Twitter Workshop in Newbury reveals great time saving tools
The idea behind our Twitter Workshop held today in Newbury, Berkshire is to reveal to professionals who have recognised the importance of this social media marketing tool, just how to master Twitter to get the best results in the least time. We do this through hands on training with Twitter.
Much like networking in the real world, social networking requires a committment before it will deliver results and just as you cannot expect to win referrals networking if you simply turn up a couple of time and do not speak to anyone, Twitter is the same. You need to engage.
When we give talks on Twitter, such as our 'Top 10 Tips for Twitter Newbies' or touch on it as a key part of Organic PR, a question that will always be asked is: 'Yes, but how much time does it take?'.
Understandably busy people are wary of anything that can demand more of their precious attention, but make no mistake, Twitter - or LinkedIn, or blogging, facebook or any of the social media tools, need some nuturing if they are to blossom and contribute to your bountiful harvest.
We support social media marketing campaigns to varying degrees. From simply monitoring and giving a nudge in the right direction. Through to comprehensively managing a campaign.
A quick social media marketing health warning though. What do you think when you visit a website and the newsletter archive is from May 2006? Exactly! Well, Google has made the web virtually indelible and if you start any of these approaches, you better be ready to stick at it!
Tools abound on Twitter to get the most from this exciting tool and many allow you to 'unfollow' - stop watching Tweets - from people who have not Twittered for a while. It is the smartest users of social media who use tools like this - the ones who have the most influence and what judgement does a maven like this make when they see you haven't Twittered for three months? Maybe they generously acknowledge how busy you are? Perhaps they decide you cannot complete a project? Best you disappear from their network... worst, they tell people!
The Twitter Workshop is about giving people real hands on experience using some of the tools we use to make social media marketing campaigns sparkle - and crucially in much less time than people suspect.
From the eponymous Tweetdeck, the most popular tool for managing your Twitter account - through to TweetLater, a powerful automation too that allows you to schedule Tweets and if managed carefully can deftly handle following people who follow you.
We also explored the most useful of the myriad of websites that can help you find the right people to follow and the how to find the right people to follow you.
We did experience some significant issues with some many people sharing the bandwith of the broadband available at The Square in Newbury, and were grateful for the patience and generosity of our delegates!
As part of the Twitter Workshop we asked the delegates to give feedback on this blog post, so we could share their thoughts with you, in the spirit of the openess that thrives within social media. So don't take our word for it... ask them!