Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
2009 was a tough year for the team. Think of it as a briefing with purchasers:
media giants. Many stumbled; people who have the distribution
some fell. capabilities of journalists — but the
But in the midst of all the bias of sports fans.
• 26% are Creators, who have
already established their own
uncertainty, a new one arose:
social media channels.
Twitter. Who are your Tweeps?
Twitter is an unusual sort of • 28% are Joiners, who are
colossus. Despite the stereotypes about members of social networking
Rather than towering over your users of social media, tweeps aren’t a groups like LinkedIn and
company like all the mainstream me- bunch of people who prefer to stare Facebook.
dia brands, Twitter surrounds it — at their iPhones instead of talking
with thousands of individual voices with other human beings. • 68% are Spectators who
talking about you. Their most defining characteristic regularly read user-generated
Whose voices are these? They're is the ability to have a great conver- content on blogs and forums.
your customers and investors. sation. They're interesting and inter-
They're your partners and analysts. ested. Their hyper-sharing online is
They're super-connected influencers mirrored by hyper-sharing offline.
with voracious appetites for Interesting factoid:
And given the friendly nature of
information. social channels, there's much more According to the Pew
And they're waiting for you — or of a "we're all in this together" feel
your competition — to reach out and than you would find at an industry
Internet & American
invite them to a tweetup. conference. Life Project survey,
What’s a Tweetup?
Most important, tweeps aren’t a
bunch of isolated outliers who exist
28% of Twitter users
on the fringes of your business. own three mobile
devices, and 39%
A tweetup is a short-term They’re your customers or those
gathering of Twitter users. It can who influence them.
be an in-person event, such as a A 2009 Forrester Groundswell own four or more.
conference or seminar. It can be a Study reports significant social
virtual event, as when fans of the TV media usage among B2B technology
show “Lost” gather online during the
broadcast to share comments and
links to information.
Many companies, particularly
those in business-to-business
disciplines, are starting to use
tweetups as a part of their marketing
efforts to give their customers,
prospects, and category aficionados
a glimpse of the world that they care
deeply about, but never have access
to.
Tweeps (the people who attend
tweetups) are treated to factory
tours, educational presentations, and Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)
Q&As with the company’s experts
and members of its management 100 tweeps at NASA's launch of shuttle Atlantis
Tweetups aren’t just thousand. For a B2B company,
Does your company have about Twitter. that’s worth more than the millions
tweeps? Here are two quick of semi-well-targeted people that
ways to find out. Though the name makes it sound mass media channels deliver.
like everyone will just be using
Twitter, tweeps bring a host of social 2. Generate understanding.
Option 1: Go to WeFollow.
media tools to these events.
com. This site is a directory of You should expect (and Even before the Great Recession,
Twitter users who have picked five encourage) people to live-blog, the mainstream media lacked the
words to describe who they are record videos for YouTube, take means to cover every company’s
and what they tweet about. Type pictures for Flickr and record activities in the depth they deserve.
in keywords that describe your interviews for podcasts. For tweetups, the economics are
By embracing these mediums, radically different:
sector. The number alongside these
CMOs will see their messages spread
terms shows how many people have • Tweeps are highly interested in
much further, much faster and with
chosen that term as part of their subjects often too narrow for
a great deal of credibility.
five-word identification. mainstream media.
Click on the term and a list of • Tweeps have unlimited space to
twitterers will appear, ranked
Why tweetups make write tweets, blog posts, and create
by the number of followers they sense for B2B. video and audio content about your
have. Those are the pillars of your company.
Ironically, companies in the B2B • Tweeps are often more
community. They may not know sector have the most to gain from knowledgeable about your sector
it yet. But now you do. tweetups, yet to date they have been than mainstream reporters, and
the most shy about deploying them. they care far less about what’s new
Option 2: You can also do A tweetup’s combination of than what's interesting.
a search for keywords on search. highly educated, highly skilled
twitter.com. Look for people people who have a deep interest These mutually reinforcing factors
in a narrow subject and a desire to deliver coverage that is remarkably
with bios that match your target
share information with like-minded deep and can build understanding
audiences, who have mentioned
people makes it an ideal vehicle for of your company in a way no other
your company’s name, your business-to-business marketing. medium can.
product names, those of your Here are six reasons why:
competitors, and associated ticker 3. Stimulate sales.
symbols. Search for terms that are 1. Create visibility.
only used by people in your field; Some of the best tweeps you can
the more obscure the term, the A tweetup generates a lot of invite to a tweetup come from your
more knowledgeable the person is digital ink. If you have 20 tweeps in customer ranks. They’re already
who’s using it. a room, they may have a combined invested in your field and eager to
readership that rivals your industry’s share their passion with others.
biggest trade magazine once the Far from being "virtual"
information fully spreads online. experiences, tweetups are all about
Consider this: Take the number shaking hands, slapping backs and
of followers that each Twitter user being, well, social. A customer
brings (virtually) into the room. who spends a day at your tweetup
Multiply that by the number of will leave feeling more loyal to
tweeps at the event. Multiply that your company and with a better
by the number of tweets, blog posts, understanding of what it offers.
videos and other online entries the Granted, crossing the boundary
tweeps will create. Now multiply between marketing and sales may
that by the number of re-tweets, re- be fraught with cultural difficulties.
blogs and other sharing activity. But the fact is, your customers are
The hyper-targeted nature of already covering your sector like the
this visibility can’t be overstated. media.
If a thousand people are following A straightforward way to resolve
your tweetup online, it’s a fairly safe potential conflicts is to treat
bet that they’re a perfectly targeted everyone at the tweetup like a
VIP, and have PR and Sales jointly Their coverage will be found by • Number of tweets
monitor a short list of tweeting analysts and investors, educating • Number of people who received the
customers. It will quickly become them in a way no other medium can. tweets
clear who needs to be made aware of • Tweet tonality
(or respond to) a customer’s tweet. 5. Promote trust. • Content
• Number of new followers
4. Attract investors. The act of holding a tweetup
• Number of blog posts, videos,
is concrete proof that a company
podcasts, with respective sizes
If your company is publicly held, is trying to be open, honest and
consider inviting analysts who tweet transparent. And in an age of audience, topic and tonality
to your tweetup. where trust in corporations is at measurements
While there are strict regulations a low, replenishing goodwill and • Sales inquiries
and compliance issues that must humanizing management is critical. • Increased awareness among target
be observed, there’s a mountain And should a crisis hit your audiences
of information that’s safe for company, the people who attended • Increased knowledge of key
companies to release to the your tweetup will be much more messages among target audiences
investment world, much of which willing to listen to your side of
• Sentiment change among target
gets lost in product sheets and the story, communicate it to their
audiences (particularly in quality,
background documents, but which is followers, and — depending on how
interesting to this audience: honest, good intentioned and simply trust, transparency, thought
human you came off during the leadership levels)
• Your culture of innovation tweetup — come to your defense. • Sales leads
• The thinking that goes into your • Job applicants
products 6. Attract talent.
• How safety is maintained
• Environmental and sustainability Despite the recession, the hunt is
issues always on for top talent, especially
for highly skilled technical workers.
Tweeps love to explain how things Technologists love Twitter and
work, giving credit where it’s due social media. They like learning new
for complexity and breakthroughs. things and “geeking out” with fellow
engineers and scientists. Tweetups
are a great way to share information
about the company’s culture.
On November 15 and 16, 2009, NASA and tweeps who have other no one could complain that they
the National Aeronautics and Space jobs. Twitter wasn’t just a medium had been left out for not being a
Administration held a tweetup of communication; it was a badge booster or having too few followers.
for the launch of the space shuttle of belonging.
Atlantis. • Recognize that the value of a
One of Makovsky's social media • Employ a fair selection process. tweetup to participants isn’t just
experts was one of only 100 tweeps NASA selected the 100 tweeps who the information they receive; it’s
to attend. As a result, we had a first- would have the privilege to par- the interaction. NASA gave par-
hand view of NASA’s impressive ticipate in the event by setting up ticipants the space and time to talk
planning and execution of the event. a website and letting the first 100 with each other, hang out, learn
This was NASA’s fifth tweetup and people to sign up “win.” The only and enjoy. Don’t fill every minute
it provides a textbook example of qualifier was that you already had with your content – allow time for
best practices for such a event. to be a follower of the @NASA Twit- mingling.
What follows is a list of the lessons ter feed. Plenty of notice was given;
learned — some strategic, some tacti- • Give tweeps a head start. Before
cal, some big-picture and some quite beginning the event, organizers
granular — that you can use to de- Ask NASA: gave the tweeps a full hour to settle
velop your own company’s tweetup. How has using social media in, plug in, boot up, and otherwise
on a daily basis changed get their geek on.
1. Play by the culture’s rules. your job?
• A tweetup isn’t a press conference.
The Twitter community, like any “It’s changed it primarily in Because they're citizen journalists,
other, has a set of cultural norms how much time we spend on tweeps need to be treated differ-
and behavioral rules that you’ll need a new medium. But it has ently from reporters, analysts and
to observe to be successful: changed it in a more important others. That doesn’t mean Twitter
users shouldn’t be invited to other
way. Which is we have direct
• Use Twitter for at least six months kinds of events; just don’t call
contact with people who have
to develop a following. NASA began them tweetups.
a vested interest in the nation’s
using Twitter in 2008 for its Mars/
space program. And that’s the
Phoenix probe, using it to distrib- 2. Cultivate the new community.
ute information, answer questions, people that we’re trying to reach
re-tweet insightful commentary, anyway when we put out news Some of the people in the room
and encourage non-PR people, in releases or have a news briefing at NASA knew each other before the
this case astronauts, to use Twitter or whatever. The media is just tweetup. Others got to know each
to directly communicate with the our medium to get the word out. other in the weeks running up to
public. When it was time to orga- So with social media we get the the event.
nize a tweetup, NASA had a steady word out directly to the people But once the event started, the
audience of dedicated followers. who are interested and I think 100 people in attendance started to
that’s awesome.” experience things as a group, and
• Establish common ground. The therefore become a community.
people who led the event were Stephanie Schierholz
already on Twitter as individuals, a NASA PR • Establish a separate Twitter
factor that cannot be underestimat- feed for the event. NASA cre-
ed. When the tweeps arrived in the Watch the full interview at: ated a separate @NASAtweetup
presentation room, there was no http://bit.ly/NASA-PR-interview feed which streamlined their
“us vs. them.” Instead, there was communications to attendees and
only “us” — tweeps who worked for freed up the @NASA primary feed
for wider communication with the already gotten to know each other
public. Interestingly, since this was virtually in the weeks running up
NASA’s fifth tweetup, and they’ve to the event, there was a higher
used the @NASAtweetup account degree of camaraderie and trust
on a rolling basis, the newest than you see at other events. Still,
tweeps were able to reference the to break the ice, NASA put "space
comments of the previous ones. gadgets" in the middle of each table
and asked people to figure out what
• Designate a hashtag. NASA they were. It got people talking
chose #nasatweetup before a com- with each other and was one of the
munity member could, picking the earliest shared experiences.
shortest and least used hash for
their own use. • Use big screens with
integrated feeds. Large screens,
• Provide a tweep directory. showing all the tweets using
Using Twitter’s new list-building #NASAtweetup posted in real
feature, NASA built a list of the 100 time, have become standard at
tweeps that everyone could access Tweetups, but it’s a tactic never to
and share. At the event, NASA be overlooked.
handed each person a printout with
people’s @names listed. • Create a group “artifact.”
NASA procured the wheel of a
shuttle that had been to space and
placed it outside the twent (Twitter
Ask NASA: “media tent”) for everyone to sign.
What tips would you It was yet another way to make
have for people trying to the moment feel special and bring
coordinate a tweetup? people together.
The 100 tweeps' gift to NASA PR for opening up, educating and entertaining
Use of NASA images, images and quotes of people cited in this white paper do not constitute
an implied endorsement of Makovsky + Company.
Makovsky + Company's Social Media Services
Social Outreach
Policy Development
Though most companies have "online policies," they often don't address social media.
Makovsky works with companies to create customized policies that fit their culture, liability
risks and new business priorities.
Blogger Relations
Given the acceleration of journalist layoffs over the last three years, and growth of Ameri-
cans who regularly read blogs, there's never been a greater need for companies to reach out
to their stakeholders through the blogosphere. Reports and studies are valued by bloggers,
though the tools traditionally used to disseminate them – press releases and pitch phone
calls—are not effective in generating coverage. Makovsky's social media R&D team has
developed new tools and techniques for working with bloggers that reach highly targeted
audiences, resulting in quantifiable buzz, increases in website traffic, and a direct, measur-
able link to sales.
Group Relations
Similar to its work in the blogosphere, Makovsky regularly conducts outreach to communi-
ties that have assembled online. While online groups focus on a diverse variety of topics,
their members are uniformly enthusiastic about spreading information. As such, they are
key influencers on- and off-line, and critical audiences for companies to reach. Makovsky is
steeped in the etiquette and cultural nuances of these groups, and applies that expertise on
behalf of companies to aid their sales, reputational and staff recruitment goals.
Message Magnification
Featuring a technique invented by a Makovsky executive and unveiled at the 2006 Bull-
dog Media Relations Conference, the firm uses "messagewords" to enable press releases,
speeches, articles to appear in response to keywords in searches, blog posts, email content
and online mainstream media articles. Messagewords are a powerful PR tool that can be
used to deliver sales and change stakeholder behaviors, and are particularly effective when
the content involved is complex and meant for sophisticated audiences.
Executive Positioning
Image Unification
The growth of social media and the proliferation of websites that compile profiles of people
without their permission have led to the fracturing of executives' images. The resulting
confusion on behalf of customers and investors seeking information undermines a compa-
ny's reputation. To lower these risks, Makovsky engages its proprietary "image unification"
measures to create a single identity that key audiences can find no matter where they look.
Social Properties
Social Media Channel Creation
The decline in numbers of traditional media, coupled with rising expectations of audi-
ences to receive detailed information direct from companies, has motivated an increasing
number of companies to run their own media channels. Deploying blogs, YouTube chan-
nels, Twitter feeds or other channels, Makovsky works with its clients to set up attractive
interfaces, set an editorial direction, write/develop content on a daily basis, and finally,
promote it to readers through traditional and social channels.
Community Creation
Few actions can benefit a company's sales, reputation and customer service more than the
mobilizing of people into a new online community. Makovsky uses popular tools such as
LinkedIn groups, wikis and Ning to organize groups, and manages the day-to-day needs
of the community. These groups can be tapped for feedback on new ideas, products and
services, can become advocates for a public affairs goal, or, in some cases, become volun-
teer R&D or research resources, providing free—but very high quality—work in the name
of a joint goal.
Contact: David Rosen LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidhrosen
Group Vice President Twitter: @davidhrosen
Makovsky + Company
212.508.9690
drosen@makovsky.com
www.makovsky.com the power of specialized think ing