Using Social Media for Market Research
Social media can aide in market research by taking advantage of your follower or fan base to interact in such a way that would bring insight into your companies service or brand. Through interaction, surveys and other means, you can discover what marketing techniques work or don’t work that your business can either keep or start implementing. Looking for any trends in fan or follower base will also help give you insight towards the type of people your company attracts and your market niche. Join other company social networks and see what others are up to. Study what others have done in social media that have already been successful. What are ways you can do something similar?

Google Analytics
Google analytics is a web blogging tool that gives detailed statistics on web site traffic, allowing individuals to discover what works and doesn’t work in blogging topics, and information. What is the audience most interested in? Google analytics can help. What keywords are people searching to get to your company blog? This information can help businesses tailor topics to focus on and what will have more mass appeal.

By joining the social media ranks, your company can firmly establish itself in leading trends not only in their market, but in the 21st century digital age. PRechnology can help you reach a wider audience through social media.

Using twibes can help deliver succinct content to Twitter and establish you within a community. This is one tool of many that you can utilize to help make sure your social media marketing presence is not going ignored.

Last night on one of my Twitter accounts, I tweeted, “Twitter is an echo-chamber; media that hears for itself.”  There are two dominant characteristics of Twitter that can help you learn how to use it to your advantage.  One is the personal aspect.  People on Twitter want to know you as a person; not a company, a product, or brand.  The second characteristic is like-mindedness.  People on Twitter are looking for people with similar interests.  This means if you run a graphic design business, your Twitter account will most likely be following graphic designers.  If you are a visual artist, you will most likely be following visual artists.

Although Twitter is a personal and like-minded media, it is still media.

What does this mean?  It means that Twitter is a public source of information and entertainment for people.  The earlier you recognize this, the better.  You can increase your influence on Twitter by learning the rules of etiquette and “hearing” for yourself and your followers.  Find out what like-minded people are interested in.  Promote other people’s blogs and Twitter streams.  Network like crazy.  This is the wonderful world of Twitter.  Now for those suggestions from the pros:

PC World

Reconsider the running commentary.

Understand @ replies.

Go easy on the acronyms.

Think about the venue. It’s not okay to Twitter a funeral.

Learn the lingo.

It is acceptable to edit a re-tweet.

Mind the plugs.

Don’t forget: Unlike a Facebook update, a Twitter post can be read by anyone.

Original Article Here

Fast Company

Remember, Twitter is a conversation.

Ask questions; don’t just pontificate.

What part of 140 chars do you not understand?

Some things are better left unsaid. So avoid stream-of-consciousness-blogging via Twitter.

Transparency is vital — just as with any other social media.

Consider quality vs. quantity.

Many users provide links to interesting articles, information, etc.

Use proper grammar.

If people follow you, it’s polite to “follow” them back.

Original Article Here

The Morning News

Watch your ratio (followers to following).

Think twice before twittering in an altered state.

Consider pausing between tweets.

Keep small conversations private.

Accept that some people will use lots of @s.

Be vague when twittering private social events.

Remember everyone can hear you.

What’s rude in life is rude on Twitter.

Try to keep within the character limit.

DMs don’t necessarily require a response.

If you want to stop following someone, stop.

Plug blog posts, events, or products moderately.

Original Article Here

Mashable

Create a user-friendly Twitter ID.

Search for people to follow.

Learn the lingo.

Know who “@” replies to you.

Add your Twitter ID to all of your signatures.

Reach out and say something.

Read the bio of those who follow you.

Share your best information.

Find out who some of the big players are.

Original Article Here

Don’t solicit followers for yourself or your friends.

Don’t publicly thank each of your followers.

Don’t underestimate the power of tracking a trend.

Don’t use up your entire 140 characters with a lengthy URL.

Don’t worry about those who “unfollow” you.

Don’t be afraid to converse with multiple people simultaneously.

Send personal information over DM not @.

DM for longer conversations.

Use DM to correct someone, if at all.

Use DM to make a request from someone.

Original Article Here

You may see some overlap, but that is intended. I want people to see which aspects are emphasized among the experts.  I agree with each of these suggestions, and after reading some of them I even made a few changes.  For example, I added my Twitter URL to my email signature.

One issue I would like to mention is tweet volume. Many experts suggest you space out your tweets and that you don’t over-tweet.  I think every Twitter user has fallen into a pattern of over-tweeting from time to time, and it’s important to be aware of.

Twitter streams like the New York Times and Jet Blue are going to be posting a high volume of tweets.  Depending on your aspirations on Twitter, you may want to consider whether you see yourself as a casual tweeter or if tweeting is an integral part of your marketing strategy.  Personally, I send out a lot of interesting links on my account and I tweet up to 20 posts a day.  This may irritate some of my followers, but the great majority really enjoy the media I am providing.  Therefore, I suggest defining your role and maybe even polling your followers, asking them whether they are comfortable with your volume of tweets.

If you’re still getting your feet wet and want to learn more about Twitter for your business, check out this post, “Three Twitter Apps to Expand your Reach.”

Here are three Twitter applications that we use here at Prechnology:

1. HootSuite

I have personally tried nearly a half-dozen Twitter platforms.  Some of these include Nambu, Twhirl, TweetDeck, and Seesmic Desktop.

Twitter platforms have many features and benefits that add dimensionality to the Twitter experience, and everyone seems to have a personal preference.  Twhirl, for example, creates an “instant-messaging” feel to twittering.  Seesmic and Nambu are both excellent platforms with multiple “panes” that you can rearrange according to your viewing preference.

Tweet Deck was the platform that I first fell in love with, probably because of its sleek look.  By dividing your tweets into columns (@comments, live feed, and direct messages), each of these platforms helps to simplify the activity of twittering.  When your number of followers reaches a certain point, I would say it’s almost impossible to continue using Twitter without one of these platforms.

But it turns out my favorite Twitter platform is HootSuite.

There are several reasons why I prefer HootSuite over the others.  HootSuite was created as a Twitter platform for multiple accounts, while some of the other platforms, like TweetDeck were not and are only adding functionality for multiple accounts right now.

If you’re running more than one business on the web, I would suggest a separate Twitter account for each business. HootSuite is the ideal platform for multiple accounts because you can toggle between accounts while remaining on the same page, in the same window.  You can also post simultaneously across selected accounts.

Using Nambu and Seesmic I had a very over-stimulated experience that I didn’t particularly like.  In addition, I felt that these platforms were slower to send tweets and upload feeds.  With HootSuite, I quickly shoot responses to each of my followings and toggle the various accounts rather easily.  I can “star” comments by users and return to them later.  “Star” comments appear in a separate column.

Lastly, and perhaps the coolest thing about HootSuite, are the statistics.  Statistics are important for social media campaigns and if you run a business on the Web you’re going to want to know how much traffic your Twitter account is driving to your website.

On HootSuite, you can use the ow.ly shortener to create links and track the hits on each link you post.  This feature provides you with a feedback loop for your campaign.  You can see the exact amount of popularity for each of your links; and you can find out which links drive traffic and which ones don’t.

2. Twollo

Twollo is a godsend of a Twitter app.  Basically it allows you to focus your Twitter campaign.  The service runs an automated search of every Twitter conversation based on keywords you choose.  All of this happens in the background and goes on without you.  All you have to do initially is  enter the keywords into the system and Twollo will add you as a follower to anyone who uses those keywords. This ingenious service will ultimately create a targeted following for you.

Even though Twollo adds you as a follower to each new conversation it finds, about half or more of the Twitter users will follow you back. Through casual conversation and tweeting, you’ll discover more about your followers.  Followers are essential to your social media campaign because they will re-tweet your posts and ultimately serve as your “marketing friends”.  I would say as long as your followers feel that they are interacting with a real person, they’ll continue to support you.

Twollo has a basic service that is free, but for $7 for one month or $5 per month, you can create a priority account.  I recommend the priority account.  With priority, the Twollo system will add many more followers based on the keywords you’ve choosen.  This also means you will receive nearly 10x as much traffic to your Twitter page compared to the free Twollo service.

3. Huitter/Mutuality

Not everyone will follow you back, however, and this is where the last Twitter app comes in handy. Huitter/mutuality enables you to bulk follow everyone who follows you and bulk unfollow everyone who doesn’t. Depending on how many followers Twollo is adding to your account, you will want to regularly eliminate those people who are not following you. You will also want to follow those who are following you.

So are you really following anyone?

Your main objective is to increase publicity for your business. The only way to do this is to build relationships with followers by diversifying your tweets and sending cool links. You don’t really need to follow anyone unless of course you want to.

From a public relations standpoint, they are following you and you are trying to increase your targeted followers.  To learn more about the importance of social media for your business, check out this post.

Twitter is a flexible and creative medium.  Take advantage of all the different ways to communicate with your followers.  In a single day, I will tweet songs from Blip.fm, pictures from Twitpic, quotations from books I’ve read, status updates (What am I doing or thinking right now?), cool links I’ve found, and RTs, or re-tweets of others’ posts on Twitter.  In addition, I use @tweets which are a form of communicating publicly to someone over Twitter.

TwitPic is a great way to accumulate page views.  Your profile page on Twitpic.com will also have a place to put a link to your business website.  Take advantage of Twitpic to add diversity to your tweets.

Maybe not everyone will be interested in listening to your songs, but some will; and Blip.fm is an excellent way to attract those people.

Keep in mind, headlines are everything on Twitter.  When you post a twitpic or a blip, be sure to give the link a catchy title which invites people to click on it.  The same goes for tweeting links.  Most Twitter users love cool links, and the headline is what grabs their attention.  Make sure your headlines are to the point, descriptive and fun.

I suggest you hone in on a specific area of interest and Tweet links based on that general field.  For example, on a book publishing account, you would publish links that relate to books, publishing, e-books, resources for writers, etc.  People will soon come to expect quality links about a given area of interest.  This can help to build your reputation as a reliable source of information, increase followers, and draw more traffic to your site.

You may also want to tweet links about the state or city that your business is located.  For example, if your business is based out of Scottsdale, then send links that relate to “real-estate” or news stories in Scottsdale.

But don’t overdo tweeting cool links.  Two or three interesting links a day will attract noticeable traffic.  Remember:  diversify your tweets!