Conference Buddies

Keynote Panel: Twittering with the Stars
Moderator: Edith Yeung, BizTechDay
Panelist: Kevin Rose, Founder, digg.com, Pounce, We Follow. 1.1 million followers
Panelist: Porter Gale, VP of Marketing, Virgin America Airlines
Panelist: Tim Ferriss, Author, 4-Hour Workweek, Angel Investor to tech startups. 60,000 followers

Edith: How are you using Twitter?

Tim: I use Twitter for chronicling interesting things that are happening, but not suitable for my blog. I post useful links, and get polling for feedback from people.
Porter: We use it to engage with our fans. Nick is our primary Twitter updater. We are the first airline with full-fleet wifi access. Twitter is a good way to connect, address service issues, quick recovery, marketing, PR, and guest services.
Kevin: I was on a Virgin flight, since I noticed the live streaming available, (called U-Stream), I tweeted about it, and got a lot of attention. In 5 minutes, I got 1200 viewers, people who were watching me eat a sandwich. I also use Twitter for announcements. I don’t like the big corporation feel, so use it to humanize your company, tweets about your screw-ups, too.

Edith: How about a not-so-good Twitter story?

Tim: Because it’s instantaneous, deleting a tweet doesn’t make it gone. Re-tweeting preserves it. I had a guy who wrote a scathing tweet, but deleted 10 minutes later. It was too late because it already got re-tweeted a bunch of times. Don’t drunk-tweet. Don’t be a traffic bigot, read Kevin Kelly’s essay: 1000 True Fans. Have a die-hard group of fans instead of just bulk numbers.
Porter: Gear your tweets towards people who will like your product. We offer wifi and outlets in your seat, people love that, we are at the forefront of this. People will re-tweet about how cool it is to be on a plane, livestreaming & tweeting, having people watch you eat that sandwich.
Kevin: One girl on staff sent a sexually-explicit tweet by accident, but we just owned up to it and said, oh well, we eff’ed up. Sometimes you just have to roll with it. We tried to get our entire fan base of our podcast on Twitter, we want to capture everyone who likes our products.
Tim: Try su.pr through StumbleUpon. You can submit links through Twitter and Facebook, track click-thrus, & display your most popular blog posts. I found that the best days for me to post a blog is Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday mornings.

Edith: How do you track performance?

Porter: We are not doing this for ROI, it is more about us engaging with our fans. They find our tweets valuable, like offering free in-flight wifi for the month of November, or polls about what kind of drinks should be offered on your flight.

Edith: How often do you re-tweet?

Kevin: Randomly. Depends on if I find something I like to re-tweet
Porter: I have a story about the re-tweet – a woman who just graduated from medical school was on a Virgin flight and she tweeted about how excited she was about her graduation and how cool it was to be tweeting on a plane. She got re-tweeted, and someone commented that someone on that flight with her should buy her a drink. The tweet came through to someone on the flight, so that person bought her a drink.
Tim: Try Tweet-to-Beat, a non-profit that donors chose to give schools that need supplies. I tweeted that out, and said that for every new follower I get from re-tweeting this, I’ll donate $3 to that school, and raised $20,000.
Porter: We are also working with Virgin Unite to raise money for 100 Smiles, a charity for cleft palates.

Edith: How often do you tweet?

Kevin: Whenever the mood strikes
Porter: Personally, 2-3 times a day. For work, I check on it a lot, but Nick does most of the tweeting
Tim: once every two days. Try getting Firefox’s Auto Paginate. It really helps a lot.

Questions from audience:

1) When you tweet promos, do you check ROI?

Porter: It’s not scientific, we like fan referrals, people who are already flying us.

2) How do you manage multiple personas?

Tim: First, ensure that you don’t feel compelled to check it often. Limit your frequency, schedule your tweets.
Porter: Conversation is happening regardless of your input, don’t try to do everything. Start smart and slow.
Kevin: Increase your followers, find like-minded people

3) If you can only use one social media tool, what would it be?

Tim: blogging
Porter: Twitter
Kevin: Can’t pick just one

4) What is your best call to action?

Kevin: Tweet polls. I did this one time asking people, What is the seven best people in tech? I listed six of them and left the seventh one blank for my followers to fill in. The response was phenomenal.
Porter: Google (?)
Tim: Add a picture. For CTR, it’s very effective. Everyone wants to see the “sexy pic” of something. Also ask questions. Try whichtestone.com for A/B testing.
Kevin: Do livestreams. Have fun with it.
Tim: Spend 80% on content on your blog and 20% on marketing. Having no blog is better than having a mediocre blog.

Edith: What is the one takeaway?

Tim: Have a measurable output or have fun. Otherwise, don’t do it.
Porter: Be authentic, be real.
Kevin: Don’t be corporate. Relax, be human.