Add LinkedIn, YouTube, and search to the discussion and we start running into the modern marketer’s problem: how to keep up with it all. Despite discussions that compare the effectiveness of social networks for marketing – or, on the flip side, speak to how they are leveraged holistically – it’s beneficial to take the time to focus on a single network… to catch up, if you will.

Given the growth and recent activity, there are good reasons today’s topic is Twitter. I like to ask myself the following kinds of questions when narrowing focus on any social network:

1. What does the growth of this network look like relative to the last several months and/or year?
2. How is the network being used from a user engagement perspective? How is it providing value?
3. How is it evolving or demonstrating it will continue to be relevant?
4. Am I confident I know what I should know about this network to use it in the most effective way I can?
5. What can I do today that will help make a positive difference?

Twitter Engagement

The power of Twitter from an engagement and measurement perspective is all about the links that get clicked within tweets.

For example, Ryan Sarver (Twitter’s head of platform) cited a Quora stat stating “every tweet going out from their service results in an average of 30 clicks back to Quora.” Twitter’s President of Global Revenue, Adam Bain, says 80 percent of Twitter user engagement is clicking on a link inside the tweet.

The Quick Facts

Aside from the pure click value, or the stats provided below that prove the network is still significantly growing, we should also be looking at the big picture in terms of where the Internet is going: mobile.

• Pew Internet’s May 2011 survey shows 13 percent of online adults are now on Twitter, and 54 percent of users with a cell phone access Twitter via mobile. Usage of 30-49 year olds has doubled since November 2010.
• Last year, Twitter reported a 182 percent increase in the number of mobile users over the previous year, and an average number of 460,000 new accounts created per day over the prior month.
• The average number of total tweets sent per day in 2012 is around 250 million, compared to 50 million per day in 2010.

Twitter’s Push in The Mobile Evolution

Mobile data from Flurry demonstrated that consumers spent an average of 9 percent more time on mobile apps than the web (a 91 percent annual increase of time spent on mobile).

Categorically, this translates to 32 percent of mobile app consumption on social networking and 47 percent on games. While Facebook is ramping up its Project Spartan to potentially compete with Apple by distributing its own mobile applications through the browsers loaded on iPhones and Androids (via HTML5) – Twitter has instead partnered directly with Apple, effectively enabling a “Twitter Connect” into Apple’s new operating system (iOS 5).

You can get the details and a better understanding of this new development via this post on how Apple has handed Twitter the keys to the iOS kingdom, but the bottom line is Twitter is now well positioned to continue growing (while being extremely relevant) through the immediate future of the Internet.

Next Steps: Start Growing Your Twitter Presence for the Future

Now that we’ve acknowledged some key elements to Twitter’s growth, engagement habits and future in mobile, it’s time to get motivated.

There’s certainly no shortage of tips, tactics, and tools to leverage Twitter strategies. Brandon Whalen’s post on Twitter growth strategies is the most recent and comprehensive I’ve seen, with the 20-page Slideshare presentation encompassing most of the content.

Here’s a summary of the areas you’ll want to address, along with the content this presentation covers below:

• Steps on building trust: Listen, actively respond, and be interesting.
• Twitter dos and don’ts: Guidelines and references on rules.
• Twitter SEO: Make your account easy to find.
• Audience targeting: Find influencers and understand your audience.
• Management methodology and monitoring tools: Tasks, messaging, and tools.
• Twitter gaming applications: Game types, benefits, and platforms.
• Promotion and content strategies: Cross promotion and brand touch points.
• Paid advertising options: Promoted tweets and third-party ad products.

After many long, heated conversations, they decided that the best thing to do would be to tag all marketing materials and websites with the phrases “Find us on Facebook” and “Follow us on Twitter”. That’ll do the trick…right?

Most of us now know that the answer is no, that will not do the trick. Yet lately, I’m seeing more and more examples of brands begging for fans and followers, and then doing nothing with them.

Before you look at your huge social following, pat yourself on the back and start thinking about which leather sofa will look best in that corner office upstairs, let me just throw a few things out there:

• Fans are not king. Engaged fans are.

• Everywhere they go, consumers are surrounded by “Like” and “Follow” buttons, and clicking them has become almost second nature. It is your responsibility to turn those fans into brand advocates.

• 100 fans who are talking about your brand are far more valuable than 10,000 who are not.

• Consumers are used to seeing companies who give out incentives for becoming a fan. When’s the last time you rewarded your current fans for being so loyal? That oughta get ‘em talking…

• The only thing worse than negative comments and complaints from fans & followers is an empty response from the brand.

The short answer? Fans & followers are worth as much or as little as you like. Let this serve as a friendly reminder of a few key Social Media best practices.

Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s not enough. Having social media accounts is certainly a great (and quite necessary) start, but if you don’t use them to interact with your current and potential customers, there’s really no point.

Luckily, I’ve picked 3 simple and free social media tools to get you pointed in the right direction:

• OnlyWire: Have a few social media accounts, lots to say and little time? Check out OnlyWire. This tool enables you to post content across multiple social networks at the same time, with the push of a button. The service includes all of the top social and professional networks, and the free version allows for 300 submissions per month. Say goodbye to multiple log-ins and hello to your customers.

• Roost: Use Facebook and Twitter, but not always sure what to post or when? Give your content a boost with Roost. Their free Campaign Creator connects to your profiles, lets you schedule single posts or entire campaigns, and analyzes their reach to suggest areas for improvement. This tool can also apply a fancy algorithm to your Facebook data, spitting out a score that determines whether or not your audience will drive business to your location. It’ll even tell you the geographic spread of your fans.

• Timely: Under the impression that the more times you hop on Twitter and drop your knowledge the better? Timely begs to differ…according to this tool, it’s not about the number of times you tweet, it’s about which times you tweet (however, please don’t forget that first and foremost it’s about the content). Timely will analyze your last 199 tweets, figure out the best time slots, and auto-schedule your posts based on the data. Now you can start dropping that knowledge when it’s most likely to be picked up.

With new social media monitoring tools (many of them free) popping up almost by the day, there should be no excuse for neglecting your networks. Start engaging with your current and potential customers and you might be surprised by the increase in online conversations surrounding your brand.

What we’d like to focus on is a point made by Tech Crunch. In their haste to split these two entities, the folks at Netflix neglected to acquire the social network properties before their big launch. TechCrunch highlights the user who owns the @Qwikster handle on Twitter, who is currently trying to sell this handle to Netflix.

After a look into the top social networking sites, it seems that they have not created an official page on Facebook or YouTube. There are however 7 unofficial fan-created Qwikster pages, all aggregating negative comments about this change.

So why is this oversight so bad? Why is it important to lock these online real estates down before you launch a new brand, company etc?

Control

Because Netflix did not secure these, they are not in control of what their critics and customers say about them. Had they obtained official accounts prior to the announcement, they could give customers and their company an official forum to comment and respond. The messages are out there, and it seems they are doing very little to respond or explain, which is not going to endear them to their customers.

Random Squatters

They now have to deal with people who are holding onto these properties, and will potentially have to pay them in order to acquire (some speculate in the six figure arena). People can get mighty greedy when they have the whip-hand over a corporation. This cost could have been avoided had they handled this in advance, or gotten a similar handle i.e. @QwiksterOfficial. In addition to the cost, they could have avoided a very public discussion about what kind of deal this yoo-hoo was after.

Confusion for Customers

Not having official outlets for your customers to comment, complain or ask legitimate questions can be very confusing. If they comment on an unofficial forum and never get a response, they may feel negatively about your brand.

Embarrassment

Netflix is a revolutionary company; nothing that they have done can change their impact on the digital-media landscape. However, it’s kind of embarrassing that an Internet-oriented company did not think of this in advance. It seems they don’t really even have a cohesive branded presence on YouTube as Netflix.

Four Easy Steps to Avoid This

1. Determine which social networking sites are the best fits for your company. It is usually smart to incorporate more incase you need them, or at least protect them.
2. Research what is already out there, if there is someone who already owns your brand name, what variation could you use across all of the social networks (i.e. if @MyersCorporation is taken, consider @MyersCorporationOfficial), consistency is key.
3. Grab them! (it will probably take less than an hour)
4. Figure out how you are going to consistently leverage these accounts, so that they become synonymous with your official brand.

In our presentation you will find:

• Best practice strategies for growing your Twitter presence
• Tips on how to reach a targeted audience on Twitter
• Twitter tools which can help grow your Twitter followers
• Summaries on the best paid options for promoting your Twitter account

Take a look at the presentation below and feel free to send along any questions you may have.

As tomorrow is election day, the online world is buzzing with political conversations. As we are in the process of working to relaunch and run Politicosphere, I’ve got the intersection of politics and social media on my mind. On that note, I want to draw attention to an interactive map the New York Times put up. This map looks at Twitter buzz around individual candidates’ Twitter handles, including their own tweets, tweets to them, and their tweets retweeted.

If you’re sitting in front of your TV tomorrow night, watching the election results, I highly recommend you practice some media multi-tasking and watch this along with results. It will be interesting to see how big wins, big losses, and tight races pace with Twitter buzz.

By any measure, the World Cup is a pretty big deal. 2010′s games will land among the most watched sporting events in history. This time it’s not just about eyes on televisions, though. The last time the world cup came around, Facebook had about 7.5 Million users. Twitter was less than three months old with 500 users. This time? Twitter is peaking at ~3,000 tweets per second when goals are scored.

The experience for the non-attending fan is far richer than before. Aggregators like tweetbeat add context and commentary while watching matches (especialy with the sound off). Location-based networks are helping to bring fans together in the real world. I set off on a rainy Satruday morning to catch the first U.S. match vs England. Foursquare let me know which bars and restaurants the largest groups of people were gathered at and which teams they supported. I ended up at the Drafthouse, which happened to have the biggest U.S. crowd.

For matches during which I’ve been away from televisions and computer, I’ve been using the new version of Hot Potato. This service offers threaded discussions with people who are having the same experience as I am. I was happy when notifications (SMS or Push) became available for sports scores; I’m even happier now with my fully interactive experience. Although the games are taking place 9,000 miles and 8 time zones away, I’m having a better time than I’ve had attending other sporting events in person. [Go USA!]

Everybody’s Doing It

Based on a Nielsen report on this concept of media multi-tasking, which is now often referred to as three screens (television, Internet and mobile), you can see that I am not the only person engaging in such behavior. I enjoy the distinction between Internet use while watching T.V and T.V. watching while using the Internet. If asked to prioritize, which one would you pick as the primary?

Three Screens in Action

To dig a bit deeper, I pulled together a Crimson Hexagon filter that looks at T.V. viewing mentioned through Twitter. The act of Tweeting while watching T.V. constitutes just two screens, but I was interested in what else people say they are doing. The volume is fairly high. Over 1500 people, every day, are tweeting about this. Though almost 50% of people tweeting were simply stating that they were watching T.V., it was the 15% who were acknowledging their multitasking who I was most interested in.

Accounting For The Three Screen User

The Twittersphere is conscious, or perhaps a bit self-conscious, about their multi-tasking. Plenty of people point out that they are both on Twitter and watching T.V., but plenty of people also point out that they are texting, networking, or on the web. So when you start to think about the impact of or buzz around a T.V. show, you need to take into account the online activities happening real-time around the television (or computer). This isn’t just opinions and reviews. This isn’t just email and Facebook distraction. This could be additional layers added on to a show, only available to those engaged in three screen habits. It’s worth considering the kind of content that YOU would want to consume to supplement your viewing, and also worth thinking about the new places you want to get T.V. content, whether that be information through Twitter or geo-located updates relevant to your favorite shows.

Additional Reading

Lots of people are talking about this, so I’ll suggest a few posts for further consideration.

• Brian Solis and how three screens effects broadcast media
• AT&T building a strategy for the future of consumers and three screens
• Steve Ballmer of Microsoft discusses how the concept of “three screens and a cloud” is a game-changer

Three Common Reasons for Social Media

In our experience at Room 214 we typically see three major reasons organizations dive into social media:

1. Product Development/Feedback
2. Sales/Marketing/Brand
3. Customer Service

Each one of those “reasons” requires its own cast of characters to “own” the process. In addition – each carries unique key performance indicators to measure the health and success of the project. Because function-specific business goals, community value and KPI’s are all different – it’s critical for anyone heading social media efforts in a particular channel to have a clear understanding of the impact measures.

Know Thyself

To steal from Farmer Ted ask: “Who Am I?” In a recent webinar delivered by the Altimeter Group about developing a social strategy one key point was to consider how your company will run things. Will it be Organic, like a Microsoft, where it’s loose and open? Centralized like Starbucks, where it’s controlled by one department? Coordinated like HP, where all departments are participatory but guided by strategy and rules?

The success for a social media program increases significantly when the structure matches the culture – in the beginning that is. As the organizations ingests social media into its culture it will change things – but to begin with – know who you are. Natural leaders will emerge.

Structure Your Team Based on the Golden Rule: You Respond To It – You Own It
The rule is if you respond to an online conversation you own it. For that reason you don’t want PR people responding to a customer service issue because more than likely they don’t have the authority, or resources, to drive resolution. If you’re not driving resolution with customer service issues you’re doing more harm than good.

Conversely you don’t want a product developer in charge of creating a response to an attack (justified or not) on the brand.
Know the conversations happening around your brand and make sure the right people are there to own it.

Ensuring a Common Thread

We do believe Corporate Communications should have intimate knowledge of the organization’s social media activities. Reason: a disturbance in the force requires a quick and professional response. The organization does not want the 24-year old tasked with community management on Facebook stoking consumer ire because they didn’t keep their cool.

Competent Sounding Board

Even if the Corp Com team gets pulled in there needs to be an individual(s) acting as a competent sounding board to provide insight into the rules and structure of the community. This keeps from crafting a response strategy that unintentionally throws fuel on the fire.

So Who Owns It?

Answer the questions:

• What’s your reason for getting into social media?
• How will you measure success?
• What’s your corporate culture?
• What are people saying?
• Who’s got the budget?
• Who’s got the time, energy and willingness to do it right?

Envelope Please
And the answer is: It Depends

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

- Dr. Suess

….glad you asked though.

Within seconds, Emily tweeted back to me recommending Iron Works BBQ – and Kit Seeborg called laughing. She said, “Listen carefully. You now must leave the hotel. Walk out, take a left, then a right to the convention center. Get your badge tonight to avoid lines tomorrow. Leave the convention center, taking a right until you hit 6th street. Then, fly and be free little south-by birdie.”

I followed these instructions carefully, and soon found myself with a juicy Texas steak and glass of cab at the Iron Cactus. When I checked in with Foursquare andGowalla I realized that I was not alone in this. I caught a quick tweet which I cross-referenced with Foursquare to learn that Jeremiah Owyang was two blocks from me. Seconds later, Brian Solis tweeted that he was in the same location. Seriously? If this wasn’t an open invite, I was going to make it one.

I walked into the Driskill like a groupie, and Jeremiah greeted me with a cold glass of Guiness. Within 15 minutes I was introduced to Charlene Li, (happily reporting to her that Groundswell is mandatory reading for our employees). Brian Solis poured me a glass of champagne, and we discussed his new book release, Engage.

Later that night, I talked with JR, founder of lunch.com, met the Altimeter team,Steve Hall of Adrants – then spread into other conversations with a contingent of Amsterdam fans (@Marlooz) and smart LA women including Melissa Rowley and Sherry.

Growing weary of my name dropping? Hopefully the point of it all is coming through:SXSW offers unparralled accessibility to the thought leaders, founders, speakers, researchers, colleagues and best-selling authors in the social media space.

From little known to well known, these are the people who are shaping and transforming our space everyday. I was blown away.

Additional Highlights
The best speakers and panelists were amazingly transparent and unselfish in their advice giving. My favorite sessions were those that lead me to the next best thing. Here are a few examples:

I asked Chris Brogan and Julien Smith during their insightful panel “I Don’t Trust You One Stinking Bit” what their best advice was (how ironic) for writing a book. They referred me to two people who helped them, Tim Sanders and Nick Morganwho I quickly met and spent an hour with the same day. Wow.

• Peter Shankman‘s presentation on self-promotion (tip: the key is NOT to self promote, but help others so they promote for you)
• Charlene Li’s discussion of her new book, Open Leadership, available to the public May 24th (thanks Charlene and Ellen for getting me an early copy)
• Social Search Panel, featuring one of the smartest researcher on the topic I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet, Brynn Evans (More on her in my next post)
• Meeting Gary Vaynerchuk and David Meerman Scott – with whom I actually had the pleasure of doing a podcast on this blog for his most recent book,World Wide Rave.
• Robert Scoble‘s late night check-ins on Gowalla

South by Southwest is a must attend if you have never been. If you aren’t into geeking out with the interactive part, go for the movies, music, food, parties and good Austin atmosphere.

I’ll close this out with a quick note about Gary Vaynerchuk, since he left such a lasting impression. This guy is the real deal, having built a $50 Million wine business using social media – long before he ever started making money talking or writing about social media. Rare.

Peter Shankman and Gary both shared a similar, simple message. Caring is under-rated. “Companies mostly suck at showing they care.” Each of us in this industry must accept that we are in the customer service business… and this is the thank-you economy.

Thanks to you all who took the time to meet with me over the last several days, answer questions and care. Thanks also to the Room 214 crew for working hard (and also caring) so I could take the time to enjoy SXSW as I did. We are all blessed.