Assignment 4, Bootcamp #6 - Twitter Marketing, Part 1

[iCraft Admin]

This week we'll have 2 assignments on Twitter Marketing.
As always, we'll start with the basics first.

The Assignment:

• Post your Twitter name in this thread, so we all could follow each other. (Register an account if you don't have one yet)
• Research different hashtags that are good to follow, e.g. #handmade, #gifts, #shopping. Share your hashtags with the group and tell us which hashtags you use frequently and why.
• Use Twitter share button on your iCraft product pages this week to share at least 2 items from your own store and 2 items from each Bootcamp participants' store each day. Let us know which hashtags you used to do that
• Find and follow at least 10 new Twitter users this week that are posting about things relevant to your business. Following others is important because that's how you build your own following.
• Re-twit posts from your fellow Bootcampers at least once a day.
• Read from resources listed at the end of this post or by searching for "Twitter Marketing" online.
• Tell us about your progress throughout the week, post questions and share learnings.

About Twitter:

Twitter is an online social networking website and microblogging service that allows users to post and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as “tweets”. Launched in July of 2006 by Jack Dorsey. Twitter is now in the top 10 most visited internet sites.
As of January 1, 2014, the total number of active registered Twitter users was 645,750,000. See more Twitter stats.

 
Resources:

1. How does twitter work? Video
2. How Does Twitter Work For Business
3. 14 Ways to Use Twitter to Market Your Business
4. Use Twitter for your Business the Right Way
5. Twitter Help Center

[Hofkissed]

Excellent! This is an area I need help with!!

My twitter account is Hofkissed (www.twitter.com/hofkissed)

I've fooled around with all my social sites and have my Twitter account linked to my Facebook Business Page. Doing this however doesn't get me on Twitter much because I'm used to just posting on Facebook. Curious to read up on it all and see if this is the best strategy or not.

I also know that I have to remember to use those hashtags! Everywhere... but when I do remember, my two most commonly used are #stampinup and #handmade or #handcrafted. I use these because I'm a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and use the products in all my creations and because my products are handcrafted/handmade. I will be researching on others though that might be more helpful.

Also need help on gaining more followers and I also need to follow more people. Looking forward to this week's challenges!

[Jewelry Made With Love]

My Twitter name at this point is:  https://twitter.com/Sydneyslist

Will need to change it of course.

Changed to https://twitter.com/JewelryMadeWLov

[Lannie]

I'm really new to Twitter. In fact I confess to not getting it. Why would anyone want to tell people about the details of their personal lives, and follow the details of someone else? I know I have a lot to learn, and I'm looking forward to working through the assignments towards a better understanding of the value of Twitter from a marketing point of view. Will report back later with a newly-minted Twitter account!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

towards a better understanding of the value of Twitter from a marketing point of view

Sorry to butt in on your bootcamp but I had some ideas I wanted to share:

I follow Michaels Craft Store and HGTV.  They are good examples of the marketing value of Twitter.  Twitter is great for short blasts of info like:

• New product launch
• Venues (like craft fairs) you'll be at
• Sales/Deals/Promos
• Add a picture of work in process to generate interest in your process and sneak peeks at what's in the pipeline
• If you've been featured somewhere in an article
• and I'm sure other stuff I'm not thinking of right now

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Fairy Cardmaker,

Those are great examples of the kind of content businesses share on Twitter. Thanks for the nice summary!
By the way, we just got an opening on this Bootcamp.   

[Hofkissed]

Why would anyone want to tell people about the details of their personal lives, and follow the details of someone else?

I agreed with this Lannie. In fact, Twitter was about the only social media forum I didn't join, until recently. I started to see the value in it for business... plus, when you can link it to several other forums (like your iCraft account), I thought it would be a valuable asset to my business. I still don't use it too frequently, but that's why I'm particularly excited about this week's assignments!

[Lannie]

Here is my Twitter account: The Knitting Lady http://twitter.com/iCraftKnitting

I'm following iCraftGifts.com @iCraft
NoriandChasesCorner @NoriandChases
Stephanie VanDorp @Hofkissed
iCraft Community @iCraftCommunity
Cindy Cavender @JewelryMadeWLov

I have yet to actually tweet.

Fairy Cardmaker, thanks for the examples of info that Twitter is suited for. I checked HGTV and Michael’s Craft Store, and I am beginning to see how marketing on Twitter could work.  Very helpful.

[iCraft Admin]

Please let me know how's everyone doing with the Twitter Assignment this week, before I post another one.
What have you done? What have you learned? Anything to share with the group?

[Hofkissed]

I think I'm following everyone now. I'm still catching up on reading all the articles and trying to remember to tweet more, rather than just rely on having all my social accounts linked up. I'm going to go tweet right now...

[NoriandChasesCorner]

I have been working on the reading. I think I have a few more of you to follow. Will be this evening's work.

[iCraft Admin]

So how's the reading goes, NoriandChasesCorner?
Have you been twitting yet?

[iCraft Admin]

Hofkissed, linking up accounts is smart, but you need to mix things up with some original content and re-twit good posts from relevant sources once in a while. Have you been twitting about other participants this week.

I wanted you all guys to twit as a group - twitting not only about your own products, but about other participant's stores as well. Also building connections and adding followers to your Twitter accounts. Are you doing all that?

Please post about your progress often, so I get a better picture of what you are doing.

I am going to move second assignment for this week to Monday, so everyone can catch up on reading etc. Please spend a bit more time exploring Twitter and tell us what you've learned. I want to see more questions from all of you too!

[NoriandChasesCorner]

I have been tweeting and looking for others to follow. I have found some interesting sites that I want to check out further. The reading has helped in figuring out some of the ins and outs.

[Hofkissed]

Ok. I get it now! Sorry, I missed the part about tweeting from other shops (that makes sense though!!) and following other people. I follow a few but I guess I was just waiting for people to start following me?! I don't know why... I guess I didn't want to be following hundreds of people and only have a handful following me. However, with original content, re-tweeting and perhaps the mentality of "I follow you, you follow me", I gain more followers in the twitter world.

Question: what is the acceptable number of tweets per day? I don't want to go crazy now re-tweeting or tweeting everything I see that's interesting and bombarding people. Just curious...

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Hofkissed,

The power of Twitter is in numbers. You can scale your account relatively fast if you keep following members that twit about things relevant to your niche. If you have less than 1000 followers on Twitter, you are almost invisible there and can't get enough traffic to secure sales. So the more people follow you, the better. It will also get easier for you to get followers, once you hit a 1000 mark. People like following popular accounts.

How many times per day should you should twit?
There are many different opinions and studies out there - when to twit and how much. You can Google this topic and share with the group what you found useful.

I'd say it's a trail and error situation. Try certain number of twits per day and see if the number of your followers grows or drops off. If they are consistently dropping off then slow down a bit. I think if you twit or re-twit interesting things (sale items & new products fall into this category too) than people will be happy to see your posts. Keep in mind, nobody sits on Twitter all day, so if you twited 20 - 30 times a day, some people will notice only 1 or 2 twits. For that reason you can repeat some twits to make sure more people saw your important messages.

When Guy Kawasaki was talking about his use of Twitter, he said that he tweeted every story he wrote 4 times. The exact same tweet. His rationale was that his audience was tuning into Twitter at several different times during the day and he found that 4 was the optimal number to convert enough of the people reading his posts into traffic back to his website.

So start experimenting with the number of twits you post every day and let us know what you are noticing.

[Hofkissed]

Thanks for the info!

I started searching and following more people yesterday. I looked for both things that were interesting to me, and people who not only had a decent following, but people that also followed a lot of other people. I thought that if they had 1,000's of followers, but only followed 100 people, they were less likely to follow me. Not that I expect everyone I follow to follow back, but that was just my thinking.

I started tweeting other things as well - other people's pictures on Instagram, interesting things happening while I'm away for a weekend getaway, etc. I was thinking I was doing something right because one of my tweets was favourited by someone who wasn't following me and I gained two new followers too... people who I was not following.

I also retweeted a couple of interesting tweets yesterday and in one of the articles, it said that you should put "RT" in front of what you were retweeting so that everyone could see it... not just people who followed both you and the person you were retweeting. I didn't have an option though to do that. Maybe I misunderstood.

Anyway, I'm still not too familiar with Twitter and have lots to learn. Sometimes I just don't get it, but I'm going to try.

[Lannie]

I've retweeted from fellow bootcampers and from related sites that I found interesting. Also have followed interesting sites.

Still trying to figure out the best way to use hashtags. I searched on the more likely hashtags, like Admin mentioned. There seem to be thousands of occurrences of each. How useful would this be for an individual seller? How useful would it be to make one up - why would people find and use a new tag that might be so specific?

Clearly I'm not quite getting it yet. Will continue to read up, and retry. 

[NoriandChasesCorner]

I have also encountered the same things. I think I get something figured out and then I can't do it again. I've also have retweeted but haven't been given an option to add anything. I'm still working with it.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi NoriandChasesCorner,

If you want to add anything to a tweet, you can copy it, then post it with your note and RT @AuthorName in front of it. E.g. if you like our message "Great finds for Mother's Day", you'd post something like this "RT @iCraft Great finds for Mother's Day - Lovely handmade gifts".

If you don't want to add anything to a message, you simply click on the "Retweet" link below that message.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Lannie,

You'd use new made-up hashtags only if you tweet as a group, so everyone could easily filter new tweets and follow a specific conversation that only members would know about.

If you want your tweets to be found, you'd use established hashtags and even use a few of them in the same tweet, like "Great #Valentine day #handmade #sale for all #Jewelry lovers + URL".

[Lannie]

Thanks Admin! I appreciate the clarification of the uses of hashtags and the example. This actually makes sense to me!    I'll carry on and practice using hashtags to be found.