Mitch Arnowitz

October 05, 2009

What we learned from our latest Twitter party

Last week, we produced another client Twitter chat. We do these on a monthly basis with the twin goals of fundraising while building relationships. Once again, there were takeaways that we'd like to share. You can read what we learned during our last chat here or, check this out to learn what a Twitter chat is all about.

Marketing- we continue to be successful in driving interested and interesting peeps to our chats. Putting the right message in the right hands drives the right people to your event-- it's that simple. We use Twitter to deliver our message and rely on past, active attendees. It turns out that Twitter is great for getting the word out about time sensitive events. We try to be insistent that people use our #SOSFood hashtag when spreading the word. 115 ppl showed up for this chat, down from 175 for the first but... the conversations were more robust.

It's always about people, not the technology- some things don't change. From the earlier days of the WELL to The Virtual Community to other luminaries, it's always been about community building. Twitter is one of many solid community building tools. We're seeing a community start to form that returns, gets involved and tells other peeps about it. Folks are courteous, respectful of differences and threads or conversations develop during chats. Like we said, a community is developing.

It's all about the technology- boy did we have a slow night on the networks. It seems as if nothing was going our way. Twitter chats are notorious for tech gaffles and ours was no exception. Twitter tools like TweetDeck, TweetChat, TweetGrid were all running slow. This means delayed postings and reactions- tough if you're trying to run a live chat or communicate with your moderator!

You learn a lot by listening!- We have a great moderator. Even though we call Kate a moderator, she's actually a facilitator. Our chats are producing creative, crowdsourced ideas. The only way to get there is by listening. This works well with Twitter chats where everyone's on the panel and can participate.

Everything has to work together- the client does a great job with communication vehicles like it's website and social networking tools like Facebook, youtube and it's own Twitter feed. Can't overstress how important it is that all traditional and new/social/digital media work together to deliver a consistent message.

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August 02, 2009

What we learned from our Twitter foodie chat

We recently organized a Twitter foodie chat for client Share Our Strength. The goals of our chat were to raise money, create awareness and build community. You can find out what a Twitter chat is here.

I wanted to get lessons learned down on digital paper before we forget! Our chat was held on July 30 with a moderator and panel of 5. See the details here.

Before continuing though, I must thank some very smart Internet folks whom we learned a great deal from. Jeff Hurt is an assn. guy and involved with Twitter chats #eventprofs and #assnchat. Sarah Evans runs her own PR shop and the #journchat twitter chat. Robert Swanwick runs #SpkrChat and all of it's parts. And, of course there's Carissa Rogers who runs the wildly popular #gno/Girls Night Out chat. You can check out a more complete listing of Twitter chats and their corresponding schedules here.

From these folks and others, we learned about moderating chats, setting up chat rooms, chat wikis and topic polls. We also learned more by reading this and this. We actually created and even distributed our own #sosfood chat guide.

One of the biggest lessons we learned was that an online chat takes as much preparation as a traditional event! Here are some of the other things that we learned from our first Twitter chat:

Lessons learned:

Have a mission or message that resonates. Share Our Strength is a great client with an easy to understand message. Clarity and brevity help when staring down the barrel at 140 characters :-)

Get a great moderator. Kate Miller, of Cooking During Stolen moments moderated our chat. Kate is a respected community builder and experienced foodie. She also has lots of friends- key to attracting a valuable panel, securing giveaways and getting the word out. Probably most important, Kate has the right temperament to run a chat.

Moderating a chat is really not about moderation! A good moderator is a better facilitator! Kate was able to ask questions and then get out of the way. This is easier said then done when tweets are zipping by at the speed of sound. She was able to keep the conversation rolling along without stifling it.

Along with a moderator, it helps to have a great panel. Panelists add value, draw attention and help to create excitement. Many established chats have a moderator but no panel or maybe one guest. We felt it was important to reach for the stars in our first chat and ended up with a panel of 5 foodies. The fun thing about a chat though is that all the participants can be panelists while sharing experiences and knowledge.

Try to establish a personality. Chats, like other online conversations have personalities! Think about what you want yours to be before show time. Granted, your chat's personality will, in part, depend on the topic and tweeps but... you can also help to shape it. We liked the feel of #gno's chat. Our moderator took a warm & fuzzy approach for our night time chat and foodies responded.

Get the word out. To spread the word, we searched through Twitter directories such as wefollow, Twellow and TwitterPacks. We then compiled a list of foodies, developed a message, contacted folks and asked them to come to our party.

Since the Twitter chat was the 2nd half of a campaign, we were fortunate to have lots of bloggers to reach out to that supported our cause. We also contacted the clients Twitter followers that we thought might be interested.

For every person we contacted, we asked for a retweet/RT. Most important, we asked partners & panelists to tweet it up! We started the marketing outreach effort one week prior to the chat. We felt pretty good when we saw traction from initial tweets.

Have a place that offers an explanation and a way to get involved. There are lots of peeps that aren't familiar with chats. Twitter chat archives can also be posted to the website. what the hashtag offers a free chat archiving service along with metrics. We were also able to use webpage our page for fundraising.

Use giveaways and prizes to create excitement. We worked hard to secure great giveaways and raffle prizes. Again, we tried to tailor everything we did to the chat's topic and this also pertained to prizes. People still love something for nothing!

Work out the logistics ahead of time! We figured out fulfillment for giveaways and raffle prizes in advance. We also had a schedule along with cued up questions. We created tweets ahead of time. We also tried to work out smaller details before the chat started so that we could focus on the conversation. We also had a team in place while the chat was going on. This allowed our moderator to focus on the conversation while we took care of business.

The conversation moved at a quick pace- some said, it went by to fast. We raised almost $1,000 in 2 hours and had 175 people involved in our chat. We made new friends and followers, discovered new niches, learned by watching and listening and had a great time!

So, when are you doing your next chat?

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January 03, 2009

How @comcastcares and Twitter save Birthday for recovering 10 yr old

Our son is recovering from surgery. It's a long road but he'll be fine.

Elan's a New Year's baby. This year marks double digits. Unfortunately, he'll mark it at Sinai Hospital's Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics. We decided to take Elan home for one day though- his Birthday. I decided to buy and install a large screen TV. We've wanted one for some time now and figured that it would help with Elan who will continue to lie low once we return home.

I bought the TV at retail and had all the vendors lined up for the install. I explained the situation and all assured me that they would do their part. No small feat as a few people had to show up at the same time on the same day to get it all done. Most were sympathetic to our plight and understood that I'd be home for one day only before heading back to the hospital.

I raced home to begin the wait. The usual snags happened with incorrect windows, customer service that couldn't find me in their records, etc. We did however have a stoke of luck with 3 guys finally standing in our family room on a Monday afternoon.

Several hours into it, and several trips to Radio Shack, the Comcast repairman realized that he brought the wrong cable box. I begged him to return with the correct box and make a 10 yr old smile. No go though. Comcast still hasn't figured out that the guys they put in front of customers are on the front line. They make or break the customer experience and relationship. I wasn't as bothered by the fact that the repairman couldn't deliver as I was that he didn't care. And, this guy didn't care... But, this is a story about great service and caring people so we'll leave it at that...

Several hours later, the TV was up on the wall and Firedog had done a workaround to at least test the TV to make sure it worked. I was at wits end though with one missing piece to the puzzle and that was Comcast.

I called customer service only to be told several times that the earliest date they could correct their mistake was a week away. Not real good for a Birthday 2 days away! So there I was with a dilemma.

This is where @comcastcares steps in to save the day. I sent a tweet out at 12:30am on December 30th- 2 days before the New Year's birthday. 3 minutes later, @comcastcares tweets back, asking for details. In the morning, I send details. @comcastcares responds immediately, telling me that they have their local team looking into it. I couldn't find or get arrested with a 'local Comcast team' or office- believe me, I tried.

30 mins. later I get a cell call from Comcast letting me know that they are pulling someone from an existing job to fix our problem! Sure enough, Mario arrives at the house within the hour with the correct equipment. I, of course, beg the Comcast guy that initially called to stay in touch should something go wrong. And, he does!

By around noon on the 30th- 12 hrs after my first tweet went out- the problem is solved. Needless to say, our son's jaw dropped when he saw the TV. He had a great 10th Birthday- watching the ball drop in high def and all.
One of the amazing things about this story is that Frank of @comcastcares fame was on vacation while this was all going on! Talk about great customer service...

Those of us in the business know that Twitter can be a great customer service tool. Hopefully, more and more companies will get on the band wagon and tweet their way into better relationships!

Thanks again to @comcastcares for saving this day and making a 10 yr old smile.

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September 12, 2008

Social media event marketing

We've been using social media to drive traffic to events. Examples include Bridge2Growth, CreateAThon and the Tech Council of Maryland.

These thoughts focus on events but are easily applicable to most Internet marketing & community building campaigns. Some of the things that we've learned so far:

Grow your community in Web 2.0 calendars like upcoming and eventful. Not only will people RSVP for your event through these free services but they'll begin to congregate here as well. And, that means that there's an opportunity to build relationships with new people interested in the topic. You can also solicit content ideas in these groups. Generally speaking, the people that we meet through these services are new to clients. This of course means that we're able to grow the pie. Think through resources necessary to facilitate these groups before you set them up. It doesn't make marketing sense to establish a community and then let it languish.

Integrate campaigns with more traditional methods like telemarketing. Doing so will increase response rates but make certain that your message is consistent throughout! We do well when telemarketer sends prospect an e-mail and directs them to the website for more info. and to register.

E-mail works. E-mail is still the common denominator and one of the best ways to build a relationship. A great way to get the word out and build excitement is through social media outreach to e-mail lists, forums and relevant individuals and groups.

Don't be a carpetbagger or astroturfer. To be successful, you have to get dirty by participating in the conversation. Adding value vs using social media to broadcast your message is also key (more below). There really is no shortcut to success. If you do find one, please leave it in the comments below!

Have a strategy that's actually thought through and ties efforts together. Setting up a twitterfeed might be a good tactic but it is not a strategy. Try to figure out how you can add value to the conversation, what the message and ask is, what the current landscape looks like. It also makes sense to have a plan after the event ends. Now that you've begun to create relevant relationships, what are you going to do with them? How will you feed and nurture them? You want to make sure that the next time they hear from you isn't when you're promoting an event!

Think through keywords and make sure to use them with a social bookmarking strategy.

Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn work. Like other communities, these sites have to be cultivated. Growing the community around a topic or sector and not the event makes marketing sense. Like with the 2.0 calendars though, getting people to register at your website after confirming participation on these sites can be tough. Those using online reg services like Eventbrite may have more luck.

Research is always key. Find the people and groups that make a difference for your event.

Make sure there is value for the reader. OK, this one is obviously the lynch pin of any successful marketing campaign. It's worth a reminder though. Whether it's the message, ask or call to action, website or event itself- make sure there's value beyond 'come to our event'.

Drive offline action through online interaction. I was reminded of this through a good article written by Mashables Leslie Poston. Meetup is certainly one way to drive foot traffic to your event. Downloadable forms is another.

What did I miss?

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September 11, 2008

Tenants of social media

Its all about you (iow: listen).

Don't use social media to broadcast.

There must be value- I call it the what's in it for me syndrome.

Use online interaction to drive offline activity.

Nothing beats face-to-face.

Research is still key- finding those that might be interested in building a relationship.

email is still one of the best way to build a relationship!

There are no shortcuts- you gotta get dirty. Participation is key.

There are rules of the road, this isn't all new.

Learn to faciliate, not moderate.

Start small, bottom up!

Start building relationships now, not when you need someone.

Give, then take.

When you put yourself out there, everyone can see you (customers, competitors, coopitors, friends, family).

Like with other types of marketing, .transparency is key.

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September 02, 2008

To socialize or not?

Along the lines of last week's social media thread, I have another question. A PR person presented me with the following scenario and I thought I'd toss it out for your input.

A client org of theirs is taking a beating about some decisions that they've made. Some opponents have been vocal on industry e-mail lists. Unfortunately, the client hasn't been able to develop relationships with those that others listen to.

Do you think that the org should include social media outreach as part of an overall strategy? Should they actively try to engage their detractors now or sit on the sidelines until the brew-ha-ha simmers down? Again, there are several parts to a planned response but this question is specifically about social media's involvement.

What do you think?

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August 26, 2008

(con't) Has social networking reached a tipping point?

The original conversation continues here and here (facebook membership required).

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August 21, 2008

Has social networking reached a tipping point?

I had a interesting exchange with Victoria Pickering that made me think about a couple of things. We are marketing a client event, mostly through social media. Attendees will be businesses that want to learn more about Web 2.0.

The marketing twist is that many local businesses may not be using social media. Sure, there's LinkedIn and other business networking groups but by marketing to the Twitter crowd, are we preaching to the choir? Are we building relationships with techies, potential business employees or maybe both? Sure, it depends on what type of business and people you want to attract but are prospects participating in social networking? In other words, has social media reached a tipping point?

Is the way to find business, and the people that run them, through more traditional means? Or, are more and more businesses digging and stumbling these days? As usual, maybe it's a mixture of everything you do. To be sure, there are several pieces of the marketing mix but Victoria's comments got me thinking about the campaign's social media aspecs.

The other reoccurring piece of the marketing puzzle is that it's supposed to be about businesses finding YOU and not you broadcasting to them. And, to do that- you have to put yourself in the right places for people to find you. Like I said, maybe it's a combination of everything you do.

What do you think?

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