Twitter « FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

To Get the Most Out of Twitter Be a Maverick

October 21, 2009

Don’t just follow the herd. Twitter is evolving. Maximize its potential around your agency’s new business objectives.

Twitter itself created the conditions that has allowed users to innovate. No one in the beginning envisioned that:

People would want to follow strangers
Celebrities would use Twitter to provide updates to fans of their activities
Businesses would use Twitter to to promote discounts, launch new products and services
Twitter would be used in so many different ways by broadcasters, educators, politicians, doctors, lawyers, ministers and so many others you can’t keep up with them all

Guy Kawasaki, an early adopter and leader in social media, recently wrote,

“Three years ago Twitter was a nice little pond that people shared with their close friends … The whole point back then was establishing warm-and-fuzzy relationships with people you cared about by answering the question, “What are you doing?”

Fast forward to today. While there is still kumbaya going on via Twitter, many people are now using Twitter as a twool. They’re not trying to have a one-to-one conversation. At best, they want a one-to-many conversation if not out-and-out broadcasting in the advertising and marketing sense.”

There are not many who use Twitter the way that I do. Other than sending personal Direct Messages, I do not send many personal Tweets to others. My point-of-view is that most of my 10,000+ followers do not care about a specific conversation that I’m having with @jaybaer, @edwardboches, @sheconomy or other Twitter users. What my Twitter followers have come to expect from me is helpful resources for ad agency new business.

For my own Twitter formula … 80 to 90 percent of my Tweets are made up of resourceful articles and posts. My Tweets usually include just the article/post titles and URL links.

Many of these articles/posts come from my online reading, using Google Reader. When I find a good post that I want to share, I click on bit.ly (a tool to shorten, share and track your links) in my browser bar, configure the information about the post and publish it to my Twitter account. If I’m finding lots of good material, I may post them through Social Oomph (Tweetlater) to be able to spread the posts over a period of time.

I also add posts from my blog. I have written over 400+ posts, the vast majority written as a resource for agency new business. Most of these are not time sensitive and continue to be a helpful resource for my readers. I know that because of the traffic each generates to my blog.

I have a number of reasons for repurposing blog content in this way:

Readers do not ready my blog chronologically. People are so busy they don’t have time. I usually write and post at least once a day, Monday through Friday, but the majority of my readers are not reading my content on a daily basis.
Even my most ardent readers will read posts through many different channels such as RSS Feed, email newsletter, SEO, Twitter and from mirroring blog post content through my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
Even with a large number of followers, an article that I post at 11 am on a Thursday is going to be missed by 99% of my readers.
I use post titles that are crystal clear regarding the content that will be found. This may be dull and bland for copywriters but it is much appreciated by my readership. They can find relevant material through my post titles through search and as these posts appear through Twitter.
I provide links to similar articles that would possibly be of interest to my readers and try to spare them having to search for them on their own.
There are often posts that I discover, that I know would be of interest to my readers, and I will “bridge-the-gap” specifying how this post/article relates to them. Materials, tools, that isn’t specific to my audience, but I make it specific to them, how it is a resource for ad agency new business.

If you aren’t generating traffic, its a sign of a lack of appeal. Metrics keeps everything on track and focused. I check my blog analytics multiple times a day along with other metrics tools from bit.ly, socialtoo and Twittergrader.

I’d like to recommend an enlightening Wired Magazine article: Mob Rule! How Users Took Over Twitter

Here are 20 additional Twitter articles, specifically for ad agencies that can help you take advantage of Twitter’s growth for new business:

10 Comments | Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Blogs I Recommend, Guy Kawasaki, Michael Gass, Social Media, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

A Little Tool Can Be a Big Deal for Ad Agency New Business

October 13, 2009

People share links to web pages by email, through Twitter and Facebook and a lot of other methods. There are a number of URL shorteners available but one in particular is standing out from the rest. Not only does it easily shorten your links but it also shows traffic, conversations, and history from those links.

Over the summer I made the switch from TinyURL to bit.ly for my URL shortener. This little tool is becoming a big deal. It is now the default shortener for Twitter and has rapidly become the most popular URL shortener available. Google Reader included it in their new “send-to” feature, which lets you share any post on Twitter, automatically shortening long URLs with bit.ly.

You can drag a convenient button to your browser’s tool bar to shorten a URL from any Web page and quickly share it without interrupting your reading. You can customize the copy to share and even customize the URL if you want.

Bit.ly allows me to more easily share links to people in my network. Whether I want to do it through Twitter, Facebook, Email. I can also get real-time stats. Just review the stats from the post link above just after I shortened the URL and and shared it through my Twitter account: http://bit.ly/info/1BAyEm. It shows me the clicks on the link, the conversations that took place about the post, etc.

The great value in this, from a new business perspective, is getting instant feedback, knowing what information is appealing to your audience.

Targeted traffic = inbound lead generation. To generate traffic you have to hone your appeal.

If you get into the habit of checking these kinds of metrics, it will greatly help you to become a better writer by providing the resources your prospective clients are searching for.

Remember: People want to work with people that they know, like and trust.

7 Comments | Social Media, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies: Are focus groups dead?

October 1, 2009

Focus Groups

Is it time to get rid of the two-way mirror?

Our world of advertising is quickly changing. Our industry will experience more change in the next 5 years than we have in the past 50. It will impact every aspect of agency life, from the way we generate leads and new business acquisitions to billing and services we offer. To grow new business agencies will need to evolve quickly as the old ways of doing our work evolves with new communication technologies.

Edward Boches, CCO at Mullen, in a recent article raises this question, “are focus groups really necessary at all?” With all of the alternatives that are available through social media, focus groups seem to be a costly practice that now looks absurd.

He describes a typical focus group event:

“Think about it. A bunch of folks from a marketing firm and its client fly to some distant city (usually Cincinnati or Minneapolis), drive to an innocuous suburban park and hunker down in a dark room behind a two-way mirror to observe prospective customer subjects who’ve been recruited for this exercise by a third party company.

On the other side of the glass, in the “laboratory”, a professional moderator probes the recruited subjects for their opinions using a series of exercises that include creating collages or writing imaginary obituaries for the brand in question. In the dark, so to speak, the marketing team eats M&Ms, makes jokes, and hopes desperately to be illuminated.

A typical three-day trip, comprised of perhaps six groups and 18 hours of requisite video, at a cost approaching $30,000, gets consolidated into four minutes of tape and an executive report for presentation to the ultimate decision makers, who are usually too busy to actually attend the groups. Like a Safari tourist thrilled to see wild animals up close in their natural habitat, the decision makers lean in, watch the video intently, and believe they’re actually seeing their customers.”

I would encourage you to read his entire article, “Do we still need the two-way mirror when we have tools like Twitter?

Internet-based research is becoming increasingly popular as companies regularly conduct on-line studies more quickly and more cost effectively than with traditional methods.

My experience with focus groups and social media leads me to believe that social is a much better alternative. Social media becomes such a great brand and positioning tool because of the kinds of online engagements we can have with our target audience. Through social you can also easily test things like marketing messages and and even concepts plus you can affordably receive feedback from a much larger group.

The Future of Research Online

Jeff Rosenblum is director of Internet research, and Chris Grecco is director of quantitative research, at King Brown & Partners, a San Francisco research firm, fielded a study to compare traditional research methods such as phone research and mail surveys to online methods. While online is not the ideal solution in all cases, it has many advantages over non-Web-based methods. Some of the benefits include:

Cost and time savings: Compared to traditional research methodologies, on-line studies are conducted with an average savings of more than 40 percent in cost, with commensurate reductions in cycle time.
Increased accuracy: While some audiences are more difficult to contact on-line, other targets are significantly easier to reach and more receptive to completing surveys via the Internet
Increased concept testing capabilities: By enhancing the questionnaire instrument with graphics or multimedia elements in surveys, Internet-based research is a more compelling stimulus environment than traditional methods. Respondents who see or hear a new product or advertising concept provide more valid and richer responses than those who simply hear the concept read to them over the telephone.
Greater survey control: On-line surveys have greater control with regards to interview bias, sampling, skip patterns, awareness testing and stimulus materials.

What is your opinion?

Another article that may be of interest: Big Advertisers Agree to Test Online Research (New York Times)

16 Comments | Agency Leadership, New Business Tips, New Business Trends, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Edward Boches, focus groups, Mullen, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies: 97 Articles on How To Write Effectively for the Social Web

September 20, 2009

To convert content to new business leads you must learn to write effectively for the web.

There is a completely different writing style for web vs print. A lot of ad agency professionals have difficulty with the transition from print to web.

I’ve found a number of helpful tips. For example: The use the inverted pyramid style of writing for my blog …

The most important information, the take-away or the benefit from your post should be in the first paragraph.

I’m always searching for additional resources that help me to become a better writer for web, whether it is for my blog, Twitter or other social media platforms. I recently came across a post written by Robin Broitman, chief internet and social media strategist for Interactive Insights Group, IIG, titled: HOW-TO: Write Effectively for Twitter & The Social Web . This post contains a collection of 97 articles that are a tremendous resource for your online writing. The articles are conveniently organized in the following 4 categories:

General Web and Social Media Writing Principles
Writing Strong Headlines and Titles
Writing for Twitter
Writing for Search Engines

Click Here for the links to Robin’s collection of “how to” articles for writing effectively for Web

An additional article of interest: How do users read on the Web? They don’t … they scan

8 Comments | Agency Blogs, Creating Content, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: IIG Group, Robin Broitman, Social Media, social media strategist, writing for web | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

How to take advantage of Twitter’s growth for ad agency new business

September 10, 2009

My consultancy business has been built through the use of social media. I use the tools that I recommend that you use for agency new business. Over the past year the leading traffic generator to my blog has been Twitter. Hopefully this post will help you take advantage of Twitter’s growth to generate new business leads for your agency.

Edward Boches, Chief Creative Officer, Mullen Agency

Twitter’s audience has skyrocketed in recent months and continues to grow in popularity and importance in both the consumer and corporate worlds. It has evolved into an important component of brand marketing. Twitter is also a place to generate agency new business. It is a powerful prospective client networking tool if used correctly.

In 2009, there will be 18 million US adults who access Twitter at least monthly. </li>
<li>Twitter is the fastest growing social network in the world, increasing by 1,928% from June 2008 to Jun 2009.
Twitter reached the 50 million unique visitor mark in July 2009. </li>
<li>If Twitter’s current growth rate keeps up, they could be at 100 million members by the end of 2010.

There are a number of Twitter tools that will allow you to take advantage of Twitter’s growth for ad agency new business:

Social Oomph

I currently have published 373 blog posts. I’m able to repurpose that content. Posts that are over two years old continue to generate traffic. To save time I use a tool called Social Oomph (formerly known as Tweetlater). This tool allows me to schedule the day/time for each of the 373 posts to be published through my Twitter account, @michaelgass (23,256 followers) and Ashley Cox, my administrative assistant created and maintains the Twitter account for Fuel Lines @fuellines (18,471 followers).

Once a post is inputed into SocialOomph, the recurrence feature allows you to set the day/time and frequency of publishing a post through your Twitter account. You can set recurrences from hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly. I’m currently using it to post to my Twitter accounts a post every hour, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. I change up my schedule quarterly and rotate in the higher traffic posts into Twitter’s prime-time, from 11 am to 3 pm.

Note: I’ve been able to measure what is and what isn’t acceptable to the majority of followers using additional metric tools such as SocialToo that help me maintain the proper balance. The repurpose content also has to be resource type content, the kind that is helpful to the intended audience. It isn’t about your capabilities, a sales pitch within 140 characters.

TweetAdder

I also use a new tool called TweetAdder, an inexpensive software program, to primarily find and follow prospects for clients. This tool allows me to grow a network of targeted followers. The more followers a client has, the more their content can become viral and generate traffic to their blog, the “gateway” to their agency. Early social media adopters and leaders like Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan - 97,563), Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki - 170,000) have amassed a huge following. Mashable’s CEO, Pete Cashmore, (@mashable) has an incredible following of 1,459,481, which keeps him among the top Retweeted users (check out Retweetist).

TweetAdder allows you to find and follow by searching for Tweet keywords (i.e. environmental, moms, healthcare), by bio keyword (i.e. CEO, CMO, etc), or by location. This tool also allows you to follow the followers of another user. For instance, if I were looking for B-to-B prospects I would could follow everyone who is following @btobmagazine or if my prospective clients were hospitals I could follow those following Twitter accounts such as the @mayoclinic.

TweetML

A brand new tool that was just recently introduced is TweetML. TweepML is a simple format to make it easy for you to organize your Twitter prospective client lists. Share your lists internally to allow staff to monitor and network with prospective clients. You can also use it to create your own lists of Twitter accounts to follow, whether they are agency related or interests related (i.e. if you target audience was into environmental marketing, you could provide a list of the best environmental Twitter accounts to fllow).

This is a sampling of Twitter prospective account lists that I’ve created using TweetML.

Ad Agency New Business (resource list for ad agencies)
Airlines (transportation prospects)
Banks (financial prospects)
Convention Visitors Bureau – CVBs (tourism prospects)
Hospitals (healthcare prospects)

Use Google search to find existing lists and organize them through TweetML. Here are 20 different lists of prospective clients using Twitter.

Create your agency’s own list of Twitter accounts made up of your best target audience.

Here are 19 additional Twitter articles, specifically for ad agencies that can help you take advantage of Twitter’s growth for new business:

16 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, prospect lists, Social Media, Social Oomph, TweetAdder, TweeterML, Tweetlater | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

How to Generate Traffic to Your Ad Agency’s Blog with Repeat Tweets

September 2, 2009

Twitter has long outgrown the original intent of its early adopters, establishing relationships with people by answering the question, “What are you doing?”  

My Twitter participation from the very beginning has been from a new business perspective. How to use this new communication’s tool for ad agency new business. The way that I use it has been different than most. At times I receive some criticism from some early adopters of Twitter that I’m not using it correctly.

One of the early Twitter rules: Do not repeat your Tweets.

Well, I’m proud to say that I never followed that rule. Now others are starting to see the light. I recently read a post by social media mega star, Guy Kawasaki, How to Drive Traffic with Repeat Tweets. Guy shares an experiment he conducted re-tweeting some of his posts that was hugely successful … he advises:

“Based on these experiences, I encourage you to break all the “rules” that you’ve heard about social media and make your own. Like my friends from Alaska tell me, unless you’re the lead dogma, the view never changes.” 

This past month I had 25,000+ page views to Fuel Lines. Twitter generated more traffic to my blog than any other tool I’ve used. Here’s how I use repeat Tweets:

Create a Twitter Schedule

I actually create a “twitter media schedule” for over 370 of my blog post using an Excel spread sheet. I assign 168 of these posts a specific day and time to publish on Twitter. I publish a different post every hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For example a post that is published on Thursday at 2:30 PM, will post every Thursday at that time until I rotate it to a different day/time placement or take it out of the rotating schedule.

Usually the only complaint that I will receive will be from a few of those that are following less than 200 people. You will get some that will unfollow. I keep a check on unfollowers using a tool called SocialToo and receive an email generated daily report.

Use Twitter tool: Social Oomph (formally known as Tweetlater)

Using my twitter media schedule I add each post to Social Oomph and select a day/time for the post to publish and the recurrence to once a week. Social Oomph has a tool to shorten the URL so basically I’m publishing a post title and tiny URL so that it stays within Twitter’s 140 character limit. Almost all of my post titles identify my target audience so that they know the post is a resource of interest to them and can also be found through search.

Whenever I add a new post to my blog I will also post it immediately to Twitter, include it in my Twitter Schedule and add it to Social Oomph (Tweetlater).

Keep check of your blog analytics to see what posts are trending higher then periodically, usually once a quarter, add your higher trending posts to Twitter’s “prime-time” between 11 am and 3 pm so they will get more exposure.

I publish round the clock because of the traffic that can be generated from other time zones. Along with a large West Coast following I’ have a following and traffic to my blog from places like Brazil, England and Tokyo.

The time and effort that goes into creating a single blog posts can provide a great return on your investment. Blog posts that I’ve written 2 years ago continue to generate traffic back to my blog.

For Twitter to have real value from a new business perspective for ad agencies, you must have a clear objective and follow a simple formula for use.

To reach my objective to my blog’s traffic and exposing it to a new but targeted audience, I’ve followed Angela Maiers 70-20-10 Twitter Engagement Formula.

70 to 80% of my “Twittertime” is spent sharing helpful information for ad agency new business with my audience. I do this in two ways:

I share lots of information from my online reading that I think will be of help to my audience. I’m able to use some tools such as TwitThis that I’ve placed in my browser bar. When I come across a good article that I think will be of help all I have to do is click on TwitThis and automatically post the article title and tiny URL into my Twitter account.
I also share the content from my FUEL LINES blog. Repeating older posts, that are still useful, have new life. The best posts are often re-tweeted and exposed to new networks of people.

Twitter is more than a fad. It is a valuable marketing tool. The searchability of Twitter already have some saying that it can become even more valuable than Google. Twitter tools such as Social Oomph make it priceless.

Read more on how I use Twitter for new business: A Simple Twitter Formula for Ad Agency New Business

Additional articles that may be of interest:

18 Comments | Agency Blogs, Social Media, Time Management, Twitter | Tagged: Guy Kawasaki, Michael Gass, Repeat Tweets, Social Oomph, Tweetlater, Twitter, Twitter Formula, twitter rules | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies: Useful In-Depth Data on How Twitter is Being Used

August 14, 2009

This first in-depth report of the 11.5 million Twitter accounts and how they are using it.

I’ve shared before that Twitter is the leading traffic generator to my blog. I currently receive more visitors to Fuel Lines through Twitter than through SEO or my email newsletter. Part of the reason for this is the growth of Twitter, it more than doubled in one month (Feb. 09). I also have over 15,000+ following my @michaelgass and @fuellines accounts.

Using a simple Twitter Formula that I follow, 70 to 80% of my participation through Twitter is providing new business resources and information for small-to mid-size ad agencies. Repurposing content from my blog and plus providing additional information that I find through my online reading and research.

Recently a social media analytics company, Sysomo Inc. analyzed information disclosed on 11.5 million Twitter accounts. This is one of the first reports to provide the depth of insight of how people are using Twitter. It also provides information on the most active members of the Twitter community. For instance, a small group of Twitter users account for the bulk of activity. Sysomos discovered that 5% of users account for 75% of all activity, 10% account for 86% of activity, and the top 30% account for 97.4%.

Here are some of the highlights of Sysomo’s analysis:

72.5% of all users subscribed to Twitter during the first five months of 2009
85.3% of all Twitter users post less than one update/day
21% of users have never posted a Tweet
There are more women on Twitter (53%) than men (47%)
The top 25 users with the highest number tweets on a day at average: singer Tyrese (@tyrese4real with 37 tweets daily), actress Alyssa Milano (@alyssa_milano with 37 tweets daily), celebrity Tila Tequila (@officialtila with 33 tweets daily), tv host Jonathan Ross (@wossy with 37 tweets daily), writer Ryan Penagos (@agent_m with 33 tweets daily), evangelist Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki with 39 tweets daily), and blogger Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan with 43 tweets daily)
85.3% of Twitter users update less than once/day; while 1.13% Twitter users update more than average of 10 times a day
50.4% of Twitter users haven’t updated their status in the last seven days
Based on a sample of 20 million Tweets, Tuesday is the most popular day for Twitter activity, accounting for 15.7% of total activity; followed by Wednesday (15.6%) and Friday (14.5%)
During the day, the most Twitter activity happens from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (EST)
15% of Twitter users who follow more than 2,000 people identify themselves as social media marketers
65.5% of social media marketers post less than a update a day, compared with 85.3% of the general Twitter population
10% of social media marketers have more than 500 followers, 10.9% have more than 750 followers, while 11.8% have more than 1,000 followers
88% of the most active Twitter users have never missed a day without making at least one update

Read the full report along with helpful charts: An In-Depth Look Inside the Twitter World or Download a PDF Report

16 Additional Twitter Articles:

11 Comments | Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Michael Gass, Susomo, Twitter, Twitter Formula | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Study: Fortune 100 companies using Twitter more than any other social media platform

August 5, 2009

It’s important for advertising agencies to stay on top of social media marketing trends as we continue to watch the evolution of components of this new media channel. Both agencies and their clients should press the viability of marketing with such social media platforms as Twitter.

I thought this new study by Burson-Marsteller and Proof Digital Media would be of interest. The analysis found that 54 percent of Fortune 100 companies were using Twitter to engage with their stakeholders, while 32 percent were using a blog and 29 percent were actively using a Facebook fan page.

Using Twitter for Ad Agencies:

11 Comments | Agency Blogs, New Business Trends, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: blogs, Blogs I Recommend, Burson-Marsteller, Facebook, Michael Gass, Proof Digital Media, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Twitter 101 for Ad Agency New Business

July 24, 2009

Last night Twitter unveiled Twitter 101, launching its own resource of Web pages and and downloadable slideshow that explains what Twitter is and case studies of companies that are successfully using it for business. If your agency is new to Twitter, this is an excellent resource to get started. Please know as well that Twitter can also be used for agency new business. It is the number one leading traffic generator for my blog and can do the same for your agency.

Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Now, people are turning to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to businesses, too. From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter.

How Twitter is helping businesses:

Quickly share information about your agency
Gather “real-time” market intelligence and feedback
Network and build relationships with potential clients

How to get started with Twitter for your agency

Using Twitter for Ad Agencies:

9 Comments | Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, Twitter 101, Twitter Formula | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies: 5 Ways to Find Prospects on Twitter

July 8, 2009

Finding your agency’s best prospective client online audience is not yet an exact science. But for now you can be in the right ballpark. The same is true regarding Twitter. There are plenty of search applications out there but all have their limitations. The following five sites have been the most helpful to me in locating prospective client “tweeps” to follow.

1. Twitter Search – Twitter’s built in people search is the easiest place to start but isn’t necessarily the best way to find people on Twitter. Twitter Search is much better, especially using their advanced search page. Be sure and check out their search operations pages for some handy examples for your search query.

2. Twellow – is an excellent search tool for prospective clients. With over 6.2 million Twitter user profiles now indexed in Twellow and placed into a huge number of categories. You can search the entire lot of profiles, or confine searches to a single category. Twellow also operates a local directory called the “Twellowhood.”

3. Tweepz – Allows you limit searches to specific parts of Twitter’s user information (such as name, bio, and location). Through the advance search filter results by follower/following numbers, location, and other extracted terms, enhances your search results.

4. Twitterel – you can search for prospective clients to follow by doing keyword searches of tweets. This service can update you by email, direct message, or @reply when it finds new people it thinks you might be interested in following. It’s similar to Google Alerts.

5. WeFollow – is a Twitter user directory that organizes people by hashtags. WeFollow is user-generated and anyone can add themselves by tweeting @wefollow with three #hashtags that describe them. For example there are 723 Twitter users that are subscribed to #adagencynewbiz.

If you have helpful search sites/directories that have been helpful to you please share them in the comment section below.

10 Comments | Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, prospective clients, Tweepz, Twello, Twitter, Twitter Search, Twitterel, WeFollow | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

A Twitter Business Model Contest is Won by an Ad Agency

February 9, 2009

I recently had a discussion with the CEO of a 59 year old ad agency in New York who said, “I know how to generate income from a $35,000 print ad but how do I generate revenue from social media?” That is the big question that all small-to mid-size ad agencies are facing.

If you have been a follower of Twitter you know that even though the service has exploded with growth, they do not have a business model to generate income. Silcon Alley Insider, a new business site that covers the technology, media, and communications industries, decided to Create Twitter’s Revenue Model Contest and just recently named a winner.

I’m glad to share with you that it was an ad agency, the Denuo Group. They are a boutique non-traditional ad agency serving clients such as AstraZeneca, Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, and General Motors.

You can view their winning solution through this link: Denuo Group’s Twitter Business Model Presentation

I’ve also included links to 11 Business Plans For Twitter that Alley Insider identified as some of the contest’s best:

It is good to see initial thoughts to tools such as Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools, just how the can become viable and profitable businesses and the evolving business model that will be needed for ad agencies.

Related FUEL LINES posts:

18 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: denuo group, Silcon Alley Insider, Twitter contest, Twitter revenue | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Socially Benefitting from My Twitter Habits

February 4, 2009

I’m sitting in front of the flat screen with my laptop halfway watching the new television program “Lie to Me” when I noticed that I’ve formed some habits, Twitter habits. No matter if I’m working or at leisure I’m drawn to Twitter.

Is time spent on Twitter worth it?

I’ve a lot of work to do for my own business and for my clients and I can’t afford to spend lots of time on Twitter, particularly if it has no benefit.

First let me address a small portion of Twitter’s benefits:

Networking tool. I’ve met a good number of professionals who I can now call friends. We’ve been able to share and discuss tips, trends, tactics, etc and be of help to each other.

Timely helps and resources. In need of immediate info, I’ve been able to make a request through Twitter and receive assistance immediately. Just yesterday I was conducting research for a client and someone on Twitter had a book that was loaded with the info that I needed. They volunteered to make copies of the info I needed or would mail me the book. I can give you dozens of other examples of generosity from people on Twitter.

Breaking news and new information. It has gotten to the point that most of the breaking news from either local, state and national news I’ve received through Twitter. I also am notified of just released industry articles and research.

Research. Not only have peopled shared research and resources but I’ve been able to conduct my own research such as these two current polls, Is Cold Calling an Effective Ad Agency New Business Tactic? How is business for your ad agency after the first couple of weeks of 2009?

Appreciation. Everyone likes to feel appreciated. When you help others through Twitter folks are quick to share their appreciation.

Personal brand evangelists. Word of mouth and a friends recommendation is huge. When you give people on Twitter will reciprocate by telling others in their network, often with zeal. They can be as passionate about your brand as you are. I’ve said this often that tools like Twitter is like networking on steroids.

The Twitter habits that I have developed save me time, allow me to be consistent and stay connected with my online community. I thought identifying a few of these Twitter habits may be of help to tto FUEL LINE readers.

When I sign onto Twitter, the first thing I do is check my direct messages and replies. I also use www.search.twitter.com and type in my Twitter name: Click here for a sampling of results.

I use a tool called Social Too to auto follow those who follow me and unfollow those who unfollow me. This tool does the best job of that over any that I’ve used. My ration of those I follow to those following me is within 100 persons and kept in balance due to this tool. An added benefit is the daily report that is automatically emailed to me daily letting me know of new followers and unfollowers. If there are lots of unfollowers I need to check to see if I’m using Twitter to the best benefit of my followers.

A program called Twitter Karma, helps me to automate the management of my Twitter follows and unfollows and provides daily report.

Angela Maiers, educator, author, blogger who now leads Maier Educational Services, developed a simple Twitter Engagement Formula that has provided provides purpose and direction for my participation. Using her 70-20-10 Formula.

70 % of my Twittertime is spent sharing the resources of others as well as my own.

I have over 260 blog post containing helpful new business tips, tactics, tools, talents and trends. I use a tool called Tweetlater to post links to that content on Twitter. Tweetlater allows me preschedule the release date and time of each posts days or even weeks in advance.

I am subscribed to another Twitter tool called Tweetbeeps. These are similar to Google Alerts. I can easily keep track of conversations that mention me, industry information, blog URL, etc.

In addition to my blog analytics I use Retweetrank to gauge what microposts are becoming viral and how I rank based upon people retweeting my posts. Today my Retweet rank:

@michaelgass is ranked 169 on retweetrank http://www.retweetrank.com/michaelgass/ Where do you rank?

Another metric tool that I use often is Hubspot’s Twitter Grader, which measures the reach and authority of a Twitter user. I’ve been able to attain a Twitter ranking of 100 and am now ranked number two among the Twitter Elite in Birmingham. You can also use Twitter Grader to make your own button to include in your post and encourage others to Tweet it:

One of the biggest benefits from my Twitter habits is the traffic it generates to my blog. I started seriously using Twitter back in September. Within five months I now have over 2,200 followers on Twitter and it has become the single best traffic generator to FUEL LINES. In the month of January, with a very specific niche audience of small-to midsize ad agencies, I had over 14,037 page views.

The better I become at using Twitter, Twitter tools and forming Twitter habits traffic to my blog accelerates. The more traffic more new leads that are generated.

Additional articles of interest:

18 Comments | New Business Tools, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, FUEL LINES, Hubspot, Michael Gass, Social Media, Tweetbeeps, Tweetlater, Twitter, Twitter Grader | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

A Simple Twitter Formula for Ad Agency New Business

January 9, 2009

Twitter is the leading traffic generator for FUEL LINES. One of the best helps I found when I first started using this tool came from Angela Maiers, educator, author, blogger who now leads Maier Educational Services.

Angela developed a simple Twitter Engagement Formula that provides purpose and direction for her participation. She calls it the 70-20-10 Formula:.

Share Resources (70) - Successful learning in the 21st Century is not what you know, but what you can share, so 70 % of my Twittertime is spent sharing others voices, opinions, and tools.

Collaborations (20) - 20% of my Tweets are directly responding, connecting, collaboration, and co-creating with like-minded Twitter colleagues. From these important tweets, lifelong professional and personal relationships have been forged.

Chit-Chat (10) 10% of my Twittertalk is “chit-chat-how’s-your-hat” stuff. It is in these “trivial” details shared about working out, favorite movies, politics, and life in general that I connect with others as a human being. These simple chit chats are what have allowed me to know that I am never alone, and there is support whenever, wherever, and however I need it!

Angela reminds her readers that their engagement formula will be different but hers provides a good example and a place to get started. Angela says to, “Engage with purpose and intention, and Twitter success will follow!”

Read the entire “My Twitter Engagement Formula” article.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

29 Comments | New Business Tactics, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Twitter | Tagged: 70-20-10 formula, Angela Maiers, Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, Twitter, Twitter Engagement Formula | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency CEOs Should Use Twitter

December 26, 2008

Image by ~C4Chaos via Flickr

I do understand the time pressures and information overload of small-to midsize ad agency CEOs. That said, your use of Twitter makes sense.

Web strategist and social media consultant, Karen OBrien posted an article CEOs Who Twitter which provides the outline and inspiration for this post.

Benefits to Ad Agency CEO’s to use Twitter:

Brand Building: ability to raise your own visibility and build awareness of your agency’s brand. Twitter allows you to communicate your agency’s culture and personality.
Networking Tool: Twitter is networking on steroids. You will be amazed at how rapidly you can network and how these connections provide viable new business leads for your agency. Many times these connections are with company decision makers. You have direct access to them.
Focus Group: Twitter provides for instant feedback to your posts, questions you may have, stats, opinions, you name it.
Monitoring: conversations that are going to take place about your agency with or without you. You should help to lead and direct those conversations. There are many Twitter tools that allow for the monitoring of your agency’s brand as well as your personal brand.
Generate online traffic: Within months of using Twitter it quickly became the second leading traffic generator for my blog and a large network of followers and own brand evangelists.
Humanizing your communications: Twitter shows the human side of your business. It gives your agency personality. People want to work with people that they know, like and trust.