Online Revealed Calgary 2008

CLICK HERE WITH NEW MEDIA And How Can It Benefit Your Organization? By Glenda Myles he social media landscape is constantly evolving. Everyday I receive links to new sites and programs quite often through my contacts on various micro-blogging sites. As an early adopter of technology, I have been using several platforms for micro-blogging like Pownce, Jaiku, Tumblr, and my favorite Twitter. I will admit that it did take some getting used to at first, but now I find it to be an invaluable source of ongoing information from different sources. Micro-blogging: What is it? T So, what is it? Twitter is a micro-blogging platform where you answer the question, “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. It is a simple and powerful communication tool. Individuals and organizations are using it for different reasons including linking to new blog posts or updates to your website, asking questions and getting responses from different people, or simply providing your “followers” with updates on what is happening in your company, hotel or business or city/town. Like most technology, it takes human resources to ensure that the posts are timely and relevant. To get started, determine what your organization’s purpose is going to be and how micro-blogging fits into your overall online marketing strategy. Then create a free account on one of the platforms. Include a profile, your location, and of course link to your website. You can find others to follow and they will follow you in return. You can find different groups and people of interest to follow on Twitter Packs, a self-monitoring wiki for Twitter users at http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com, created by Chris Brogan. Here are just a few examples that I have witnessed or been a part of: • One woman’s frank and open discussion about her fight against breast cancer on Twitter started a domino effect that led to the creation of the Frozen Pea Fund raising awareness and dollars for breast cancer research • There are an increasing number of news organizations, like CNN, using Twitter We can get our news in real time in our daily stream of information • Many people are following the upcoming US election and primaries through the Twitter accounts of the candidates not through regular news channels • I’ve been able to connect and follow conferences by watching the steady Twitter stream of attendees including links to video streams and blog posts Some people just give updates on what they are doing all day, some use it like IM (instant messenger) and talk to people (use of @username on Twitter), while others use it primarily to promote their blog or website (or link to another post). Personally, I do all of the above and more on Twitter on any given day. organization can post 140 character updates! A few other suggestions • When starting out you should dedicate resources to updating and reviewing Twitter. Don’t have a long approval process to add updates. And the updates need to be relevant and timely! • Add your Twitter feed to your website, it can act like a newsfeed to keep readers up to date and to encourage more people to add your profile to their Twitter account • Be sure to be transparent that you are a business • Give value to those who follow you. What do people want to know about your town or your organization that will make them want to visit? Include travel tips to your city or region, weather updates, updates on things happening in your city/town/nearby, etc. Twitter: www.Twitter.com Pownce: www.pownce.com Jaiku: www.jaiku.com Tumblr: www.Tumblr.com Utterz: www.utterz.com allows audio updates from any phone which can automatically be put on your blog or website. It allows for both text and image as well. How can your organization benefit from micro-blogging? Micro-blogging provides an opportunity to connect with a wider audience on an ongoing basis that you may not necessarily connect with otherwise. In many cases, they are early adopters many of whom blog and are active in social media. They are influencers who can discuss your organization, project, or program with their audiences. Another important benefit is that Twitter is indexed on search engines. This can increase your organic search ranking naturally and easily! Micro-blogging is a less resource intensive alternative to “traditional” blogging. For many organizations, the idea of creating a blog can be overwhelming, but almost everyone in your What’s included in your Online Marketing Plan? Every organization should have an overall strategic social media/online marketing plan and micro-blogging can be one of the elements in the plan that allows you to reach a larger target audience and disseminate your marketing message. Who is using it? Micro-blogging is experiencing an increase in users similar to the surge that was noticed on other social media and networking sites, but micro-blogging sites are still in the early adoption phase. There should be continual growth over the next year or more. There are many different types of Twitter users. Glenda Myles is a strategic marketing and business consultant. She worked as Director, Consumer Marketing with Travel Alberta in-province for several years creating innovative and creative programs. She now consults with both for-profit and non-profit organizations on developing strategic marketing plans that include applying social media technologies. She blogs at VolunteersForChange.ca, can be found on Twitter at GlendaM and on LinkedIn at Glenda Myles, and you can email her at gmmyles@gmail.com. Want to Twitter? Go to http://www.commoncraft.com/TwitterFor a great video on how to get started! onlinerevealed.com | ONLINE REVEALED CANADA 2008 | 7 http://www.jaiku.com http://www.Twitter.com http://www.utterz.com http://www.Tumblr.com http://www.pownce.com http://www.Twitter.com http://www.pownce.com http://www.jaiku.com http://www.Tumblr.com http://www.utterz.com http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter http://www.onlinerevealed.com

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