Twitter has some amazing capabilities that most people do not know about. Everyone assumes that Twitter is a way to let everyone know what they are doing every minute of everyday. Some individual users may use it for this purpose, but that doesn’t mean you have to listen. This ‘noise’ on Twitter is often a deterrent to most people even giving the micro-blogging platform a chance. Micro-blogging is the technical name for the service that Twitter offers. Using 140 Characters or less (spaces and punctuation count) you have to write the message you want others to see. This leaves the door wide open for tech-savvy business’s to become subject matter experts.

Initial Set-up

Once you sign-up for Twitter be sure to follow the steps they assist you with, and fill out your bio and information completely. Also let people know why you are on Twitter by telling them what industry and topics you are interested in. Whether it may be Health Care, Marketing, Manufacturing or Construction there are people you can find to follow and engage with. If you are curious about whom is most influential within your industry or a given topic check out WeFollow.Com, where they list Twitter profiles and rank them in specific categories. Make your profile more inviting by adding custom color schemes, or even a custom background image, and a hyperlink to your website.

What can Twitter be used for?

A News Source – Our world is moving deeper and deeper into the digital age and our source of news needs to be up to the minute, even up to the second. You can utilize Twitter’s power to be your source for news. Every top news channel in the world is tweeting what’s going on locally and across the world. Look up your favorite news source and stay informed.

Knowledge source (best practices) – Twitterites (people on twitter) are some of the most knowledgeable at what they do. When you follow someone on twitter you can tap into that knowledge bank and learn from the best. Who doesn’t want to hear from thought leaders?

Industry Specific – No matter what industry or sector you come from, someone is on twitter talking about it. If you want to hear what is popular and catching people’s attention in your industry you have to get on twitter. Listening to others is the best way to get a handle on what’s hot and what’s not, and to stay on the cusp of the up-and-coming. Learn from the best so you can become the best!

Listen and Share (engage) – Ever heard the saying “You were given two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you speak?”Well that is a great way to approach twitter. Before you jump in and start tweeting, be sure you understand how to use twitter in the most effective manner by listening to how others do it. Listen, and then speak. If you are confident that people are going to listen to what you have to say, don’t hesitate. Someone out there is going to listen, but be sure to thank them for becoming a follower!

Cross-Pollination – Social Media is all about sharing and Twitter is no different. Gaining influence on Twitter comes over time. Once you have people attention and your following is growing, be sure to invite them to your other social media outlets. ‘Like me on Facebook’ and ‘Connect with me on LinkedIn’ are all great strategies to engage on Twitter.

Link Sharing – Once you get on Twitter you will begin to see a ton of links. Nearly every Tweet has a link on it, because you can’t get the whole story in under 140 characters. If what you say is interesting enough people will click the link. Now this may be your first interaction with short-links, but have no fear. Short links allow you to take up less of the 140 characters that Twitter gives you. Links are integral to your strategy of sharing content on Twitter. Be sure to let people know where the link will send them, and they will be more likely to click.

Marketing – Twitter can add another touch point to your marketing mix. This allows for you to become an industry leader and send traffic to your website, or your blog. Twitter is also a great platform for offers and promotions. If you are curious on how to track how successful your Twitter efforts are please see our blog post on Measuring marketing Results (LINK TO BLOGPOST).

Food for Thought – Ever have an interesting thought pop into your head and you felt like you should share it? If you’ve ever had a B2B revelation and wanted to let people know about it, Twitter is the perfect outlet. Remember that it is all about thinking outside of the box. People are more likely to engage with the unconventional because it will catch their attention. This strategy also adds a altruistic feel to your Twitter account, and people may see value in following you.

Word of Mouth – If you’ve ever wanted to attempt a viral marketing campaign twitter could help. The infamous Tweet button can now be found on almost every site you may get your news from. If you share great content on Twitter, others will spread the word for you. Just focus on putting out interesting, engaging thought provoking tweets and your loyal following will do the rest of the work.

Trending Tweets – When you first sign into Twitter you will see Trends on the right hand side of the screen. This is where you can see what everyone is talking about. You may not be interested in what is happening around the world (60% of twitter users are outside of the U.S. which means often times things are in a foreign language) but you can change your trends to reflect your geographic location and what you may be interested in. As I’m writing this “Vday” is trending as February 14th is fast approaching.

Advertising – Seeing that people tend to spend time engaging on twitter, they have recently added advertising options. Promoted Twitter Accounts, promoted tweets, and promoted trends are the three basic options Twitter now has. Pricing is based off of each engagement a twitter user has with the specific option. Retweeting, link clicking/ sharing, and following are all examples of engagement. A robust metrics dashboard is given to advertisers. We can all hope that this dashboard will soon be released to everyone using twitter for business, as measurement becomes increasingly important.

Applications / Utilities – Seeing that Twitter does not have a robust dashboard offered to its users, people have created ways of keeping track of your account. Programs such as TweetDeck and Hootsuite offer Twitter users an easier way to track conversations that are happening on twitter, and measure results. These applications are often times free.

Hash Tags – You may often times see a world preceded by a “#” sign, which is defined as a hashtag on Twitter. This means that people who search for that given topic will be alerted to what you have written. For example I would write:

“NEW! Blogpost Titled Twitter B2B basics (insert short link here) #marketing #b2b #twitter”

This tweet above now alerts people interested in marketing, Business to Business, and Twitter. Hash tags are very important to reaching more people, and leveraging the word of mouth aspects of Twitter.

You need to be aware of the different ways Twitter can be used and find what works for you, and your business. No one-way of using this micro-blogging platform is right. Before doubting the power of Twitter sign-up, and start to network and connect with people in your industry. Soon you will have a powerhouse of followers who listen to what you and your company are doing and saying.

FUSION b2b recently was selected as a winner of the 2nd annual B2B Twitterer of the Year Award, which recognizes business-to-business (B2B) organizations for outstanding contributions in practicing, promoting, and/or enhancing business via the micro-blogging sensation Twitter.

Naperville-based FUSION b2b was recognized as the Runner-Up in the Local/Regional category for its Twitter profile @FUSIONb2b, which features over 1,300 followers. In addition to the Twitter profile, FUSION b2b uses Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and a corporate Blog to distribute content posts, news and information.

“Twitter and other social media are growing rapidly as a critical weapon in the arsenal of B2B marketing”, states Pavel Solyak, Director Social Media for FUSION b2b. “FUSION has taken leadership in B2B social media by demonstrating marketing results including sales inquiries and leads, PR placements, improved search engine results and website traffic, and other metrics.”

Hubspot and American Express Open were the winners of the National category. The Hubspot Twitter profile is one of the most active on the internet with over 30,000 followers.

About B2B Twitterer of the Year Awards

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by Pavel Solyak

A spam-less Twitter feed is just too good to be true. Increasingly, spam in becoming a problem for Twitter users as spammers are finding new and innovative ways to clutter up the emerging communications channel. Ten years ago search engine optimizers have developed link farms to take advantage of search engine’s dependence upon link popularity. Mostly automated, link farms are landing pages containing groups of hyperlinks to other sites and no content. It took Yahoo! and Google several years to catch on and change algorithms to stop spamdexing users with irrelevant results, but was it enough?

Perhaps link farms have lost some of their appeal to spammers. Getting little love from search engines, not generating much traffic (or revenue) and paying for the domain, spammers had to find new grounds. And this is how Twitter Spam Farms were born.

We’ve compiled a short list of several ways spammers might try to get you, and things you should watch out for. Also we’ll give you valuable tips of how to protect your account against unwanted twitter-solicitors.

Spammers will use Twitter by replying to your @username, which then causes Tweets to show up in your timeline or mentions.

Get unsolicited DM’s (Direct Messages) that often include a promotional link or are typed in all caps.

Spammers will follow you in hopes of you following them back. They might have deceiving names like ‘GoogleGuru1’ or simply ‘JohnDoe’. Check their profile, and if there is no bio, only a couple of tweets, followers in double digits while following thousands of users – don’t bother adding them.

Many complain that twitter is full of ‘bots’. Sure, many bloggers and news outlets use syndicating technology to update tweets every time something gets updated on their site, blog, or Facebook. What’s worse, are spammers who use ‘bots’ or rather scripts for their deceptive techniques. An example of such script might be an algorithm that follow, then un-follow people with the goal of keeping a follower to boost follow/follower ratio. Another one might be to re-tweet random tweets from public timeline, in hopes you will add them as a follower.

Re-posts. Many spammers will post duplicate content several times a day on their accounts so the same message appears regularly in the timeline. Not only this is considered spammy, but it violates Twitter terms of service. Cross-posting the same content on multiple accounts is also considered a violation of Twitter code of conduct.

Have you encountered a spammer? Here are several tips how to clean up your account:

Alert Twitter of spam by sending a DM to @spam with @username of the spammer you’ve encountered.

Don’t follow spammers. Take the time to check their account bio before you follow them back. Look at their last 10 most recent tweets; if you see anything about making money online fast, get rich quickly, lose 20 pounds in 5 days or getting hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers by following a link – report to spam.

Block the spammer by heading over to their account page and clicking ‘block’ link on the right side.

Use Twitter Spam Applications like TwerpScan or TwitSweeper to clean up potential spammers.

Don’t use automated programs. Inevitably you’ll see promotions like “Get 1,000 followers in one day, just click here”. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Those programs will follow a number of questionable people in hopes they will follow you back. Don’t forget Twitter is a communication tool used to build relationship – it’s about quality, not quantity.

We also recommend taking a look at the Twitter Support page for security FAQ’s. Feel free to comment on this post or find us on Twitter at @FusionB2B if you have any questions.

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by Pavel Solyak

Despite the many benefits and relatively low cost of social media, the majority of B2B marketers are only now considering the implementation of social media initiatives. For some categories, there are still opportunities for leadership and mindshare. At FUSION b2b, we believe every marketer should implement social media as part of an overall marketing program. Here’s several tips to get started.

Establish Profiles on Key Social Media Networks.

There are thousands of social networks out there targeted at different communities of people sharing similar interests. Creating profiles on all microsites is a large time-consuming investment. While they may have their place, it makes more sense to concentrate on the top 4 major networks: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Keep in mind that Social Media marketing is very dynamic and is likely to change overtime, so it is crucial to keep an eye out for trends and shifts to determine what other social networks would be beneficial. (ex. 2006 MySpace was number one Social Networking Site)

Create Social Media Hub on your corporate website.

Incorporate social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube and others into your corporate website. Make sure to have social media links prominently displayed on your site such as “Connect with us on Twitter” or “Become a Fan.” Make sure to have your website in every social media profile you have.

Inter-link your social media.

Your social media hub should already be linked to all external corporate social media properties, but don’t forget to inter-link those properties between each other. When your blog is updated – an RSS feed should automatically send a Tweet on twitter and change your status on Facebook and LinkedIn. A new uploaded YouTube video or Flickr Photo should be mentioned in your blog and updated through Facebook.

Research.

You want to use Social Media to connect to the right people, which in turn will take some research. Identifying Fans, Friends, Followers and supporters is not an easy task as most have online screen names rather than their actual names. Use your PR and clients lists to connect with publications, dealers, reps, users, thought leaders, trade shows and associations. Invite them to join you, or simply follow them – most will reciprocate.

Use directories and lists.

Twitter directories like WeFollow or Twellow and lists often help identify additional Fans, Friends and Followers. Some social networks will recommend people you should “Friend” or “Follow” based on their interests, location and other factors. Look at who others are following, perhaps you will find their connections relevant. Remember, however, that it’s not about the number of followers, but the quality of them.

Content.

This is the ONLY way to succeed on the web – posting well-researched, helpful content. You wouldn’t walk up to a person on the street and start selling them your product. First you have to establish your expertise. Developing quality content for your blogs and social media is no small task, but you can also reference articles written by others by re-tweeting them via tinyURL or posting a link to content relevant to your industry. If your connections like your content, they will keep coming back and recommend you to others.

Be original.

Create your own relevant content. Examples of relevant content includes: new products, attending trade shows and events, news releases, new brochures, new videos, customer information, market/business info. Don’t just sell – your content needs to be educational and informational. It’s a good idea to provide tips. Don’t be afraid of holding back information.

Sign-up for Google Alerts.

Google Alerts is a free tool that tracks keywords on the internet and alerts of their popularity. For example you can have a daily email that will notify you when keywords such as “Knaack”, “Weather Guard”, “Construction”, etc. are used. This helps you monitor the conversations and be able to respond to any questions in a timely manner.

Measure.

Have your agency do periodic category analysis using advance analytic tools to track progress. Is your Social Media strategy working? What tools are most effective? What feedback are you getting from users and followers?

Involve employees.

You can have a cool blog and a well-polished Facebook profile, but if there are no social connections –people likely won’t find it or read it. To get your Social Media project of the ground, use the connection you already have – your employees. Ask them to join your network or become a fan, comment on your blog or invite their colleagues to join. Keep in mind, however that not all your employees are right for Social Media. In any company, employees have different levels of passion about their jobs, and it’s your job to find employees who have most passion for what they do. Engage them first, others will follow.

Encourage Feedback.

Engage your customers and clients in positive feedback. Ask them to become your friend on the web, leave a comment on your Facebook wall or recommend you on LinkedIn. Ask them to post their suggestions or ideas for future or contribute to your next blog. All those things will generate conversation and buzz around your brand.

Communicate.

Get in a habit of communicating using Facebook and Twitter instead of internal e-mail. Create an event for company party, send out an invite to all your employees, then take some pictures at the event and tag your employees in the picture. Answer general questions using twitter, do updates and alerts, post videos on YouTube.

Don’t Spam.

Social Media is powered by people – real people like you and I. If they feel like someone is soliciting them, they will instantly block you or delete you from their friends. It can happen if you don’t post enough content, or you post too much and too often, your content is not relevant to them, or you are being too pushy with your ideas. Either way, you want to avoid this. Share information, put it out there for people to see, but don’t spam.

Mobile.

Social media is highly integrated with mobile technology (mobile telephones, wi-fi computers, PDA’s). Why not take and upload a picture of your booth at a trade show in real time? Sure, it’s a little blurry and dark, but it’s also original, timely and peaks interest/curiosity. Increasingly social media is going mobile with all the new devices and applications. Time to start using it?

Spread the Word.

Add social media links wherever you can, not just your web-site. Make sure your e-mail signature has a links to your company’s Facebook or Twitter. Why not have all employees do the same? What about brochures and literature you send to your reps and distributors or PR releases?

Keep you information up to date.

Spend time every week to update your social profiles: do updates, add pictures and events, communicate with your friends and followers. The more often your page changes content, the more likely people will come back to it and see what’s new. And not just people, Google crawlers who rank websites put higher weight on those website who change often, thus bumping up your standings with Google and doing wonders for your SEO.




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