Network guru’s tweet and lowdown: Tips to avoid 140-character flaws
To Twitter, or not to Twitter? That is the question facing many businesses today, as the social-networking buzz has heads spinning.
"Everything you do creates your personal brand," said Peter Shankman, chief executive officer of the Geek Factory, a public relations and marketing firm specializing in social networking. He also runs Help a Reporter Out (www.helpareporter.com), a service that connects reporters with sources using Twitter.
Shankman believes that Twitter is just another tool for reaching an audience.
"Every week there will be a new tool we can use to talk," he said. "Just because you have tools, doesn't mean you have the right to use them."
The fast-talking, high-energy Shankman has risen to the level of social media guru with a client list that includes Walt Disney World, American Express, Discovery Networks and Snapple Beverage Group. He believes the 140-character "tweets" can be used effectively, or they could spell disaster.
"The average attention span today is 140 characters. That's 2.7 seconds. That's the time it takes to read a tweet," he told an audience of public relations professionals at the recent Public Relations Society of America Western Regional conference in Newport Beach, Calif. "In the 1980s people saw an average of 400 information requests a day. Today 16,000 bits of information hit us every day."
Shankman (www.shankman.com) lists four rules for successful Twittering:
•Transparency. "It used to be, 'We'll tell you how to think,'" he said. "That's become, 'Here's who we are and here's what we're doing,'" referring to how businesses handle communicating with the public.
•Relevancy. Shankman said businesses must learn what their customers want.
"If you're not listening and only talking, you'll lose," he said. "Ask yourself if what you're saying to the audience is relevant."
•Brevity. "Say what you want. Be honest. Be direct," he said. Messages of just 140 characters -- including punctuation and spaces -- makes brevity easy, but it's important to become adept at crafting good messages.
•Top-of-mind presence. Shankman points to the growth of the Help a Reporter Out service as an example.
"I have 250 to 300 reporters using it who say they can't live without it," Shankman said.
For those still unsure about Twitter, I advise you to sign up and follow friends you trust. Look at who they are following and grow your list from there. Use a Web browser and Twitter.com or a smartphone with a Twitter application like Twitterberry or Twitterfone to follow those on your list. Turn on "device following" for those on your list you want to get messages to your phone.
Shankman reminds Twitterers to tread, and tweet, carefully.
"Social media gives us the ability to screw up much quicker to a much larger audience," he said.
Share your Internet story with me at agibes@reviewjournal.com.
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