How to use Twitter in all aspects of your events

By Joan Stewart
The Publicity Hound

Twitter.

It’s an unlikely name for a social networking site that major corporations are using for customer service, crisis communications, customer retention—and one of the cheapest marketing tools on the planet.

Like blogging, Twitter started primarily as a social networking service for personal use. The free microblogging service allows users to write messages, up to 140 characters long, to let their friends know what they are doing.

Daily, it seems, scores of business people are admitting their addiction to Twitter, which takes far less time than many other social networking tools and can produce incredibly powerful results.  

The free microblogging service allows users to write directly at the site at Twitter.com, via instant messaging or through third-party applications such as Facebook.

Twitter.

When I first heard about it, I was stunned that busy people would spend time writing about what they were doing—and then carefully editing their messages so they didn’t exceed 140 characters.   

Now that I’ve been actively Twittering for several months, I find it hard to understand why more companies and nonprofits don’t use this powerful communications tool to publicize their events and push out their marketing message to the masses.

Smart Twitterers are doing more than that. They’re relying on this social networking tool to help them with crisis communications. Some are using it to spot customer service problems minutes after they occur and respond far quicker than their expensive customer call centers ever could. Some are even using Twitter to find great employees.

Because you can set up your Twitter feed on your Facebook page, people who find you on Facebook are automatically treated to your "tweets."

Here’s how companies and nonprofits large and small are using this free micro-blogging service at Twitter.com. As you read these example, think of ways that you can use Twitter to help publicize your events, look for volunteers, find sponsors and advertisers, and keep your paid staff and volunteers in touch with each other during big events.

The American Red Cross

The Red Cross uses Twitter to announce disaster news. During the tornados earlier this year, it twittered about the location of its emergency shelters in several states, led followers to Flickr photos that showed tornado damage, and invited tornado survivors to report in as being “safe and well.”

It uses Twitter for public service announcements, fund-raising, and to let its followers see things like slide shows of the California wild fires.

During the June floods throughout the Midwest, the Red Cross used Twitter to link to a Google map showing disaster response opportunities for anyone who wanted to volunteer. It also linked from Twitter to public service announcements on what to do during a flood.

Conference Management

One way Twitter has really scored is in sending conference updates and connecting with other participants at conferences.  Conference attendees use Twitter to find others who are attending the same conference so that they can meet them. They send updates to their followers about the presentations they have attended and the ideas they have found most appealing. This is great for conference organizers who can follow key people to see how the program is received and what they should address for next time.

Conference participants also use Twitter to stay in touch with each other during the conference by commenting on which break-out sessions are the best ones to attend, or to notify their followers about interesting information they’re learning. Blogger Amy Gahran attended the Newstrust 2008 conference and was able to amalgamate her contribution and those of her colleagues into a dedicated Twitter feed for the event.

I’ve even heard of cases in which a professional speaker was unaware that members of her audiences were twittering about her boring presentation.

Once the conference sessions are done for the day, Twitter still comes in handy. A group of people who have made plans to meet for dinner that night can decide on which restaurant they’re visiting, then let others know on Twitter.

Customer Service

In August 2005, blogger Jeff Jarvis wrote a scathing review of Dell products and chastized the company for being clueless about what bloggers and customers were saying online about its lousy products and service.

It took Dell almost a full year to launch its corporate blog, one2one. Since then, it has added numerous other blogs, an IdeasStorm forum that encourages consumers to submit their own ideas for products and services, and at least five RSS feeds from Twitter.

Other companies that use Twitter for customer service:

·        H&R Block answers tax questions and responds to complaints from consumers who are unhappy with service they’ve received.

·        Amazon.com pushes out news about its sales.

·        Southwest Airlines informs its customers about special deals and lets the public know about when its executives do major media interviews, like CEO Gary Kelly’s March 7, 2008 interview with CNN to address concerns about safety and inspections of aircraft.

Preview upcoming events

In Chicago, Monique Caradine Kitchens, who hosts “Perspective,” a local community affairs show that airs on Sundays, uses Twitter to give her audience a behind-the-scenes look at the show. 

“I love to tweet about production day,” she says. “The great guests, competitiveness of TV and last-minute changes that happen on deadline make for interesting tweets.  Soon, I’ll be sharing links to certain segments from the show, to give my followers a look at how it all comes together.”

Now go start Twittering. If you’re like me and millions of others, you’ll be addicted.

Joan Stewart, also known as The Publicity Hound, can be found at Twitter.com/PublicityHound. At her website at PublicityHound.com, you can sign up for her free ezine, “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week.” She also blogs at PublicityHound.net.