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Social Media

Social Media 101 – Twitter

Next up in our Social Media 101 series is Twitter. Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that allows users to send and read short 140-character messages called “tweets.” As of the first quarter of 2016, Twitter averaged 310 million monthly active users.

If Facebook is like a coffee shop where (almost) everyone knows your name, Twitter is a busy airport pub where you are welcome to join the conversations that interest you and connect with strangers (who can often become clients, colleagues and even friends).

Depending on your organization and what you provide – Twitter can support your sales and offer timely customer service. It can provide you with an understanding of how people perceive your industry, company or a specific incident, event or activity. It can help you to showcase your expertise and subject matter knowledge and it can help you to expand and extend your network. It is a great engagement tool.

Twitter provides an excellent opportunity to join the conversations that matter to you and your organization. On Twitter, your goal should be to engage followers (real ones, not the fake bots that just up your follower count) in authentic and timely conversations and discussions. You can use Twitter to link to a blog post, make a statement on something happening in the news, share your opinion, ask questions of others, and do just about everything you would do if you had the opportunity to be in the same room with a whole lot of smart people who are relevant to your world. (Just remember that you need to be relevant to their world too for this to work.)

The best way to engage and increase your followers is to follow others who you are interested in and participate in discussions. Respond to questions and comments and showcase who you are and what you bring to the party! Twitter is like a great big cocktail party where people are interested in what you have to say.

Writing in 140 characters can take some getting used to (and Twitter is about to make it a little easier to do this), especially if you aren’t succinct. Writing less is an art and it’s worth it to be thoughtful about the craft of writing tweets. A great tweet can be retweeted (shared) by your followers and increase your reach – as well as bring more people to follow you.

Like Facebook, it’s important, to understand your social media brand and voice and have that reflected on your Twitter account. And because Twitter is fast-paced and smart, it is also crucial that you understand how important it is to think through what you post here. There are many, many examples of Twitter #fails (if you don’t know what a # (hashtag) is – we’ll explain that in an upcoming post) because someone posted something inappropriate, confidential or even inflammatory. Writing in 140 characters might seem like nothing, but think of it as writing a really short article with a readership of millions – and be sensitive to how they might perceive what you are saying.

Twitter is a hot social network for organizations and it’s important that you are on there and know what’s going on. It’s equally important that you identify what you want to generate through Twitter – and know when, why and what you want to share with the Twitterverse. It can be an exceptionally positive tool or it can be one that creates issues that drive you to spend valuable time retracting, explaining, clarifying and apologizing.

Do yourself a favour and take Twitter seriously. You wouldn’t disseminate information or opinions that reflected poorly on your organization through email, at an event, at a tradeshow or when making a presentation. Don’t do it on Twitter either. There is a great deal of power in the hands of the people on Twitter. Respect them and your brand.

In today’s Fast Take Friday, I talk about how to deal with negative comments about your organization online.

I don’t think a week goes by at AHA when I don’t learn about another social media communications channel. And some days, it can feel like there is so much information about the technology, usage and user demographic, that it can be really confusing and overwhelming.

We go through a process here at AHA that includes defining the demographic user, how this technology or channel can be effectively used for clients, and how challenging it might be to get it up and running – relevant to client understanding of technology or appetite for new channels. It can be a time-consuming process, but it’s worth it for us so that we can be aware of new opportunities for clients.

We are going to start a regular (every two weeks) feature here on the blog that focuses on explaining, in the context of communications or PR, different social networks, channels, tools and technology. And – we’re going to start with the most popular ones like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. While many people are fully versed with these, many others aren’t – and we have had several new clients come to us because they want help with the basics. Other people might already be using the more popular social media networks for their organization, but don’t have a strategy. We’ll talk about that too.

We’re looking forward to developing this feature series here on the AHA blog – and we hope it will provide you with some useful information so that you can navigate through all of the communications opportunities online.

Social media is a challenge when it comes to both your professional and personal lives. Posting to your social media accounts offers an often very public view of your opinions, hobbies, habits and attitudes. There really isn’t any separation between personal and professional anymore.

I have read many articles on the subject and have seen a couple of speakers say that you should keep your Facebook page personal and use LinkedIn, Twitter and other accounts for more public engagement with potential clients, customers, partners or employers. Well, the reality is – that’s not easy to do. LinkedIn is pretty straightforward; it is generally focused on professional networking and business-related topics. Other sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram, aren’t so easy.

Let’s take Facebook as an example. How would you decline an existing or potential client or employer if they asked to friend you on Facebook? (And, if you haven’t experienced this, you will.) There is no easy way to decline that request. I have been immersed in the world of social media for more than 15 years – and I still haven’t found a good way to do it. That’s because turning someone away who has a connection to you does not build a good relationship. And it can look like you have something to hide.

The fact is, you can set up your privacy settings to stop some people from seeing all or some of your posts, but I know very few people who actually do this. While the person isn’t informed that you have done this, if they are paying attention, they might notice. And that doesn’t stop someone from tagging you or sharing inappropriate information and others seeing it. You have to be really on the ball and vigilant to make this work.

In working with clients, we have done social media audits that have turned up images of board members sitting beside someone smoking marijuana, senior staff drinking wine from a bottle, and several other pieces of information or photos that could damage their professional reputations. You can’t control everything and, for the most part, these kinds of things can be easily explained or put into context, but sometimes you don’t get that opportunity.

I have been on Facebook for a long time and I have friends, family, colleagues and both past and current clients as my Facebook friends. And while I do share some personal things, in the back of my mind I always ask myself – what if this ended up on the front page of a national newspaper… would I mind? We have a social media policy at AHA: We don’t post when we are sad or mad. And, for the most part, we focus on the positive. Even in a negative or serious situation, you can find something to say that is constructive.

The fact is, there is no longer a boundary between what you do in your personal and professional lives. They have blurred together. When you speak to young people in the workforce today, they expect the people who lead the organization to be transparent and authentic. More and more staffers are connected via social media networks – and often with their supervisors, managers, directors and the big cheese.

For the AHA team, we work closely with our clients and we usually have strong, positive relationships with them. Social media helps us build these relationships, as they can see who we are when we aren’t sitting at their boardroom tables. They can see who we are as real people. They are exposed to our values, our integrity and ethics in action – through example – not just from us telling them who we are. They can also see that we like to have fun, have a sense of humour, and they can learn about our hobbies and passions. For us, this is a benefit. People want to work with people they like and respect – and that’s a two-way street. When professional contacts connect with me on Facebook, I get to see who they really are too.

Super Bowl ads are highly anticipated and costly. It is estimated that just buying the time slot for a 30-second spot for Super Bowl 50 would have set you back around $5 million U.S. And then there are production costs, which are estimated to be up to $10 million U.S., depending on the commercial.

The halftime show is another big element. This year, Coldplay was listed as the headliner, and then Beyoncé and Bruno Mars were added to the playlist – all high-profile entertainers with huge followings.

The reactions on social media to the ads and the halftime show are a perfect example of how the world communicates and how reactions have changed. Some people absolutely loved a specific commercial and others really hated it. They shared their opinions all over social media, which were then picked up, retweeted or shared by others – including traditional media.

Some loved the halftime show; others slammed the performance and Beyoncé specifically – saying it was an attack on police officers. And that was also shared and retweeted – creating a pretty heated discussion about what she was trying to communicate.

Anyone with an opinion – whether you think that opinion is right or wrong – can speak out on social media. And, while Super Bowl 50 was a huge event and your organization might not have that kind of following, it is important for any organization to realize that someone, somewhere might not like what you are doing – and someone, somewhere else might love it. And they might be sharing all of this all over the Internet.

Opinions like the ones being shouted out on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites on Sunday night used to be contained amongst the person’s friends and family – or perhaps those sitting next to them at the local pub. But now those opinions can find a global audience – and depending on how you respond or don’t respond, this can impact your brand.

The AHA Moment

It’s important to: a) know what is being said about your organization; and b) be prepared for both positive or negative conversations. The positive comments are of huge value and acknowledging them can help you build strong relationships with influencers and potential brand ambassadors. The negative comments are equally important – especially if the discussion goes beyond opinion and the information being shared is inaccurate, misleading or an attack. Depending on the circumstances, responding isn’t always strategic, but you need to know what is being said before making that decision.

It’s important to know what conversations are being held that either talk about your organization or brand, or that impact your industry – and it’s crucial that you understand how to respond effectively.