Dharling.

Backyard 2.

What's yours?

Open wide.

Make it.

New shoes?

Go slow.

Twitter and it’s role in your SME’s online strategy

Twitter is a website which offers businesses a gateway to customers online, a social networking service which enables people to send and read messages - those 'tweets' you may have heard people chirping about. Twitter now has up to 175 million users, that's a growth rate of roughly 15 million users per month or about half a million users per day.

Time to invest. Increase your ROI by tweeting.

Using Twitter to implement your social media strategy is easy - business scope is borderless. Combine your online strategy with honest conversation and relevant chatter. Get social.

Twitter: Essential to your social media strategy

* Allows you to build and continue conversation with customers and stakeholders
* Provides a platform - direct customers towards your product/service (gain feedback too)
* Creates a hyperlocal sense to your business and online strategy
* Consumers and competitors both use Twitter
* Monitor behaviours and trends through easy accessible analytic tools.

Time to engage.

What’s happening while you are not tweeting?

Not on Twitter? Your business is being talked about. Online conversation of consumers occurs whether you are listening or not.

Twitter is a real time exchange of dialogue within a networked community. It’s all happening without you. Know what’s out there: make sure you know what’s currently being said about you.

Time spent reviewing or following brands that are using Twitter well is time well spent.

Tweets, trends and @mentions are something which on and offline businesses can no longer afford to ignore. Ignorance is bad for business.

Get started with Twitter

1)Tweet – 140 characters. Keep it social, short and sharp.
2)Retweet – regurgitate tweets that engage your followers and are relevant to your business. Echo your brand, purpose and interests. Share it with your network.
3)@mentions – tag your followers in a tweet. Direct tweets towards someone already listening. Ask questions. Manage conversation. Create Chatter.
4)#tags - create and follow trends on Twitter. #tags are meta data that connect tweets and birth trends across the Twitter platform.
5)#FF – Follow Friday. It’s nice to be liked. Build a network of like minded businesses and individuals with a digital salute.

Let’s talk shop

Twitter is a tool which is savvy and an enabler of community, embrace this and your community will embrace you. So...

* Follow - check out those that follow you, provide timely responses, participate in conversations keeping your business objectives in mind.
* Keep it social – got new stock this morning? Talk about it. Let customers know what is going on in real time.
* Keep it sweet – beware of language. Create a persona, be warm, be human.
* Build interest – promote with retweets of your followers. Invest time and effort to build a conversation.
* Plan - a content strategy will help focus your efforts on publishing content of value in a timely and relevant way.
* Location – add location data to tweets, push local business. Mobile usage of twitter means you can reach those listening for locations in real time.
* Analytics– third party tools for your twitter strategy. Keep an eye on your metrics.
* Trends - Twitter is always on, make sure you have someone to monitor conversations, competitors and trends.

Entice your followers with incentives and general conversation, get to know your market, execute searches. Dig in. Join in.


Want more?
Follow me @jessica_barlow


Useful links:
The @twitter blog
Twitter: On Track for 200 Million Users by Year End
Third party tools for you and your twitter strategy:
Hootsuite
Tweetdeck

A little bird told me...

*Likes this*

Cereal.

Reincarnation.

English Rose.

Mind wonders, heart races
stand around
stationary
jittery
and jolting

insanity.

Atoms race around me
brewed up pleasure
engulfs me

Dance
to there
spin
jolt
slide
just like these fellings inside
igniting.

Only casting in this light
movement
how long of a moment?

Moments of pleasure
insanely beautiful.

An English Rose
a molten lava

through an expression of wavelengths
that ride through
with
and in pleasure

it blossoms.

Babylove.

Michael Jackson.

Patrick Wolf - Time of My Life

Zion.

What's for Tea? at The Common Place, Leeds

We are putting on an event with Ctrl.Alt.Shift in Leeds on December 5th...you should come.


Access Ctrl.Alt.Shift
Access more information about What's for Tea? at the Common Place
Register for Common Place membership

Saving you money everyday.

Life.

Window of tomorrow.

Eid Mubarak!

Fu-Fu.

Sunday Born.

Weather it makes a difference

blinded by the light
of reflections
of a skybird
gleaming light
of mechanic beings
grasping hold
in flight
in sight

live on
live young
spread your love
grabbing my attention
stealing the light
in flight

strangers looking
floating
a sporadic wave
a global hello
tap, tap tapping
at your head
hello flight
hello skytrain
hello rain

Pick your battles.

Debt.

Keep Calm.

Roast.

Celebrate.

Makers in the shade of the Maker.

Soul.

Travel light.

Crown and Glory.

...in love with Lucy Rose.

Hello You.

Where art thou fair maiden?

World Identity Lab: Nowhere/here

World Identity Lab believe that culture starts with the individual. I am lucky enough to be a contributor to this inspiring online art and cultural project.

My latest submission for the project 'Nowhere/Now here World' takes you and I on a journey to North Yorkshire, clambering up and on gigantic rocks at Malham Cove.


Take a look at my lovely entry Malham Cove to the World Identity Lab
Access World Identity Lab

Good Hair Day.

A Greyscale of a Day.

Joy.

A Silent Waltz.

Your love is like a buoyancy of ideas
they leak into mine
levelling out my irrational thoughts
dreams
of malice desires.

A balanced inside
a looking glass of heart
staring forever into a soul
made for you.

Fall deep
into this wondering state
and we shall dance
hold my hand
I'll guide you into the forgotten.

Speak a song of echoes
flowering with might
a deeper dance
a quick fire tempo
Alas

we stamp it out.

Place of heart #1.

Onwards.

My 1.4 Billion Reasons

Here are a few reasons that I met whilst volunteering in Ghana, West Africa in May-August 2010 with Platform2. These people live in a village called Kasapin in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. Water and Sanitation issues are rife within the village along with Malaria and Gender inequality, which are all key parts of the Millenium Development Goals.








Find out more about Global Poverty Project's 1.4 Billion Reasons
Related post: 1.4 Billion Reasons DVD Premiere

Global Poverty Project: 1.4 Billion Reasons DVD Premiere

Global Poverty is something which needs to be eradicated in our life time; the Global Poverty Project is an organisation which is commited to spreading the word and acheiving this goal.

On Wednesday 20 October I attended the 1.4 Billion Reasons DVD premiere at Bloomsbury Thatre in London, where my winning photography entries for 'Women are the Solution not the Problem' were screened.



The UK premiere of 1.4 Billion Reasons was a highly successful event, Bloomsbury Theatre was buzzing with like minded people, including model Lily Cole. You could really sense the energy of change as the presentation got under way.




The DVD itself delves into the details of the Millenium Development Goals, which were recently reviewed last month at the UN Summit in New York. To focus on these goals highlights the importance and possibility of eradicating poverty, proving that unless we promote change then these global goals of humanity will seem out of reach for some time to come.




The DVD focused on Ghana, West Africa, as a shining example of democracy and the development of fair trade rules in cocoa farming. Links to Cadbury's and the work they are doing with Ghanian farmers were discussed in the presentation and the DVD. The examples and developments discussed for the Gold Coast country are something that I can relate to, having returned from volunteering in Ghana with Platform2 for 3 months back in August.

The night was a huge success, with several open question and answer opportunities throughout the presentation, which really made the audience engage with the issues highlighted in the DVD.



Related post: Women and the Solution not the Problem
Find out more about The Global Poverty Project
Global Poverty Project: Join in on Facebook

Enchanting.

Basically...