Sirona Says

Using Twitter to grow your business

At the end of last year I read a really good book by Michael Stelzner called Writing White Papers. So when I was reading a post on Copyblogger, and realised it was written by Michael, then I knew it would be worth reading.......and it really is!

I don't know about you, but I am having to find myself both explaining Twitter to people, telling them how good it is, as well as defending its viability as a business tool ( especially after they have read stupid articles like this in The Daily Mail!!)  If you haven't already, don't forget to follow me!

What a relief then that Michael has written about how to use Twitter to grow your business! Here are some of the very salient points from his article:

Here’s what you need to know. According to the State of the Twittersphere report, each day 5 to 10 thousand new people join Twitter. Current estimates of total users top out around 5 million. That’s a lot of opportunity.

Twitter allows you to post updates (called Tweets) as often as you want (and limited to 140 characters). When you follow other people on Twitter, you see their tweets. When they follow you, they see your tweets.

It’s a constant stream of communication. The good news is you can turn it on or off as often as you like. Twitter also keeps a public record of all updates, which can be mined with Twitter Search.

Twitter is not just a fad. When very high profile folks begin evangelizing Twitter, it’s worth closer examination.

The Twitter Plan

Cindy King, an international sales specialist, saw a huge boost in business inquires by implementing a strategic Twitter plan.

“Following the right people on Twitter was key. There are some people very gifted at building relationships on Twitter. As I followed these online community builders, I realized that some of them are also excellent direct response copywriters. They get their Twitter followers to take action,” said King.

“Light bulbs went off, and I spent a weekend putting together a tweet marketing plan and entered in 6 weeks worth of tweets, 5 a day, using TweetLater. I used a mindmap, created categories, varied times on tweets and used BUDurls so I could track results and improve my tweet plan the next time around. That was a month ago,” explained King.

When King finds a spare minute between projects, she logs into Twitter and watches what folks are talking about. When she Tweets, about 90 percent of the time she presents useful information and resources to her followers. The remaining tweets are surveys and questions. Following this strategy, King saw an 800 percent increase in inquiries about her business after she setup her Twitter campaign.

Getting Traffic and Leads

Pam O’Neil, VP of Marketing at BreakingPoint said, “Twitter has all but replaced our PR agency as a large percentage of our followers are press and analysts. A writer for ZDNet wrote about us and linked to us based on something we tweeted and that resulted in a huge spike in web traffic and at least one deal with a major service provider.”

And if you get addicted...

And just in case you get addicted to Twitter, here’s some advice from one of the leading authorities on Twitter. Chris Brogan says, “Most people who see Twitter the first time either flat-out ‘get it,’ or they say, ‘why bother?’ Here’s what people miss. They believe one should read every single update that rolls across your screen of choice. Don’t. Just let it roll past like a stream.”

This is just a small part of a great article, go on an read it!

Don't worry, blogs ARE like the Duracell Bunny!

As part of some research I am doing for a client, I am interviewing many gen Y'ers across the whole of the UK. One of the questions I slipped in was to do with social media and which sites people used. I included blogs in that list (obviously) and, I expected there to be many saying 'yes' to my 'do you read blogs?' question.
How wrong I have been!!

So far, I would say that 2% covers the amount who have so far answered yes to that question!

Now this has got me thinking. Especially when I probed a little further and discovered why they don't read blogs. I would say the most common response has been, "why do I need to blog, I have Facebook (in England) and Bebo (in Scotland - just got to say that everyone uses Bebo in Scotland!!, Facebook - you have some work to do up there!) to communicate with people.
Twitter faired a little better in the usage stakes, but it certainly hasn't been prolific.  uuuhhhmmmm - are blogs and micro-blogs reaching the mainstream out there? ............Are they really?

Richard Dennison on his blog Inside Out, asks a similar question about social media in general - Time for a Reality Check. One of the many good points he delivers, is that if blogs could speak, they would be quoting Mark Twain: “… reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”.

Then today, I read a good post by Denise Wakeman, on her blog that also questions why people are wrong to even contemplate giving up blogging. She cites an article on Wired that it's time to stop blogging -- that somehow blogging has run its course, it's too impersonal and other tools have made it unnecessary. Wired reckon that using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, makes blogging unnecessary.
I really like Denise's defense of the blog. "Your blog is the hub and foundation of your business communication. It's where you drive people from your social networking sites so they can go deeper and more intimately with you." She continues, "Once people arrive on your blog, you have the opportunity to deepen your relationship, beyond the 140 characters available on Twitter.  The blog is where you educate, entertain, engage and enrich your reader."

She is absolutely right of course. Where else could you give your readers, customers, visitors etc the depth of user experience and engagement that you can on your blog?

So, as far as I am concerned, it's Long Live Blogs!!! They will last for a good long while yet......just like the good old Duracell bunny above!!!

What else can you add to blog defense? Why are blogs so great for you?

Come on employers, Web 2.0 won't bite!

What is it with companies that continually moan about recruitment and retention issues, but still choose to do little about engaging with job seekers? Why is it about engaging with their future employees that is so awful anyway?
Web 2.0 has been talked about now for what seems like ages - in fact there is now talk of Web 3.0 and web 4.0!!
Whatever the talk, there seems to have been little take up by companies, even though Web 2.0 is what candidates actually want from a corporate website (actually any website)!!
The latest findings in the CIPD 2008 Recruitment, Retention and Turnover survey, show that a massive 80% of organisations do not currently use Web 2.0 online methods to attract or recruit employees with only 8% planning to start using the technology in the next year. WHY?? Are they mad?

• Why don't they want to engage with their potential employees with social networks, blogs and forums?
• Could this be the reason why there is such an issue around talent shortages?
• And if they won't engage with their prospective job seekers, does that also mean they lack engagement with their existing employees? Maybe that answers why companies are struggling to retain their staff?
• Do companies just think that Web 2.0 = Facebook and MySpace, and because of that dismiss it?
• Don't they know that with the extensive broadband coverage, more job seekers than ever are online and want to interact?
• Although other generations are online, do they understand that their future lifeblood, predominately lives online and expects to engage with companies online?

Come on employers, web 2.0 technology gives you a great opportunity to bring your employer brand to life, and create experiences online that allow potential and future employees to experience what it will be like to work within your company. They can watch videos of your workplace, view photographs, ask questions online and get involved with your company even before they send you a CV.
How can that be damaging to your company and your brand? If you don't actually dip your toes in the web 2.0 waters, then you will never even get a chance to find out how warm they can be!

Blogs ARE here to stay, so get started!

Many companies are still shying away from the power of the blog. But some latest figures released by Comscore show that blogs are what people are reading online. Companies should really start to think about how they can harness this massive trend and use blogs. They could use them for recruitment, retention,product promotion, news and so much more - in fact the list is endless!!  The only advice I would say is to just put some thought into it first.........then blog away!!!

Here are the latest Comscore stats:

The Top 20 UK Blogging Sites had 33.2 million visitors in February (and thats JUST the Top 20!)

The Worlds Top 20 UK Blogging Sites had 822.9 million visitors in February.

So for all you non-believers out there, now is the time to start blogging!! After all it is what everyone else is doing!!!

Let me explain more with a video...

Some of you may have seen the yellow graphic in the sidebar to the left, some of you may even have linked through to the site as well. Jobinablog.com is a forward thinking website aimed at SME companies who fail to use their own website to recruit staff (shame on you!). Of course they are happy to moan about the fact that they can't recruit staff, but they never do anything about it. So last year I combined the idea of this opportunity, with the power of the blog to create Jobinablog - I call it a career site with a difference. So for an easy explanation I have produced a video presentation explaining how it works in a very easy way!! Here goes:

By the way, how do you like the Kyte interface - I like it and it's a bit different!

Space Hoppers or Job Hoppers?

A few years ago, the ideal job was one where an employee could stay for their entire career, pick up a pension and then retire. For some people that is still the case, but the move to a more fluid employment market is now becoming the norm as we all know.
However, will we as recruiters in the UK, tolerate what is now acceptable in the US? What do I mean?  In the UK, employers(and recruiters for that matter) frown upon candidates that have moved job every 2 years (and less) and they get tagged as being job hoppers. However my experience of working in the US tells me that it is more acceptable to move jobs regularly,even every year, and that has also become acceptable with employers over there. They look on at as gathering experiences, therefore benefiting the hiring company and making them more rounded employees- I call them space (cv) hoppers!!
The question has to be.............how quickly will the UK employers start to adopt that ideal?

Welcome to my blog!

Hi there recruitment blogging world, let me introduce myself to you all. My name is Andy Headworth and I have had the pleasure of working in the wonderful world of recruitment for nearly 20 years across a number of different industries. I own a specialist recruitment company but more recently have taken a slight change of direction. I am sticking my flag in the ground and am going to work with companies to help show them how to do this recruitment lark properly!! The website is www.sironaconsult.com.
After 20 years in the business there isn't much I haven't developed an opinion on, and I look forward to imparting my opinions (and wisdom) to the listening (or not) world!!

I look forward to hearing from you.

Andy