Twitterday: Twitter with results

Today is Twitterday because twitter exists exactly four years today! (March 21, 2010). Twitter could bring companies a lot if it is properly used and embedded. It could give organisations knowledge, inspiration and feedback. Therefore, I will bring you into the world of Twitter! A question that I think lives in many companies. It was decided to go on twitter to increase marketing objectives, expanding the target group and to make this target group more involved with the brand and the products. Only how to use Twitter as an organisation? As with any communication medium an organization should consider the deployment of a medium. Twitter should indicate a clear goal, that could be measured. In addition, it should create clarity for your target audience. Using Twitter as an organization is obviously different than using twitter as a person. I think you can use Twitter in three ways: passive, active and reactive.

Passive use
Passive use covers monitoring of the online reputation and is very is important for companies. What is being said about your business and is this attention positive or negative?

Reactive use
It feels good for the consumer to notice that his criticism is heard and used. Consumers will often criticize your organisation when you give feedback to your target group about what you do with the criticism. Many organisations are not so eager for this approach. Creating a platform for whining seems negative. They complain anyway. The best thing you can do is to make sure that they do this to you! Create a twitter account where people can communicate with you, and use it to provide feedback. Give the audience faith in you as an organisation and then get it back from them.

Active use
The company maintains its reputation online and gives feedback to what they do with criticism. A next step would be to ask for criticism from your audience! Get information from them, Crowd Sourcing via Twitter.

What certainly not to do…
Overwhelmingly presence online can damage your online reputation. If you continuously say that you have a new product, people experience this as annoying. By responding on anything "because it is the company policy" a reaction can be experienced as meaningless. Take your audience seriously. Use twitter, but sparingly.

Social Media and Mobile Marketing 2010

In 2010, social media and mobile marketing will be important to many companies.
Several studies show that more and more companies are increasing their budgets for social media and mobile marketing. Marketing budgets have been reduced by the economic crisis, but still innovation leads to progress.

Mobile marketing is smart!
Currently, several campaigns refer to a simple website and the developments in mobile Internet remains unexploited. There are several commercials that refer to a normal internet website, while a computer is not always at hand for the consumer. A mobile phone on the other hand, is always nearby. A consumer experiences a normal web site as not user friendly. The loading of a normal site is long and the website contains too much unnecessary information. The vertical menu on the mobile phone is valued (a consumer navigates from top to bottom).
And so the needs and capabilities of the mobile phone of today must be used.

Forecast for 2010
In 2010 it is expected that more organizations will develop mobile websites tailored to the mobile phone and integrate it into their advertising campaigns.

Guidelines for dealing with social media

More and more organizations and brands are the topic of conversation on the Internet. Even employees can play a role in that conversation by participating in online conversations in their free time. When do you say something on behalf of your organization and when is it your own opinion? This line is hard to define. A company can assist employees in how they could present themselves in those conversations. For example, by publishing guidelines for dealing with social media. These published guidelines apply to anyone who works for the company and is busy creating or contributing to blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds, or any other type of social media. It is important that employees have the choice if they want to participate in these social media. It is not mandatory, but for those who feel called

Guiding principles
What are the basic principles that can be provided to employees? There are 6 rules which can be introduced in both large and small businesses.

Be transparent: Use your real name and no alias. Identify yourself as an employee of the company. Be careful not to be to transparent, make sure you have permission when it comes to sensitive issues.

Write from experience: Make sure you have expertise on the topics you write about. It is important to add value to conversations, this can particularly be done from your own expertise.
Be personal: Speak to your readers like you would do in a professional situation. Bring it with your own personality and give your own opinion on topics.

Be a Leader: The dividing line between a healthy debate and a flamewar can be very thin. Do not talk disparagingly about the company or its competitors, invite your readers to approach a situation from a multiple viewpoints. Approach sensitive topics such as politics with appropriate caution.

Admitting your mistakes: Have you made a mistake? Then be honest and admit it. If you choose to adapt your previous posting, do it as soon as possible and indicate that you've modified the posting.

These guidelines are simple, clear and widely applicable. They are so broad that virtually every company can benefit from these guidelines. In the Netherlands, I have yet to discover a business who has an explicit policy on social media. At least, not publicly. Usually the situation is that one or more persons take a leading role in this field. An example of a company which has a social media policy is the brand Coca Cola.
Read it here: http://www.molblog.nl/bericht/coca-cola-gaat-sociaal-met-social-media-richtlijnen/