If you show me a time saving tip for something I do every day, I’m listening. For marketers, pr professionals, reporters and many more people- Twitter makes our lives easier. Here are 7 ways Twitter has made my daily life a lot easier.
1. My Cracked Out Feed Reeder: I am mostly following people that are tweeting about relevant topics to my business. Simply looking at my home page on Twitter, I can see everything relevant to my business in real time. My feedreader on Google just picks up the blogs and news but I want to know what the bloggers, pr, and news people are thinking in REAL time. What are they reading? Who are the talking to, mentioning, and so on. I use the list function to organize my friends/followers by lists. If I want to find out what is going on with Digital Agency friends in San Francisco, I just go to my list and I can see right away what they’re tweeting about and what they’re reading.
2. My “Give Me a Reference Now!” Tool: If I need a reference, I just ask. If I need event planners for a client, I can go to one of my Twitter lists of PR people and ask for references in a single 140c haracter tweet or Direct Message. This saves me a ton of time as opposed to going through my phone book call by call or annoying anyone with a BBM or text. Those that can help, will see it on Twitter and will and I’m not being “invasive” like I could potentially be doing by pinging their mobile device. I can get a lot of feedback and references very quickly thus- my life is easier.
3. My “No BS” Keyword Research Tool: Research the terms people are using and HOW they are using the terms. Keyword research tools that you pay for will show you a lot of data about the keyword “social-media” but they will not show you how 24 year old Susy Q is using the term with her friends. That information is priceless. Knowing how your demographic uses the term can help you determine how people are searching for those keywords online. (i.e. in what context, surrounding words, and so much more!) Further, it’s free, in real time, and did I mention it is free?
4. My Foot in their [Consciousness] Door Tool: If I want a casual introduction to someone I must know on the other side of the country, I can find out who they’re following and see if there’s a connection. I make it happen from there. If they have a blog that’s even better because I can just comment or retweet something they discussed on their blog that I find sharable. Thus, they notice me for a brief second and the next step becomes much more casual. This makes the pathway to connect much easier.
5. My Writer’s Block Breaker Tool Don’t know what to write about? Just start looking at what people are saying. Over time, someone is bound to say something relevant to your expertise and take your research from there. Use any twitter search tool or Topsy as a starting point. There are plenty of ways to beat the block. If you are a reporter, you have no excuses, your next big story will probably break in a tweet or be given to you from someone that follows you.
6. My Market Research/Experiment Tool: There was once this episode on 30 Rock in which Baldwin said a very random term in a very random context. ”Circulus et Pruna” was the term and at that very moment in time that the episode aired and Baldwin said the term- the phrase got a rush of queries from people watching it live. The object of writing the random phrase into the script was to gauge how many people were actually watching the episode live and would respond to the information discussed on the show. There is a lot to infer about what the research found but the main point I am making is that Twitter works the same way in real time. You can use bitly to see how many people are clicking on what. You can tweak the wording surrounding the link to see what gets you more clicks. It is the greatest research tool ever because it is quick, easy (if you know what you’re doing) and free. It literally astonishes me how many companies will put promotional tweets out there and pay for them only to find that their 140 character message didn’t receive the response they were going for. If they tested it and did their free Twitter market research, that would not happen!
7. My Lazy/Time Saving Effort to Stay In Touch Tool: Alright so we all have acquaintances we need to stay in touch with because they are great to know and interesting but we just don’t have time to do lunch with them all the time. Keep up with them on Twitter. 140 characters and you have not lost touch, you still show them you want to stay in touch (because you do) and you’re in the clear. (Keep in mind however that this will not take the place of Birthday/Holiday cards- at least not now. However, I will be the first to celebrate the day when it becomes socially acceptable to send holiday cards out via 140 character mass tweets. Honestly, how do holiday cards boost productivity or save the world? Someone tell me. )
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: michaelbmaine
June 2, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Thank you for taking the time to write this. I often ask Twitter whenever I need to know something too. The collective community is always smarter than one brain alone. I’ve found news sources, information, and blogs (such as this one) that I wouldn’t have found otherwise. You also offered some tips that I haven’t yet considered; and I thought I was a fairly proficient Twitter user. I checked out some of the other posts, and the content covered here is relevant and adds value. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, Michael.
Twitter: julianacrispo
June 2, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Thank you very much Michael for the great feedback. Checked out your blog as well on Socially Conscious Marketing. Glad you found this useful. Stay in touch!