In follow up to the previous post “Twitiquette - Understanding the Etiquette of Twitter”, we received some great comments on our blog and on Twitter.

Here are  a couple of the best ones.  If you would like to add to this list, please contact me via Twitter @melissaDCG and use the hashtag #twitiquette or leave a comment here.  We will publish and credit the authors of all applicable messages.

From @stevecartier on Twitter:

“Twitter puke” defined as 50 twits a day about nothing. Success depends on the right amount of value added content.

From @russoullette (Twitter) via blog comment:

Once a day… a flow of thoughts might be okay, like 2 or 3 in the same minute, then give me a break. Link me to a blog if you want to express yourself.

Thanks to all who responded, let’s keep adding to the list!

- Melissa

Thanks in no small part to Oprah, CNN, and Ashton Kutcher, over the past few months Twitter has hit the mainstream with a vengeance. And I have to say, this is fantastic news!  The social networking vehicle has continued to grow and evolve into a place where we can easily do business, make new connections, and open impossible doors, in 140 characters or less.

But launching into the mainstream also means that many who are new to the space haven’t exactly mastered the terminology, the search and tracking capabilities, or the etiquette that makes this tool much more effective for business than many others.

So here for your reading pleasure are a few of the common rules of etiquette for Twitter.  I encourage you to comment on this post with any that may be missing, or your own thoughts on Twitiquette.

1) Follow and be Followed - the common understanding of Twitter is that (in general) your “following” and “followers” numbers should be relatively close.  You may choose to follow all those who are following you, or you may choose a select few.  But whatever the case, Twitter is meant to be reciprocal, so try to keep your numbers in balance.

2) Network, promote, market, but don’t ADVERTISE - often, this is the hardest concept for us “salespeople” to grasp.  Twitter is a great place to develop exposure for yourself or your company, to network with others outside your circle, and to position yourself as an industry expert.  It is not the time for bombarding your followers with “contact me for $100 off” or “click here to see our new product” messages.

3) Give credit where credit is due - there is an abundance of information on Twitter, and often you will find it beneficial to forward along information posted by someone else.  In this situation, always be sure to include RT (to denote that you are retweeting someone’s message), and their twitter name starting with the @ symbol. This serves the same purpose as including a source in a footnote, and the post’s originator will receive notification of the mention.

4) Shout-outs and replies - as above, anytime you use an idea or link posted by another Tweeter, and post it as your own, it is customary to include the originator’s name with the @ symbol.  This will give them credit for the post, and increase your goodwill on the site.  As with most networking, the phrase holds true that Giver’s Gain, and the positive impact will eventually come back to you.

5) It’s really not all about you.  Think of Twitter as a social networking event.  Just as you would never casually walk up to someone at a networking event and try to sell your products or services, you shouldn’t use social networking sites for this purpose either.  The best use of Twitter comes from sharing your knowledge, generating links back to articles you’ve published and to your website, and creating exposure for yourself and your brand.  The sales will follow.

6) Auto-nothing.  The whole point of Twitter is for people to communicate directly with each other in short, concise messages.  Why is it then, that companies continue to automatically pump out the same tired, boring messages that don’t work in other mediums?  If you can’t personally manage Twitter (and there are hundreds of tools available to help you be more efficient in this), then you shouldn’t be on it.  Maybe you can appoint a company spokesperson, or outsource communications to a team.  Whatever you do, please do not resort to automatically-generated, canned messages.  It will make your followers turn and run in the other direction, and will cost you far more in the long run to gain them back.

To stay in touch with us, and pick up a few tidbits along the way, follow the Discovery Communications Group team at @DiscoveryCG.  Or catch me at @melissaDCG.

We look forward to tweeting with you!

- Melissa

You’ve all heard of the timeless acronym K.I.S.S. meaning “Keep it Simple Stupid”. It’s been used in numerous ways and situations but is perceived uniquely by each individual. For me, it stressed the importance of teamwork (i.e. not trying to do too much myself) while playing sports. The message was clear, make the easy play and rely on your teammates to do the same. In this manner, the difficult can be attained through a number of people. Today’s marketing world is no different. Create something simple, easy to use, and fun, and let everyone else do the work for you to reach your goals.

Throughout the latest surge of emerging marketing tools we kept asking ourselves what we could come up with to add to it. What could we find that could really take off and reach the masses? Everyone is on Facebook, everyone is on Twitter, everyone is on Linked In …we need something better. But wait. Is everyone really on Facebook? Does everyone “tweet” about their business? Are they actually making the right connections with Linked In?

The answer was undoubtedly NO. So what could we do about it? Teach them, of course. By educating some of our clients and connections about the importance of these growing tools for their business and how to effectively use them we’ve created a group of potential leaders. The idea was simple: teach people about something we have expertise in. The process was easy: send out invitations to people we knew and others that we didn’t know to attend our seminars. The seminars were fun: not only were people learning more about things they had little understanding of, or even being introduced to for the first time, but they laughed while doing it.

So we made the easy play. Now our “teammates” are teaching their “teammates”, essentially taking the ball and moving it forward toward the ultimate goal where everyone does in fact know how to use these sites. Using strength in numbers we’ve helped expedite the development of a more effective social media. It is now in the hands of others freeing up time for us to create new goals.

With these seminars we were able to reach our own goal of connecting with a large number of people while sharing valuable information that can help make their business more successful. By keeping things simple and not over-analyzing our situation we met and exceeded our objectives and had fun throughout the process. We’re also even willing to share this information with people that didn’t even go to the seminars. When you are successful, we are successful! So always remember to K.I.S.S. before you waste time trying to reinvent the wheel.

- Billy

How did you find your current hairstylist?  Accountant?  Job?  Spouse?  Realtor?  I’m willing to bet most of these came from existing relationships with, or referrals from, people you already know.  And you in turn have more than likely made thousands of these referrals yourself.  Many small businesses rely heavily, if not solely, on word of mouth and referral-based business.  Many midsize and large companies have grown from a start-up business that was founded on these referrals.

However, when discussing online social marketing and social networking opportunities with these same business owners who fully acknowledge the power of Word of Mouth marketing, we constantly run into a wall with non-believers.  People who tell us that although referrals have driven most of their initial business in the door, they don’t see how mediums such as LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook could possibly work for them, and they don’t have time to “waste” on such ridiculous efforts.

I am encouraging you to look at the theme behind all of these mediums - they are all focused on Word of Mouth and referrals.  Those who thrive on Twitter have a full network of supporters shouting their praises, as do they have many successful contacts on Facebook and LinkedIn.  It’s Word of Mouth marketing, multiplied by the thousands.  It’s the referrals of people who know the people that you know, helping you to promote your business.  The only difference to you is the screen and keyboard in the middle of this conversation.

Time to get out there and join the conversation before you get left behind.

- Melissa

Here’s an interesting way to look at the current economic climate - a recession can provide some much-needed spring cleaning for most businesses, and is an opportunity for those with the forward-thinking ideas, creativity, and guts to take advantage of it.  Are you up for the challenge?

When you take a few days this spring to clean your home, realize what you are gaining out of it.  By removing clutter, you will be more relaxed and comfortable in your home, and more likely to invite friends & family to visit, which will make you happier.  You may have a yard sale, which will put a few dollars back into your pocket, while providing deeply discounted items to your friends and neighbors.  You may paint the interior or exterior of your home, work on your deck or landscaping, or add new fixtures; all of which will increase the value of your home and neighborhood, thereby helping to increase the value of your neighbor’s homes as well.

In much the same way, a recession forces you to spring clean your business.  Now is the time to take a good look at your books, your expenses, the contributions of your team, your investments, and your plan for the next 1-5 years.  Still spending on programs that are no longer providing strong returns for you?  Now is the time to get rid of them.  Been waiting for the right time to move into a larger space, make a capital investment in talent, equipment, or services?  You couldn’t have picked a better time than now - prices are down, businesses are actively negotiating, and there are some great deals to be had.  Not to mention that there is a huge pool of talent out there who may have recently been laid off - maybe you can find the perfect addition to your team that will help your company grow in the future.

In every downturn, there are many opportunities.  While most of your competitors and counterparts are hiding their heads in the sand, waiting for the downturn to blow over; you can take advantage of the low investment costs, negotiable advertising, available talent, and reduced ad clutter that  a recession provides to increase your market share and position yourself for long-term growth.

The only question is, are you ready?

- Melissa

By now you’re already on Twitter, or at least heard of it, and if not you’ve got some serious catching up to do. In the last year alone the amount of unique visitors grew close to 1,400%. However, there are others that would say that Twitter provides a lot of useless information, and in many cases they are right. Eventually those Twitterers that cloud the internet will be filtered out, and it’s up to you to make sure you’re not one of them. There are a few simple things to remember in making sure that your tweets aren’t thrown in the twash.

Most of the people you are following or being followed by on Twitter just don’t care about your personal life. Don’t take this to heart, there are people that do care and would want to know that you “can’t wait to get home to see your wife and kids after being away for three weeks”, but just not us. Save that type of stuff for Facebook where you’re more likely to be personally connected to the people viewing your updates.

People are also following hundreds, sometimes even thousands of people. It’s best to make your message stand out and be worthy of reading so it doesn’t get lost. Try limiting yourself to three to five messages that have a significant importance and spread them out throughout the day. People are not there just to follow you and making yourself overly visible can be frustrating to the point of removing you from a follower list.

Lastly, you’ve got to be willing to share useful information and not keep it for yourself. People will appreciate what you have to say and reward you by paying closer attention to other things you have to say which will ultimately benefit you. If it’s that interesting or helpful, they’ll still eventually go to your website.

Overall, Twitter has broken the doors off the booming phenomenon of social networking. It provides a distinctive and quick way to connect and share information in an efficient way never seen before. It’s up to you to make sure that when the doors get rebuilt you don’t get shut out.

-Billy

Social networking is here to stay and it is going to get bigger and more important as time goes on. If you are not taking a step back to develop specific strategies to incorporate Social Networking as part of your marketing mix, if you are not actively exploring ways to use social networking to your advantage, you are essentially opting out of the next greatest revolution in how we conduct business.
And your competition is going to eat your lunch!
Man is a social animal and there is no way to get away from that fact. Ever since Cro Magnon man discovered that hunting in groups was much more effective than going it alone, people have been organizing themselves into groups of one kind or another with the intent of mutual support, interaction and connection. Technology and the internet are now giving us a multitude of ways to accelerate the connecting process, and it has created an entirely new paradigm of how we work together.
Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and YouTube are just a few of the social networking engines that have been developed to give us the cyber version of connecting with friends and colleagues. There are new groups forming every day that are organized around such a variety of personal and professional interests that finding something near and dear to your own heart is virtually a done deal. Of course, if you do not find what you are looking for, you can start one of your own.
There was a time when having an e-mail address or a website was quite a novelty. Social Media development and adoption is moving at such a rapid rate that, in just two years, the companies that do not embrace this revolution will be severely handicapped in the competitive arena.
Start small. Stick your toe in the water. Explore. Become curious. Ask questions. Read, blog and surf the net. If you make a commitment to working within this new technological phenomenon, you will succeed.
To register for upcoming Social Networking seminars, click here.
-George Wallace

About a year ago, a friend turned me onto a product called Stevia.  It is a natural replacement for sugar, made organically from a plant, and has no calories.  It is sold in the health food aisle of grocery stores, in a rather expensive, yet unattractive, plain white carton, and is generally found on the bottom shelf.  So needless to say, unless you already know what this product is, and are REALLY searching for it, it would be easy to miss.  And other than hearing it from my friend and one work colleague, I had never heard or seen anything about the product before - although I’m sure it has been around for a few years.

Within a few months, I had told many people about Stevia, and am sure I turned at least 20 or 30 new customers onto the product - each of whom had never previously known what it was.

About a year later, I saw a commercial on TV one night for a product called Truvia.  It is the same concept, a zero calorie sweetener made from the Stevia plant, and ounce for ounce is sold for about the same price.  The major difference between the two is that Truvia is sold at eye level in grocery chains, has bright, attractive brand packaging, and is supported by a national advertising campaign.  Due to those factors, it realized enormous revenues during the first quarter of production, even while averaging a higher cost than the existing branded artificial sweeteners (Splenda, Sweet n Low, etc).  It also immediately gained PR support and recognition, incorporating into health and diet segments on morning talk shows, in magazines, and via online discussions and editorials.  Word of mouth is spreading rapidly, and the same people who 3 months ago did not know what the Stevia plant was, or that a natural alternative to sugar even existed, are now touting the benefits of Truvia.

Consumers are fickle creatures.  If something looks or sounds good, is easily accessible, or has become popular among our peers, we are significantly more likely to try it.  If you are selling a product, remember that what is on the outside is just as important, if not more, than what is on the inside.  And location matters.  A product sold at eye level with bright, attractive packaging, will FAR outsell one on the bottom shelf in a plain box.  In these economic times, it is crucial to look at the small changes you can make that will have a huge impact on sales.

- Melissa

Picture this: you’re spending thousands on an advertising campaign to bring people to your business.  You’re running a compelling TV spot during primetime, the perfect radio campaign during morning rush-hour, and you have a targeted billboard with a dramatic presence at a high-traffic intersection.  Your phone is ringing off the hook and customers are coming in droves to your location - you couldn’t ask for any more, right?

What if, when they got there, the store was closed during peak hours?  Or what if they got inside and were greeted by a messy atmosphere, merchandise scattered all over, and an angry salesperson demanding “so whaddaya want??”.  Or, even worse, what if instead of all that, they navigated your store, picked out the perfect merchandise, made it to the dressing room, tried everything on, stood in line, and then were so turned off by something that happened at the register that they dropped everything and left?  And what if this happened to 90% of the customers that walked in your door?

Would you blame the advertising?  Or would you look deeper into what happened at the point of sale to turn these customer experiences into negative ones?

This is exactly the kind of thinking you should have when analyzing your search marketing or social media campaign.  I can’t tell you how many times a search or social marketing program has delivered customers to a website, ready to make a commitment; and something on the website has turned them away.  And at this point, many website owners have virtually no idea what the reason was that they lost these potential customers - because they weren’t tracking the proper metrics.

Never before has it been so incredibly simple to measure conversions online, especially when you’re running an online advertising campaign.  The tools exist, at virtually no cost, to measure everything from the immediate impact of a campaign to the long-term effects.  You can track where and how/why potential customers found you, what they did when they got there, and where/why they made a purchase or left.  If you knew that 90% of your customers were taking a quick glance at your homepage and immediately clicking off, you’d know that your homepage probably needs a facelift.

You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken.  So track, analyze, test, analyze, test again.  Don’t stop until you’ve reached goals far beyond you can imagine.  And then do it all over again.  Otherwise, you’ll be changing your mind for years to come and will never have an answer.

- Melissa

Lately, it seems as if nearly everyone I talk to about social networking has the same 2 questions: (1) “How could this possibly help my business?”, and (2) “I’m on LinkedIn, I setup a profile, now what do I do?”.

We’ve written several posts on the successful use of social networking and viral marketing in the Obama campaign, which, combined with an extraordinarily high unemployment rate, has piqued the interest of thousands who may have been dabbling in social media and are now starting to pay more attention.

In response to this, we created an entry and intermediate-level checklist to maximize the success of your efforts on LinkedIn, which you can find here.  Whether you are on the search for a new job, prospecting for sales leads, looking to develop relationships more fully with clients and prospects, or simply trying to stay on top of news and trends in your industry, you will find this checklist very helpful as a first start.  Once you’re fully engaged through LinkedIn, it is crucial to develop a multi-level campaign in a variety of social networking areas.

If you’re like most professionals, especially those in a sales, marketing, or consulting position, you probably have a full LinkedIn profile to maintain communication with your contacts and prospects, a Facebook page to keep in touch with friends and family (and maybe peak into the lives of past friends and high school classmates), and maybe you’ve even taken it a step further by setting up a blog to open up business discussions, participate regularly in forums, or developed and maintained a Twitter profile.  These are fantastic ways to begin developing your online campaign.

If you’re in a B2C environment, you can take this a step further through use of Flickr, Youtube, MySpace, and the like to generate exposure among potential customers in the social arena.  The best way to ingrain your brand in a consumer’s mind is to “be where they are”.  Nike sponsors marathons, Gatorade advertises during football games, Purina hosts the National Dog Show - if there is one element you can take away from the campaigns of these major brands it is that they know how to directly reach a targeted audience.  Thanks to the segmentation options available on the web, a dog food company now has the option of easily interacting directly with a “35-year old married homeowner with 2 or more dogs” rather than “females in the 24-36 age demographic who may or may not have a pet”.  And beyond that, you will know how that person interacts with your brand, whether certain features or promotions appeal to them, and why.  All without the use of a single focus group or research study.

It’s a social world, and it’s here to stay.  Just ask our new President.

- Melissa