Our Twitter Community Management Services

by Chris Abraham on April 24, 2009 · 0 comments

Twitter is not a broadcast medium, it is a community-prospecting platform.  In order for the entire community to take shape and take bloom, one needs to not simply register an account, one needs to design, populate, and then prospect followers before there can be any real growth.

Twitter community-building
This community-building leverages both our collected contacts and current community relationships as well as several tools that we use to help promote and grow online reputation and growth of your Twitter online reputation.  In other words, like everything online, if you build it they won’t come.  Building it is a start, if course, but unless you’re Oprah or Ashton Kutcher, there is a lot of work and a lot of building, promotion, and prospecting required, and that is what Abraham Harrison LLC can do for you.

Twitter posts
Twitter has become an essential part of online branding. Companies, celebrities, brands, and even fictional entities have been leveraging the ease-of-use and the simplicity of Twitter to both communication with current and potential customers as well as being able to engage and respond to user question, user requests, and user responses.  However, it isn’t as simple as posting status updates to Twitter regularly.  In our process, we work with the client to come up with 25-100 pre-approved “tweets” that the client can approve, veto, or edit.  Over time, AHLLC is able to message on behalf of you, the client, with messages that are consistent with client vision. After that, the messages are delivered to the Twitter stream with an approved-to frequency, from once-per-day to a couple posts to multiple-posts-per-day, with the frequency according to the scope of the contract.  During this process, it is also important — essential — to trust the Twitter team to be able to triage all replies and direct messages on behalf of the client — or, there needs to be a rapid process to triage replies and direct messages through the client.  As the campaign moves forward, the evolution of the campaign can change to offer more and more independence to the Twitterer.

Twitter Retweets
The secred sauce of Twitter is retweeting (retweet (RT) a) to copy a tweet and then send it again on twitter. b) passing along of messages in Twitter) Retweeting is the epitome of what makes Twitter such a powerful tool.

Retweeting allows Twitterers to repeat content from one Twitter stream they’re following onto all of their own followers.  Writing compelling tweets is what organically can result in retweets down the Twitter stream; however, it is also important to use Retweets as a form of reciprocal currency. Retweeting someone else’s tweet can engender attention or connection and build social equity within the “Twitterverse.”

In addition to intentionally retweeting on a client’s behalf, one of the benefits of running your Twitter campaign through Abraham Harrison LLC is that you are able to instantaneously have all of your client tweets retweeted through not only our staff’s Twitter accounts but through all the status-update social network sites our staff is a member of.

This allows our clients an automatically enter the conversation well-in-advance of their earned reputation online.

Twitter message modeling
In our process, we work with the client to come up with 25-100 pre-approved “tweets” that the client can approve, veto, or edit.  Over time, AHLLC is able to message on behalf of you, the client, with messages that are consistent with client vision. After that, the messages are delivered to the Twitter stream with an approved-to frequency, from once-per-day to a couple posts to multiple-posts-per-day, with the frequency according to the scope of the contract.

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Our Online Intelligence, Metrics, and Reporting Services

by Chris Abraham on April 24, 2009 · 0 comments

Tracking and monitoring the online reputation of your brand, company, product, and services on your behalf, as a way of keeping track of conversation real-time.  Unless reporting is explicitly agreed to, this “open source intelligence” will be monitored for content, friendliness, and threat. Any and all threats are triaged and reported to the the appropriate client point of contact.

Abraham Harrison retains a suite of tools, algorithms, and strategies that allow us to provide you and your client with bona fide measurements, including reach, tone, and sentiment.  This suite of tools allow us to create illustrative proof, over time, of the efficacy of the campaign from the launch and over time.  This level of metrics allows us to compete with PPC and SEM and other metric-based advertising strategies.

Intelligence plus metric plus time equals reports. Client and campaign reporting is something that needs to be defined and agreed to in advance of the camapaign because reports are not built into the capaign but are a la carte and you get to define the specificity and granularity of the reporting.  Generally, reports are done bi-weekly or monthly, usually intersperced with weekly updates and “as needed” alerts.

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Attend Our Free Twitter Webinar on April 30 at 1PM EDT

by Chris Abraham on April 23, 2009 · 1 comment

On April 30, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT, I will be offering a free webinar on how to Twitter for business, including lots of case studies and a whole bunch of useful information.  The title is How To Use Twitter effectively for business, advocacy and policy and you should probably register now!

Register Now for a Free Webinar on Twitter

Hear from Anamitra Bannerji of Twitter and Chris Abraham of Abraham Harrison LLC about how to use Twitter effectively in a professional context.

Twitter is all the rage, with celebrities, politicians and business leaders all jumping on the chance to provide real time information and feedback to their followers. But naysayers have questioned its value as a serious communications tool for change.

Find out the techniques and strategies for effective Twitter use that can make the difference between success and failure, that can dramatically drive up understanding and communication of your message. Learn what to avoid so you don’t run into social or legal trouble.

This webinar will provide you with positive techniques to:

  • Grow your Twitter audience
  • Provide more effective and better ‘tweets’
  • Get your tweets picked up, passed on and discussed
  • Stay focused on core values

Speakers
Chris Abraham, AbrahamHarrison. Chris is President and COO of Abraham Harrison and is a leading expert in online public relations with a focus on blogger outreach, blogger engagement, and Internet reputation management. He is a pioneer in online social networks and publishing.

Anamitra Bannerji, Twitter. Anamitra works on commercial applications of Twitter as part of the Twitter product management team.

Moderator
Owen Linderholm, WebinarAce. Owen is a web content strategy expert specializing in new media, social networking and new approaches to content on the web. He has produced and moderated dozens of webinars for organizations large and small.

This webinar will take place live on Thursday April 30th at 1 PM EST and 10AM PST. It will include audience participation in the form of live polls and a live question and answer session. It will be recorded and the recorded version will be made available within 48 hours for on demand viewing.

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Thanks to the Snuggle Crème Bloggers

by Chris Abraham on April 21, 2009 · 0 comments

On behalf of all of us at Abraham Harrison, Lowe New York, and Snuggle, I just wanted to thank all the bloggers who have blogged about Snuggle Crème fabric softener in the last month or so.   There were a bunch of tweets as well, but we have been able to find over 173 blog posts.  We are beholden to your time, energy, interest, and your earned coverage. Thank you!

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Stars Really Don’t Need to Follow You Back on Twitter

by Chris Abraham on April 21, 2009 · 2 comments

Oprah and Barbara WaltersSo many folks are scolding stars like @oprah and @barbarajwalters because they’re not following-back the thousands of fans who are following them. Here is a case-in-point from Lena Claxton and Alison Woo, Don’t Make Oprah’s Twitter Mistakes:

Right now by only following 10 people, she’s using Twitter as a broadcast medium. The power in Twitter is in speaking AND listening. And for someone who already has a huge platform to speak to her audience with her TV show, she might consider using Twitter to LISTEN and engage in conversation.

Stars don’t need to follow-back. They’re stars.  Their brand is secure and we don’t even need to engage in a conversation with us, necessarily.  And, if Barbara Walters and Oprah Winfrey do a good enough job at nodding, winking, and sharing insights into their lives, their process, and their experience, that’s good enough, because they’re stars, they’re not like us, and they don’t really need our approval.

Additionally, if an A-list celeb is following everyone back and responding to all convos and carefully-reading their Twitter stream to the tune of 300,000+ follow-backs, it will probably end up not being the star or celebrity herself, but a small flock of ghost-twitterers, which is something we the fans don’t want at all.

Case-in-point why Oprah is doing it write is that tonight on Entertainment Tonight, they reported that Oprah had announced that she was cancelling a show today about Columbine — and she did it on Twitter:

Oprah Tweeted Pulling Columbine Show

@oprah I pulled the Columbine show today-After reviewing, thought it focused too much on killers-hold a thought for the families, hard day for them (via Twitter)

This kind of open and generous “broadcasting” with her viewers, fans, and the media — ET and TMZ included — is what this is all about — if, and only if, you’re not only a star but also one of the most powerful women on the planet.

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Keep On Marketing Through the Recession

by Chris Abraham on April 21, 2009 · 0 comments

My dad, Bob Abraham, was an Ad Man at BBDO in the 60s, then he moved into photography in the 70s before evolving into multi-projector slide shows and multimedia production after we moved to Honolulu, Hawaii.

Bob Abraham with Roxanne and Courtney by you.

Back in the 80s, the bottom went out on tourism as the Japanese bailed Hawaii and so did many US tourists. Anyway, the first thing my dad’s clients did was cut promotion, cut ad and creative budgets — generally cut off their nose to spite their face.

Well, twenty-years later, I am experiencing the same thing, as a purveyor of digital PR. Alas, this is an historical problem, as Derrick Daye reaffirmed in his post, Recession Marketing Success Requires Boldness.

All Ad Men, PR Pros, Media Buyers, and Marketers know that this is the perfect time to get an advantage over your rivals because everyone is decimating their marketing, PR, and ad budgets and going “dark,” leaving many of the best ad placements available and at prices you could never imaging circa 2005.

The long-story short is that “during and after the recessions of 1949, 1954, 1958 and 1961, they found that almost without exception sales and profits dropped off at companies that cut back on advertising” and “studies also revealed that after the recessions ended, those companies continued to lag behind the ones that had maintained their advertising budgets.”

Here’s a longer excerpt from Recession Marketing Success Requires Boldness for you to check out:

Over the years hundreds of studies have been conducted to prove companies should maintain advertising during a recession. In the 1920’s advertising executive Roland S. Vaile tracked 200 companies through the recession of 1923. He reported in the April 1927 issue of the Harvard Business Review that the biggest sales increases throughout the period were rung up by companies that advertised the most. After World War II, Buchen Advertising, Inc. decided to plot the sales of a large number of advertisers through successive recessions. In 1947, it began measuring the annual advertising expenditures of each company. When they correlated the figures with sales and profit trends before, during and after the recessions of 1949, 1954, 1958 and 1961, they found that almost without exception sales and profits dropped off at companies that cut back on advertising.

Their studies also revealed that after the recessions ended, those companies continued to lag behind the ones that had maintained their advertising budgets. In 1979 another study by ABP/Meldrum & Fewsmith, covering the recession of 1974-75 and post-recession years, showed similar findings. They found that “companies which did not cut advertising expenditures during the recession years (1974-1975), experienced higher sales and net income during those two years and the two years following than companies which cut ad budgets in either or both recession years.”

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Guy Kawasaki’s New Book Reality Check

by Chris Abraham on April 19, 2009 · 2 comments

http://my.opera.com/community/graphics/competition/reality-check.jpgI am pretty sure that Guy Kawasaki must have a complete staff because there really are not  enough hours in the day for him to do all of the things he does, on a daily, basis alone.   Well, I have not yet read Reality Check, but here’s a short-form review by Shoestring Branding, Book Review: Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki:

The former Apple evangelist, venture capitalist and founder of internet ventures Truemors and Alltop, has distilled decades of experience in his latest book, Reality Check, and does it in a way that is both informative and entertaining.

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You are Free to Choose Who You Follow on Twitter

by Chris Abraham on April 19, 2009 · 4 comments

Adam is an insightful fellow. He put into words what I have been thinking: celebrities are not ruining Twitter because nobody is forced to follow celebs — or anyone — on Twitter. Please read Celebrities Are Not Taking Over Twitter for the rest of the below insightful excerpt:

Celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Shaquille O’Neal and Britney Spears are not taking over Twitter.  A well publicized event like Oprah tweeting on her show won’t help.  Ashton vs. Larry King, in a contest to see which account, @aplusk (“a plus k”) or @cnnbrk can reach a million followers first is a publicity event that had lots of benefits for both in terms of building large networks, but they are not taking over.  Any way you slice it, their efforts are futile. They can’t take over Twitter because of one simple fact: people choose who they follow.

The Twitterati Version 1 are bitter and jealous but they should be ecstatic because they,  the first Twitterati, were, in fact, ground zero for something that has taken the world by storm.

It is the same for Internet Denizens Version 1 complaining as the unwashed AOL members flooded into USENET.

What Adam might be saying and I am surely stating is that this break out is good and that there is still plenty of room in Twitter to hide in plain site.  Additionally, there is little or no use complaining.

We not only must compete with the Ashton Kutchers and Oprahs of the world but we are also dealing with their media machine, their publicists, their networks and their studios as well — in addition to the obvious equity that they’re happy to cash in from their other media platforms to spend of Twelebrity.

I am amazed that after three years and acruing “merely” 6,347 Followers, I have chosen to spend my time well by investing in 140 characters x 16,210 tweets, resulting in around 2,269,400 characters.

So, heaven forbid I had spent all of that energy in Pownce, which has died, instead of the winner, Twitter — now that would be a waste.

Unlike my blog, which is surely my very own intellectual property that I can maintain forever, my Twitter content is dependent on the health of Twitter. So, I feel blessed, amazed, and triumphant that Twitter has become de rigeur in the world of online media outreach, content-sharing, and community outreach.

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Are Marketing Tweets Conversation?

by Chris Abraham on April 19, 2009 · 0 comments

I have been really learning and enjoying all the posts about Twitter today coming through my newsreader, including one from Stephen Collins of AcidLabs, Is it brandjacking if you come in late and don’t ask nicely? While the post is about Brandjacking, which is interesting, I responded to this little excerpt:

With all the attention now surrounding Twitter, it seems that every brand and celebrity under the sun suddenly is or wants to be represented on it and every other social network. It seems as if the business world has finally read Cluetrain and wants to be in the bazaar engaging in the conversation.

But the fact is that while some brands have been engaging in the conversation for quite some time – Zappos, Dell, Comcast and others come to mind – others have only recently realised that this conversation even exists. And worse, they don’t seem to realise that there are a few rules that define how you engage in that conversation.

That was awesome — that is awesome! I have been a fan of The Cluetrain Manifesto and also The Cathedral and the Bazaar for for a decade and I think it is really important to return all of this Twitter hype back to basics.  Here are the first 6 theses of 99 of the Cluetrain Manifesto:

  1. Markets are conversations.
  2. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
  3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.
  4. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
  5. People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.
  6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.
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Facebook Profiles are for People and Pages are for Business

by Chris Abraham on April 19, 2009 · 0 comments

In Difference Between a Page and Profile on Facebook, Shailesh Ghimire of Social Media Wiz explains the distinction between a Facebook Page and what we all have by default, a Facebook Profile, and how businesses need to be careful to correctly use the right one — or else!  Give the article some attention and check out the excerpt below:

Facebook is evolving to accommodate business pages vs. individual profiles. In its latest re-design, Facebook has made a clear distinction between profiles and pages. The bottom line is profiles are now only for individuals and pages are for business. Profiles and pages have different features. In fact there are certain features which are no longer permitted for business pages but are indeed available to individual profiles. Here are the major changes that I found from my research:

  • Businesses are only allowed to open pages NOT profile. A business which opens a profile page is in direct violation of TOS.
  • Business pages allow other users to become fans, but access to the individual profile pages are limited.
  • Business pages do not allow the ability to invite friends – in fact business pages cannot maintain a friends list – they can only maintain a fan list. In fact this feature is disabled on business pages.
  • Business pages do allow updating your status (which gets shared with your fans)
  • Business pages allow: pictures, videos, discussion board, application, wall posts, groups and other interactive elements.
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