I think the world of Publicity Hound Joan Stewart, and her ezine today offers some very useful tips about Twittering, which is a form of social networking that is gathering great speed. Here is an excerpt from her Publicity Hound of the Week ezine that arrived in my inbox today. If you don’t yet subscribe, I encourage you to opt-in at this link.
Dell, H&R Block, Jet Blue, Comcast, Southwest Airlines and other mega-companies have made time to join the Twittosphere. You should, too. I’ve been twittering for several months at https://Twitter.com/PublicityHound and have found it’s not only a fabulous publicity tool, it’s fun. The free microblogging service lets you create a page at Twitter.com, and then check in throughout the day and report on what you’re doing. Each message, or tweet, is limited to 140 characters. Twitter started primarily as a social networking service for personal use. Daily, scores of business people are becoming addicted to it. Twitter, it seems, is the new online crack. Because tweets are so short, twittering takes far less time than what you have to invest in many other social networking tools. Even better, it can produce incredibly powerful, instant results. Businesses and nonprofits large and small continue experimenting with dozens of ways to use Twitter. Here are just a few of them:
–As a crisis communications tool. The American Red Cross uses Twitter to announce disaster news. During this year’s tornadoes, tweets listed emergency shelters in several states, led followers to Flickr photos that showed tornado damage, and invited tornado survivors to report in as being “safe and well.”
–To announce new products and services.
–To promote articles and blog posts.
–To follow journalists who Twitter and learn what they think is important.
–To respond to media coverage, good or bad.
–To monitor what others are saying about you and your brand.
–To share with your followers interesting tips, helpful suggestions, great articles or humorous blog posts.
–To monitor customer service problems and respond within minutes. If used correctly, Twitter can be more powerful than those annoying and expensive customer service call centers.
So how about shaving just 15 minutes a day off the non- productive, energy-sucking, time-wasting task of reading and responding to your email? Use those 15 minutes, instead, spaced throughout the day, to Twitter.
Reprinted from “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” an ezine featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at this link and receive by email the handy list “89 Reasons to Send a News Release.”
Joan has a special report she offers for to tell you everything you need to know about Twitter. It is called “Special Report 52: How to Use Twitter for Business to Network, Promote, Sell, Recruit & Profit.” It includes 10 pages of examples, tips and resources. Learn how to enhance your Twitter experience and make it dovetail with other social networking tools like Facebook. Check it out.
