The rise of Twitter as a powerful social media tool as seen its deployment in a wide variety of marketing, journalism, and propaganda campaigns. Recently many companies have also begun to use Twitter as a Public Relations tool. From real time communication to brand reputation, Twitter can be used for public relations, but only if your PR team is wise and careful. Here are three factors to keep in mind:

Twitter creates a real-time dialogue without taking on dangerous newscasts

Almost like having your own global LP Chat software, Twitter creates a running dialogue with the world that can be updated so rapidly it begins to take on characteristics of real time communication. This can be extremely beneficial for time-sensitive events related to product releases, political campaigns, and even international stock market tips. With the world more connected than ever, the ability to spread information efficiently and instantaneously allows companies and public entities to address issues concurrently with network news cycles.

You should Tweet informative links that show that your company is working on the problem

Because Twitter allows you to share links with thousands, even millions of followers, what you say has added importance. Especially given the truncated nature of the message, when using Twitter for PR it’s important to remember to use your tweets wisely. After the 2010 oil spill, BP used their Twitter account to keep people updated about the efforts they were making to contain the leak and protect the coastal inhabitants and ecosystems. Links to reports on their efforts were probably far more effective at conveying information and reducing anger than a press conference full of lawyer-written canned responses.

Be careful not to add fuel to the fire

A recent McDonald’s campaign about new efforts to make their fast food menu healthy backfired when Twitter subscribers began to lampoon the global icon about the quality of its ingredients and health benefits. The campaign quickly became a joke and likely caused damage to the brand. If your company is perceived a certain way, don’t use Twitter to try and reverse that image. You’re setting yourself up for disaster. Twitter is for subtle branding adjustments, not a complete reputation overhaul. Tweets are composed of only 140 characters, but that doesn’t make them any less powerful as satirical weapons.

As you can see, it’s not just marketers who are using Twitter as an online tool. Corporate executives also use it as a PR strategy, and for good reason. Twitter can be a powerful vessel for information, but it must be used wisely and carefully.

About the author
Guest post by Nick Jameson. He is a freelance writer specializing in business and marketing

Guest post by Neel

The mainline for hype in the PR industry for some time now has been “social media”. Whether or not this is actually achieving the sort of results which would qualify for the glowing endorsements of social sites as the “future of media” is another matter. The PR industry has in fact been pretty slow to pick up on the social sites, and actually it was market research, not PR, which really opened up the subject to debate. Like SEO, the PR industry was pretty lethargic about seeing the potential for development of social sites, and it’s only recently that social sites have been getting serious attention.

PR, issues and social media

Slothful or not, PR has now latched on to Twitter as a meaningful source of information. The fact that client interests can literally be tracked second by second, and any feedback, controversy or other issues properly monitored has been the main factor. A belated revelation, perhaps, but it’s becoming clear that PR is getting value out of the Twitterings of the world.

Admittedly, Twitter has one problem: what is Tweeted, by definition, isn’t necessarily the whole story in any continuum of events. However, as a live sampling mechanism, it’s a perfectly valid market information source, and has the advantage that it’s usually only core client issues that get Tweeted.

The other advantage is that Tweets are instantaneous, unlike press and other media, which are on average anything up to a day behind the play in terms of PR issues. That’s a major advantage. Major corporations have also latched on to this valuable source of raw data. Tweets and other social site information have undeniably provided valuable feedback, which could otherwise quite literally take months to go through normal corporate channels.

There are practical applications- For example, if Toyota management had been able to access commentary online about its recent brakes disaster, it’s more than likely that action would have been taken a lot faster than it was. There are already several cases of customers complaining about products online, and their complaints being picked up by PR or market monitors, and dealt with in record time.

The real time effect and social media

Real time responses have quite a few things going for them. They’re infinitely more efficient, and the response time is far more cost-effective than the usual complaints channels.  This real time response is also more efficient for PR firms, which in many cases may be only called in when the client becomes aware of a market problem or issue. That can be days or weeks after a PR debacle has hit the fan, using traditional methods, and in many cases the problems escalate during the time lag, making PR operations that much more difficult, often having to be literally done on the run, in developing situations.

It’s likely that PR and market research between them will adapt some form of customizable search engine optimization for social media, isolating key market issues in the same way search-based keywords are developed for SEO. These could be weighted keywords, or combinations of elements.

This is perhaps the biggest development in PR since the 1950s. Whatever happens next, it’s not likely to be dull.

About the author

Neel is an Australian freelance writer and journalist. He writes extensively in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the US. He’s published more than 500 articles about various topics, including SEO.

One of the not so new Twitter spamming techniques is to add a Twitter username before your worthless message. So instead of “Check out X website”, we have “@username Check out X website”. Of course, X website can be easily replaced with whatever service, product or job offering. Apply the same technique for hundreds and hundreds of users from your spammy Twitter account that follows no one and has a couple of followers and maybe some of the people you reach are actually interested and will click your link.

While this might work in some accidental cases, it will take quite the same amount of time to search for people actually interested in what you’re selling and send them the replies. If you can do that after following and getting to know them, even better. Of course, your Twitter account should be about more than @replies to those you follow, but that’s another side of the story.

The thing is that replies, despite current widespread beliefs, are actually easy to ignore if the person receiving said reply could not care less about what you’re saying. Even more so if the person sending it is unknown to them. They will probably be a little annoyed and some will block you, but they will mostly ignore the message. Except of course for some really lucky coincidences where you send them exactly what they’re looking for. But they might still pass and look for a competitor simply because a spammy Twitter account is less trustworthy and no one wants to throw their time or money out the window.

What seems to be a do-it-fast, aim-shoot-get-results technique actually is a great way to miss the target over and over again. If you want great results from social media campaigns, it’s better to do the work, invest time and energy and brain power into it, and then enjoy the nice feeling of money coming in, all in a productive and sustainable manner. The easy way out is rarely the best way to handle anything!

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Want Twitter advice for your business? Check out the Social Media Newbie’s Guide to Twitter for Businesses Ebook

I am happy to announce that the guide to twitter that you’ve heard about in the past couple of months on my Twitter stream or on Faebook is out! The Social Media Newbie’s Guide to Twitter for Businesses ebook, a simple guide to get businesses and individuals with a business focus started on Twitter, has just been launched!

The reason for deciding to focus on such an ebook was that while Twitter kept growing and more and more businesses created accounts and started blasting out 140 character messages, the result-free efforts were astonishing. Many people still fail to understand Twitter and their presence is more of a reflex, the adoption of a cool trend, than a thought out, carefully planned business strategy.

While I was pondering over the actual need of such a business guide, I noticed that a few articles debating Twitter-related themes became extremely popular, showing a genuine interest in quality information on getting the best out of the microblogging platform. So I powered my writing mode and completed this project, accepting the challenge of publishing my first business ebook

This guide for Twitter business users is based on my own experience running a dozen twitter accounts, with all the hassle, mistakes and wonderful events that marked my passage through the Twitterverse, on others’ kind tips or examples, on patterns I’ve noticed, on things I (and others) have loved and hated in how Twitter users act.

Who should read this ebook:

• businesses that decide to integrate social media in their overall communication efforts, preferably before they actually start;
• employees tasked with tapping into Twitter and promoting their activity and the company employing them
• consultants, coaches and trainers that want to establish themselves as experts in their field and get new clients through Twitter;
• all of the above who already have a Twitter account, yet are not performing as expected
• new Twitter users in general who want to make the best out of their social media experience, build a valuable community and actually reach their online goals.

How to get the ebook

I wanted to make getting the The Social Media Newbie’s Guide to Twitter for Businesses ebook as simple and transparent as possible, so you are now faced with two possibilities to obtain it, one free, one paid. Please feel free to choose the method that best suits your interests and real needs:

If you’re interested in fresh marketing and PR advice, helping you grow your business and improve your overall communication, in the latest PR services and training discounts from the Mirror Communications PR and Marketing agency, then sign up for our newsletter and get the Twitter guide for free!

If all you want is the ebook and have no interest in PR articles and news or require no PR and marketing consulting, then just buy the Twitter for Businesses guide today (14.99 USD)!

Before you decide, have a taste of my writing style and the contents of the guide by checking  out the sample chapter of the ebook here.

Regardless of how you choose to get The Social Media Newbie’s Guide to Twitter for Businesses ebook, I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on it. I’m also more than happy to answer any questions you might have!

Enjoy!

P.S.  Before you part, I need to share with you the fact that this ebook is now available thanks to the help and advice of Alex Cristache of QBKL Media and Blogsessive who worked his magic on the exquisite design of this ebook.

One of the finesse tactics of PR is to know when to shut up. It might seem like a company’s PR team has to always reply to each statement made about them, but that’s not true. Rumors, pretend-news from sources with no credibility, these require no reply whatsoever, as an official company statement would just validate them and point other more relevant sources to the up to then false problem.

Another case just popped out while browsing the TechCrunch feed today. What started like an observation about numbers of Twitter followers of AT&T and Verizon turned into a cat fight of acid remarks from both companies. As the Techcrunch author pointed out, the fact that the two companies responded was quite a surprise. In today’s Twitter exchange, silence was a smarter move for both companies. Now they either look like frustrated old ladies fighting over their picked fences or like small children poking each other, pointing fingers and laughing.

It is simple: if someone says you have less followers than a competitor, your reply should not be pointing out what they’re doing wrong… Yes, a lot of people might agree followers need a medium to complain, but after complaining to AT&T, why stick to following them if there is no value to be considered?

Also, when attacked, getting on a high horse and pointing out how Verizon does a poor job on their Facebook and Twitter accounts makes you look bad, because you should spend more time convincing people complaining is not the only reason to follow you… It might not be the truth, but if that’s how Twitter sees you, then there’s something wrong with your image that needs fixing.

Why is silence the best option? Because there are too little chances of Verizon replying in some face saving way to the fact they have less followers than a competitor and because AT&T has even less chances of responding without sounding like they are bragging. And anyway, it shows lack of respect for the other company’s followers.

And now we get to the actual treasure on our map! Those who follow your competitor are potential customers. Stating in any way it’s silly to follow your competitor shows you don’t think highly of them. Disrespect, as far as I know, is never a good weapon when you want to attract customers away from your competitors.

There is no room for pride games on Twitter! And it might be acceptable to just tweet while enraged or while you’re to full of yourself in the case of an inexperienced, small company with a short-fused CEO. But when it comes to big names like Verizon and AT&T, they should know better!

One of the methods of attracting more followers on Twitter is to make a bold and easily noticeable statement that you follow back. It’s that little extra added to the profile description that might seem like a good idea, but really isn’t. Why? Because of how it makes you look!

First, it says you’re in the habit of following spammers. Because there are spammers adding you to their followed list every day and saying you follow everyone back (automatically or not) will just draw more to you. As everyone fears spammers, your embracing them might trigger the spamming flag in some people’s minds when analyzing you as a person they might follow.

It also says you really don’t care who you follow! It does not matter if they are tweeting what interests you and if your retweeting them would bring value to your followers. This might lead your potential followers to believe you have little consideration for them, you just add people as they come and with no real interest or plan in mind.

It shows you’re only interested in numbers, not in conversations or relationships. You cannot possibly be interested in building meaningful relationships if you really don’t care who you follow back! All it takes for them to be of interest to you is their following you first! Meaningless tweets are not hard to find on Twitter, it’s the meaningful encounters that people area really looking for!

We all want lots of followers on Twitter. Having 5 followers or having 5000 is clearly not the same. But how many people follow you is a lot less important than the quality of people following you. The value they provide, what they bring to the table, how they can help and how you can help them are more relevant aspects to monitor than just numbers!

Guest post by Lauren Horn

Twitter presents the opportunity for you to connect with leaders in your industry, your peers and your target audience, while generating exposure and making connections. You have not only created your account, updated information, customized the look and feel of your page, but also begun tweeting up a storm. At this point, your following base should be through the roof, but you’re not seeing the results you anticipated, so now what?

So now, it’s important to remember that your page is just another marketing tool which ultimately needs to be promoted. Step back and first reassess your content and your purpose. Are you only tweeting about your product and services? Is your messaging consistent? How involved are you in the community? Are you following your target audience? Do you engage with your current followers? Are you listed? Do you utilize hashtags? These are just some things to consider. However, there are several ways to actually build a following. Below are some tips and tricks of the trade.

Network with Other Platforms

Where else are you present on the web? I’m sure you have a corporate website, but do you have Facebook and a blog? It’s important to integrate these mediums so they work together. Include the Twitter logo or a widget on your website in a location that’s visible to your audience. Utilize your Twitter handle (URL) on Facebook. Consider writing a blog post about your Twitter account and what value you bring and how it benefits your audience.

Invite Your Email Subscribers

I hope over the years you have captured an opt-in email list. If so, great! If not, please do! This list is critical and a great way to send an invitation and/or announcement to your subscribers via email. Simply write an encouraging message about why they should follow you, much like your blog post. Also, make sure to include the logo in your HTML newsletters. If you’re a cell phone provider, consider writing something such as “tweet us your favorite app!” instead of “follow us,” in hopes that your subscribers go directory to your page, tweet, and follow.

Add to Your E-mail Signature

Consider updating your email signature to include a link to your social media page(s) and website(s) in every email you send. Wisestamp signature add-on is used for web-based email accounts and is simple to download and create a customized stamp.

Update Your Press Release Boiler Plate

The boiler plate is the last paragraph in your press release, containing valuable company and product information and web address, where the editor or reader can go for further information. Perhaps yours currently states, “For more information, please visit www.companyname.com.” Update that portion to read, “For more information please visit www.companyname.com, www.Twitter.com/username, www.facebook.com/username.” This too, will also be helpful if you submit your press releases through online distribution services, greater optimizing web presence.

Perform Specialized Searches

Execute a search within Twitter using your company’s keyword and/or product or service category, preceded with a hashtag (#) to group users. As you review the results, consider following or replying to other users’ tweets so they know you exist and may offer further information regarding that topic in the future. Also perform searches for target media outlets and target authority spokespersons, etc. to follow. In doing so, they will receive an alert and hopefully reciprocate the follow.

Interact

Be actively engaging with other Twitter users. Perhaps you want to ask someone a question, comment on their latest tweet, or provide advice. In doing so, make sure when responding to another user to include the symbol, @, preceding the username, i.e. @Username, so they receive a notification. Hashtag anything you feel a majority of people would be discussing, such as #interiordesign, #marketing, #products, etc.

Try these tips and I’m sure you’ll see an increase in followers before you know it!

About the author

Lauren Horn serves as a Digital PR Specialist at ProspectMX, an internet marketing company in Lancaster, PA. Her professional background also includes several years as a traditional publicist with some concentration on social media for residential and commercial clients at another marketing communications agency. Lauren is highly interested in the latest trends both online and on the runway, exhibiting a passion for anything related to fashion, including everything from styles and colors to accessories.

When we tweet something, a thought, a piece of information, we expect two things: starting a few conversations and getting retweets. Both are valuable, but while the first goal implies our community, the retweet part implies reaching out to more people and getting more views and opinions on what we have just sent into the Twitterverse.

So saying retweets are important is a bit of an understatement. And while we all try to read tips and tricks and find new strategies to have more retweets, I thought a road back to the basics of it all might help. And I asked myself: why do people retweet? And here’s a list of reasons I found:

• they find the tweet funny
• they’ve been through a similar situation – positive or negative. I should add here that when it’s a negative review, they tend to retweet more, compared to positive reviews of products and services
• they are interested in the topic and their community shares the interest
• they find your take on the matter unique and intriguing
• they are your raving supporters and like to promote your work
• they find it easier to add a quick comment to the retweet than post a longer comment on your blog
• they return favors

And now let’s get the comment-party started! What about you? Why do you retweet? Why do you think your followers retweet your articles and news?