Some chambers of commerce are already using Twitter as a way to extend their conversations with members and prospects using social media.  Twitter is sort of a cross between instant messaging and micro-blogging and it is becoming very popular.   Watch “Twitter in Plain English” for more info. 

First, set up a Twitter account for your chamber and upload an image for your photo.  Complete your profile with a link back to your site or your blog.   Now you’re ready to:

1.     Start “listening” – Use search.twitter.com to find out who is “tweeting” about your chamber or other topic you’re following.  See this post for more information.    (Note: your posts on Twitter are called “tweets” since they are limited to 140 characters and intended to be short bits of information.) You can also use a service called Twilert that will deliver the results to you in email rather than use an RSS feed.  Enter your search terms and how often you want to receive updates.  (Twilert is very similar to Google Alerts, except that it just searches tweets.).   “Listen” for your chamber name, chamber programs or key business terms for your community.   Both of these services will provide what was mentioned with a link to the actual tweet.  From there you can reply to the user or click through to their profile to view who they are, where they are located and click through to their website (if they have provided that info).   

When you find someone that mentions a topic you’re interested in, start following them.  (Click on the ‘follow’ button on their profile page).   You’ll now start seeing their tweets on your Twitter page.  Chances are they will start following you, too.  Then, look at who your contacts are following, view what they’ve been discussing and follow some of them, too.  By using the tools above, you can easily find people already discussing topics you want to discuss.  You can also let your members know that you’re now on Twitter and ask to follow you through your normal communications methods such as newsletters, email and your website.

2.    Have conversations –So now that you’ve seen what they’ve said and you’re following several people, what can you do about it?   Engage them!  Reply to other tweets, ask questions…be “social.”  You can still have a business slant, but have conservations with people.    Share links to local business news, updates from the state legislature or city council or other topics relevant to your community.  Show your followers that real people work at your chamber and that you are using Twitter to create and enhance relationships.

3.    Cross promote your blog - Each time you create new blog post, share a link to it on Twitter.  Type something like : “Denver Chamber stops anti-business bill from passing,” and link to the post.  You can use a service like TwitterFeed to monitor your blog’s RSS and tweet any new updates for you automatically.   Linking to your new content serves two purposes:  it shows your followers that you are creating relevant content and it allows people searching Twitter for those topics to find your tweets.  Be careful not to solely promote your own blog posts, though.  Social media is about sharing information and discussing it.  Ask questions related to your blog posts to help spark discussions.

4.    Promote your members – Each time a new member joins, tweet something like “Welcome new member: ACME Widgets,” with a link to their website.  Or, when your members are mentioned in the news, share those links as well.   Cross promote your member spotlights in your newsletter or on your website.  If your chamber does ribbon cuttings, you can announce them with a link to a map of the location (you do use Google Maps, right?) or the member’s website.

5.    Promote events – Post reminders for upcoming events with links to registration info or post links to a post-event summaries, videos and photos.  You can even tweet directly from an event and act as a reporter for those unable to attend.  Share funny quips or “breaking” news to show that your chamber is a well-connected business insider. Don’t just use Twitter as a way to get people to register for your events, though – use it as a way to find out what interest them about your events and share that information with others.  Again, use Twitter to have conversations about your events – not just a one way “pushing” of information. 

Here are some examples of chambers that are using Twitter:  Maryland State, Albany Colonie (NY), Frederick County (MD), Seattle (WA), and Loveland (CO).   Follow them to see how they are using it to have conversations with their audience and expand their communications efforts.  Some chambers may be experiencing improvement to their member retention or new member sales due in part to their effective use of Twitter.

If you really get into Twitter, you’ll probably want to use a desktop client for managing it such as Twhirl or TweetDeck.  These services allow you to manage your tweets and followers from a desktop program rather than using a web page on Twitter’s site.  And there are all kinds of related services that range from silly to highly useful. I’ll cover some of those in future posts. 

If you have any questions about how your chamber can use Twitter, send me a message on Twitter @curtmoss or @weblink.