Some think it’s about ‘what you ate for breakfast’, about celebrities and full of junk! Well, of course with any community you can seek out and follow people who do tweet about these or are celebrities.

So, how are marketing people using Twitter? I want to share some of the findings from the recent Marketing Profs publication “The State of Social Media Marketing”. This research is based upon a survey of over 5,000 marketing professionals across the world.

Tweet Frequency

There are those marketers who post multiple tweets in an hour or day, but they aren’t the largest group. At the moment, marketers are updating their twitter accounts daily or to a lesser extent weekly.

This is good news for those people who have been concerned about the amount of time required to maintain the web presence. So, clients can be serviced and you get on with running your business without feeling a slave to your twitter stream.

Number of Followers

The jury is out about whether it is better to have a large following or a small one.

Only 10% of the marketers surveyed had over 2,000 followers with the average having 836 followers. Now that means they aren’t participating in this frenzy on having high numbers of followers with the follow-you-follow-me strategy or they want to have a large following but aren’t able to achieve this with their current tweeting activity.

Twitter is about networking, sharing and engaging with people. My view is that when you have thousands it is more difficult to engage when there are thousands of people unless you have a persona, time and respond to all mentions.

Benchmark Data

Account                                     Tweets/day      Followers         Follow

Research – avge                      ?                    836

@karenpurves                          4                 3500            200

So, how do you fit these findings fit with your Twitter experience? Add yours in the comments below.

I’ve been on social networking sites since 2005 and have seen a huge change in the way these are used and the volume of activity.  Although, I keep up with the technology, what about doing it?

Well, just this morning, I left lots of Linkedin groups because I found myself unable to keep up with the volume of information. By taking this into account, I have changed the way I tweet and use groups. I may appear to be more of a lurker now but, just as in face to face meetings, when the quiet ones speak people take notice. Well, in social media this maybe a foolhardy tactic and I will let you know in due course

So, what am I doing on social media?

I am blogging, tweeting, linkedin and  having a light touch on my Facebook fan page.

But, this year I am deepening relationships with people I “met” last year and seeing where this takes us …. After all social networking is about relationships, rather than noise and even in cyberspace that takes time.

How is social networking for you?

Really, as with all marketing, which platform is best for what you want to achieve.

There is having connections with people on all the sites and that is great to keep in touch but it may not have anything to do with marketing.

I know alot of professional service firms pooh-pooh Facebook and that leaves a great opportunity for the firms who don’t. Facebook Fan Pages will grow in importance as people learn how they are to use them.

Linkedin is a great site for business to business (but not exclusively so) but it does depend on how you use it. Again, goes back to what your goals are. Setting up groups and participating in groups are great ways of gaining credibility and extending your market. But, you need to have something else to follow on too.

What is at your website to capture interest further?

How are you going to convert interest into a client?

How are you going to do that as well as servicing clients?

Great questions that need answers otherwise your ROI will be poor.

If you are using Linkedin as if you would personal networking, then you may be missing opportunities. I have a guide on how to use linkedin here

The fundamental difference between face to face networking and online networking is the scale. Face to face tends to be 1 to 1 and sometimes 1 to many. While, online networking is many to many… that’s new and it means that if you change your approach, your returns will also increase.

With regards to Twitter, it is an interesting tool. And, I think you have think what you want to achieve. Also, is your market on twitter? With twitter, a tweet life expectancy is around 10 minutes. So, if your market isn’t consuming in real time there is less chance that your efforts will be received. Sure, there are tools that collect tweets from people you are particularly interested in but that won’t be for lots of people.

Again, I think you can use twitter in a tactical way to have lots of comments on an event, topic etc.

On a personal note, I like sites where I am able to explore concepts, engage with others in that exploration and make new connections. Connections aren’t always prospects but they are always interesting. Taking that perspective further, it’s about how to create win:win outcomes…

How do you use the different social networking sites?

How to post advice – There’s tweetiquette, the latest post by Lisa Barone offers a concise list that’s practical and full of common sense.

Business Building Advice -  There are marketing consultants saying that you have to build a huge following to be effective on Twitter.

There are those that say you have to be consistent and tweet so many times a day.

Now, really, twitter is done when you have time to do it. If you are permanently on twitter then perhaps you could do with looking at how you manage your time and whether twitter is bringing in the business.

A Personal View

I’ve been using Twitter since July 2008, and that seems an age in social media terms.

I’ve had business from it.

But, the most important thing is that I have connected with people who I may never of otherwise. I’ve connected with people on Twitter who are also friends on other sites. And, because of that, I don’t forward my twitter stream to other sites, the reason being that people want to know about what I tweet about.

And if it was the same as in Facebook, Linkedin or other forums, they wouldn’t bother.

Twitter is just one aspect of your marketing and just how important it is depends upon whether your market is on twitter and that they buy.

Tell me how you experience Twitter because there are as many ways as there are people!

Prediction 1:  Get a Twitter Account

Well, it was said that Twitter was a “phenomenon that is set to take the world by storm” was accurate. What wasn’t really understood a year, just how the storm would affect us all!

Prediction 2:  Create a Group and Fan Page on Facebook

This is mostly right with the emphasis on Fan Page rather than group.

Prediction 3:  Groups and Networks
This one didn’t really pan out as well as the previous two. This could have been down to the emphasis on creating open networks than setting up specific groups.. but this will be with us in 2010

Prediction 4:  Information Products

This one too, wasn’t as big as I had anticipated. But, will still be with us as people get to grips with how to make the most of their time, and knowledge to get the best returns on their efforts

Prediction 5: Google Applications

Well, with MaxWeb, the propriety social media training programme being delivered through Google Reader, this has certainly been a turning point in how we use these applications. Also, by using Google Alerts, you are better able to track who is saying what about you and your products and services. Perhaps, there is still more opportunities here as more people get online.

Prediction 6: Subjects, Titles, Headings

Well, as people’s lives become busier, the importance of standing out from the crowd and getting your email opened, pages ranked became a much talked about topic. But, it could change in 2010 particularly with search marketing …

And now with the 2010 predictions!

1. The iPhone takes over
   The iPhone dominates the smart phone handset in 2010 with the Apps store offering so much more for business owners. You can get your own apps icon written and offered through the Apple Store or from your website. And, please don’t think for one minute that this isn’t for you. Now is the time to consider how best to deliver excellent customer service… and an app could well help with this!
2. Being on the Internet is a must for all businesses
   Being active on the internet ceases to be an option as people move from watching TV to being on the internet. There’s been a 2% swing in just two years. You have got to be where your market is looking and consuming.
   
3. Creating content remains hot!
   Both in terms of creating and managing resources. As people implement the 4 Cs – creating, capture, collect and categorise so they become second nature, their presence and market attraction become sticky with sales resulting.
4. Search Marketing or Search Engine Optimisation falls from the essential tools for businesses in 2010. This is due to the algorithms used by the search engines become more sophisticated and can determine whether people like a page for its content than just whether a page is optimised for that content.
5. Video is used more and more
   Even though we are still in a recession and video is expensive, it will be adopted more and more by businesses. Don’t limit your thinking by headshot videos as you see on current affairs programmes, there are lots of different ways to have video – screenshots, images to music, slideshow, screencasts to name four!

This is a volatile time in marketing, so the predictions for 2010 are limited to five. As it gives you the opportunity to embrace those elements untouched from 2009 and make headway with the hot topics for this year.

Want to know more ways to have more clients? Discover how to use Twitter for Business with a *free report*  at http://havemoreclients.com

But, is Twitter the driver for all applications?

I say No. For the simple reason that Twitter has its own vocabulary and, even though there are millions of users, not everyone will be familiar with it. You could be reducing your impact by continuing to use it. To quote Lee Iocacca, “Talk to people in their own language. If you do it well, they’ll say, ‘God, he said exactly what I was thinking.  And when they begin to respect you, they’ll follow you to the death.”

And this is really what you want from your social media activity. You want a loyal tribe;  a tribe that consumes your products and services. You certainly don’t want to be expending effort on creating tribes on the different platforms to find that people hide you because of your constant twittering.

If Twitter is a receiver stream, what are the driver streams?

And, these are ever changing and certainly will change in how people rank their usefulness to them.  For all the sites where you are able to create material whether that’s a status update, a blog post, new video or podcast, these are the driver streams. And, it is from these streams that you turn on the link to Twitter but not in reverse!

The upshot is that people will be consuming your material in an ‘original’ form and in a way they understand.

You are then able to decide how much more you want to do on Twitter in terms of original postings.  But then it’s the community aspect to participate in and that doesn’t need to be broadcast around the internet.  As Lee Iococca says, “and, when they begin to respect you, they’ll follow you to death”

Let me know whether this struck a chord with you. Do you have your twitter posts streaming into lots of different sites? How has that worked for you?

Its only 4 minutes and is an “over the shoulder” episode where I make a recommendation to someone in my network.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What other videos would you like?

It only takes 5 minutes and is really for the person who is new to this site.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Let me  know your comments on this video – was it too basic?

How does a blog fit with Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin? Watch the video if you are new to social media and are still getting to grips with how it all fits together.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If, you don’t want to watch the 5 minute video, here is our recipe for Social Media Marketing System

1. Know what you want to achieve
2. Create content wanted by your market
3. Set up a blog and social networking profiles
4. Write blog posts and articles
5. Update your social networking sites
6. Track what’s working and improve
7. Keep doing it!

If you liked this video and would like to watch others, please details of what you’d like in the comments below!

All you need to do is

1. Add your blog address
2. Say how long you’ve been blogging
3. What you really like about your blog

I’ll choose the blogs – it’s not first come first served but more on whether they resonate! If you’ve posted a comment recently, I’ll automatically add you to this!

Now, by just adding your blog, you’ve got a new link and others may well stop by and read your posts!

So, what are you waiting for – hit the comment key otherwise you can’t be in it!