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24Mar

Your Weekly Action Plan to Twitter

Posted by: Katie Leimkuehler Categories: Social Media
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Twitter is an excellent tool to connect, engage and reach out to your fans, audience and customers. But just like anything, there is a right and a wrong approach to Twitter. Before anything you need to develop a social media strategy and then you need to create a weekly plan to make the most of your Twitter presence. It’s not rocket science, in a few simple steps; you can grow your following and take deliberate actions to build real relationships with your fans.

1. Follow 50 new people a week in your expertise and start building relationships with them. If you want people to be aware of you, you need to get in front of them. (Click to Tweet!) Reach out. Connect with them and follow them. Bonus points for following people in your field who are not just the key social media influencers with 100K fans, but the up-and-comers, who are making a mark and will remember you when they are on top.

2. Ask questions and thank people for promoting you. Believe it or not kindness goes along way especially in the social media realm. Always thank people for connecting with you and sharing your content, RTing or favoriting you. It’s a huge compliment and if you don’t take the time to do that, you risk potentially losing that relationship and fan.

3. Return the favor and promote other people. Be known as a content curator or as someone who shares excellent content all the time by the best and most credible bloggers and influencers. If you have a reputation for sharing the best, you will be associated with the best and you will soon be skyrocketing on Twitter.

4. Research those hashtags. If you think just putting a # in front of a word will really make a difference, it won’t—unless you look up the key hashtags for your industry, topic or post. For example, if you’re in the travel industry and not using#TravelTuesday, #SeetheWorld or #TheWorldAwaits, you are missing out on a huge audience. Use hashtagify.me to find relevant hashtags and the top influencers using them.

So take your Twitter game to the next level by following these four steps and don’t forget to be genuine, authentic and build trust with your fans.

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8Jan

4 Reasons You Should Be Hosting a Twitter Chat for Your Brand

Posted by: Katie Leimkuehler Categories: Social Media Travel
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tweet chat

 

If you’re looking to actively grow your social media presence and build up your Twitter than you should absolutely be hosting your own Twitter Chat! What is a Twitter Chat or Tweet Chat? Well, it’s basically an online chat room on Twitter where people who share a common interest such as travel, marketing or writing come together for an hour and talk about tips and best practices they’ve learned. This is typically done with a hashtag like #BrandChat #BlogChat.  Each Twitter Chat has a host, who directs the questions and navigates the conversation, and that host could be you! So, why is a Twitter Chat so hugely beneficial?

Here are 4 reasons why you should be hosting your own Twitter Chat.

1. Building and highlighting your expertise.

When you’re hosting a chat, people trust you and they quickly learn that you know what you are talking about in your field. You also build influence among your community.

2. Grow your brand exposure and customer base. 

Twitter Chats create massive exposure for your brand and in a fast pace way. It’s a quick way to interact with your customers, hear their thoughts and concerns, and address them in a positive manner. It also exposes you to new fans who may never have heard of you before and is an excellent way to market your company or brand.

3. Learn about new trends in your industry and what people want.

Be the first to know about a new site, product or app that might help you do your business better. During the chat most users will share valuable content and info that you can go back to later and review. You’ll be on top of the newest happenings from your own audience! Not to mention you might stumble across an idea for a new product based on feedback from your customers or learn how tweak one that already exists.

4. Creating ultimate transparency and a true connection with your fan base.

By hosting a Twitter Chat you’re telling your audience you’re an expert in this topic by helping answering their questions and facilitating a discussion. You are also connecting them with like-minded individuals and creating a lasting bond that will have them coming back to each chat. Not mention, it’s an excellent way to do a product launch after you’ve hosted several chats.

Not sure you want to host your own? Well, first participate in one! Find a Twitter Chat and learn how to join a Twitter Chat. If you need help or want me to host a your chat just email me at katieleimkuehler@gmail.com.

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23Jan

The Rising Influence of Social Media on the Movie Industry

Posted by: Katie Leimkuehler Categories: Social Media
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The days of buying billboards and print ads are quickly fading in the movie industry. Viral social media campaigns are becoming the new and best marketing strategy for the movie biz. And just how is the industry taking advantage of this? One of the best tactics they’ve nailed down is creating anticipation and hype of a movie nearly a year in advance. Not to mention social media drastically cuts the cost of advertising and fuels constant communication. There have been a few movies that have capitalized on social media marketing resulting in big box office numbers.  

The Hunger Games is one movie that to-date has one of the best approaches to social media by creating an entire campaign built around fan-based communication through social media channels including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Lionsgate and the agency Ignition that helped with the campaign understood that forming personal connections with their fans would have a huge pay off and it did.

Lionsgate stepped up the campaign further, by not just promoting the movie, but actively calling fans to engage with it by assigning them different roles in the virtual world of TheCapitol.pn. This gave fans an identity in the world of The Hunger Games and opened the door for more involvement. Additionally, the company kept engagement up by using twitter hashtags, online events and by releasing a game app, The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire, the day before the movie opened. The movie series has now set-up a solid foundation though social media with its fans for the next two movies.

Another movie that saw success with forming a great social media strategy was Ted. The comedy staring Mark Wahlberg and his foul-mouth teddy bear, Seth MacFarlane, brought the character to life on Twitter. 

Screenwriters of the film, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, took the campaign to a new level when they began tweeting lines of inappropriate humor as the bear from @WhatTedSaid. The tactic worked helping the movie make $54 million its opening weekend.

One of the most unique social media movie strategies was for Paramount’s, Paranormal Activity 4, where the studio created a “Want It” campaign that allowed Facebook and Twitter users to request a premier in their hometown forcing them to compete and rewarding the 25 cities with the most votes to get the movie first.

As social media continues to grow and challenges the way we think about connecting—movies and the film industry will be equally challenged to not just promote their movies, but make them an engaging experience inside the theater and out.

What movie for 2013 do you think has the best social media plan in place? The first ten people to offer thoughtful comments will receive a free half hour of social media coaching.

 

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24Sep

How to Find a Job Using Twitter

Posted by: Katie Leimkuehler Categories: Advice Career Social Media
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I’ll admit Twitter isn’t the first place most people are going to start to job hunt, but that’s also why it’s a great place to look. 

Unlike, LinkedIn where everyone is searching for a job or to connect with people hoping to score them a job, Twitter offers you a chance to connect with jobs not posted on traditional job sites like Career Builder or Monster. Why is this a benefit? Because you’re not always competing against thousands of other applicants that massively apply to jobs at random.

There are also two big bonuses to job searching on Twitter:

  1. You’ll immediately get in contact with a real person.
  2. You’ll hear back from them much faster.

First off, make your Twitter profile stand out and look professional. Include your job pitch in your bio along with a link to your resume or LinkedIn profile. Also be sure to have a background that stands out and a professional photo so potential employers will take you seriously.

Next, show off your expertise. Tweet about news and trends in your career field consistently and follow key players in your industry. This will help establish your credibility, expertise, and knowledge.

Now, start the job hunt. The easiest and fastest way to find a job on Twitter is with TwitJobSearch. It’s essentially a search engine for Twitter, but shows only jobs in the results. You can type in the industry and location you want a job and the search will show you the latest and most relevant Tweets putting you in direct contact with the person who posted it. You can also search by when the it was Tweeted, job title, country, city, salary, Tweet frequency, skill and job type, making the process much easier than it ever has been.

If you want broaden your search look for jobs by using hashtags on Twitter such as #jobs, #recruiting, #jobadvice, #jobposting, #jobhunt and #jobsearch or if you want to be more specific try #marketingjobs, #salesjobs, ect. You can also type in key phrases such as “looking for a job” or “job opening” in Twitter that will pull up Tweets that have those words in the post. 

Additionally, follow companies you know you want to work for and you’ll be the first to hear about their career opportunities. You can also follow recruiters, HR professionals and jobs by industry.

One of the most important aspects of job searching on Twitter is to act immediately. Job posting will usually be filled or reach their maximum number of candidates faster on Twitter than other job sites so don’t miss your chance to get the job you want!  

 

 

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8Aug

How To Turn Your Fans Into Brand Advocates

Posted by: Katie Leimkuehler Categories: Social Media Start-Ups
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So you’ve got some facebook and Twitter fans, people are liking and commenting on your pages—but what does that lead to? How can you capitalize on this? By turning your fans into your biggest brand advocates. Here’s how to do it.

  • First identify who are your brand advocates. These are the people commenting, sharing, and regularly engaging with your brand at a higher caliber than most fans.
  • Make them feel special. Send a message or email to those individuals thanking them for participating in your online community and encourage them to continue to interact.
  • Reward them. If they’ve done a truly great job spreading the word about your company offer them a gift card, free lunch or guest blog post.
  • Build a relationship. Chances are that if a brand advocate likes your company their friends and family will too. Value their connections. Encourage them to share and continue to share content with others by forming a relationship with them. They’ll feel honored and you’ll have a strong brand supporter on your side.

Want to find out how to turn you biggest complainers into satisfied customers? Check out this article from FastCompany.

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26Jul

How To Get More Followers on Twitter

Posted by: Katie Leimkuehler Categories: Social Media
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So you’re ready to grow your brand on Twitter, but not sure how to do it? Well, here are five tips that will increase your followers and engagement that will help your brand soar to the next level in social media.

Share intriguing content. Find your niche industry and focus on ways you can help people. Post links to great articles, quotes that move you and captivating images. This is key.

Post during the peak hours. Twitter’s highest traffic times are between 1-3 p.m. ET that will give you the highest click rate. Check out this infographic that show the best times to post.

Mimic the leaders. See what other powerful Tweeters are doing. What are they sharing? How do they interact with people. Take notes and implement on your account.

Take advantage of hashtags. Don’t miss out on people finding you. Whatever the topic or post is you’re writing, i.e. #socialmedia, be sure to add the hashtag so if people search the subject your tweets come up.

Join a Twitter Chat. Participate in quick online discussions on any topic from business to writing. Check out a list of Twitter Chats scheduled throughout the week. This is a quick way to interact with people in your industry and build up relationships. Be ready for some fast paced interactions and take advantage of Tweet Chat to stay in on the conversation.

 

 

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