ANTenna Blog -- Internet/Web

Sometimes it seems that the most important thing in the Twitterverse is... Twitter. And the social networking navel gazing was gathering boatloads of lint at this weekend's TWTTCON event in San Francisco, where hundreds of people spent their Sunday talking -- and Tweeting -- about... Twitter. Specifically, the business uses of Twitter, which is why I spent my Sunday there too.

In fact, I spent the day Tweeting TWTRCON , too -- easily setting a new personal record with some 35 posts in a single day. And I wasn't the only one. The entire room was filled with Twitterers tapping away at laptops, notebooks, and smartphones. In fact, for part of the day, the #twtrcon hash tag was Twitter's Number 1 Trending Topic.

So what did it all add up to? Predictably, most of the chatter was about how large corporations can leverage their familiar brands, but bMighty.com was able to zero in on the implications for small and midsize companies. For example, Mike Prasad, Brand/New Media Director for Los Angeles-area Korean taco trucks Kogi BBQ, uses Twitter to keep customers informed of where the trucks will be located. "If you want to find the truck, you have to follow us on Twitter." (San Francisco lunch spot Kitchenette does the same thing to promote its variable menu.)

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Twitter Tip #1: Know how many characters are taken up by "RT YOURNAME " so you can keep your Tweets short enough to be easily re-tweeted!
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The first step for smaller companies, according to Jeramie McPeek, VP of Interactive Services for the Phoenix Suns, is to "go fishing where the fish are." Less well-known brands must "find people out there talking about you, or talking about the things you talk about or know about."

Once you find your audience, said Porter Gale, Vice President of Marketing for Virgin America, smaller brands should "listen a little bit, see what other folks are doing," and "have an engagement strategy, Tweet back" at anyone who mentions your brand. "Twitter is word of mouth marketing," Gale said, "and you need to think about that with every Tweet."

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Twitter Tip #2: Don't Tweet too much. Try to find the Tweet-spot - the number of Tweets that gets the most response. Use the number of reTweets to measure each Tweet's immediate impact.
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It's just as much about customer service as it is about marketing, but there's a twist. Stefanie Nelson from Dell Outlet pointed out that "if you respond to a customer via e-mail, one person will see it. But if you respond via Twitter, the whole world will see it."

Ironically, small businesses actually have an advantage in Twitter-based customer service. Large companies face equally large challenges dealing with tens of thousands of Tweets that mention them. Smaller companies can actually hope to respond directly to everyone who talks about them. If you have hundreds of thousands of followers, you need big staffs and special tools to stay in the game. As Jeremy Pepper, PR Manager for Boingo Wireless put it: "If I had 45 million customers, I'd be screwed."

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Twitter Tip #3: Get comfortable with Titter search. You can find out fast what people are thinking about your company, long before they call or email you.
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Surprisingly, though Frank Eliason, Director Digital Care for Comcast -- which does have millions of customers -- said that you don't want to give more attention to people with more followers. "I don't believe in influencers," Eliason said, "I try to avoid that." He added that "You can't stop negative conversations" (and who would know more about negative conversations than Comcast?) but you can at least participate and offer to help.

Vicky Harres Akers, Director of Audience Development for PR Newswire, said small businesses need to be very genuine, honest and authentic. That's what people want from Twitter, because they can't get that other places. And Keynoter Guy Kawasaki claimed that Twitter is the most accurate representatin of a person on a social network, compared to Facebook or Linked In and the like. I'm not sure exactly why Twitter gets that kind of credit, but it never hurts to be "genuine, honest and authentic."

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Twitter Tip #4: Don't worry about followers. If you help people, they'll find you when they need you.
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Akers also reminded the audience that we're all learning about Twitter as we go along. "I'm taking advice from people in the businesss for two years," she said. "You have to assume that no one is an expert." That means there's no easy answers, but also that even the smallest businesses just venturing onto Twitter are not that far behind the giant corporations.

Finally, I'll leave you with this thought from Intuit's Seth Greenberg: "Don't take your eye off the ball. Don't lose track of sales in favor of the latest fad."

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Twitter Tip #5: Filter, sort, post. Repeat!
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More From bMighty:

• Does Social Media Drive Sales? Vendors Say "Yes" Research Says "No">
• Twitter Business Still Up For Grabs

Don't want to go to Twitter.com? Here's my Twitter feed from TWTRCON, swapped into chronological order:

• Twitter experts on stage say there are no Twitter experts yet.
• Advice is to be honest and genuine. Isn't that always good advice?
• Listen before you tweet... and have a strategy, not just tactics.
• Here's good advice: don't ignore sales in favor of lastest fads.
• Twitter demographics are 18-45 urban dwellers and early tech adopters - no duh.
• Is help via Twitter really scalable? Comcast has 10 people doing it.
• Twitter is a public channel, so can get wider "credit" by helping them.
• But what about customers who refuse to be satisfied?
• Jeremy Pepper uses Twitter to solve immediate problems - burps in the system - not long term issues
• MC Hammer has 700K followers. Why?
• The Hammer tried to do "the first social media driven autobiography"
• Hammer asked: "Where were you when key figures were assassinated in the '60s?"
• Hammer says "It pays to be a geek and an early adopter of technology.
• Jobaba.com offers a marketplace to reach local small businesses via Twitter
• My favorite twtrcon takeaway is how seriously everyone takes this
• Mike Presad from Kogi BBQ says: "Don't Tweet too much."
• Stephanie Nelson from Dell Outlet says: "Twitter is meant to be a 2-way medium"
• Tip from Beth Mansfield, Carl's Jr. says: "Be funny." And delicious.
• Tip from Beth Mansfield at Carl's Jr. "Not everone is listening all the time."
• What's the best time to tweet? Test it by tweeting same thing 5x in a day, and see which gets most retweets.
• @CathyBrooks Truly a different group. Much more diverse than typical tech conference. For one thing, M/F ratio much more equal.
• Notice that the smaller business was the most enthusiastic about making $$$ on Twitter
• R U making $$ on Twitter? Carl's Jr.: Yeah / Dell: Yeah / KogiBBQ: Hell Yeah. Small business wins!
• Twitterville author says Twitter business often starts with silly, personal things: "Nice blouse."
• Twitter for community: it's just bartending, wthout the beer
• Who owns Twitter accounts related to your company? The company or the account holder? Panel disagrees!
• Banerji from Twitter says it still isn't mainstream for most people. Easy to forget here.
• Big biz asks diff questions about twitter than do small businesses
• Big business wonders "what should be my Twitter strategy?"
• Small biz wants to know if Twitter will suck up all my time and if people will really buy what I have to sell?
• Paul Saffo: "News no longer breaks, it Tweets."
• Kara Swisher: Twitter not so good for complex news stories and analysis.