The Art of Twittering

I recently read a great post in Joan Stewart's The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week about how to use Twitter for business. I thought I would reprint in its entirety since I found it very useful. I have already sent in my tips and they may appear in her next newsletter. If not, I will share them here.

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How do You Twitter for Business?
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I'm in love with Twitter, the free social networking and microblogging service that lets you send updates as often as you wish to whoever is following you at http://www.twitter.com/.

Each update, limited to only 140 characters of type, can include information on whatever you're doing on a particular day. Although I occasionally include personal updates, I try to concentrate on writing about solutions I've found to business problems, products I'm creating, and things I'm learning.

Lots of Twitterers are still experimenting with how to use Twitter for business purposes. I've been collecting the best examples and compiling them into a special report which should be ready in a few weeks.

I want to include as many Hounds as possible in the report. If you Twitter for business, let me know what you discuss--and the results. Has Twitter helped you build a following for a niche product or service? Or helped you collect email addresses? Or brought readers to your blog? Or simply given you a chance to show more of your personality to followers who eventually might do business with you?

I've seen some clever business uses for Twitter. For example, I blogged about how Publicity Hound Harry Hoover has compiled a big list of journalists who Twitter and turned it into a wiki for PR people. You can read more about that at http://publicityhound.net/twitterwiki.

Even Business Week reporter Stephan Baker is writing about Twitter via a series of tweets, which he started this afternoon. His article will discuss the growth of Twitter and whether those of us who are wild about it right now will still be using it in a year or two. You can follow the story at http://summize.com/search?q=%23bwstory.

Now, it's your turn. Tell me how you use Twitter for business. If I use your example, you'll get a copy of the special report gratis. Email your response to JStewart@PublicityHound.com, in the subject line put "How I Use Twitter"

You can follow Joan Stewart on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/publicityhound or Traci Bisson at www.twitter.com/tracibisson.
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Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email the handy list "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

Labels: microblogging, social networking, The Publicity Hound, Twitter

posted by Traci Bisson @ 2:56 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

How to measure ROI for PR

In a recent Publicist Panel (listen to the podcast) we hosted, with three very talented publicists, one of the questions asked of our panelists was "what are some metrics that can be used to apply a value to PR that is received?"

As our panelists explained, PR is very intangible, which means it can be difficult to measure. Authors and entrepreneurs commit to PR in order to create awareness and increase their personal brand recognition with target markets. So how do you measure PR ROI?

Top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) is one way of measuring how well your name and brand ranks in the minds of your target markets. How well do your target markets recognize your brand? A measure of how often your name, book title, product, service or company name is searched online can give you a sense if you are gaining TOMA.

Try this simple, fun experiment. Visit Google Fight (not affiliated with Google) and enter two different search terms. This website will give you a reading of each terms popularity by giving a number for how many times the term has been searched. For instance, I like to use the name of my company, Bisson Barcelona, with one of my competitor's company's names. Occasionally I will use my name, Traci Bisson and my company name to get a sense of what brand is searched for more. My name is searched over 70,000 times more then my company name. Try this exercise prior to your PR campaign and then again at six and 12 month intervals. This is one of many tangible measures of a PR campaign.

Labels: brand awareness, brand recognition, PR, public relations, publicity, return on investment, ROI, top-of-mind awareness

posted by Traci Bisson @ 9:05 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

What is the role of a publicist?

We recently hosted a Publicist Panel teleseminar that was attended by over 50 people. Our panel included Erin Saxton of The Idea Network, Kate Bandos of KSB Promotions and Marci Hait of Bisson Barcelona.

We received some great questions from listeners prior to the call. Most of them we were able to ask our panelists. The questions we did not get to we thought we would blog about. So over the next few weeks, you will see posts related to questions from the teleseminar.

In addition, the teleseminar was recorded and made into a podcast for our podcast library. This can be downloaded for free. Downloading takes about five minutes depending on your connection.

Labels: job of a publicist, podcasts, publicists, teleseminars, what is a publicist

posted by Traci Bisson @ 3:21 PM 0 Comments Links to this post