How To Use Twitter to Build Your Brand

Launched in March of 2006, Twitter is a social media success story. On average, users now post more than 500 million tweets daily. Moreover, the use of hashtags (#) allows the grouping of similarly-themed tweets, meaning you can easily find and follow topics of interest.

Bottom line: Twitter is a powerful tool for media professionals looking to keep up with topical news, monitor a topic, research a topic, or network with others. If you think Twitter is irrelevant or full of talkers, think again. By utilising a few simple tools, you can reap valuable information with relatively little effort or cost.

And the more you know, the better prepared you are to make informed decisions.

What can you measure with Twitter?

You can't manage something you can't (or don't) measure. Twitter allows you a close look at a surprising number of important metrics, thereby giving you pertinent statistics and insight for strategic planning.

For instance, here are three important metrics you can easily determine about your Twitter account:

• Follower Count: While not a stand-alone indicator of either popularity or interaction (follower count is easily skewed, just buy a few thousand), follower count does provide insight, especially when you look deeper to WHO is doing the following. No special tool is needed to determine this metric. Every Twitter profile reveals the total number of tweets, the number of followers, and how many others are being followed.
• Follower Growth: This one takes some tracking over time. You can do that manually; simply record starting numbers on a spreadsheet and record the change at intervals. You can also find tools (paid and free) that provide growth tracking. Online services come and go, so it is always best to perform a current search for them. Check Twitaholic for an interesting look at a simple and revealing read out.
• Reach: When you tweet, are you shouting down an empty pipe or are others really listening and reacting? Reach tells you how many others your messages are (potentially) touching. Want to know how much buzz a television special generated last night? Are you wondering how well a certain hashtag is doing? Try TweetReach on for size.

These three are but a beginning. Think about the metrics important to you. Chances are the tool to determine them is already developed and waiting.REMEMBER: Twitter data is almost entirely transparent. You can look deeply at the metrics for your own account and you can scrutinise the accounts of others.

Set up a listening post

Some Twitter services are free. Some are paid. Most offer both a lite (free) and intensive (paid) version. The possibilities are constantly in flux, with new tools and services popping up (and going away) on a regular basis.

By setting up a listening post, you can monitor any person, any company, or any topic being discussed on Twitter (which covers a whole lot of ground).

Here are a few of the best-known providers:

• Hootsuite: One cool tool. Hootsuite is a command station for managing your own account, following other accounts, keeping up with the activity being generated around terms and hashtags — it is a full service monitoring tool. And you can not only listen to what is happening, but send out tweets (or schedule tweets to be sent later) directly from the dashboard. Even the free version is powerful. Hootsuite gets the Writer's Choice nod.
• Topsy: If you've yet to be overly impressed by a social media research tool, this one might turn the tide. Social search, social analytics, social trends — Topsy churns out a user-friendly ton of data. Definitely take a look at Topsy.
• SocialOomph: This service is similar to Hootsuite. Compare both to consider which would provide the best match for you and your needs. While the free version is not as robust as the one offered by Hootsuite, the premium model is stacked with research possibilities.

One more observation of importance: Twitter is especially powerful for finding out about mobile users. The 140-character limit for tweets matches the normal activity of text-messaging aficionados perfectly. The Compete 2012 study confirmed that one-fifth of all mobile Twitter use is on tablets — a growing segment as the industry evolves — with the majority being either Android or Apple tablets.

Why does type of device matter?

Mobile users tend to be more active, more engaged with brands, and more engaged with content. Once considered only a young person's favourite device, mobile has exploded. Even Grandma is carrying a smartphone — and she is using it.

By monitoring the Twitter terms, people, or topics that matter to you and engaging those who care about the same topics in conversation, you'll find out more, do more, earn more and have more fun.

Written by TeamSMF

Contact us on Twitter, on Facebook, or leave your comments below. To find out about social media training or management why not take a look at our website for more info http://socialmediacambridge.co.uk/.

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How To Start A Great Social Media Campaign

Examples for making your cause go global 
Recently we have seen, both on the news, and on our computer screens that social media is making more and more of a significant impact on our way of life with people using it for an ever increasing number of purposes other than simply catching up on the days events, chatting and shopping.

Source: greatfinds.icrossing.com

Social media is being used in more of an influential way that ever before — this includes social media campaigns. Launching a campaign on social media is no doubt one of the best ways to get the message spread on a global scale. Provided you can use social media in the right way, of course.

Here are some quick and handy tips to help you get your head around the vitals and the basics to spreading the word online, along with just some of the campaigns that have inspired on a global scale over the past few months. Hopefully these will help guide you on your way to campaign success.

Pick A Cause You Believe In!

There isn't much point in launching a campaign in a half-hearted way or launching your message with initial good intentions if you, and more importantly your web audience, can't follow it up and pass the message on. It has to come from something you truly do believe in. Authenticity is the key to success and with helping your message gather some gusto in the online world. A campaign that seems to be all self serving will be less likely to succeed.

Define The Goal Of The Campaign!

Make sure, before you start up, that you know your campaign and your intended message inside out (and back to front) and make sure your potential sharers, 'followers' and 'likers' do too. Your aims and goals must be clearly defined for users. Imagine yourself in their shoes reading about your campaign for the first time. If it's not 100% clear to you, then the likelihood is it wouldn't be clear to them either and that won't bode well for the spread of your message and for the cause.

Show What The Campaign Means To You!

Show your passion for the cause right from the get-go. Most successful campaigns are ones that can resonate on a human level all around the world and is a message that can be related to on a big scale. If people cannot 'see' what message you are trying to portray and empathise on a more human level then you are not set up for the most success.

Let Others Share Their Story!

Once you have your message and goals set up, your next priority must be the social platforms for which you are hoping to spread the message. You must think about this carefully before just going on a social media rampage with your campaign, you must provide users with the tools to share their stories too and therefore think about the platforms that will allow them to do this is the most convenient and effective way possible. It's all very well and good to have your campaign up and running, but it won't have success if others can't relate and share their stories, opinions and experiences too.

Select The Right Media Tools!

Select the right platforms that reflect the campaign. An excellent and successful tool is the humble hashtag. Hashtag's are now popping up on more social networks than just Twitter and they can be duplicated and written quickly. This means that it lends itself quite nicely to the notion of sharing and will no doubt add some fuel to your campaign fire.

Source: ok.co.uk

#thumbsupforstephen

We have all heard of the inspirational story of Stephen Sutton. His long battle with cancer has raised awareness, over £4 million pounds for the Teenage Cancer Trust, and proves just how effective social media can be. He first set up his Facebook page back in 2013 and started to share his story. The world soon caught wind of this persevering teen, who's trademark was a thumbs up, and began to share and donate for the cause and soon the hashtag #thumbsupforstephen was born. It was at this point his story went global and he became a household name and a hero across the nation. Celebs even got behind the teen and started to fund raise and help wherever they could and his story was soon trending on the Twittersphere. His social media campaign has helped raise a huge amount for a good cause and proves that when done in the right way, social media can work wonders.

Source: headlinebeauty.blogspot.com

#nomakeupselfie

The selfie. It's had its fair share of criticism, hasn't it? But in April this year they were on everyone's Facebook timelines, Instagram feeds and Twitter feeds. Why exactly? Well they were all in the name of charity and fund raising. Yes, the selfie was used as a campaign to help fund cancer research. Everyone had a different view on this new campaign with some taking the challenge and adding their own spin on it. All you had to do was get the makeup wipes, do your best fishy pout and upload to join the fund raising bandwagon....oh, and text the cancer research number to ensure your donation of £3 to the cause of course. While the campaign sparked and spread quicker than a bush fire, the #nomakeupselfie soon started to filter away. A reminder, perhaps to keep mindful of tip numbers 1 and 3. Make sure the campaign doesn't veer off into a bout of narcissism and keeps the initial goal in sight.

By Julie Bundy

Source: http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2014/06/how-to-start-great-social-media-campaign.html#.U6_Z27Hm7JV

Swipe these 12 untapped profitable niches to build an online business

http://tiny.cc/12niches

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