Confessions: I use it to highlight, even promote new blog posts. I don’t go hog wild, a couple of tweets here and there to let people know I’ve something potentially worthwhile on the stove.  By the way, I write the Marketing Edge blog and podcast, that even others have recommended. :>)

Hidden Objective:  I crack myself up. And I hope to share some of those chuckles with people on Twitter,  people, I don’t care if the bots following me laugh or not. So you might see some tweets that don’t make sense, unless you read what I responded to.  I know, I know, I shouldn’t end a sentence with to, sorry Mrs. Grady (elementary school English teacher) 

 
Clients: Sometimes I will share what I’m doing with or for clients on Twitter. I usually will indicate those tweets with a (C) just to save space.  If there is room the first time I tweet about clients I will spell out the word.   I have not yet taken on clients that I promote their stuff, for example. Here’s XYZ software company, they have great stuff, you should buy some.  That situation has not yet presented itself. 

I have pointed tweets to clients that have a software product in beta that they want feedback about.  I believe this represents more of Twitter’s core value, it is a two way street and I’m not asking someone to shell out cash. I also do not get paid for Tweeting about clients. 

What I do like to do is report about industries and trends. I will do that for clients and gladly take that conversation to Twitter to get more dialogue on a topic. To me, that is the beauty of social media in general and Twitter specifically.  For example,  I am doing project work in PR and communications for Singular Logic.  I’m going to the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas with them April 19-22.  I will also be tweeting from the convention talking about trends in advertising and especially the concept of consumer-selected ads, or what they are calling “Ads by Choice”   Instead of setting up a separate twitter feed for just NAB, I decided to follow people who were going to NAB because I also participate in conversations about advertising and social media anyway.  I believe what I am reporting on at NAB is close to my core professional contributions to Twitter that those who follow me might gain some insight into topics about which we share a mutual interest.  

Dogs: Occasionally I talk about dogs, and you’ll see Torry, I am guaranteed to get a smile from at least her when I come home. Thanks for following.

Other Places to Stay in Touch:

Albert Maruggi joins a panel discussion entitled “Using Multimedia PR to Score Breakout Media Coverage” on May 19 at the Bulldog Reporter’s  Media Relations Summit in New York City.   The panel will  provide bold ideas on how to use multimedia messaging to drive search engine results and dramatize your story.

The panel also features:

Ephraim Cohen -  Founder/Principal at Fortex

Corinne Kovalsky -  Director of Public Relations at Ratheon

• Real-life examples 
• Links to smart resources 
• Advice about how to structure and maintain a community team inside a marketing organization 
• Tips on how to illuminate the c-suite and collaborate with outside partners

Provident Partners’ own Albert Maruggi will moderate the discussion that will take place among a panel of impressive speakers:

• Paula Berg: manager of emerging media at Southwest Airlines
• Rick Mahn: social media architect
• Connie Bensen: community strategist at Techrigy
• Gary Koelling: creative director and founder of BlueShirt Nation at Best Buy Inc.

Learn more and register today.

A recent article from Black Enterprise magazine addresses the issue, and Albert Maruggi offers some tips for businesses looking to get started with putting Twitter to good use.

One particular tip that stands out: “Make certain you can give a few minutes every day to monitoring messages and sharing information.” Indeed, just like any other people-driven social media forum, Twitter is not something you can set up and leave on autopilot. You get what you give. You reap what you sew. Etc.

Julio also took a few minutes to do a video interview about his book, some good folks to follow on Twitter, and tips for pitching him and other reporters via Twitter. That interview is embedded below and found here on YouTube. 

Of course, this is exciting for us because both Albert Maruggi and Mike Keliher, and a client of ours, make appearances in Julio’s book. For more from Julio, check out this installment of the Marketing Edge podcast in which he talks more about Twitter for business with Albert.

The full discussion, with some news segments thrown in here and there, runs about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, there’s no particular Web page or post to point you to, but there is a podcast you can listen to — grab this .mp3 file.

The conversation covers an introduction to Twitter, some examples of how it’s used in real life, and some of the more dramatic examples of Twittering during a crisis. Albert even squeezed in a mention of Julio Ojeda-Zapata’s new book, “Twitter Means Business.”

The Pioneer Press ran a preview of the new book over this past weekend. From that article:

“Twitter might seem like the last place on the Internet any self-respecting company would want to do business,” the author writes. “It can be a trivial and childish realm, filled with blather about bodily functions, pet excrement and what users had for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

“Yet…the companies come. The reason: Twitter is on fire. Its users are a remarkably vocal, energetic crowd. More and more businesses want this energy to rub off on them, and seek to generate some fireworks of their own as they discover their inner tweeters.”

We at Provident Partners have been eagerly awaiting this new book, as we were lucky enough to play a part in its creation. Albert Maruggi and Mike Keliher both appear in the book, as does one of our Twittering clients, Mark Palony of SoftBrands. Albert also wrote the book’s afterword, in which he explains how Twitter “taps human needs — the desire we have as part of a humanity to connect, to be curious, to seek recognition, to be part of something, and to share.”

For a deeper look (listen, actually) into the book, check out this podcast interview Albert did with Julio a few weeks ago. And of course, buy the book!

It’s difficult to judge the impact of one particular Web site in the mix of all other campaign-related communication, but with some help from Provident Partners’ Mike Keliher, Capecchi dissects the things Meghan’s site does well and not so well.

It’s difficult to pin down the Blogette’s political impact. Mike Keliher, 26, a social media consultant from St. Paul, assumes it’s minimal.

“There is probably a small set of people who find this incredibly impressive and very interesting and they really enjoy it, but they were going to vote for McCain anyway. And there’s probably a very small set of people who had their vote turned by something they saw on this blog,” Keliher said. “But in large part, it’s probably not going to have a very big impact. It strikes me as a website that was created in the era when it was simply cool to have a blog, and we are well past that phase.”

Read the full article here.

Provident Partners’ own Albert Maruggi is also a SNCR senior fellow, and he’s delivering one of the presentations at the symposium. He’ll be joined by SNCR fellows Emily Metzgar and Michael Adolph to discuss “Analyzing Social Media in the 2008 Presidential Election.”

For more info, please visit SNCR.org. We hope to see you in Cambridge!

To see the dramatic changes in marketing, you need a different view. … Integrating blogs, video, audio and social media is getting hard-core results for midsized and small companies that break the status quo and leapfrog the competition.

Highlighted themes from the session agenda:

• Social networks in your sales process — a cold-call killer
• Media coverage without PR pitches
• Effectively exposing your expertise on the Web
• Multimedia tells a powerful story
• Game-changing marketing and PR tactics

To register, go here or call us at 651-695-0174.