21. March 2009 21:00
First, an apology for my too-long silence here at Footings. As always, client work takes precedence and boy, has it been busy! Ecobuild always means a heavy workload in February and March, and I'm hugely grateful to our great clients - we are all working hard together, using PR and effective communications to survive and thrive in the worst recession in the UK's construction and property industries that any of us has ever seen.
But good practice in blogging means regular, ideally weekly, updates. I will strive to do better, dear readers...
Throughout the frenzy though, where I have been trying to maintain a regular presence is on Twitter.
All my clients and friends will be more than aware of this new addiction in my life, but for anyone who is not familiar with Twitter it might be worth me explaining what it is and how I see the business benefits for you.
What is Twitter?
- It's like broadcasting on the Internet a mini update on what you're doing/reading/thinking to a group of like-minded folk, and them doing the same. Some people call this micro-blogging.
- You type into Twitter.com (or into a Twitter application on your mobile phone) a message of no more than 140 characters, answering the question "What are you doing?".
- At first, you will probably broadcast to no one (because no one knows you're there!). But very quickly you will start to attract 'followers' who are interested in what you have to say. They can choose to follow you, if you allow them to, and your followers will see all your messages (or 'tweets' as they are known).
- You can also choose who you want to follow in return - I guarantee you will find colleagues, clients, competitors and commentators with direct relevance to your business or areas of work.
- You may also like to follow many of the media titles now on Twitter - most of the UK's national, professional and trade media now use Twitter to broadcast their news headlines, for example.
One of the simplest explanations about Twitter comes from the creative guys at CommonCraft and the 'Twitter in Plain English' video they've posted on You Tube. It's showing Twitter being used as a way for friends to keep in touch by sharing little things that are happening in their daily lives.
But don't dismiss this as just a 'social chit chat' thing - there are also useful business benefits to Twitter.
What are the business benefits?
- If your business relies on industry information, you'll probably get that information faster and in a more targeted way via Twitter.
- News breaks on Twitter. National and international news stories get shared on Twitter before even Reuters can post a newsflash. Headlines from publications like Building, Construction News, Estates Gazette, Timber Trades Journal, The Architect's Journal and many others all get posted on Twitter with a link that takes you direct to the information you need.
- By monitoring what gets said on Twitter (eg. through setting up a RSS feed to monitor certain key words, maybe the name of your company or a competitor even), you can hear what real people are saying about you right now - and get the chance to respond.
- More importantly though, Twitter helps to create new relationships and encourages dialogue between people.
- I've seen Twitter described as a 24/7 networking event - it's true! You can use Twitter to extend your network of contacts and friends, and to share information that is of interest to you and value to them.
- You can use Twitter to pick up on PR opportunities, as many journalists use Twitter to ask if anyone has useful comment to make on issue X or Y.
- You can post a question, ask for help, invite people's views.
- You can use Twitter to broadcast your own news - your client wins, new products, upcoming events etc.
- Posting relevant links within your Twitter messages can help to drive traffic to your website...
- And much like a blog (but much easier and faster to do), posting updates on Twitter helps to give a personality to your company, the colour and detail that brings a brand to life.
As always, there are 'rules' and guidelines around the etiquette that should be observed with this new social media tool - check out the Ten Commandments, for example.
But overall, I find Twitter an easy and valuable way to forge good working relationships with clients, journalists, suppliers, friends and acquaintances wherever they are based around the world.
So if you sign up too, please do get in touch with me - my Twitter name is @lizmale - and we can follow each other!