I've been following Guy Kawasaki's Twitter and Social Media strategy for his AllTop.com site for quite sometime, and I'm starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Here's how I'm applying these concepts...
 
 
I see many clients begin to venture into social media, but ultimately burn out because "they don't see the point".

But this is a mistake...
 
 
I'm sure you've heard of Twitter before…

Without spending too much time on what Twitter is, let's just say that Twitter is a place where people describe what they're doing at any point in their day.

But few business owners have a clear understanding of how they could actually find customers using Twitter.
 
 
Through an email list I'm on, I came across Joel Warady's website. Joel is a marketing consultant based in Illinois that seems to focus on social media...this is a good area to focus on.

However, I took a  minute to watch a video on his site about Twitter and I felt the need to post on my blog about it. What he said is wrong...let me explain.

I will admit that I didn't analyze his entire site or his other videos, but this video about Twitter was showcased on his speaking homepage...thus I assume that this is the first impression that many of his viewers see.

I mean no disrespect to Joel...I'm sure he's a great guy and a very experienced marketer. But what he said about Twitter (at least in this video) is a perfect example of why business people don't seem to "get it" when it comes to twitter.

Watch the video here, but here's a quick recap of what I saw in the video. I think you'll agree that these quotes are not taken out of context, as the video is relatively short and has this type of theme throughout the entire segment...watch it and make the decision for yourself.

Mr. Warady Said Things Like:

"People on Facebook create their status and
they write things like 'I'm drinking a cup of coffee'.
That's what Twitter is".

"you write [about] what you're doing"

"A great thing to Twitter
is you're gonna go across the street to the show...
When you're at the show. .you could tweet what you see at the show."

Why This Video is Wrong...

Through my experience with Twitter and teaching business people how to benefit from Twitter, I've come to agree with Guy Kawasaki, Silicon Valley venture capitalist. In short, Guy mentioned that Twitter is not about what you're doing...it's about what you're interested in (and that other people would be interested in).

 

What Twitter is All About in My Opinion

I explain Twitter and social media to clients as a 24/7 networking event...similar to going to a chamber of commerce breakfast event or an industry tradeshow. At industry events, you would benefit most from talking about what other people in your industry are interested in. For example, what's the latest sales tactic that seems to be working...how can your clients be more effective in their business...where do you think the industry is going in the next few months.

You might mention the movie or "show" you went to see this past weekend, but it wouldn't be the focus of 90% of your conversations at this tradeshow...

Social media is the same way. The way you do well in social media as a business person is to talk about business things that people benefit from hearing (i.e. help people with topics they're interested in).

Twitter is not about saying "I had a cup of coffee". If I sent out tweets about how I went surfing this morning (the waves sucked in La Jolla today by the way), 90% of my followers wouldn't care. It's not going to benefit anyone.

But if I sent out a Tweet to help my followers better understand how to (and how not to) utilize Twitter for their business, this is something that is going to help them in their business.

Not Bashing...Just Throwing in My Thoughts

Again, I want to make clear that I don't mean any disrespect to Mr. Warady. Instead, I simply felt the need to respond with my thoughts on his video as this is a common topic that I feel is misunderstood in the internet marketing / social media industry.

Joel, if you're ever in San Diego or if I'm ever out in Illinois, let's grab a beer or a cup of coffee. I'd love to learn more about your experiences in social media and marketing and am always happy to take part in some good old constructive (and positive) debates on strategy.
 
 

UPDATE: you can listen to the entire mp3 of the radio show at http://wsradio.edgeboss.net/download/wsradio/ebay/060209/segment7060209.mp3. The social media segment begins about 25% of the way through...you should be able to drag the segment controls once it's playing.



I was recently invited to speak on Ebay Radio about social media marketing and how it applies to ebay sellers. We briefly discussed using Twitter and a range of other social media tools to grow your business.

I'll post a link to the MP3 in the next 2-3 days as it gets posted to the Ebay Radio website.

I'll also be coming back to Ebay Radio in the near future to do a case study of sorts: I'll be helping one Ebay seller develop their social media campaign live on the air. It should be an interesting show and a worthwhile listen for any small business owner interested in building their business through online marketing. I'll post the MP3 to that as well.

Did you find CompeteOnWeb.com through radio show? If so, please add your comments below as I'd love to hear what you thought of the brief segment.


 
 

Guy Kawaski shared this article on his blog recently. If you're wondering how to use twitter for direct marketing, then this would be your answer.

Imagine this...

An Audi dealership in San Diego wants to increase their customer base. Anytime someone within 10 miles of their dealership tweets something about an Audi (i.e. they probably own an Audi), then the dealership account automatically sends them a tweet in hopes of getting them to the dealership.

Read the entire article for full details. This is interesting stuff!

 
 

There is a new twitter virus spreading today...just the most recent in a string of worms in the last few months. If you see a tweet saying something along the lines of "Best Video", don't click the link. Twitter is unsure how the worm is spreading but is advising users not to click on any link that says something like "Best Video" or Juste.ru.

TechCrunch has a pretty solid article on the topic.

 
 

Want to know today's hottest topics on Twitter?

DailyRT is a tool that I read about on Mashable.com.

It works very similar to Digg.com, in that it shows you the tweets that are being retweeted a lot today on twitter.

In English...

It shows you what information people are telling all of their friends about.

Stay on top of the latest topics online with DailyRT


 
 

Tech Crunch showed me a new Twitter tool this morning called "TwitDoc". It enables you to Tweet any files to your twitter followers, similar to how TwitPic enables you to Tweet pics out to your list.

It takes only a few seconds to tweet out a PDF, Microsoft Word, and a range of other files.

Could be a good tool to tweet out special whitepaper PDF reports to your twitter list as a lead gen method if the report is written strategically correct...but that's a whole other blog post re: strategy.