I am a Twitter Jockey. I have also been called Tweety Bird, Twit lover and Twit-o-holic. Hashtags make me drool, Mentions make my day and Retweets make me jump for joy. I am a pro with twerminology and I could fly in the Twitterverse 24/7. I love getting new followers but getting you or me followed by Influencers like Prime Time News Stations, National media, or the top influencers in your industry…propel me into tweecstasy.
It was JUST 10 years ago that APPLE invented iTunes, It was just 8 years ago that the FIRST smartphone came out, and 7 years ago that the first TWEET appeared. Right NOW, 4.3 billion people, 60% of the world’s population carry a mobile digital device (in comparison only 64% of the world’s population have access to basic sanitation) In 10 years technology has drastically changed our lives. We are in the middle of a technology revolution.
I want to encourage you to become an advocate of Twitter and Event Digital Technology for your brand…because if you are not utilizing these marketing outlets, you are missing out on the BEST business generating opportunities online.
Now… before I get into why you should be using Twitter and Event Technology, it is important that you understand the difference between social media marketing and traditional marketing –
There is a lot of information being thrown at all of us via the online world, and therefore you will need to take some untraditional marketing risks to make your BRAND stand out online. Social Media Marketing IS THE PLACE AND TIME to be “unpolitically correct with boundaries”. THINK People Magazine versus The National Enquirer.
Ask your best customers and YOURSELF questions like the following –
- What do you LOVE?
- What do you HATE?
- What is a POSITIVE FORCE or BELIEF you hold?
- What is a NEGATIVE FORCE or BELIEF you hold?
- Do you have a POLITICAL PREFERENCE?
- What are you ATTRACTED to?
You will want to define your brand online by defining who your best customers are in detail and then appealing to the largest defining group with the most in common. THESE PEOPLE will become your BIGGEST FANS and INFLUENCERS online.
Essentially, you are interviewing your BEST customers and then encouraging them to influence more like them into spreading the “LOVE” thereabouts clearly defining your corporate brand and personality online.
A great example of this is Comic Con. To date, Comic Con is the 2 LARGEST convention in the WORLD. Comic Con started as a marketplace for geeks, freaks and societal outcasts. BUT Comic Con did one thing REALLY REALLY well – They never tried to be something they weren’t or attract those that weren’t like them. In other words, they never set out to “fit in” but catered to those that already liked who they were. Consequently, today, being a “geek or freak” is now considered “cool” and Comic Con has gotten Hollywood and society to mold to THEM. Comic Con represents how defining who you are, by defining your personal and company quirks and beliefs, while promoting your service or product, is how you will make your brand grow and then flourish with social media.
But now let’s circle back to why I am here – Tonight I hope to inspire you on why you should be using Twitter and in the process open you to the power of using cutting edge digital marketing technologies, like Event Social Media.
To TWEET or NOT to TWEET…There is NO Question!
First off, It is EASY to open a Twitter Account. You could do it NOW, sitting at your table, from your smartphone, in less than 5 minutes. Yet, the #1 thing people say to me when I ask them if they tweet? I don’t even have a twitter account. YET it is way easier to open and use a Twitter account than it is most other social media platforms.
Secondly, Getting your business name on Twitter, is along the lines of getting a .com for your business name website. If you snooze, you lose. Having to get creative to come up with an alternative to your actual business name can be “fun” but when you are defining your brand, and all your BEST customers know your brand by your business name.com, nothing else quite compares to being able to have the same name across all platforms.
Thirdly, not tweeting will impact your ROI – and I’m not talking about your RETURN ON INVESTMENT – I’m talking about your RISK OF INACTION. You can tell yourself that you have too many other things to do so that you do not have TIME to tweet but I will guarantee you that even if you decide to put it off, your COMPETITION will NOT. At some point you will need to make your presence known on Twitter, just like you have with your website. It is so simple to start, so like NIKE said…just do it.
Once you get your Twitter account up and running, Here’s some motivation to jump in and make the brand magic happen!
ONE – Twitter’s REACH is Limitless and FREE.
Never in the history of man, have we ever had the ability to reach as many people, one on one…from our own home…that we haven’t even met, as we have since the inception of Twitter. You can’t do this with any other social media platform. Twitter, the largest open broadcasting system in the world, has given you the ability to find and say hello to the national superstar of Zimbabwe if you want to, by simply searching for them and mentioning them in a tweet. AND here’s the best part – THEY WANT YOU TO…TV, has never even given us the ability to directly say hello to a superstar in the U.S.A., let alone REACH THE SUPERSTARS OF THE WORLD with 140 characters and the click of a button….And the COST to do so…not even the price of a stamp. So what does this mean for your business?…you can economically find new customers that WANT and NEED your expertise ANYWHERE in the WORLD AND they can FIND and talk with YOU TOO.
TWO – Traditional media LOVES Twitter.
When you are watching TV, HOW OFTEN do you hear the TV personality say “Facebook me”? More often than not, you hear them say TWEET ME. And across the bottom or top of the TV screen they have the event or show hashtag displayed. WHY? Because Twitter is the BEST social media platform for distributing and collecting feedback in instantaneous Real Time from ALL over the world. As a brand you should definitely want to be a part of that conversation.
THREE – Make your BRAND a trending SUPERSTAR by harnessing the POWER of the crowd with Event Social Media and Digital Technology.
We are in the middle of a technology revolution. With this knowledge it is easy to acknowledge and anticipate that the use of technology at events will continue to grow and expand by leaps and bounds. Digital technology, along with social media, has “tightened” our world but at the same time it has given us the ability to stand out as individuals. In other words, power has been given back to the people and taken away from the mega entity. This is relevant to events because now everyone attending an event has become a reporter on the event.
EMBRACE, do not fear your event attendee “reporters” and use THEM to create a HUGE buzz about your event and brand. This is the BEST FREE PR you can imagine, and remember life is not perfect BUT ALL Public Relations are online. Over-sexed Miley, Jail-bird Justin and lewd Lululemon Chip Wilson, skew towards National Enquirer status BUT their BRAND in society is burned into our brains. So I say do NOT FEAR – EMBRACE – ALL public expressions – whether negative or positive – related to your brand…The kiss of death online? B-O-R-I-N-G
Now some of the MOST EFFECTIVE brand marketing online is being used by such divergent brands as Microsoft, and Absolute Vodka, the latter of which was voted as the most effective ad campaign in the last 100 years. It is the newest, funnest, most original brand marketing online and it is my specialty. In its simplest form, it utilizes Twitter posts to a Social Display at an Event. But most importantly, with Event Social Media and Digital Technology, Size no longer matters. Your brand can be big or small. Your event can be big or small. But as long as you have influencers that LOVE your brand and LOVE to talk about it online through Twitter and other social platforms, using Event Social Media has the ability to make your brand TREND like a superstar in your industry.
Using Social Media at an Event creates a GAUGEABLE interactive marketing experience with PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS through a FOCUSED BLAST about your brand during a specific time that creates a BUZZ your industry Influencers push through retweets, mentions and posts allowing your brand event details to move outside your event walls and be seen around the world in your industry and beyond.
Using Event Social Media / Digital Technology is like having your own international TV broadcasting crew RIGHT AT YOUR EVENT – in other words your 140 attendee event can create a BUZZ on Twitter via YOUR industry INFLUENCERS w a potential reach of over 645 million users around the world within a 2 hour period.
With Twitter and Digital Technology at your Event, you can make your brand the superstar of your industry and put it on the map for even those who had previously never known of your industry or brand name, making it possible to be a world-known brand over night.
People want it ALL and they want it NOW. You can be on the receiving end of that.
So BREAK OUT of the social media standards, because it is time to make your brand OUTSTANDING online! Tweet Tweet!