Wow!: a cross between techie, photo-journalist and Sgt Bilko (in the nicest possible way of course – he is one of my TV heroes) Christian Payne, AKA Documentally, gave us an insight into how to get the most out of Twitter.

I thought it might be a run through and at a level for beginners (although Phil Birchenall had of The White Room had tried to describe how amazing Christian is in conveying the power of social media).  It did turn out to be a tremendously interesting hour.

Alright onto business: What did I learn?  Where do I begin?  Let’s see.

Christian is a one man media kit: he carries around a range of items to record photos / video / audio and this content is transmitted with almost immediate unhindered effect to Twitter.  From there an interview, for example, will be re-tweeted from his lists and followers.  The viral effect sounded tremendous, if not a little frightening in its potential.

Christian said that 75% of his activity was through Twitter, which he said was the most powerful and cherished tool he has because:

• Of the feedback loop as alluded to above
• Easy to access (no barriers like Facebook)
• The potential for conversation

If you add the fact that Twitter is growing at 1382% a year (and these figures he quoted are 3 months old) then the potential gets more exciting; Facebook by comparison, if I have remembered properly has 182% growth.

Christian gave the following advice on using Twitter:

• Lists are most important than followers because they help identify your interests and put like minds in contact – so check out your followers’ lists
• Nurture your followers
• Christian was very enthusiastic about using the iPhone, particularly Audioboo, to further how you harness Twitter.  His interviews are conducted through the phone although he puts a prop on it to make it look like a microphone.

And communication technologies to look out for in the future?

• Augmented reality
• Changes in search – but he didn’t expand on this point
• Google deep-tagging for video and audio tagging – if you produce content you will be able to see who has infringed on copyright.

If my piece seems a bit confused, perhaps piecemeal, well the hour was a whirlwind. I think you can only get an insight into how Christian uses social media – it takes a little longer to take it all in.

If I could spend a day with Christian I think I would grow in my understanding of social media techniques at the rate comparable to what I could learn in a month of being self-taught.

Thanks to DMEX and North West Vision and Media for organising.

If the branding and page tool bar has gone on this page please let me know, it could just be my browser.

I really am.

Sainsbury’s doesn’t really get it!  Yes it is a big concern and as such more people will be following than being followed although the ratio is not impressive as such right now.

But it doesn’t get it.

Social networking is about engaging, it is about conversing, it is about helping each other.

It is similar to a face-to-face situation.  The outlook is essentially the same.

Social media, for me, is not about pushing through your ideas only one way on someone else.  Anyone that sells at a networking event becomes a pariah quicker than John Terry does when his shenanigans are exposed.

Alright, it is different for a blue chip.  Yet an attempt at conversing and looking beyond its own interests would show a real interest in its clients.

Mr Sainsbury I am available for consultancy.

Heresy!

But there are a few points to back up search a wicked assertion. But it could be that I am being difficult.  And I am doing this without reverting to the boring “140 words is too short.”  Let’s see:

Intonation – Have you been misunderstood, got in trouble because the recipient of an e-mail could not detect the tone / irony / humour of a message?

Well Twitter can be just as bad – be careful!

Comments – a few months ago if you put my name or company name in a Google search you got lots of testimonials, references, blog posts, referrals to blog posts.  Wonderful!

Now I get comments, some blog, many Twitter.  So now every tweet I have to be careful in case it is a prospect researching me.

Just think a prospect looks for me on Google and I come up with some banter that makes me look rude without the context or a prattle on about Man City and it is a rag reading it, no offence.

And all that hard work building an online profile is being replaced by my inane prattling.

Mixing business and personal – If you have one account that tries to combine all facets of your personality and interests it might not really work all the time.

Of course I could make a business connection while talking cricket or football, but equally I might appear dull and irrelevant to followers (especially in the US for the above) that want to know what I am doing PR wise.  It’s hard to please more than one audience.

Multiple accounts might be the best way forward.

Tantrums - You are really annoyed and Twitter is there inviting you to lay the dirt on your employer / employee / shop you have been going for years / business associate and so on.  You update and calm down but its already there: time to back peddle / repair damage / hope no-one really noticed.

I was close today, glad I didn’t tweet in a moment of frustration.

Alcohol – I was at the Chorlton Beer Festival and had my iPhone and so Twitterfon was within easy reach.  Luckily only a misspelling resulted.

The BBC has published an interesting article about a company offering Twitter “followers.”

The “followers” can be bought in batches of 1,000, with 100,000 being the biggest amount available.

All have opted in to be a “follower,” so is it a problem?  All are profiled and those located closest can be prioritised, so it is targeted to some degree.

uSocial, which offers a paid service, estimates that everyone that follows is worth about 10 cents (Australian I believe) a month to a client.

I think even so big companies, indeed anyone that employs such as service, are missing the point of social networking: interaction.

Hard sell or just selling is not social media although there can be a place, from time to time, to sell.

I am sure that if up to 100,000 “followers” can be bought at a reasonably low price then a Twitter campaign could generate good returns on the investment.

E-mail was used in a similar way and I remember a claim in one magazine that as many as 10% of recipients became clients in its early days (mid 90s).  I am not sure I believe that ever really happened unless it was one heck of an offer to a really well researched target group.

Gone are the days when e-mail was ever thought of so highly.  Yet the humble telephone can be highly productive for sales and it is about interaction and conversation.

Yes buying “followers” will work for some, but it is going to become a jaded way to communicate if you only talk and don’t listen.

It never fails to surprise when a big concern like Habitat makes a mess of their social media.

Well maybe a story like this probably was bound to happen at some point soon – somehow some big corporates don’t have a feel for it -  but I am still shocked at how blatantly deceptive and poorly thought out this was.

Habitat are facing the ire of many Twitter folk at the moment after using hash tags inappropriately to drive traffic to a sales offer.  The fact that some hash tags were about the recent events in Iran did not help.

The thing about social media is that is gives the small guy a voice.  And many users see themselves as social media Robin Hoods: you cannot throw your corporate weight around or throw a big budget to get a result – you play by the same rules as everyone else.

Really, social media follows many of the same etiquette as face to face networking and other human interactions, so common sense, manners and a bit of thinking come in handy.  Three simple rules to start:

No hard sales – nothing turns people off you as being sold to, especially if they did not ask to be the centre of a sales talk

Be honest – try to fool people on social media sites and you set yourself up for a backlash

Listen and contribute as much as you speak and take, if not more – giver’s gain

Habitat say they are “sorry” and that this particular use of hash tags was “absolutely not authorised.“  Good so far, but as Habitat declined to name those responsible – in-house or agency – means that this will go on for a little longer than necessary.

Let’s be honest though, how many people enjoy something as big as Habitat messing up?

I think we all have a strategy when it comes to Twitter, well to some measure.

People that don’t I would assume become bored with the concept and fade away – you have to have a reason and an approach.  Without the first you have no motivation and without the second you are not as likely to have satisfaction in meeting your aims.

Of course there are not many users that plan with careful meticulous thought, perhaps write it down, and then incisively and determinedly follow through their objectives.

You could say, and this is probably my approach to networking, that I am more tactical than strategic.

I do think about my networking as thoroughly as possible (face to face and social media) and develop my activity almost organically.  There is a logic behind my tweets, not all the time granted but in general yes.

I come across from time to time the comment that I do not want to hear about “what someone has had for breakfast or what they are watching on TV.”  But even here there could be some logic.  Let me explain:

I go networking at Manchester Business Breakfast Club most Fridays.  One of the members, Nigel Moore of branding agency Flag Digital, delivers his pitch / presentation / 60 seconds in quite an offbeat manner.  He can be funny, obtuse, a little surreal at times.  But if you speak to Nigel when he is at work you know he is very serious and focused about his design work.

One day I asked him why his 60 seconds are apparently haphazard.  The answer was that the members know that he is good at what he does and that he is focused.

Nigel explained that the key for him is that they know that he is approachable, sociable and that they will be able to form a working relationship.  Strategies are not always apparent.

And what is my Twitter strategy?

Well my Twitter objectives are (but not limited) to:

• Follow journalists – spot editorial opportunities and understand their personalities and professional needs and concerns
• Find interesting material about PR and social media
• Improve my knowledge of social media so I can help clients with this aspect of their communications
• Raise awareness of Artisan Marketing Communications
• Not, at present, to find clients even though the last point seems to contradict that
• Be sociable

And from that follows my tweets, my use of Mr Tweet, who I follow derives.

This will develop over time and will change, but somewhere there is some sort of planning, however chaotic.

Simon Wharton of PushON has declared war on BD Recruitment.

A litany of sins committed against Simon when he clearly directed the agency on his wishes has provoked his wrath.  There are only so many unsolicited and irrelevant CVs any man can take.

Within a short time his irate blog post was only a few positions below BD’s site on Google.

The lessons are straightforward: managing reputation online is a constant 24/7 occupation.  It is one where just one voice can have a detrimental impact.

I placed a piece for Simon in What’s New In Marketing, an online magazine that was run by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, on organic search marketing some time ago.

One of the respondents was an electronics company that had read the piece and was clearly interested in Simon’s ideas.

When Simon brought up the URL there was a whole page of disastrous economic news following it.  The company had had a bad year but had recovered – their online reputation had clearly not and they were totally unaware of it.

I believe many businesses neglect their online reputation, not realising the round the clock damage their brand is suffering.

What is perhaps most surprising about this first story is that I came across it through Twitter today, a full year after the blog post about BD Recruitment.  And do you know BD Recruitment has not stopped bothering Simon and his angry post is still a few places below their website on Google.

I have just come across Twibs thanks to PR 2.0 blog of Brian Solis.

Twibs is the online business directory connected to Twitter.  It is essentially, as I see it, an online directory with branding.  But saying that there is the opportunity for extra profile and for those that establish a following it could be useful.

It seems quite easy to interact between Twibs and Twitter, which adds value.

I never thought when I started this blog I would be talking about a Twib.