Friday, 26 June 2009

Twitter: how can a business use it?

"Twitter - so what is the point?" Being involved in digital PR, this is a challenge I hear all the time, partly driven by articles appearing in newspapers written by armchair pundits who don't use it but certainly have a negative opinion.

At thebluedoor we use Twitter alot. Each of us have our own Twitter account and we also have a rather underused company account too. My Twitter name is @AbigailH - please do follow me and let me know if I can help with any Twitter questions that you have.

In order to understand Twitter and its benefits I would advise that you stop reading articles in papers and start using it. Here is some tips that might help you get started:
  • Go to Twitter - it's free - and register your own name (or as close as possible) and your business and its brands. Even if you don't intend to use the latter, owning them means that you are protecting them from someone else who might have malicious intentions to spam your brand
  • Watch the demonstration video, it is a great starting point
  • Fill in your profile and don't forget to put a link to your website or blog
  • Use a free application e.g.: TweetDeck / Twirl in order to see conversation
  • Follow @hashtags and create business relevant hashtag e.g.: #Habitat (* see below). Hashtags help conversations to be visible
  • Follow @MrTweet in order to ‘find’ followers / friends
  • Live-Tweet events / news / general industry information, as well as key business information to gather more attention
  • Perhaps add links into your Tweets that point into your business’s key online areas. Remember to use key words – there are SEO benefits in Twitter
  • Track the ROI by looking at your website's analytics
  • Refer to key opinion formers and include their Twitter handle e.g.: @stephenfry. If they are using TweetDeck they might see them and sometimes (if you are lucky!) respond / engage accordingly
  • Twitter is great for testing ideas, gathering feedback, and asking questions
  • Remember that this is Web 2.0 i.e.: it is talking and listening, not just pushing out company news! – otherwise people will not be interested

* = Habitat got into hot water earlier this week by using inappropriate hashtags such as #iranelection in order to piggy-back a topic that was being discussed (trending).

Twitter does not replace face-to-face communication, but is a very powerful digital networking and collaboration tool for businesses. And in the spirit of that final point, I'm attending tomorrow's TweetCamp in London and am very much looking forward to meeting up with people (many for the first time) who are active on Twitter. If you are going, I can't wait to meet you. And if you're not, there is sure to be lots of live Tweeting going on, so watch out for the #tweetcamp tagged Tweets.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

posted by thebluedoor at 13:45 2 Comments

Thursday, 18 June 2009

PR and SEO: living in harmony?

PR is currently experiencing a squeeze from other disciplines. As 'Search' becomes increasingly reliant on good content, SEO agencies are becoming full service agencies. Offerings are becoming broader to include PR. Perhaps this is not surprising as PR has traditionally provided the good, interesting, robust content.

However, I believe that this encroachment presents a Pandora's Box of potential problems. Granted - SEO and Digital PR agencies essentially want the same thing - a client with strong search rankings, with traffic converting into leads, even sales. But, the ways of getting there using each discipline is different.

As the PRCA says - PR is all about reputation. PR communicates compelling, robust messages - stories - to a target audience who finds it interesting, useful and relevant. Although 'reputation management' is a bit of a red herring, PR professionals are expert in finding the 'so what' factor - is it new and why would a journalist (and ultimately his or her readers) care.

At thebluedoor, we start at the beginning by understanding a client's objectives in order to advise on a route forward. And in the shiny exciting world of all things digital, this approach to delivering excellent PR must remain the same. The strategic rules of PR have to stay solid - whether it is online or off-line, and wherever possible it is our job to ensure that these channels are integrated. In order to understand the rules of PR, specific industry experience is a must - which is perhaps what not all SEO agencies have. Yes, all industries have good and bad practitioners, but good PR professionals have spent time in the ring. Results don't just happen (in the main): we will have taken time to understand a journalist's agenda, followed their published articles, read the relevant publications and obsessively followed the news agenda.

I feel that it is vital for the different disciplines of SEO and PR to remain true to their origins and not become diluted. Instead of becoming an 'expert' in all things to all people, our combined challenge is to understand each others different but related areas of expertise. Agencies must work together, complementing each other, to achieve the best results for our clients.

Labels: , , , , , , ,

posted by thebluedoor at 06:53 0 Comments

Back to top