A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend Ad:tech Chicago and listen to some twleaders (twitter leaders – yes it is now officially “hip” to combine any word with twitter by adding tw to the front) share their secrets to twuccess (that is twitter success).

I expected this session to cover the same old “rah-rah twitter” but was pleasantly surprised as the panelists shared interesting tips and insights on how to use twitter to drive your business.

Cam Balzer, VP of Marketing for Threadless shared some great tips for brands engaging on twitter.  For companies like Threadless, which sell directly online, twitter is a very meaningful and measurable marketing tool.

Cam shared 8 Emerging Principles for Social Media (somehow I only captured 7):

1. Have clear Business Objectives – Define your business objectives before you get started.  They may change over time as you learn, but you should always tie back to business goals.
2. Multiple Account Managers – If you have multiple account managers as many large and medium businesses do, leverage tools to enhance efficiency and measurement.
   1. Co-tweet
   2. TweetDeck
   3. Mobile Twitter
3. Learn by Doing – You can read all you want, but once you get out there are participate you’ll really start to learn.  Try different things and measure the results.
4. Always be Posting – You can’t take a week off of twitter and be successful.  Use tools to stay active on twitter outside of the regular 9 – 5.  Twitter doesn’t stop when you go home for the day.
   1. Use tweetlater or cotweet
   2. Mobile
5. Experiment, track and refine – Try different things and measure the results.
   1. Try different things and measure the results
   2. Bit.ly to track clicks
   3. Day of week and time of day matter
   4. Where do you place the link?
   5. Experiment with different call to action
6. Use a set of metrics – Use a comprehensive set of metrics that tie back to business results, not just activity.
   1. Tie back to business objectives
   2. Don’t just measure followers.
7. Find the right followers – Spend some time figuring out who the right followers are for your business.  Much like targeting in traditional marketing (well, exactly like traditional targeting actually) target your twitter followers.
   1. Include a question mark in your search querie
   2. Follow people who follow you
   3. All followers are not created equal
   4. Look at language and image of people who you follow

Craig Greenfield, VP Search and Performance Media at Performics also shared some insights on different ways that companies can use twitter.  Twitter isn’t actually about literally answering “what are you doing?” all day, every day.  There are a number of different ways that businesses have successfully used twitter including:

• Direct sales (@DellClearance)
• Reputation management (@Southwest)
• Customer monitoring and service (@comcastcares)
• Engaging content for advertising (like this ad)
• Drive in-store traffic (@freshii)
• Use it for SEO
• Use it to disseminate thought leadership

This session was also covered on the adtech blog by Amanda Mooney.

There was much more (but I can’t type that fast).  Hope this was helpful and interesting 🙂