ION Digital

Twitter is a great tool for companies seeking to connect with key audiences, build their brands and much more.Once you  get the swing of Twitter (last blog) , you’re ready to get fully immersed and start growing. The goal is to attract followers, and eventually build your own community.

Twitter communities are generally loosely organized at best; that’s the beauty of it but it’s also the challenge. Connecting with so many different people is like herding cats.

My approach is this: rather than thinking about hundreds (or in some people’s case, thousands) of followers, I’ll choose two or three representative followers to focus on at a time; that’s my “audience.” This is based on techniques I use in public speaking. Rather than scanning a big audience, I’ll find 2 or 3 audience members  in the front row and focus eye contact on them, providing me a chance to focus my energy and thoughts. When I’m answering a question or corresponding with someone on Twitter, they have my full attention.

I’m trying to build a  community one contact at a time–slow, yes, but steady and (I’m hoping) enduring. I’m really focused on quality of community vs pure quantity, so Guy Kawasaki (100k plus followers) has nothing to worry about with me.

Below are a few tips to get you started. (more…)

Twitter is all the rage now; I wish I had a nickel for every time a client mentioned it. Succeeding in it is another matter, though,  and at first it can be hellishly confusing.

When I first started, and was following dozens of people, I felt like I was in a busy sports bar during the Super Bowl. I remember thinking: I don’t know these people. I don’t know what they’re talking about. I must be in the wrong place.

It helps to know the rules and a little about the culture before you jump in. It’s not rocket science but it does take a little study and work.

1) Plan: First, think about why you’re even on Twitter.

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1) The Yelp “extortion” debacle (also note the responses: “Yelp Extortion: True or False?”  and “PR 2.0: Yelp Gets a Bad Review: Embracing a Crisis to Shape Perception”)

2) Top 100 Social Media and Internet Marketing Bloggers

3) “25 Most Shocking Crimes in Social Media History | Masters in Criminal Justice” 

4) Demystifying social media for companies–some good tips, steps

5) NY Times, Wash Post lead top 10 newspaper sites

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February was a busy month on Facebook, which now seems primed to take over the universe–or at least the lion’s share of the social media audience. It now has over 175 million subscribers,  which would supposedly rank it as the seventh largest country in the world, almost as  large as Brazil.   Amazingly, it’s still growing, up to 5 million new users a week, or about a Twitter every week.  With this growth comes enormous exposure and new criticism.   My top 10 favorite articles and posts for February:

1) The rising power of Facebook (Fortune profile)

2)  Everyone else is on Facebook. Why aren’t you? Slate Magazine” (more…)