GDMI Corporate Blog

Heard of Twitter but don’t totally understand how it works or how to leverage it to develop business relationships? Watch this flowgraph created providing the basics on twitter, and primer articles on how to leverage this powerful social networking platform.

Twitter is a service for not only friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question, but also for businesses to leverage as well.

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Having joined the Twitter phenomenon a little over a month ago, a relative late adopter - although beating Al Gore to the punch, I began by deliberately watching and ‘listening’ more so than actively participating.  With the ever blurred lines between social and professional activities within networks I began as a  ‘follower’ of Internet gurus, bloggers, personal friends, professional acquaintances, clients, retailers, developers, conference groups and the list goes on.

Tweets as they are called, in 140 characters or less, run the gamut from an incessant wait in line for one’s favorite Macchiato, to the ongoing play by play news feeds from the social networks, to a charitable initiative which raised several thousand dollars in a matter of hours.  As in most social networks direct selling may still be frowned upon but the intermingling of messaging is rampid.

After all, if one has just Tweeted how to get their hands on a 2004 Dumol Pinot Noir Russian River Valley, linking to the purveyor is a mere suggestion for followers, right? A daily Tweet of the blog of an online retailer is just intended to make for interesting banter isn’t it?  Perhaps, but undoubtedly with the growing number of corporate users added daily, whereever a group of people converge, marketers are sure to find them and find them they have.

One of the more intriguing and potential powerful Tweeting is on the presidential election. Obama followers are already 87,000+ strong. In the wake of Friday’s political debates, Twitter began running an ‘Election 08′ header with top themes and keywords. Throughout the debate the ongoing flood of Tweets were commenting in realtime as the debate unfolded. A vertiable ticker tape of conversation ensued. And as evidence of the further blurring between social, pop culture and political lines, Twitter’s Sunday morning’s ‘Election 08′ keyword header includes ‘Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live and Katie Couric’.

While some may view Twitter as just another friends and family platform for those with nothing better to do than post about their daily routines, with more than a million users and over 3 million messages daily, Twitter is growing as a powerful viral communication tool which undoubtedly is worth exploration for any business, group, organization, non-profit etc looking to connect, communicate and engage with others. Tangible ROI for the effort isn’t too far behind and at present, the only cost to participate is time.

Looking to learn more about levering online marketing and social media strategies? Contact the search, social media and marketing experts at GDMI.

No. Well, chances are your target market and you competitors have. If not on Twitter, how about MySpace, facebook, bebo, or xanga? These social networks aren’t just for your kids anymore and businesses in the know are capitalizing.

Over 37% of US adult Internet users use Social Networks and in 2008 online spending on Social Network advertising will grow 75% to $2.2 billion. One of the reasons that these networks are so appealing is the ability to target. No where before have people offered up so much information about themselves for the world to see then on Social Networks.

Selling baseball jerseys online? Only show your ads to people that have added baseball to their interests or MLB tags to their profile. Running a boutique salon in St Louis? Only target women in this geography over the age of 18. The possibilities are endless and more robust then even the search engines can offer.

Not enough targeting for you? You can reach African American, Latino and Asian communities (BlackPlanet, MiGente, and AsianAve), professional communities on LinkedIn, book lovers on goodreads, dog lovers on dogster, earth lovers on Gaia and movie lovers on flixster. Just to name a few.

If you’re still not convinced, consider that nearly 50% of all page views on the web are on social networking sites. In most cases, reaching this traffic can be implemented within paid search marketing; however, the world of Social Networking can be reached in many exciting ways and GDMI can help.

Source: Emarketer, “Social Network Marketing Ad Spending and Useage”, December 2007

A good run is when you’ve paced and pushed yourself simultaneously, mile after mile and manage to finish feeling rewarded and a sense of accomplishment (even if you are sucking wind and grabbing your chest). A great run, on the other hand, is when you are pulled along as if you are being drafted: you sit back, enjoy the ride and feel like you still have something left to give the pavement even after you’ve finished.

Social media may indeed be the good run- you’ve finally decided to create accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, maybe even a MySpace page or Bebo (for European flavor), to see what everyone is talking about. You conscientiously establish your profiles and start looking up your high school sweethearts, college roommates, former colleagues and work to make those all important ‘connections’. You aren’t yet sure where, when and how you’ll find the time to sustain such activity but you keep pushing in the hopes that you’ll make a good business introduction, perhaps a recruit, a lead, or even a new job opportunity. You keep going deliberately and methodically so you can reach some net gain.

For companies, the buzz about social media becoming the hottest evolving marketing tactic now requires businesses to not only lace up the Nikes but they better be prepared to pace and push for the long haul of participating in the forums with their customers. They had better have a strategy, killer apps and insights on how their target audiences want to be communicated with, not to. And lest we not forget, you better not appear to be trying to sell anything!

The great run however is engaging in a conversation, for the purpose of, well, conversation – (you remember what that is don’t you?). You allow the dialog to unfold, to take you into directions you haven’t planned for or anticipated. There is no formula, just awareness that the process itself will be a time worthy experience. Where it ‘gets you’ is actually what you discover along the way. The interaction seemingly pulls you along, almost effortlessly, and you sit back and enjoy the ride, the more you give in to it, the better the ride.

Marketing by definition is an ongoing process of planning and executing which is why ‘marketing’ in ‘Social Media Marketing’ may in fact be the ultimate oxymoron. As marketers if we do not control variables, test scenarios, measure and monitor everything we are in danger of a failed campaign.

Know why you are engaged in social media, absolutely! Have a strategy for it, certainly! But perhaps the more you relinquish the control and give in to the experience of the conversation you may actually discover the difference between a good run and a great one.