twitter guide for ontario wineries
DESCRIPTION
A little primer on the use of Twitter for those still not sure...TRANSCRIPT
Getting Started with Twitter ( A Guide for Wineries and any other small business)
Shawn McCormick@UncorkOntario
July 16, 2013
Content
• What is Twitter?• Followers and Following• What to Tweet• Replies • RTs and MTs• DMs• Hashtags• Twitter Chats
What is Twitter?• Twitter is what they call a micro-blogging site• Allows you to build a network of “like-minded” people who
may be interested in you, your winery, and your wines.• Allows short (140 character) messages (called “Tweets”) to
be sent– Readable by everyone– Unless you lock your account (but why would you want to do
that?)• “Tweets” appear on your profile and on the Home page of
your “followers”– Followers are people who have expressed an interest in you and
your tweets by deciding to follow you
Who Should I Follow?• It is easy to find people to follow. Just use the Twitter search and search
for terms like:– Ontario Wine– Wines– NOTL, Prince Edward County, Lake Erie North Shore, etc.
• Look at that persons profile and their latest tweets. If it seems interesting, “Follow” them– You can always Unfollow people later if they are not interesting and/or spam
your twitter feed with derogatory or boring messages, etc.• Find a few Ontario wine supporters that have public Twitter Lists
– Mine is at https://twitter.com/UncorkOntario/lists (“Ontario Wine Tweeps”)– Rick Van Sickle (@rickwine) follows several lists
https://twitter.com/rickwine/lists• What do you mean “Who is Rick VanSickle?”?
• People will start following you back. Relax. It isn’t creepy, it is normal. (Well most of them are normal)
Now That You’re Following
• Twitter, like other Social Media, is about being “social” and engaging with others– A continuous stream of one-way tweets from your account is a good
way to lose followers• First build relationships with the people you engage…• Just like in real life you wouldn’t walk up to someone new and start selling
to them
• Ask questions, respond to others tweets, and RT the good stuff that you see that you think your followers may be interested in
• Now mix in your own tweets about what you are doing around the winery, your customers, your staff, and occasionally…your wine!– Try to keep a balance between your messages and engaging others
@ Replies• When someone replies to a tweet, their tweet will start with an
“@” symbol:– Ex: I tweeted this: “My tongue in cheek experience with BIG Ontario
reds at the Expert’s Tasting #ccovi uncorkontario.com/?p=2214”– Jennifer Hall (@fashionfood) replied to me: “@UncorkOntario I love
this”– See how Jennifer’s Tweet started with @UncorkOntario? That means it
was directed at me (a reply), and here’s the important point:• I can see it in my feed, because it is an @ reply to me.• Others will only see it if they follow both @fashionfood and @UncorkOntario
– There is a way to reply that everyone sees it, and that is to start the reply with something other than the @ symbol.
– In our example then, Jennifer could have typed: “.@UncorkOntario I love this” <- The period placed before the @ symbol makes all the difference. Everyone that follows Jennifer will now see this, regardless of whether they follow me or not.
Retweets (RT & MT)• A ReTweet (RT) is a way of taking someone else’s message
and sending it to your followers.• For example – I tweet about a great wine I just had from
@KarloEstates. Sherry Martin (who runs that account) RTs it to her followers so they see my tweet• Most folks will usually reply to the originator as well
• Twitter on mobile devices allows you to “Quote” or “ReTweet”. Quoting allows you to add colour commentary to the RT, as long as the combined message is still <140 characters• A variation of this is a Modified Tweet (MT) where you may need
to abbreviate or shorten the original tweet in order to add your commentary
• It is courtesy to mark it MT in case you muddle the original context
DMs (Private Messages)
• Sometimes you want to send a quick tweet to someone but don’t want everyone to see it– For example, sending your cell number or your
home address to a friend
• DM stands for Direct Messages– A DM is like a text message on your phone (or a
short email). It ONLY goes to the one person intended. No one else can read it.
#Hashtags• The “#” sign is the sign of a hashtag. • It allows multiple people discussing a topic or
event to follow all of the conversations that are occurring, even if they are not following the person tweeting
– Examples:– #ONWineChat, #WineChat, #BCWineChat, #i4c2013– #Sens, #Leafs, #Bluejays
• Can search hashtags in Twitter Search, OR use a tool like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to follow the conversation (more on that later)
Twitter Chats
• Chats are an interesting way of having a discussion with a lot of people, but it can be difficult to follow just using the twitter Search and having to refresh
• Dashboard tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck make it much easier to follow an ongoing discussion, scrolling updates in real time.
• <Insert shameless plug for #ONWineChat every Wednesday at 10PM>
Time
• I know you are all thinking: “But doesn’t this take a lot of time?”– Yes, but some of the busiest people I know take the time to
engage with their followers– It only takes a few minutes a couple times a day to check in
and see what is new with the people you are following and engage with them
• You answer the phone, answer email– Social Media is just another means to talk with your
customers & potential customers (not at them)
Time – cont’d
Brian Schmidt, President VQA, winemaker and all-around farm hand has made his “Twactor Tweets” somewhat famous as he engages his followers in all aspects of the grape-growing and wine-making at Vineland Estates. I’m pretty sure no one told him this was his job!
If Brian can find time to engage, so can you!
Additional Help?
• Anything I can help with?• Easiest ways to reach me:– @UncorkOntario (Twitter)– [email protected] (email)