiple ads and let your customer tell you which ones work the best.

Haiti Earthquake News Comes From Social Media

When a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti on Tuesday, the country was devastated.  Poor construction standards have wiped out the capital city of Port-Au-Prince populated by two million souls.  For those who survived, wiped out communications left few choices to spread the word or even tell a loved one overseas they were still all right.

For the second time in the last 18 months, Twitter has served as a back up communication infrastructure to reach out.  The first instance was man-made when Iran’s government blocked texts and Internet sites and Twitter was the only means left.  This time Twitter faced nature and seems to be winning.

When I first heard of the catastrophe last night, Twitter was mentioned as one of the only means of communication left open to the survivors.  Today that statement appears to be quite true.  CNN is reporting,

Web surfers looking for information on the earthquake in Haiti scoured the White House’s blog, the Red Cross’ site and a handful of Twitter feeds, according to Internet traffic data gathered Wednesday by CNN.

As I remember, major earthquakes in the nineties drove cell phone purchases because they typically work after the disaster.  Since the advent of smart-phones, Twitter has assumed this role because of its wider audience reach.  News organizations are following the tweets and blogs of people directly affected by the disaster that are able to share their plight.

Like the widespread cell phone adoption a decade ago, it seems widespread Twitter adoption is just a matter of time.  I wrote about Twitter as a tool for citizen governance a few days ago.  Now it’s apparent Twitter is a viable emergency communication service.  I’m not sure why this service works when others are blocked or damaged, but it seems to be the right way to go.  Perhaps it makes sense for everyone to have a Twitter account, “just in case.”  We pay for cellular phones for the same reason.  Twitter is free!

My thoughts and prayers are with the citizens of Haiti and I hope the horrifying estimated casualty toll turns out to be much lower.  If you have the resources to help, please do.  The fact a major relief site Yele Haiti was down due to high traffic suggests to me Americans are doing the right thing.  Thank you.

Kiddie Kandids Closes…Demise Told on Facebook

Technology killed Kiddie Kandids, the Utah based photography studio, and to rub salt in the wound, their demise was broadcast all over Facebook.  While this story is a cautionary tale on many levels, the technology aspect seems to be the most compelling for me to discuss here.

As technology becomes cheaper, more effective and more accessible it’s obvious businesses need to adapt to stay relevant and profitable.  Apparently Kiddie Kandids failed to innovate and took on more debt to stay afloat before it finally crumbled.  The Deseret News reported,

The company confirmed the closure in a two-paragraph statement faxed to newsrooms Monday afternoon, blaming “negative growth” on the economy and a decision by lenders to “no longer fund Kiddie Kandids’ operations.” The company said it plans to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy this week.

The 35-year-old chain has 184 locations, including at least a dozen between Provo and Ogden. Most of the nationwide locations are at Babies”R”Us stores.

In an ironic twist, news of the closure and pending bankruptcy was transmitted via texts, blogs and Facebook.

At 12:12 a.m. Monday, district manager Wayne Royall sent his team, including Turner, a text message that read: “Hey there team, the final word that I have received is that Kiddie Kandids is closing our doors for good. I am truly sorry to be the one to share this news with everyone.”

“…Thousands of employees are getting laid off tonight across the U.S., and the way we found out was through the grapevine and Facebook.”

In a meeting two weeks ago, business coach Carlos Linares commented on the traits of longevity.  Key to that kind of success is the ability to adapt or reinvent yourself or your business to remain relevant in the current landscape.  One thing we do know is we live in a dynamic world that is always striving for change and improvement. 

Social media is one way businesses can stay relevant.  If Kiddie Kandids had 100,000 fans on Facebook or 50,000 followers on Twitter would their lenders have pulled the plug as easily?  Could a sense of relevance through social media have saved the company?

Sorenson Capital, which said it did not profit from its investment in the company, blamed the closure on a sustained economic downturn combined with a photography marketplace shift that has seen increased availability of inexpensive, user-friendly digital photography technology. “Together, these forces effectively damaged Kiddie Kandids’ in-store photography customer base beyond repair,” it said.

While some companies become the victim of technology, others leverage it.  The story of Send Out Cards is worth repeating because they found a way to implement technology for a dying practice…mailing cards.  They’re growing their business without debt, while others are failing and leaving out of work employees and broken dreams in their wake.

In a piece on social media, Sara Nichols recently wrote,

The business world is full of examples of products, brands and services that failed to acknowledge the changing landscape, only to find some other, more adaptive company take their places, leaving them in the dust.

What can your business do to stay relevant and competitive?  Is a social media strategy something that reinvents how you communicate with your customers and more importantly how they communicate with you?  I know none of us wants to send out the text Wayne Royall had to on Monday because that text means you’re out of a job too.

Social Media for Social Change

From sexy American made cars to a rotovirus vaccine, U2′s lead singer Bono covered quite the gamut of predictions for the next ten years.  The rock star and social activist penned an amazing article for the New York Times last week that identified some major macro trends we should all pay attention to.  Bono clearly has his pet projects and the one trend that really stood out to me was his comment on people power.

As Americans we’re fortunate not to live under a dictatorship or false democracy.  The Iranian elections last year and the protests that rose up afterwards are another hint the world’s people yearn to breathe free regardless of their current government.

Bono wrote:

A lot of us have seen or lived the organizational chart of the last century, in which power and influence (whether possessed by church, state or corporation) are concentrated in the uppermost point of the pyramid and pressure is exerted downward. But in this new century, and especially in some parts of the developing world, the pyramid is being inverted. Much has been written about the profits to be made at the bottom of the pyramid; less has been said about the political power there. Increasingly, the masses are sitting at the top, and their weight, via cellphones, the Web and the civil society and democracy these technologies can promote, is being felt by those who have traditionally held power. Today, the weight bears down harder when the few are corrupt or fail to deliver on the promises that earned them authority in the first place.

As a society we discuss transparency as a desirable quality.  The real life application of everybody knowing our every move is harder to transition to.  That pressure is even greater for people of power.  The most difficult position is that of a dictator in today’s world.  After the Iran elections in 2009, protesters turned to Twitter when regular Internet communication was cut.  The message was loud and clear.  Dissension can not be squelched.  If you give every man, woman and child a phone, they will communicate…positive or negative.

Fortunately in this world dictatorships and tyranny are on the downswing, but we all have to deal with someone or some company that fails to deliver on promises.  That’s the application I’d like to discuss today.

2004 was the first time social media ever impacted an American election.  It was actually a negative impact.  Remember the swiftboat blogs?  The 2008 election was won by the effective use of technology.  Some may argue it was an anti-incumbent sentiment, but I maintain the difference between Obama on the ticket and Clinton boiled down to technological strategy.

On Tuesday when Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon announces his candidacy for the Utah Governor position, you can actually attribute a portion of his decision to social media.  Besides individual pleas for him to run, two citizen activists started a Draft Peter Corroon for Governor Facebook page.  Along with polling and the other market research one does before running for office, I can’t help but think that fan page with over 1100 members factored into his decision.

The Salt Lake Tribune thinks it helped as well because they mentioned it in their article Friday,

The mayor’s candidacy would delight Misty Fowler, who helped create the “Draft Peter Corroon for Governor in 2010″ Facebook page that now has more than 1,100 followers. “Mayor Corroon will make an absolutely amazing governor,” said Fowler, who added she and many of Corroon’s Facebook followers would readily donate money and time to the campaign.

At the time of publication, nothing had been confirmed by Corroon’s camp.  Later in the day, citizen Fowler actually broke the news on her blog and made the comment on her Facebook page “happy to have been able to get the official and verified news out before any news outlet. That made a great day better.”  Misty is just a regular person just like you or I who is simply voicing her opinion.

Social media is going to help us all become more active with government.  Government isn’t just about elections, it’s about how we live together as a community.  CNN had a terrific piece a little while ago about this -

A host of larger U.S. cities from San Francisco to New York quietly have been releasing treasure troves of public data to Web and mobile application developers.

That may sound dull. But tech geeks transform banal local government spreadsheets about train schedules, complaint systems, potholes, street lamp repairs and city garbage into useful applications for mobile phones and the Web.

The aim is to let citizens report problems to their governments more easily and accurately; and to put public information, which otherwise may be buried in file cabinets and Excel files, at the fingertips of taxpayers.

Like Bono suggested, this technology is inverting the power pyramid.

By some accounts, the trend is turning the government-voter relationship on its head and could usher in a new era of grassroots democracy.

“I see [these applications] as the death of a passive relationship with government,” said Clay Johnson, director of Sunlight Labs, a group promoting Gov 2.0 apps.

“Instead of people saying, ‘Well, it’s the government’s job to fix that’ … people are taking ownership and saying, ‘Hey, wait a minute. Government is us. We are government. So let’s take a responsibility and start changing things ourselves.’ “

I’ve always considered the Internet to be the “great equalizer.”  With social media products, we’re moving past equality and into influence.  This is going to be amazing for the world by making it a much better place.