PMA February 2010 : Page 28
PMA 2010 How tweet it is By Jennifer Barr Kruger Think Twitter marketing is a waste of time? PMA 2010 Official Business Session speaker Guy Kawasaki wants to change your mind Guy Kawasaki returns to the PMA stage as an Official Business Session speaker at PMA 2010 on Feb. 23 in Anaheim, Calif. He will explain why Twitter – considered by many to be a black hole of wasted time – is actually a vital, and free, marketing tool every business should employ. He begins making his case here. PMA: Many business owners are skeptical about the value of being on Twitter. What’s your response? Kawasaki: I can’t say I blame them, because the first time you look at Twitter, you think: “What is this crap? Why do I care if LonelyBoy15’s cat rolled over?” That is a very logical, understandable response indeed. If you don’t have that response, something is wrong with you. The thing to do is to push beyond that. I think the scales come off your eyes when you start using searches. Let’s say I’m the vice president of marketing for Nikon. I would get on Twitter and immediately start doing dedicated searches for “Nikon,” plus “Canon” and all my other competitors. I would also search for the word “photography.” I would constantly monitor what people are saying about my brand, my competitors, and the general subject of photography. My goal would be for my “@Nikon” Twitter account to be known as a source of information, not just about Nikon, but 28 PMA — February 2010 — www.pmai.org PMA Official Business Session speaker Guy Kawasaki will explain why Twitter is a potent marketing tool. “The value is obvious. Businesses should always be tweeting links that are relevant to the sector. If they’re in the camera business, they should tweet stuff about how to take great photos.” also about photography in general. The @ Nikon account can be used just to push out coupons, promotions, and similar things – that’s a very legitimate use. If you want to go beyond that, you tweet about photography-related things you find on other websites, such as, “Check out this incredible collection of inauguration pictures from the Boston Globe,” and you include the link. Or, “Here is a link to some great portrait tips.” So your tweets are not just about the brand, but also
How Tweet It Is
Think Twitter marketing is a waste of time?
PMA 2010 Official Business Session speaker Guy Kawasaki wants to change your mind
Guy Kawasaki returns to the PMA stage as an Official Business Session speaker at PMA 2010 on Feb. 23 in Anaheim, Calif.
He will explain why Twitter – considered by many to be a black hole of wasted time – is actually a vital, and free, marketing tool every business should employ. He begins making his case here.
PMA: Many business owners are skeptical about the value of being on Twitter. What’s your response?
Kawasaki: I can’t say I blame them, because the first time you look at Twitter, you think: “What is this crap? Why do I care if LonelyBoy15’s cat rolled over?” That is a very logical, understandable response indeed. If you don’t have that response, something is wrong with you.
The thing to do is to push beyond that.
I think the scales come off your eyes when you start using searches. Let’s say I’m the vice president of marketing for Nikon.
I would get on Twitter and immediately start doing dedicated searches for “Nikon,” plus “Canon” and all my other competitors. I would also search for the word “photography.” I would constantly monitor what people are saying about my brand, my competitors, and the general subject of photography.
My goal would be for my “@Nikon” Twitter account to be known as a source of information, not just about Nikon, but Also about photography in general. The @ Nikon account can be used just to push out coupons, promotions, and similar things – that’s a very legitimate use. If you want to go beyond that, you tweet about photography-related things you find on Other websites, such as, “Check out this incredible collection of inauguration pictures from the Boston Globe,” and you include the link. Or, “Here is a link to some great portrait tips.” So your tweets are not just about the brand, but also About the utilization of cameras.
What will happen is Nikon will tweet that out to their thousands of followers.
eir thousands of followers say: “Wow, this is really useful. I will retweet this to my thousands of followers.” Pretty soon, hundreds of thousands of people will see this thing that originated with a Nikon tweet. Many of those people will begin to follow Nikon, and it just gets better and better. at’s the way to use Twitter.
PMA: You personally are truly a proli c tweeter. Do businesses need to follow your example, and tweet several times a day to use Twitter e ectively?
Kawasaki: e answer to that is no, thankfully. I’m trying to drive tra c to my website at www.alltop.com. e best way to do that immediately, for free, 24/7, is Twitter. at’s why I’m on Twitter 5 hours to 8 hours a day. My goal is not to sell cameras or . Nishing products or drive people to a store. Unless your job is social media marketing for a company, most businesspeople have other things to do during the day. It’s a matter of what your function is.
PMA: What’s the most common mistake businesses make when it comes to marketing via Twitter?
Kawasaki: e most common mistake is they haven’t tried it yet. Once they try it, they have to get over that initial “What-the-heck-is-this?” reaction.
Once they start searching and interacting, it comes pretty naturally. e value is obvious. Businesses should always be tweeting links that are relevant to the sector. If they’re in the camera business, they should tweet stu. About how to take great photos.
PMA: Give us an example of a real company making great use of Twitter.
Kawasaki: One of the best is a company called Kogi BBQ, which is @kogibbq on Twitter. It’s a street food vendor with about 10 trucks. ey have around 50,000 Twitter followers; and they will tweet something like, “In two hours, we will be at the corner of Olympic and Sawtelle in L.A.” When they arrive, there are 50 to 100 people waiting for them.
Another example is Dell Outlet, which is basically used by Dell to dump equipment.
If you have a bunch of refurbs coming in and you want to get rid of them, what better way than sending out a tweet?
People can order after clicking through on a coupon or a link.
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