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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Andrew Tellijohn
August - September 2009

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All a-twitter: News & sales

Jeff Trauring,
Snow Communications:

612.337.0700
jtrauring@cybersnow.com
www.cybersnow.com

News updates, sales
obvious uses for
Twitter account

by Jeff Trauring

Unless you’ve been living on a deserted island, it’s hard to escape the buzz surrounding Twitter.

After Oprah Winfrey sent her first “tweet” live on her April 17 show, she amassed more than 75,000 followers within 24 hours. Ten days later, more than  644,000 people were receiving updates directly from Oprah’s new account. Celebrity actor Ashton Kutcher recently became the first person to amass more than 1 million followers.

City councils have begun creating Twitter accounts to update citizens of public works programs, road repair projects and calendar events. Journalists, politicians, celebrities and millions of everyday folks are using Twitter, and plenty more are wondering what all the fuss is about.

Twitter offers a number of unique opportunities for business development, including customer service, networking, news distribution, brand monitoring (yours and your competition’s), crisis management and event tracking. The truth is, Twitter can be as useful as you want it to be. It can also become an enormous time-sink with limited returns if not used properly.

Twitter is a free, online micro-blogging service that allows users to post short updates limited to 140 characters or fewer. Since its creation in 2006, Twitter has rapidly grown in popularity worldwide. According to the Web site analytics company Compete, Twitter.com received more than 98 million visits in March 2009, from more than 14 million unique users.

From a business perspective, Twitter is an opportunity. The service is a gateway into a conversation where your company is likely a topic. And if it’s not, you can help change that. The 140-character limitation on messages encourages informal collaboration and quick information sharing. Twittering has the potential of opening up your circle of contacts and expanding the reputation of your company.

The most obvious use for Twitter is as a news distribution tool. However, the most Twitter-savvy companies sprinkle company news and updates in between conversations and commentary on other things. The biggest mistake some companies make is to use Twitter as a press release dumping ground, and nothing more. Twitter has been compared to a golf outing with a client. Most of the time you aren’t selling directly, but through casual conversation you can improve relationships and develop a greater sense of trust.

Continuously monitor your brand on Twitter. Thank those who share kind words about your products or services, and at least consider responding to those with criticism. Even if you choose not to engage with someone who is discussing your brand, the information alone is valuable.

Twitter can (and probably should) be an integral part to your crisis management plan. When US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River, the airline created a Twitter account within the hour, providing a phone number for family members seeking more information, and a link to the MSNBC news feed.

Setting up auto-alerts for mentions of your company is easy and a great help for both crisis prevention and crisis response efforts. For example, cable provider Comcast has a dedicated customer support team on Twitter for responding to customer problems in real-time.  

Before joining the so-called Twitterverse, develop a plan for leveraging this tool in a way that complements your ongoing public relations and marketing strategy. Determine the resources you’ll need and stick to them, just as you would for any other media relations or marketing campaign.  

Creating an account on Twitter is simple. Registration requires a name, password, e-mail and a username. You’ll want to put some careful thought into the username. It can be your company’s name, the name of a product or service, or the name of whomever will be running the account. Also, don’t leave the picture space blank; people are less likely to follow someone who doesn’t use a picture. In the bio section, include the name of your company, and a link to your Web site or blog.

While you may be eager to jump right in and start tweeting about how great your company is, there’s one initial problem: you don’t have any followers. You’re not Oprah, and your business may be local or relatively obscure. This is all OK. In Twitter (and other forms of social media), it’s important to listen before engaging the crowd.

 Follow industry leaders who post links to important resources and influence conversations. Use the Twitter “search” function to see if your company is being discussed. Search for competitors and other keywords within your industry or issues of interest.

Follow the people who are using these words in conversation. Build your network, one contact at a time. Engage in some conversations, but not necessarily about your products. If you are using other social media like Facebook or LinkedIn, cross-promote your content.

Once you have established some followers of your own, you can begin the process of using Twitter to promote your business. Restaurants send tweets about daily specials. Retailers promote sales or discounts. Professional service firms provide commentary on current events within their fields. If your company is holding an event, extend the invitation to your Twitter followers (and encourage them to pass the invitation down the line). You can even create a special “hashtag” or keyword for the event and encourage attendees to use it when discussing your event on Twitter.

Whether your company is hoping to reach a wider audience, promote specific news and events, provide customer support, gather competitive intelligence, or set up a quick response channel, Twitter offers a number of unique opportunities. Just how you decide to use it is up to you.