Facttactic

Corporate and technical writers

Social media

twitter – world famous in NZ

I have been a bit doubtful of Twitter as a viable business tool in NZ for the simple reason that the number of New Zealanders using it has, in my experience, not been large. More than 90 percent of the people choosing to follow my tweets are in the United States. Not useful when you are a firm that sources its business domestically.

But new figures show that my concerns may be misplaced: the percentage of Kiwis using Twitter apparently outstrips the percentage of Americans doing so. Even though the total numbers may not be huge yet,  market research company Perceptive says 6 percent of New Zealanders regularly tweet, compared with 5 percent of the US population.

So I’ll keep the Twitter experiment going, and as Kiwi Twitter numbers grow, see if I can encourage more Kiwis onboard.

how to boost your blog using Twitter, social media sites and good old email

Blogs are a powerful way to pull readers to your website, to educate and entertain them and lead them to action on your website. But how do you attract readers to your blog?

Compelling, useful and regularly updated material is, of course, essential. But other communication tools can also be useful to advertise your blog across the web.

Twitter: I’ve been experimenting with Twitter for a few months now and have more than 100 followers (people who have clicked to ‘follow’ – aka subscribe – to my Twitter feed). This is a small number compared to the many people with thousands of followers but the number is steadily growing every day.

So how do I attract them to my blog?

I put up an appealing (I hope!) Twitter post (aka a Tweet) about each blog post I make, and link back to my blog post. My followers and the many other Twitter readers can see it and can visit my blog, if they are attracted to my message, simply by clicking on the link . If you search and monitor the Twitter traffic, you will easily find people with an interest in the information on your blog and can tailor your Twitter messages to attract them.

Similarly with social media sites: I put up brief posts about my blog items on a social media site with a similar subject matter to this blog. People read the post and then come to my blog to learn more. Measurement of my most heavily read blogs shows that a significant  readership has come directly from this social media site.

Email: The Copyblogger site recommends pushing people to your blog using an email newsletter. Copyblogger says email your blog’s RSS feed as a newsletter; start a simple opt-in email newsletter; link back to your blog; and place newsletter subscription tools everywhere.

You have to experiment a bit with linking to your blog from various other online services, but give it a go and see what works for you.

You might also be interested in these articles from other sites:

Four ways companies use Twitter (Read Write Web)

Fifty ideas on using Twitter for business (Chris Brogan)

NZ’s ‘first ever’ international social media conference

In April, Wellington hosts a training and education event on social media and online marketing. Leading international experts will take workshops on topics including social media, SEO, online communities and content marketing.

The two-day event is to be held at Te Papa on April 15 – 16. Attendees will leave with “actionable strategies” to implement to their businesses, says the blurb for the event.

Find out more at Marketing Now.

Watch out for Chris Brogan and David Meerman-Scott in Wellington next month.

great event, poor IT back-up, bad press

A couple of weeks back we posted about the world’s best job – a hugely successful social media competition that had spanned the world and gained vast positive publicity for its tourism cause.

Recently the press has been pretty negative: the competition is still a great success but the IT systems to run it have not been up to scratch causing the website to crash under the weight of people wanting to submit entries.

I guess the impetus of the campaign will carry organisers past this, but it’s an unnecessary stain on an otherwise creative success. A good example, if ever there was one, that you gotta have your systems sorted if you’re online.

10 essential tips for a social media launch

Some good tips here (thanks Social Computing Magazine) on how to launch a social media campaign, keep it real and keep it tied into and integrated with the rest of your PR and marketing efforts.

There’s explanations of some good dos and don’ts, including — don’t let your social media strategy be an orphan; don’t stand in a corner, get out there and dance; don’t get distracted by those fireworks; don’t go it alone, Cowboy.

    But wait, there’s more! No, not a free Ginzu knife, but they also offer some basic but sound advice on five ways to integrate social media with public relations.