Jane’s Oak Web Design Blog

Twitter is a bit strange and I admit, I’m not sure I get it, but I am going to start using it anyway and see where it leads.

Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time.

Twitter allows its users to send and receive “tweets” which are then delivered to ”followers”, people who subscribe to a user. Twitter is sort of the SMS of the internet.

You log on to your Twitter page and update your information as often as you like.

My address on Twitter is http://twitter.com/JaneOakWeb

You can also insert your Twitter into any web page, as I have done here: http://www.oakwebdesign.com.au/contact.htm

I intend to use it to advise clients of what I am currently working on.

I have been Googling to find out what value a Twitter might be on a website, so here are some links and useful information.

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5 tips to drive traffic to your website using Twitter by George Susini

1. Convince someone with a lot of follows to talk about your product
2. Build followers your self and advertise to them
3. Post about popularly search for terms with links back to your site.
4. If your site is a applicable create a button for people to twitter about their actions on your website.
5. Don’t oversell, show the value to encourage your followers to visit you site

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Generate Web Traffic by Using Twitter
Twitter is all the rage at the moment, and one of the biggest questions facing businesses and entrepreneurs is how to make this microblogging service drive business to their websites…

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10 Reasons Why Your Business Should be Using Twitter
by smallbizbee

#1 Gain Exposure
Twitter is a great way to gain exposure for your business, product, or service.
You’ll be interacting with thousands of people who have yet to discover you, and what you do.
Imagine being able to tell 1000, 5000, 20000 people or more what you do, and all at one time…with Twitter you can. 

#2 Build Trust
The more people interact with you, see what your character is made of, the more they will trust you.Getting to know the human side of your business is a great way to build trust in yourself, your brand, and your business.

#3 Generate Leads
There are literally millions of people using Twitter day in and day out…some of them are bound to be interested in what you do. Twitter offers an opportunity to expose them to your business, and generate interest in what it is you sell.

#4 Drive Traffic
As you build trust and community, you can occasionally send your followers links back to your site, promotion, or offer.  If done correctly, Twitter can drive hundreds of hits a day to your website. Now that’s a good thing!

#5 Provide Stellar Customer Service
Some of the biggest brands in the world have figured out a very powerful aspect of Twitter, and that is in providing stellar customer service through the medium.  Since you have access to real time communications you can do immediate service recovery, and turn someone’s frown upside down.

#6 Expand Your Network
You’ll be interacting with a diverse group of people on Twitter, more diverse than you could possibly hope to interact with in the offline world. This is an advantage to growing your network, and getting many different perspectives.

#7 Get Feedback
Twitter is a real time conversation and as such it provides a real time mechanism for getting feedback. Bouncing questions off your followers asking for their ideas and suggestions is a gold mine worth tapping into.

#8 Market Research
Using the search functions within Twitter there is an unprecedented opportunity to do market research as it’s unfolding.  You’ll be able to key in on what people are looking for, what they think of certain products and services, and what they would consider buying.

#9 Testimonial Tool
Twitter is a great way to get testimonials about what it is you do.  The viral nature of Twitter makes the best of these testimonials spread like wild fire, and reinforce the idea that you don’t suck – instant social proof!

#10 Build Authority
As you become a trusted friend to your community you will undoubtedly build authority.  The benefits to being the authority on a subject are vast, not the least of which higher conversions, more pricing power, and higher customer satisfaction

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Finally, not content with 5 ideas, or even 10 ideas, here is
Chris Brogan, with a whopping 50 ideas!

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.
3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
5. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
6. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)
7. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out.
8. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)
9. Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.
10. Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga.
11. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
12. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
13. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
14. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
15. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
16. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
17. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
18. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
19. Don’t toot your own horn too much. (Man, I can’t believe I’m saying this. I do it all the time. – Side note: I’ve gotta stop tooting my own horn).
20. Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck out of others, too.
21. You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
22. Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation ( got this from @pistachio).
23. Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
24. 3rd party clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier to manage Twitter.
25. If you tweet all day while your coworkers are busy, you’re going to hear about it.
26. If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting all the time, you might hear about it.
27. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
28. If someone says you’re using twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.
29. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.
30. The Negatives People Will Throw At You Twitter takes up time.
31. Twitter takes you away from other productive work.
32. Without a strategy, it’s just typing.
33. There are other ways to do this.
34. As Frank hears often, Twitter doesn’t replace customer service (Frank is @comcastcares and is a superhero for what he’s started.) 
35. Twitter is buggy and not enterprise-ready.
36. Twitter is just for technonerds. 
37. Twitter’s only a few million people. (only) 
38. Twitter doesn’t replace direct email marketing.
39. Twitter opens the company up to more criticism and griping.

Ok, I only count 39 too, but Chris says it’s 50