15 minutes media blog » twitter

Productivity Tip – Schedule Tweets

Karen Propp — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:17:58 +0000

I don't have time to sit down every day (or even once a week) and post a new blog, update my Facebook and LinkedIn pages, and post new tweets. Having fresh and frequent content is essential if you really want to reap the benefits of these social media tools. My favorite tricks are those that allow me to schedule updates. Since I use twitter to update the homepage on www.15minutesmedia.com and my personal Facebook status, it is especially important that my Twitter updates are frequent.

There are several free tools that allow you to schedule your Tweets. I recently signed up for Tweet Later and gave it a test drive. The design and mish-mash of fonts can make using the dashboard a little confusing, but the features are great.

Once you add your Twitter account you can opt for the following:
You can send an auto welcome message
Auto-follow anyone that follows you (or manually approve before following)
Email digest of replies to your tweets.

Scheduling Tweets:
Type your tweet (announce new menus, hours, special promotions, show dates, etc.)
Save as a draft or schedule to publish (immediately, minutes/hours/days/weeks from now, or a specific day and time).
I scheduled a new featured link to post every Friday at 9am. Follow 15minutesmedia on Twitter to get our tweets.

There are a number of additional features you can unlock with a paid subscription.

Pretty cool tool. Now I can sit down when I have an hour or two and schedule a week or two's worth of Tweets.

Want a more detailed breakdown of features? Read this blog post: http://www.squidoo.com/scheduletweets

Your customers are using social media – so should you

Karen Propp — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:53:13 +0000

A big part of my job is helping my clients promote themselves online. This covers a broad range of tactics from SEO (search engine optimization), paid placements, email marketing and "word of mouth" campaigns. I strongly encourage my clients to use all the resources available to them and put social networking pretty high on the list. If you think that your clients and customers aren't on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, consider the survey released in January by Ore Internet and American Life Project. The survey found that 35% of all Americans have profiles on social networking sites (up from 8% in 2005). Adults make up the majority of users with the average age of LinkedIn users is 40 and most Twitter users are 35 and over and people from 35-54 are the biggest group of users on Facebook.
Read the full report here: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1079/social-networks-grow

Stats aside, I have witnessed the impressive growth and value of social media. Most of my friends parents now have profiles on Facebook. (There is even a rather humorous website about this phenomenon). I have found new products, links and music because my contacts on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn mentioned them. I sold a kitchen table, got help with programming, and met up with friends when visiting other towns simply by updating my status. It is a powerful medium, and used correctly, can help your expand your network and your brand.

If you aren't using these valuable resources, you should be. I know, I know. You don't know how, you don't have time. I promise, you will get the hang of it if you just start using it. Read blogs (like this one and this one or this one) that provide all kinds of helpful hints that make it easy to track your contacts and keep your profiles up to date.

Oh, and once you sign up, add me as a friend/contact. I'll reciprocate and post a message to you.
Facebook: 15 minutes media | Karen Propp
Twitter: 15minutesmedia | karen_propp
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You built the Skittles.com website

Karen — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:35:25 +0000

I am so excited about the new Skittles.com website. If you haven't seen it yet, go give it a try. You will see something completely different and certainly a model for websites to come. Skittles recognizes that, as Six Apart says, "The biggest online social network is the internet itself". In essence, there is no Skittles website. All the content is user generated on other websites. A small floating box serves as the website's navigation. The homepage loads the Wikipedia pages for Skittles. Click to read about different Skittles products, and the product specific Wikipedia page loads. Click on Videos and the Skittles channel on YouTube loads. Click on Pictures and Flickr loads. Who knew so many people were taking photos of Skittles? Click on Chatter and you get a Twitter feed. Lastly, click on Friends and the Skittles Facebook page loads. Pure genius.

It is not all rainbows and candy though. By simply loading a twitter feed, Skittles has given up complete control of the content. There are negative remarks about the brand, and even worse, racial slurs and "bad" language. I suppose that explains the annoying feature requiring you to enter your birthday upon first visiting the site. Because of this, some people are calling the campaign a disaster. I am not so sure. I am a strong believer in transparency with a brand. If you offer a truly good product or service, good comments will outweigh the bad. Reputations are not likely to be ruined by a few juvenile posts. Beyond that, there is the old adage, "Any PR is good PR." Just look at their Facebook page. They have over 500,000 fans. I doubt many people even knew about the Facebook page before this site launched.

For the past week, I have been trying to help the band Noba get started with all the social networks. The website, which is due for a re-design, is almost a second thought. Most people look for them on websites like Facebook, Last.fm, iTunes, and MySpace. Instead of building them a website with links sending their visitors to varying different locations, why not build a site based on the Skittles.com idea? I think it could work great for musicians.

What do you think? Do you see this model working for other businesses?

Using Twitter to Promote Your Business

Karen — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:43:29 +0000

What is it?
Here is a fun video about what Twitter is. It's more about personal use, but is still a good overview. Oh, and note how they used drawings to portray what happens on screen. Kinda clever.

How to Use It

Products for sale
Notify your "followers" about exclusive sales, promotions, coupon codes
Announce product launches, recalls

Events
If you are a band, announce "secret shows" or appearances
Announce locations, times, special guests You can reveal the date and time online but invite people to "follow" you on twitter in order to get the location. This makes your event feel exclusive.

Toot your own horn
Twit about press mentions, tv appearances, etc.
Notify followers when you have updated your blog

Other Ideas
Polls - Ask a question and post the results.
Notify followers of extended hours, a new menu, trends, etc.
Tie it into your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts for instant "status" updates.
Use it to update your website (we do this on our homepage)

PC World recommends using a character like your company mascot. It also suggests you find out when people are talking about you and make sure to respond:

\\Scan for customers. Search for your company name, products, and learn what people are saying about you. Enter your search string and even click the RSS link in the upper-right to permanently track search results. Reply to customers through Twitter. I vented once to no one--and everyone--about a bad customer experience. I was surprised to find the subject of my scorn saw my note, followed-up, and fixed my issue.\\

Are you using Twitter yet? Tell us how you use it.