danleach.co.uk

Like blogs, Twitter has almost become a staple comms. tool for brands. But before jumping into the world of micro-blogging make sure your company can answer the following questions:

1. What will your Twitter username be? Make sure it’s short, snappy and relevant. Use the company name if possible so fellow tweeters can find your easily
2. Who will be responsible for updating the feed? Will it be a single person, a team of people – how much time will you allocate to Twitter each week? If it’s not enough you won’t get out of the starting block.
3. What is the purpose of your Twitter account? Is it a news feed, customer support channel, lead generator, personality-builder, media engagement tool, event promotion, competition promotion, internal communications or simply amplifying another Twitter feed? Make sure your tweets serve a purpose.
4. What is your follower strategy?  How will you decide who to follow and who does the following?
5. Who are you targeting with Twitter? Journalists, industry influencers, customers, competitors, celebrities, staff? There are numerous audiences on Twitter but make sure your tweets aren’t being lost in space – make them targeting and attract the people you want to speak to.
6. What is your response strategy? What do you do if someone sends a reply or DM to you? Is it an instant response, do you have a 24 response time? Who manages the replies?
7. What is the expected life-span of your Twitter feed? Is this something that will live for 6 months or indefinitely. Ask the question, if the answer is less than 3 months then Twitter probably isn’t the way forward for your brand.
8. How will you integrate your Twitter feed across your other social platforms? LinkedIn, Facebook, Foursquare – they all allow you to further spread your tweets amongst your target audience.
9. How will you measure the success of your Twitter feed? Be accountable, will you measure the number of followers you have, the number of leads you have generated or the amount of conversation created. Have a goal and you’ll find it easier to find success on Twitter.

Creating a Twitter account isn’t rocket-science but having an effective and useful Twitter feed isn’t easy. Only by questioning the role that micro-blogging will have for your brand and dedicating focused resource towards the platform will you ensure Twitter becomes an invaluable tool for your company, your employees and your customers.

I get a little bit of stick in the office for being a self-confessed techy but more and more I am finding an array of software, websites, gadgets and tools that allow me to stay one step ahead in the fast-paced world of PR

I thought I would compile a selection of things I kit myself out with to make me a little more PR 2.0:

1. Firefox & add-ons: I took the plunge with Firefox earlier this year and have never looked back. Aside from the speed, stability and usability it provides it also allows you to install add-ons and plug-ins to tailor the software. Pertinent to this post include:

• LinkedIn Companion: Allows me to keep access and my business network at the click of a button (Disclaimer: LinkedIn is an H&K client)
• Foxmarks: Invaluable for working between the office and home. Synchronises your bookmarks across computers so you never have to find that obscure news article you saved during some late night surfing
• Googlepedia: Displays a Wikipedia article next to your Google searches. Excellent resource and time-saver when doing desk research
• Cooliris: Fantastic tool for some one-man creative thinking. Turn your PC into a mood-board in seconds
• TwitterFox: I can’t remember the last time I visited Twitter.com. Tweet and access your feeds from the comfort of your toolbar
• Brief RSS Reader: I know a lot of people like Google Reader but I actually prefer this reader. It’s quick, intuitive and allows me track my 70+ feeds easily

2. Google Alerts: An absolute must for any PR worth their salt. Say goodbye to emails from clients that start, “Did you not see this article?”

3. Factiva Alerts: If you do have access to Factiva you’ll know it provides a useful if not limited service. People tend to overlook its alert service though, which I have found very good. I have it setup to send me an overview email of relevant news articles every morning at 8am. A good indication of what’s on your clients’ agendas that day

4. Mobile Internet / TV: I check the news on a regular basis either through Orange’s WAP site or via Sky News through Orange’s 3G mobile TV service (£5 per month). Increasingly useful as the meetings tot up in my calendar.

5. SpinVox: We all know what it’s like. Leave a 2 hour meeting, turn your phone on…”you have 15 new voicemail messages”. Streamline your voicemail by using SpinVox, a service that turns your voicemails into SMS texts. You’ll no longer be fumbling around for a pen on the 12:05 from Weybridge

6. The Web: Couldn’t really leave it out. But, whilst 99% of it is useless there are some gems in there that every (tech/consumer) PR should have in his or hers bookmarks:

• BBC News Online
• Digg.com
• Mashable!
• Techmeme
• Getty Images
• Wikipedia
• TheWebList.net
• PR Week UK

Follow me, be a geek and amaze your colleagues and clients with your knowledge, speed and creativeness. Just don’t tell anyone that without the web we’d be nothing!

Have I missed any? Let me know!

I have just created a new group on LinkedIn for UK PR professionals. The idea behind it is to connect with others working in PR and share relevant content.

You’re all welcome to join.

Disclaimer: LinkedIn is a client of Hill & Knowlton

Royal Pingdom has posted a great article on the top social networking sites by country using data from Google Insights for Search.

So lets kick things off. Which countries are the following social networking sites most popular in?

MySpace: United States
Facebook: Turkey
Hi5: Peru
Friendster: Philippines
LinkedIn: India
Orkut: Brazil
Last.fm: Finland
LiveJournal: Singapore
Xanga: Hong Kong
Bebo: Ireland
Imeem: Philippines
Twitter: Japan

How many did you get? Not many I’m guessing.

Chris Brogan has compiled a great list of 50 online applications sitting within the social media sphere.

My personal favourites:

- Wordpress.com
- Twitter
- StumbleUpon
- Digg
- Reddit
- LinkedIn
- Pandora (circa 2006 before they banned people from outside the US)
- Twingly
- YouTube (circa 2006 before people really started to abuse it)