The first thing we did when launching sixty4media was pick a domain name, from there we were able to register everything we needed and get the company off the ground. The next few steps were establishing our online presence and that pretty much started with Twitter, a service we have been using individually since early 2007.
John and I each have our own visibility but taking sixty4media out of the shrink wrap and putting it out there is currently one of my biggest tasks. A large part of being online and being visible isn’t necessarily judged by how many FriendFeeds, Tumblrs, Plurks, Jaikus, BrightKites, Identi.ca or Pownces you happen to be on. If Blog World Expo taught me one thing, it’s that the population is on Twitter.
sixty4media’s account is alive and well, although admittedly we have to step it up a bit since right now it’s a publishing platform for our new blog posts. The main thing is that we’re there.
Now, some people think Twitter is a joke – that it’s nothing more than a chat room or Facebook status updates on steroids. I would love to take a few minutes and educate the population about social media and the “power of millions” that Twitter has harnessed. One need only look at the election stream to see the effectiveness of an open global conversation online.
Not only can you find out what Bobby had for dinner or what Susie’s cat just chewed, you can also use Twitter for business. It’s a way to engage your audience, update, take polls, and share information. To prove it, here are a few choice examples:
Whole Foods Market
Blog: Whole Story
Twitter: @WholeFoods
Updates: Whole Foods updates their shoppers on in-store events and specials, as well as their latest blog posts and podcasts.
Learn more about cooking dried beans at home with this week’s food podcast: http://poprl.com/1ky [October 2008]
We’re sponsoring this year’s Chicago Gourmet event at Millennium Park and hosting a special family friendly section: http://is.gd/38p3 [September 2008]
Carnival Cruise Lines
Blog: By Senior Cruise Director John Heald
Twitter: @CarnivalCruise
Update: Carnival loves featuring their talented staff, crew and even interns through videos, blog posts and promotions.
Meet the Carnival Splendor crew- check out a video interview with Claudia, Casino Host extraordinaire – http://tinyurl.com/6n7yer [August 2008]
Commemorating the arrival of Jacksonville’s largest cruise ship- http://tinyurl.com/4k7qoo [September 2008]
Taking our social efforts beyond onboard fun – http://tinyurl.com/6eo8jq [September 2008]
Luxor Hotel and Casino
Blog: Luxor Insider
Twitter: @LuxorLV
Updates: The Luxor’s updates include featured performers at the hotel, Las Vegas trends, marketing tips, and during Blog World I was able to pick up some drink vouchers at Aurora thanks to their answering their shout out on Twitter for bloggers. The updates also have a nice personal feel.
At Mandalay Bay… Big meeting with all my counterparts from our sister properties. We’re talking about mobile mktg [September 2008]
Headed to CatHouse for a CRISS ANGEL Believe cast and crew party! – http://bkite.com/01GXP [September 2008]
Another great thing about Twitter (compared to other microblogging clients) is that there are so many applications and outside tools you can use to update such as the WordPress plugin, WordTwit, or managers like Tweet Deck or Twitterffic.
Because of their authenticity and genuine interest in social media as a way to keep in touch with their clients, and potential customers, I can see people having more trust in businesses like those mentioned above. I am probably more likely to book my next Las Vegas visit at the Luxor because of their outreach, and I’m seriously interested in this “Blogger Cruise” I read about on John Heald’s blog.
Twitter can be professional and also productive, as with any service you need to know when to ignore all of the noise and find out how this powerful tool can work best for you.
Good post and interesting read Rebecca. I agree with it wholeheartedly, especially the last sentence.
Personally, I love it when companies have twitter accounts because it makes them more transparent and interesting. It’s even better when you get a mixture of business and personal tweets from the same person or company as giving it the personal touch breaks down a lot of invisible walls.
Let me know if you ever find a tool that lets you post from multiple twitter accounts. Right now my big problem is that I have to log into different twitter accounts to post. It would be nice if there was a client where I could just pick who I was (on Twitter) in the same step I wanted to post something.
@ Duane – right now I have the web version open for sixty4media and then I’m logged into Miss604 on Twitteriffic. It’s a little tedious but it works.
Update: John says you can use Twitterfox to switch seamlessly between accounts.
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Excellent post, Rebecca. As you’ve probably figured out from my occasional tweets, lately, I’ve finally gotten around to using Twitter for my personal blog.
I find the toughest challenge in using it to build business is that the tweets only stay on the page for about two minutes if you are following a lot of people and refreshing regularly. If most of your target audience isn’t checking Twitter for that short time, they’ll totally miss it. I imagine the problem is mitigated if you have a thousand or more followers, but it’s still a bit tricky. Or have I missed something?
Now I don’t know if Duane is on a Windows or Mac but Twhirl for Windows has the ability to use multiple-accounts at once.
I use Twhirl and I know it can switch seamlessly between accounts.
As for Twitter for business, I had a really bad problem with FireFox and the firefox help Twitter account helped me. Also, another example of Twitter for business is the case of Molson. Both Tonia Hammer and Adam Moffatt are on Twitter, and not only they engage with the community for business and getting feedback on events like Brew 2.0 but they also engage on a more personal level with bloggers and their other followers.
A good post to help me re-evaluate my feelings about Twitter … so maybe I’ve been a cranky old twit after all. 😉
Thanks for the thorough overview of the possibilities here, Rebecca. It was exactly the incentive we needed to embrace Twitter for UGM.
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