What's all the Twitter About?

I officially joined the social media bandwagon in 2007 when I started a FaceBook profile and have had a lot of fun keeping up with friends and family online. Then, I created a LinkedIn profile to connect with others in my MBA cohort and for career networking online. This Blog site came to be last fall while I was taking an eMarketing course at UBC, and I started tagging Delicious bookmarks at about the same time (thanks for the suggestion Paul).

But I had resisted having anything to do with Twitter ... until yesterday. It was the New York Times article by Claire Cain Miller that did it. I was curious to see how companies are using Twitter for public relations and marketing activities.

I have worked in food media marketing for 9 years now and was excited to learn that Twitter sites now exist for Starbucks, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, and they're all using the tool in different ways. Before I knew it I had registered for a Twitter account and found that about 20 people in my circle had already joined, so I invited a few more, and customized my page using an available template.

We've reached yet another social media tipping point where people have become comfortable sharing their thoughts in one-line phrases which then can be linked to longer posts in news articles and blog sites. And these notices, or headlines can be viewed either online, or you can set up your mobile devices to receive SMS text alerts when new items are posted to your favorite Twitter sites.

What's next?

Next Generation Community Analytics Presented at Sauder eMarketronics

Group members: Kirby Leong, Jill Dahlstrom, and Cagri Guvence Rodoper stand with Paul Cubbon, eMarketing professor.

On Monday, Oct. 6, 2008 the MBA eMarketing course at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business culminated in a tradeshow-style presentation evening. Held at UBC’s Robson Square campus in the main lobby area, the event was well attended by industry professionals from the local community. Close to 100 guests browsed the eight student booths.

My presentation group included Kirby Leong, chief content strategist for the Diamond Technical Community at Business Objects, and Cagri Guvence Rodoper, a doctoral candidate in information technology at UBC.

Our presentation sought to unravel the complexities of Web analytics. Companies today have the ability to collect a wide range of data related to Web site and online ad performance, through tools like Google® Analytics. But the challenge for companies is to extract the meaningful implications and to draw actionable insights from the data they collect. We showed how industry-standard “click-stream” Web analytics do not go deep enough to illustrate the customer’s experience online, and how businesses should link business goals, like revenue generation, with consumer “moments of truth,” like successful whitepaper downloads, to align the objectives of both audiences.

As an ideal model, we used “The Trinity Strategy,” which creator and analytics guru Avinash Kaushik describes fully in his click-worthy Blog Occam’s Razor. This analytics approach illustrates how online experiences can be linked to behaviors and outcomes in a continuous cycle, and analyzed with “Actionable Insights and Metrics” leading to “Win-Win Outcomes.” Avinash recommends employing a combination of consumer surveys, experimentation and usability testing to optimize the online experience for consumers, thus leading to success for online businesses.

More specifics regarding our presentation content can be found on the blog managed by Kirby Leong: http://kirbyleong.blogspot.com/