twitter « BendTech

Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

How to Market Your Brand on Twitter (Part 2 of 2)

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

If you’re trying to figure out how Twitter can help your business, read on. We’ve covered the reasons why Twitter can be a useful marketing tool in Part 1 of this post, and now we’ll tell you how to take the next step.

How do I get started?

Begin with the basics. Get yourself a Twitter account and establish a presence for your brand. After all, it’s free!

Step 1: Go to Twitter.com and register your username.

Since this is for your business, your Twitter profile should represent your corporate brand, and should have a name that people will recognize if they see someone mention your business in a Tweet. For example, if I’m recovering from an intense workout @bendyoga, you know exactly which business I’m talking about, and my tweet will show up on their Twitter page because I’ve used their proper username. Likewise, if someone mentions @yourbusiness, that tweet will show up on your profile page. This is one of the key goals of your Twitter campaign: Have conversations with people about your brand.

Unfortunately, usernames on Twitter are similar to web site domain names. Most of the good ones are taken. For example, @thebulletin pulled off an amazing feat considering the vast number of newspapers across the world that use the same name. So hurry up, go get yours right now.

(more…)

Tags: twitter
Posted in General, Internet, Software | Comments Off

How to Market Your Brand on Twitter (Part 1 of 2)

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

If you’re trying to figure out how Twitter can help your business, read on. We’ll cover the reasons why Twitter can be a useful marketing tool and we’ll tell you how to do it.

Is Twitter really worth using for my business?

Let’s address the skepticism that many business owners have about social media. If you believe that Twitter is a fad, it’s only for kids, it isn’t applicable to your business, it might hurt your brand, or that you can’t measure the results, you should read the arguments against these concerns here.

Suffice it to say that most well known brands have an active presence in social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, or they are in the process of getting there. Why? Because that’s where the people are (and are probably talking about your brand already), the cost of involvement is lower than traditional marketing, and there aren’t many better ways to build loyalty and brand awareness within your customer base.

Here’s a short summary of why Twitter can be useful for your business: (more…)

Tags: twitter
Posted in Internet, Software | Comments Off

How to Find #Bend on Twitter

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

You’ve probably seen people use the # pound sign in Twitter posts, and maybe you’ve wondered what they’re for. They’re called hashtags, and they’re mighty useful.

What’s a # hashtag symbol mean?

A hashtag is a great way for people to organize around a topic on Twitter. Think of them as categories, or ‘tags’ that can be used to identify tweets related to specific topics.

For example, if you search for Bend (without a hashtag) on Twitter, you’ll probably get something like this:

Anything with the word “bend” was found. However, if you search for #Bend, you’ll find what you’re looking for:

Hey, it’s Bend, Oregon! If you’re looking for (or talking about) activities in Bend, use #inbend:

Ok, that’s cool.. so how do I search Twitter like that?

You’ve got a lot of options, but here are a few popular methods.

Twitter Search – it’s on the right hand side of the page when you go to your Twitter profile:

Topsy – nice search that sorts tweets by popularity:

And it shows top authors for a given topic, which is a good way to find people you might like to follow:

Another good search is Twubs, which shows related hashtags, like #centraloregon and #bendites:

If you prefer to browse, the Twubs homepage provides a nice index of hashtags by category:

Fantastic! Can anyone use hashtags?

Yes! You’ll find them especially useful for events, such as the #ppp or #ignite-bend. Go for it, and don’t be shy – help us give Bend a voice in the Twitterverse!

Next Post: How to Market #YourBrand on Twitter

Tags: search, twitter
Posted in Internet, Software | 2 Comments »

Creepy Followers

Friday, June 19th, 2009

[Slow news day here at BendTech...]

Exhibit A – Tweet from Lindsay Lohan on 06/17:

Stop trying to get onto my twitter page whoever you are! Its become extremely creepy!!!

Exhibit B – M^lleLohan, 12 hours later:

THANK YOU Harper’s Bazaar for naming Sevin Nyne Tanning Mist a must have product. You can buy online!! http://tinyurl.com/m49y8u

Exhibit C – The URL you end up at when you click that tinyurl.com link:

http://www.sephora.com/…jsessionid=3B0SCOUKJADHECV0KRRRHOQ…

Uhm, Lindsay. Dahling. If you want “creeps” to stop messing with you, stop tweeting URLs that have session cookies in them!

Much as I’d love to blame Lindsay for this little faux pas, it’s really Sephora who is at fault. There’s no good reason for them to be tacking the cookie they use to identify users (“jsessionid”) onto a URL like that, and doing so has dramatically increased the chance that somebody will be able to hack into Lindsey’s Sephora account (or the account of whichever assistant she has pretending to be her.) So let this be a lesson to you Twitter-heads out there: Not all websites do a good job of protecting the privacy and identity of their users. Do you really know who’s following you… and what kind of information you’re giving them?

BTW, if one of you does end up hacking into Ms. Lohan’s Sephora account, can you use it to send me a bottle of Acne Spot and Area Treatment? My bike seat has been chaffing more than usual lately.

Tags: security, twitter
Posted in General | Comments Off