So much is made of Twitter as a platform for conversation, it’s powerful search qualities are often overlooked.

Twitter provides marketers with the ability to micro-target based on geography, keywords and phrases, subjects referenced, content and even sentiment shared.

The increased ability to search necessitates a deeper understanding of your target audience. It also enables marketers to create an ongoing focus group to obtain it.

Use search.twitter.com, wefollow.com and other tools to find your brand’s target consumers.

If you follow 100 people from your target audience, you’ll notice trends. You’ll see who your target audience really is, what they read, think and share.

Your ability to market to them will greatly improve, too. You’ll stop seeing them as just statistics and more as real people.

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If you work in midtown Manhattan, you’re likely to know the food cart I’m talking about. It’s the one on 53rd and 6th with 30 people waiting in line. They’re waiting to eat middle eastern food sold from a cart the size of a mini-copper. And they wait at all hours. When I passed by at 10 pm at least 50 people were in line. When I asked them if the food was “that good” to merit the line, they responded, “well, I saw the line, so it must be.”

I believe the same psychology of lines applies to Twitter. So often people use following / follower ratio to determine who they want to follow before actually “trying the food.”

There are many ways to cause lines to form, yet far fewer to cook a great meal.

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If you follow social media, you’re familiar with the phrase “lead the conversation.” Brands use when discussing a thought leader strategy online. For example, HubSpot helps small to medium size businesses with tools to manage inbound marketing. They’ve created twitter.grader.com and other tools, to lead the conversation about online tools. Zappos, in addition to being a major online retailer, is leading the conversation about customer service. They use twitter, company blogs and executive keynotes to evangelize about customer service. Nokia’s recent Facebook application, Talking Points, is another example of a powerhouse brand leading a conversation onlinw..

The Talking Points application asks Facebook users to write the rules on conversational etiquette on Facebook, text, mobile and in person. The community votes on the best responses, and users can send responses to their Facebook friends to earn even more votes. Nokia’s tagline is “connecting people,” and this promotion does just that. In fact, it’s a group conversation on the etiquette of how we connect.

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Richard exemplifies a social media entrepreneur.  When he first began Israeli Wine Direct, he used his blog as a way to interview and gain access to Israeli wine experts. And once the business was established, social media has opened doors to new audiences.

His approach to marketing is personal. Wine lovers across America, including Guy Kawasaki, invite him into their home to pour Israeli wine for friends and families. Speak to Richard for 30 seconds and you’ll understand why he gets invited. His passion for wine is contagious, and he shares it on his company blog, Twitter, Friendfeed, YouTube and Facebook.

As his business becomes even more successful, I look forward to seeing how Richard’s enthusiasm will translate into creating a company culture with an even greater impact.

Check out our discussion below.

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Vizu, a brand advertising measurement company, offers a free web widget that may interest you.
They enable you to put customizable polls on your site.
Toyota’s Open Road Blog is using it effectively to ask its readers what type of blog posts they would like to read.

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Social Influence Marketing

Welcome to the Social World

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialproducts internet)

PR Bootcamp for Twitter

Ogilvy PR 360 DI Twitter Webinar

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: pr publicrelations)

International Social Media

Universal Mccann International Social Media Research Wave 3

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialmedia research)

What’s your favorite slideshare presentation on social media?

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(Packed House at SMB10 by Bob Collins on Flickr)

The theme of Social Media Breakfast Boston 10 was “ Getting ROI Out of Social Media.”
HubSpot’s CEO Brian Halligan discussed their method for measuring how social media conversations translate into sales.
Marketers at the event suggested that hiring good content people is a more attractive alternative than buying advertising.
Matt Cutler, Vice President, Marketing & Analytics at Visible Measures, presented on the ROI of viral video.
Visible Measures has powerful tools for measuring viral impact, a database of millions of videos and criteria to evaluate what makes videos “go viral.”
Matt drew a comparison to how much Nike would have had to spend on TV commercials to create the same impact that one of their viral videos had (with 16M views).

He calculated that broadcast TV CPMs are apx. $25 and online video CPMs are apx. $50-75, and he created an estimate.
His formula needs to add one critical consideration: context.
Watching a viral video forwarded to me by a friend, posted in a favorite blog or on a social network is worth much more than a tv spot that interrupts my show.

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There are thousands of communities on many different platforms within social media, yet the single phrase persists.

Being apart of the social media community means several things to me:

Listening. To what your customers are saying about you and to see if your brand promise matches the brand experience.
Responding. There’s what you say and where you are saying it: whether it’s in a social media press release, your corporate blog, your Facebook page or bloggers’ comments.
Showing up. Attending events,  being visible in search with a social media footprint and paying attention.
Giving back. As Guy Kawasaki mentions, an important part of the social media community is helping others who cannot help you.

I recently asked my community on Twitter whether using Twitter is synonymous to being apart of the social media community. Here’s what they offered:

Robert Scoble wrote: “Do you say you are part of the telephone community cause you use a phone? So, why do that with social media? I’m just a human, not a SM’er.”

He raises an interesting point—just because someone uses a technology does not necessarily make them a part of a community. However, if the telephone were used only by 1/3 of 1% of the US population (like Twitter) and those who used it shared similar political and social ideas, and they often met up and celebrated the way they were using the telephone, I would call them a part of a community. Would you?

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(The meaning of follow, by dhammza on Flickr)

When people follow you on Twitter how do you decide whether to follow them back?

Here are criteria I use:

• Your last three tweets made me laugh or think.
• I already know you, and/or read your blog.
• The link in your bio points somewhere interesting – not to a place I have to login to see
• I like your wallpaper, photo or your icon.
• You have sent me an @ reply with something interesting
• Following / follower ratio (no spammers thank you)
• Your bio is appealing
• Because I suddenly feel like it and will decide later if there’s a fit

I asked a few friends on Twitter the same question:

@bmanley:  For me, if they seem “techy” and don’t look “spamy”, I’ll follow.
@msjen:  I read their tweets if I don’t know them. If they are a good writer, funny & not shilling a product or service then I follow
@thehotiron:  I usually go ahead and follow, then see what I am following!
@JayNeely: @quiverandquill 1) Do I know them? 2) Do their tweets show we share interests? 3) Are they over-following? 4) Are they tweeting too much?
@BryanPerson: Check out that person’s profile/tweets and look for points in common: living area, tweet topics, profession, industry, etc.

How do you decide?

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Twellow

Find Twitter friends based on their interests. While it’s not comprehensive, it’s a great start.

Qwitter: Catching Twitter Quitters

Qwitter sends you an email when someone stops following you. Their website is brilliant because it shows exactly what they do.

Tweetstats

Simple stats for Twitter users

Deontee’s blog post: 47 top Twitter services

If you like comprehensive guides, you’ll love this list of Twitter tools.

Check out Brian Solis’ post for more Twitter tools.

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