LinkedIn and Twitter Seminar tweeted live at FBBC networking
A bright and early start to today, not least as the early bird gets to Twitter the loudest about the juicy worms that the effective use of social media marketing can deliver!
Morgan PR were attending the Faringdon Business Breakfast Club today, one of our regular business networking events the FBBC takes itself less seriously than many such organisations and the friendly bunch this attracts make for a fun event.
During the obligatory one minute I urged the members to help create their own reputation by commenting on this blog and explained how powerful the inbound links back to their website, and rather aptly considering the subject matter, to their LinkedIn and Twitter profiles too.
Yes, this morning our good friend and talented trainer Mary Thomas, of Concise Training, was delivering the seminar on getting started with both LinkedIn and Twitter. I introduced her and sought to leave no doubt that those in the room who did not start Twittering very soon were akin to the dinosaurs whose shrugs turned into shivers as they muttered about it getting colder.
As a relative veteran of both social media applications I decided it was about time I tweeted my first seminar - live!
My BlackBerry has this nifty program called TwitterBerry installed that makes Tweeting on the move a breeze!
Mary's pace and consideration for the differing abilities in the audience also made it easier for me to Tweet away!
I used the hashtag #FBBC on the posts to make it easier for people to follow the thread. I learned a lesson here - if the hashtag has been registered it would have appeared as a hyperlink, however in the circumstances it still proves revealing through a simple Twitter search. And of course they are published here.
As with all Tweets it is important to inject some personality into what you are Twittering about and I was genuinely tickled by the discovery that I was one of only two members of FBBC, who were 'experts' on LinkedIn Answers, even among many quite prolific members who have a well established presence on the networking website.
I was also one of fairly few who routinely use their LinkedIn update to promote their activities and links to their websites.
Fortunately I had updated just before the weekend - with a link to the Top 10 Twitter Tips for Newbies I had delivered to Newbury Business Group on Friday. I say fortunately because moments after Mary pulled up her LinkedIn page... and it showed my recent update.
Inbetween tweets I was offering Mary support as the sceptics in the room were proving quite vocal - not least the concern about when any work actually gets done.
The truth is- and Mary was illustrating this - effectively mastering the technology prevents such mission creep as much can be automated. Of course if you need help with the content we do know a very socially media minded PR company!
What proved to be a terrific illustration of the powerful viral nature of Twitter came when Mary revealed her own Twitter feed. I had not know she would make use of the WiFi to do this, and sure enough when she did call it up, there were not only many of my tweets, but also all the retweets.
Many of my followers had republished the tweets from the event to their own networks - something which incidentally had contributed to a significant growth in the numbers following Mary on Twitter.
The questions - and answers continued after the meeting drew to a close and there was no doubt that the seminar had got people thinking, which is the first important step with getting to grips with social media marketing.
Concise Training has kindly offered the useful documents on Getting Started on Twitter and Getting Started on LinkedIn via its website.
For those interested in learning more about Twitter and specifically how to use automating tools like Tweet Later and how Tweetdeck can manage you account far better than possible on Twitter itself, we are holding a workshop later this month. Find out more about our Twitter Workshop.