Twitter Strategy: The Incomplete Guide for Beginners

By Paul | 

One of the hottest topics in our industry right now is how professionals and corporations can use Twitter.

First and foremost, it’s important to note that Twitter is not a blatant sales and self-promotional tool. Social networking on Twitter is a long-term strategy in which you must bring value to the community by publishing and sharing relevant information.

With the proper Website analytics, you certainly can (and should) track traffic, inbound links, leads and sales from Twitter, but like most social media participation, I would not suggest setting out to achieve specific measurable objectives.

Here are the 7 steps I’d recommend for beginners getting started on Twitter:

1) Secure your personal and/or brand name.

If you haven’t already, go to Twitter.com to reserve your personal name and brand name before someone else does.

For entrepreneurs and company executives unsure whether to tweet as yourself (@FullName) or the brand (@CompanyName), although there certainly are exceptions, in most cases it is more effective to go with @FullName.

2) Build your profile to be found.

You have 160 characters to describe yourself and pique the curiosity of potential followers. Mix in your personal and professional interests to connect with a larger base of tweeters.

• Be sure to put your full real name in the account settings section.
• Create a descriptive, keyword-rich bio. Think about the keywords that you would search to find yourself. It’s fine to be cute and creative, but make sure someone reading your profile understands who you are and what you do.
• Be sure to include a link to your Website or blog.
• Do NOT lock your updates, unless you are on Twitter strictly to connect with your existing network.
• Upload a good picture of yourself with a distinguishable face.
• Change the design to anything but the default setting.

[SAMPLE TWITTER PROFILE]

3) Pick your applications.

In order to get the most out of Twitter, without getting overwhelmed, it’s important to download applications that make it easier to monitor and participate. Based on a great blog post from @chrisbrogan (who knows far more about this stuff than I do), I now use Tweetdeck for my Mac and Twittelator Pro for my iPhone.

Note that some tweeters will run into corporate roadblocks accessing twitter and downloading apps, so check with your IT department. Also, quick note to HR departments, if you don’t have a Twitter policy in place, it’s probably time to add one to your employee handbook.

4) Publish some relevant tweets.

I’d suggest posting 10 or so relevant tweets before you move on to step 5. At least for me, before I follow someone back I’ve never met, I glance at their bio to make sure we have something in common, and I scan the first page of their updates to see that they are making an effort to contribute something of value to the community. There are people who choose to auto-follow everyone, but it’s not what we advise our clients to do.

So what makes for good tweets?

• You read dozens (if not hundreds) of blog posts, articles and emails every day . . . start there. Share news alerts, industry trend posts, your own blogs posts, random relevant thoughts on your profession, predictions, etc. Just keep it non-promotional and useful.
• Re-tweet (RT) valuable information from your Friends.
• Direct message (DM) people who post especially strong tweets.

Some “Twitter Elite” can post a play-by-play of their entire day and still keep followers interested, but for most of us tweeting in moderation is recommended. I know that personally I have learned to skim by when I see the familiar face of some uber-tweeters.

It’s recommended to share personal information (i.e. interests, hobbies, travel, etc.) because it makes your participation more authentic and creates deeper connections, but we strongly advise clients not to get carried away with this kind of content.

5) Find friends and build followers.

• Start with people you already know on Twitter. Follow them, then see whom they follow and see if there’s anyone that would make for a good connection. Quick tip, when viewing friends and followers on Twitter.com, hover over someone’s name and their bio will pop up. You can click on their name and visit their Twitter page too.
• Next go to twitter.grader.com and search by keywords for people like you. Twitter Grader (@grader) pulls keywords from the bios of top tweeters, so you can scan their bios and then click over to their page to learn more or follow. Here are some sample keywords I’ve searched to find friends: CEO, entrepreneur, social media, inbound marketing, PR, public relations, golf, Cleveland and SEO.

• Another great place to find like-minded tweeters is search.twitter.com. Just enter keywords that interest you (i.e. “public relations”) and see who’s tweeting on the topic. Click on their name, check out their bio, and follow if it’s a good fit.
• Watch for @ replies from your friends and click on people that seem interesting. Follow them if you’d like.
• Add your Twitter name to your business cards, email signature and social network profiles (Facebook, LinkedIn).
• Include your Twitter name at the end of every blog post.

6) Establish a monitoring and participation system that works for you.

The more people you follow, the harder it is to keep track of everything that’s happening on Twitter. It’s amazing how much you can miss in an hour.

• Use “Groups” on Twittelator and Tweetdeck (or whatever apps you choose) to make sure you at least see the people that are most important to you and your business. Here are some sample groups to consider: your co-workers/employees, media, industry influentials, business partners, top bloggers, Twitter Elite, and local tweeters.
• Start tweeting at a frequency that fits your schedule. Twitter can be addictive, especially as you're getting started, and when you add it to your mobile phone. I usually check Twitter 6-10 times per day on average (first thing in the morning, at lunch, 1-2 times in the afternoon, end of the workday, and 1-2 times in the evening).

7) Connect, build relationships and have fun!

I’ve met some great people through Twitter, and even connected offline at face-to-face networking events. If you follow the steps in this post, you can quickly build up your follower base and make some valuable connections.

The young Syrian businessmen making it happen

Abdulsalam Haykal is a well-known face in both Damascus and Lebanon: at 31, he is a highly successful businessman with fingers in so many pies that piles of business cards line his desk.

Fluent in Arabic and English, he studied at Lebanon's American University of Beirut (AUB) and then at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and is the son of a successful businessman in the shipping and banking industries. We meet in his office at Transtek, the 60-person software company he heads. Sitting back in his leather chair opposite a flat screen television, Haykal is buoyant about the future of Syria. He has just become the first Syrian to be named as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In his other roles, he is the CEO of Haykal Media, one of the largest - and very few - private media companies in Syria. He is also a trustee on the boards of AUB and Kalamoon University, the latter a new private university, 80km north of Damascus.

Young, well-educated and confident, Haykal is typical of a group of businessmen enjoying a freedom and corresponding power and wealth in Syria that past generations could only have dreamt of. Schooled abroad, well-off and well-connected because of their families, they are grabbing the opportunities of economic liberalisation, starting large businesses and providing the services their peers want. "There is a large space for the private sector in Syria now," Haykal says. "We have amazing, unprecedented space in which to work."

Down the road, one of his contemporaries, Adnan Tarabishy, works from his office in Mezzeh Villas, a relatively new neighbourhood in Damascus. At 32, he is the founder and managing director of Y2AD, Syria's top advertising agency, which manages publicity for international brands such as Sony, Nivea and Pepsi. Returning to his homeland after studying at the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut, Tarabishy found unforeseen opportunities open to him. And as a member of another family with a well-established reputation, thanks to its four-generation packaging business, he was familiar with Syria's business world and could rely on his family name. "It was the ideal time," he says. "Advertising was still fairly unknown here - there were no billboards, for example, and there was also no know-how."

Now, with a turnover of several million dirhams per year, Y2AD is Syria's leading company for representing international brands: a list that is expanding steadily as importing to the country becomes easier. "The big space is for services, which are new to older people but normal to young people," Tarabishy says. "In modern service companies, there is less competition and often less start-up capital needed."

Tarabishy and Haykal are not alone: George Chawi, the owner of Dome and O-Lounge, Damascus's hippest bar and restaurant; Karim Tabah, the vice-president of the Nasco group of companies, whose interests run from medical to agricultural supplies; and Majd Suleiman, the head of United Group, a publishing company that has the Middle Eastern concessions to titles such as the women's magazine Marie Claire.

In the few multinational companies operating in Syria, the demographic of middle management is the same as that of the entrepreneurs. From the Four Seasons Hotel to the MTN telecommunications company, those in their late 20s and early 30s are ruling the roost. "The most inspiring people are young people," Haykal points out. "They have the big aspirations and the energy; they are willing and able to take the challenge of running a new business."

The results of the entrepreneurial drive are plain to see. Damascus is no Dubai, but visitors to the country over the past few years would have noticed that it has been changing. Sprouting up are slick, glass malls containing goods and services hitherto unknown to the country's 20 million citizens. Take Damasquino Mall or Damascus Boulevard, for instance, where international brands such as Nike and Lacoste were tempted into the country for the first time; Costa Coffee and Lina's sell coffee at upwards of six times the price charged in an ordinary Syrian cafe, outstripping the price in Europe and the United States.

It's a far cry from the Damascus of even a decade ago: a visit to the city then offered little choice of food or accommodation, and the wealthy went to Beirut or Dubai to shop. These days, new boutique hotels, bars and restaurants are springing up and being featured in magazines such as Haykal Media's unapologetically elite fashion and lifestyle glossy,Happynings. With such developments, Syria is tempting the young and the wealthy to stay - and play - at home. "It's an exciting time for business here," says Haykal. "There are so many opportunities to help shape the country and have an impact."

In the regional context, Syria and its young entrepreneurs are playing in the small league compared to neighbours Jordan and Lebanon, but they are enjoying a faster ascent due to its lower starting point. Reliable figures are hard to come by, and GDP growth is distorted by oil revenues, but there are other indicators of the country's rise. Retail space in malls is one. In 2008, Syria was estimated to have had just 55,000 square metres of shop floor space in malls, according to UK consultancy group Retail International. In the following year it doubled in size and is still expanding.

This consumer trend is driven by the top sector of society, says Mohammed al-Mallah, an expert on the Syrian retail scene. "You see the malls are full of labels because that's what the demand is for," he says. "The top sector of society got wealthier and wants to be able to get these things at home." The two trends feed off one another: the young elite have more money to spend, so this encourages better services in Syria, while the demand grows, so more services are needed. But a more important change, according to the young entrepreneurs, is the wider field the government has created with its economic changes.

In the past few years, Syria has been moving away from its former centrally planned economy under which the private sector was scorned. Despite a few attempts to loosen the economy in the Eighties, reform slowed as Syria sat back and enjoyed revenues from newly discovered oil reserves. In 2000, the new president Bashar al Assad came to power. He had big plans for business, which were boosted in 2005 when the transition to a social market economy was announced.

The international isolation that Syria endured after the assassination of the Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, in 2005, for which the country was widely blamed, slowed progress down, but it is now regaining ground. And the generation of recent graduates is well placed to take advantage of the new scene."We have population growth and at the same time, globalisation, which means more people want more things, as well as needing schools and colleges and healthcare," says Haykal. "The government has realised it can no longer even maintain the status quo, and that's where we come in."

While there is excitement over the opportunities, there is also a healthy dose of disbelief at the freedom being given to those operating in the private sector. After all, many of the young men in the business elite are family friends who have studied together and can help each other out with networking. Tarabishy acknowledges that the benefits don't extend to a large majority of Syrians. "The opportunity is theoretically there for all, but the ones able to take it are the ones who are well placed."

And he readily admits his own business was aided by being the son of an influential businessman. "Because of my name I got credit, even though I wasn't in the family business," he says. "When I say credit, I don't just mean financial - you get priority or special treatment." But Haykal points out that there are usually only a small group of people at the top. "Realistically, anyone starting a business needs the right ingredients - the team, an idea, good timing, financial support, expertise, and the network and connections. There are people who can do this, and there are people who cannot.

"But," he says, "it is essential that we encourage small- and medium-size businesses to create inclusive economic growth." That is why he and others like him are using their power to help entrepreneurs who aren't so fortunate. The Syrian Young Entrepreneurs Association (SYEA) was set up by Haykal and other young businessmen to give grants and business advice. Another, Bidaya, which means "beginning" in Arabic, funds 18- to 35 year-olds from low-income backgrounds. With this support, young people have had more opportunities to start small businesses. Enas Essa, for example, is a 32-year-old founder of an audiobook business. Mouayad Hamoudeh, 22, started his own dental implements business in a relatively poor area on the outskirts of Damascus.

Some young businessmen are helping others in more personal ways. Hassan Daboul, 31, is among those who benefited from education outside Syria, getting an MBA at Beirut's LAU. Now a board member of his father's aluminium company, he is also supporting a friend's glass art business. "I give some financial support and also put in a call when she can't access the people she needs," he says. "She can't do it alone as she doesn't have the financial resources or the big PR network."

Women are another group who have yet to see the full benefits of Syria's changes filter down to them. Many young women work, but few have yet made it to the big business boardrooms. "There are still expectations and family assumptions about the role of women in society," says Dia Haykal, 22, the sister of Abdulsalam, who works alongside him at Transtek. "But for our generation of young women, the situation is improving, gradually."

Where will Syria's economy go from here? Tabah says the future is hard to predict. "I am not in a position to make forecasts," he says. "I would like to see medium-size businesses as the basis of the economy, but here, family businesses are normal. Even big businessmen are individual not institutional, and so big changes are needed." In the meantime, the country's able young men are taking advantage of the opportunities open to them in the ever-expanding private sector, and changing the face of Syria, at least superficially.

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/the-young-syrian-businessmen-making-it-happen#ixzz2dUz3763y
Follow us: @TheNationalUAE on Twitter | thenational.ae on Facebook