Steve Urkel may have gotten into trouble with the Winslows on the television show Family Matters, but you don't have to do the same with your Twitter followers.
Tech N Marketing has a brilliant list of 11 not-to-dos when using Twitter.
Some highlights:
Do not consistently make spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes in your tweets (Pierre's note: always a good rule)
Do not Auto DM someone who choose to follow you (Pierre's note: I will admit I am not 100% sure why this particular action gets a negative mention among Twitter folks, since this is a simple acknowledgment of being connected. However, I am sure this is a result of the desire to socialize, instead of being an autospammer),
Do not Tweet exclusively in another language (Pierre's note: IMHO, I do not agree with this - if the message is to an audience with a shared language, then go for it!)
It is an interesting list, particularly considering the open end nature of Twitter usages. But like many new social medium, time and usage dictates the manners and etiquette.
Buit if you still find that you offend folks, just give a loud cackle followed by a nasal snort, then everyone will know that you simply Urkel-led on Twitter (ok you may have to video the cackle, then twitpic to show it, but you get the idea!).
You can check out the unsocial Twitter ills (UTIs? Unsocial Twitter Ills?) avoidance list here.
Need Twitter Guidance? Help is a click away!
Mashable has provided a free comprehensive guidebook of Twitter usage. From start to finish, new users can learn how to user Twitter effectively to produce the desired results. This is one of the most comprehensive listings available. No surprise, given Mashable's ability to issue great posts on social media news, new tools, and commentary.
You can review the information here.
Ok, had enough of the "What is Twitter?" and "How to make the most of Twitter in 140 characters or less?"
Well, whatever! Suffer another "How-to" webpost on Twitter, except the suffering is extremely light in this case. Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, gave 5 helpful tips on how to best use Twitter in Billboard magazine post. Enjoy.
[tweetmeme source="zimanablog"]
As more and more usage of Twitter continues, more and more tools arrive to measure traffic and response. TwitterCounter offers a quick means to measure tweets and estimate growth but no stats a sense of engagement. Hootsuite offer stats on clicks, indicating how followers are responding to a recent tweet.
Ping.fm offer analytics of its own, monitoring response to the URL shared in its network. Like Hootsuite, this gives an indication of how followers are responding to a post. In both cases, tracking with the given URL shortener is required. This is pretty smart on the Ping developers' part -- to get analytics one need to use Ping to send tweets instead of Twitter (Hootsuite does offer some analytics for Twitter-sends, but the full capability of reach again requires using the URL shortener in the UI)
From the Ping blog:
We track all sorts of cool information like link visits, unique visits, referrals and referral country origination. This is all presented to you in a fancy interface that let's you see how well your posted links are tracking with your social network audiences. We think it's pretty rad!
I think it's rad, too! 🙂
You can read about Ping's SM analytics tool here in the Ping blog.
Introducing a new product, such as the Honda Crosstour, can be frought with customer reaction that can jade social media critics into cancelling a campaign. But read below to learn how to be manage complaints.
In September, 2009, Honda unveiled a variant on the Honda Accord. Called the Crosstour, the vehicle is a large 5-door hatchback, designed to appeal to SUV owners who want versatility but in a more sedan-like form. The hybrid design has become the latest rage in the industry, starting with BMW's X6 and continuing with Acura's ZDX, also being introduced with the Crosstour (Acura is Honda's luxury division. According to Honda few components are shared between the ZDX and Crosstour).
But Honda ran into a marketing storm when it unveiled the Crosstour on a Facebook fan page. Fans immediately panned the vehicle's appearance. Worse, Honda responded to specific posts with very general comments, which prompted more negative fan comments. Honda has since released more reveals of the Crosstour in more colors and interior pics, but the damage to initial buzz was done.
Companies need to understand how to position a brand extension with online communities. Accord is a very popular vehicle, but its popularity is among family car owners looking for reliable and affordable transportation. A FB fan is a fan in a true sense -- they're enthusiastic for the product be it Jack Daniels or Beyonce Knowles.
Also fans will want to share the experience. A vehicle reveal exposing the Crosstour to the FB crowd may have not be the best audience. Accord does not carry the same FB-like enthusiasm like a Ford Mustang or Nissan 370Z. An extension to a entry model like the Civic would potentially have been a potentially better choice for this channel, given its image with young buyers and tuner car heritage (Honda recently embraced the tuner image with a CivicNation ad campaign).
To Honda's credit, Facebook has seen an increase in adults, in segments that would be a potential audience for the Crosstour (The average age on FB is 35 years old, with more women than men). But this potential audience is recent relative to this campaign timing, so the "usual crowd", vocal and responsive, may have been the first to see the Crosstour reveal and comment.
Automobiles can be difficult to market. Vehicles contain definitive physical features that can be an elephant in the room when it comes to consumer impact. And these features can not be easily changed without a substantial engineering budget, very difficult in a competitive market with slim margins on some vehicle lines.
For example, Ford had a great handling vehicle in a compact sedan called the Contour, but had a negative in the rear leg room layout. The European-developed sedan needed more room, and the issue was highlighted in various car magazines. This is a feature or product quality that is not changed easily. For Ford it took developing a different offering, the Fusion. While not a direct replacement, the Fusion is larger than the Contour, carries more room, and developed on platform targeted for American roads.
Exposure online means immediate feedback, so buzz on a product like an automobile is extremely vulnerable to negative response. A grille change or trim change may not cover up a general sentiment that a overall shape is ugly or that a vehicle has poor function of its major features. GM made trim changes to the Pontiac Aztek, but the vehicle was (and still is among critics and consumers) considered an ugly vehicle that should have been re-imagined before production. These examples are why I still pay attention to automotive marketing even though I am now 8 years out of the game (I worked at Ford and interned at GM, as well as having lifelong car enthusiasm).
Small businesses can learn how to market extension of services by monitoring launches of extension products from large businesses, then learn to apply albeit on a small and quicker scale (fail fast, learn & apply quickly). Owners can search for blog posts or follow Twitter feeds to see what worked, what didn't, and reflect on how the suggestions and tone can best be used in their own services and products.
Engage your fans, but be cautious of egging on negative statements from the community if you can not really address fan concerns with specific actions or solutions.
Check out the Crosstour fanpage to see the comments. If you think I am alone in my thoughts, check out the comments at Autoblog.
Since 2009, we have had indicators that customer research online
UPDATED: June 16, 2012
Website magazine has some great posts on website design and in between those wonderful suggestions, the essence of why analytics is important becomes clear. Take the E-Commerce Industry Report Q2 2009 findings by iPerceptions as an example. The results indicated that "38 percent of shoppers were on-site to research about products or services, whereas only 17 percent were at the buying stage."
The iPerceptions report identified the two analytics-related reason why visitors didn’t purchase: "The consumer couldn’t find what they were looking (34 percent of online visitors). Price and navigation/usability barriers were tied for second in reasons visitors leave without buying (13 percent)."
So why are missing items and navigation analytics related to web analytics? Because a great analytics arrangement helps clarify how your traffic navigates your site, while other data can give clues as to which content is considered important to your potential visitors.
UPDATE: Since this report, business owners with a web presence have made their websites into a working asset for vital information. But some reports have still indicated that small businesses still lack a solid website, let alone a mobile site.
