During the summer I took an exhaustive look at the social media scene in Richmond. It took weeks of research and dozens of interviews and a few sleepless nights. (Yes, I’m patting myself on the back.) So after that, I was done with social media for a while. I needed a break. I didn’t even log into my Facebook account for three weeks.
But something Bill Bergman, who runs the Bergman Agency in Richmond, said during one of those interviews stuck with me and got me to thinking. “Nobody is an expert,” Bergman said. “It reminds me of those marketers back in the early ’40s, running around claiming to be experts on TV advertising when TV was brand new.”
After a little room and some thought, I think he’s probably right. But there are dozens of sites popping up these days that might be able to give you a helping hand, without having the shell out $400 for a daylong seminar of questionable value. If we understand that nobody really understands Twitter — even its owners have trouble describing what it is — TweetMeme.com might at least help us understand what sinks and what swims in the Twittersphere.
If you are blindly launching into Twitter, desperately searching for relevancy in the daunting world of social media, you are not alone. And while the Twitter experts might tell you that they can help you “strategize” your use of social media, it really boils down to understanding what is playing in Twitterland and what ain’t.
Enter TweetMeme.
Price tag? Most of what TweetMeme provides is absolutely free.
First of all, TweetMeme gives you a nice window into what’s popular. This feature shows you which specific Tweets are being “ReTweeted.” What is a ReTweet, you ask? Well if person “A” posts a comment or a link on Twitter and person “B” posts it on their Twitter account, then that link is a ReTweet. I know, I know. All this cutesy lingo is infuriating, and I’m still coming to grips with it, too.
But TweetMeme is a simple site that is broken down into tabs. Want to know what Twitterers are tweeting about in the pop culture realm? You might click on the “entertainment” tab. Today the popular thing seemed to be a tweet called “The Twilight Cast Talks About What They Do Between Takes.” I can’t imagine anything more mind numbing, but if you’re interested, you can click on the video here. Ugh.
But for business people in Richmond, the social media scene can be overwhelming. Many of the business people I spoke to told me that, if they hadn’t already gotten into it, it was something they felt they needed to do.
“I haven’t been keeping up with it recently, but I need to start,” said Mark Szafranski, who runs Metro Sounds and Music Company in downtown Richmond. “If I started putting up pictures of all my guitars and gear on Facebook, looking at that stuff, man, to some people that’s better than porn.”
So I searched for Tweets concerning Richmond, and Szafranski may want to start twittering. That’s because the most ReTweets from Richmond are tweets concerning the arts. A recent Washington Post article that highlighted Richmond’s budding art scene was fairly popular in the Twittersphere.
If you run a business and want to start tweeting, here is some strategizing: Start doing your homework here at TweetMeme. If people are ReTweeting stuff, it’s a good tweet. If you type in some key search terms such as, say, “business,” and see what is being tweeted around, then you have an idea of what is playing and what isn’t. This is the “market research” that a lot of marketing people say they use Twitter for. Guess what: You can do it yourself. DIY, baby.
Funnily enough, the most popular ReTweet about business today was a story about how employees who waste time on Twitter is costing Britain’s businesses £1.4 billion a year.. How’s that for leveraging your social media footprint?
TweetMeme has several other features you can use if you are interested. You can embed TweetMeme into a WordPress website. (We here at BizSense use WordPress.) You can also ReTweet an attractive tweet on your account directly from TweetMeme.
But the coolest little feature, a feature you can try for free, is a analytics tool that allows you to track a specific post on the internet. If I wanted to track this Tech Review, I could put it into the analytics tool and see how many clicks from Twitter I get and how many ReTweets I get out of it. Pretty neat way of measuring how your business’s Twitter footprint is paying off. Is all that time you spent tweeting worth it? This is one way to find out. Check out the video here.
All in all, I’m still not sure how valuable this Twitter deal is. But TweetMeme is definitely worth your time. It can help you generate some good ideas and help you measure the effectiveness of your Twitter presence.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t rag on Twitter just a bit more. Check out this video.
David Larter covers technology for BizSense. Please send news tips to David@richmondbizsense.com.
Yeah, Twitter is weird.
I agree. $400 on a class might be a waste. Here’s what I’m recommending…
First things first. If your business does not have an basic, ongoing, professional email marketing program, then you’re not ready for Twitter. BUT, if you have a basic, ongoing email marketing program, then Twitter might be a useful, easy add-on to it. And it can enhance even a lame web site.
Using professional hosted email marketing services makes it easy to Twitter email. (And do a lot of stuff you can’t do from your computer.)
What happens when you added Twitter to your email efforts? It depends, but if you work it right, it’s useful. For example, I set up the Midlothian community email network this week where broadcasted emails can be twitted to the new Midlothian Twitter account. Using the free wigget offered by Twitter, the email’s headline is posted on the Midlothianva.org web site automatically, with a link to the email. So, with one email we have broadcasted via Twitter and updated the web site at the same time. The organizations in the Midlothian network have done their duty to reach out to the community with one email. If people really want to know what’s going on, they can follow on Twitter. Or, they can back off and just get the email. Or, they can just check the web site when they think about it. Whatever.
How much more did adding the function cost the Midlothian Communications Committee? Nothing. How much more work? One click after it was set up. Set up? Easy, if you’re using a professional email service.
Bottom line: It’s time everyone look at the email marketing with a fresh eye.