How You Can Use And Abuse Twitter

Last week we looked at various aspects of social media. One of the “cons” was the need for CONversation. This is none more true than on Twitter, where you can tweet to the whole world, or send a tweet to one individual person.

It was @davegorman the comedian, if I remember rightly, who retweeted a few weeks ago that you should only ever tweet like you would talk to someone across the table in the pub or at a meal. That means being mindful how well you know that person.

When tweeting to an individual, especially someone who doesn’t know you, there’s no excuse for being rude. There’s also no excuse for overdoing the number of tweets you send to them. How would you react to receiving them? Overdoing it is just like the pub bore.

Public tweets are not like being on a stage, but rather like standing atop a table in the pub with a megaphone. What would you say? How would you say it?

How often is also important. Some followers will dip into the river of Twitter only occasionally, some are logged in permanently. You need to send the message at regular intervals to catch the occasionals, preferably in different words to avoid boring the faithful. It’s also best to mix up a number of different messages. There are a variety of tools that can let you pre-schedule tweets to be issued automatically, so some of your tweets can be pre-planned.

Every celebrity wants to tell people about their latest book, music track, TV or other public appearance. Every business wants to tell people about their products, services and latest offers. But people will only put up with this so long, unless you offer something else. Followers you've carefully attracted can so easily “unfollow” and then not see what you are saying.

For celebrities and businesses, what makes Twitter powerful is the ability to interact with your followers. Conversely anyone can interact with the people you follow. Those celebrities and businesses who take the time to reply to the tweets they receive, in suitable voice, will better thrive.

Genuine complaints are always an opportunity to build a closer relationship from the way the issue is fixed. (Maybe not like this: Robert Fripp of King Crimson received a complaint some years ago when he played from the wings at a gig that he had only been seen for a third of the time. So apparently he returned two thirds of the ticket price and told the person never to attend again! If you want notereity ....)

Conversely, receiving rude tweets can be a shock, and getting too many from one person can be a real pain. The more followers you have, the more nutters. You have to decide whether to block them. It’s a great sense of power when you do!

There’s also various ways of issuing tweets. For example Heikki Kovalainen the Formula 1 racing driver (@H_Kovalainen) has been keeping us posted about what’s happening over the Grand Prix weekend. This week he has sent out a competition posted on Facebook. He will select some of the people who enter and ring them personally. If they tell him the right passphrase, then he'll send them a signed poster. That’s engaging with fans in a way unthinkable just a few months ago.

The prize could also be a free book (if that’s what you are promoting), a free ticket, a free meal with you the celebrity (if you can stomach the idea!), or a whole host of other possibilities.

Businesses can educate or enlighten with the use of free tips sheets and articles, or any manner of other offerings. Surveys are another idea. Even if the response rate is low, the offer to converse shows a more positive attitude than just shout-tweeting at people.

Actually none of these underlying ideas are especially new. The usual rules of marketing are little changed. What has changed is the possibilities social media has to have much closer, much quicker, real-time interaction with fans and followers.

The great thing about Twitter and social media generally is there are no rules for what you can do, only a few for what you shouldn’t. Imagination can run riot. Enjoy!

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Escaping Excel Hell - Planning, Forecasting or Budgeting?

In marketing, there are a number of words that illicit a positive response. "Profit" "Free" and "New" are just three examples

So what reaction do you give to these three words:

• Planning?
• Forecasting?
• Budgeting?

Planning can be fun. Forecasting can be a bit tiresome. Budgeting is a real turnoff. That means setting constraints on spend, and setting demanding targets to achieve in revenues. Budgeting is also typically hard work, taking far too much time and energy away from actually doing the business.

But planning, forecasting and budgeting are all important. You may indeed use the same Excel model for all three. If you are you're likely to find:

• Issues with multiple users
• Difficulty in ensuring the models don't break
• Uncertainty whether the model calculates or adds up correctly, within a sheet or when sheets are added together
• Impossible to handle more than a few products or dimensions such as geographical areas
• Multiple versions that are soon out of control
• Needing to link P&L to balance sheet and cash flow, especially if funds need to be raised
• Far too much time spent overcoming these issues

There comes a time when Excel just has to be replaced. But with what? What's affordable, accessible and practical? Do give us a call.

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Business Performance Management - Commentary in less than 140 Characters?

Management reporting can be figures, graphics and gauges. But to bring these figures into perspective, commentary helps. Why? Where? How? to go with the When? and What? of the figures.

It helps to keep the commentary short and succinct for busy readers. One great technique is to write "tweets" no longer than 140 characters.


The paragraph above is exactly 140 characters. Not on Twitter itself obviously, but 140C is a good length for a cell in Excel, a line on a dashboard, or a line in some other form of report. This doesn't have to be an absolute limit as with Twitter, but it's a useful target.

Expressing an idea in 140C or less is a skill to cultivate. Practice makes perfect!

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SaaS Cloud Computing - Why oh Why?

SaaS Cloud computing (Software as a Service) offers many benefits. But like many things in life, it isn't perfect.


The key benefits of SaaS compared to on-premise packages include:

1. Faster implementation, due to differences in selection process and physical procurement. (Note: Implementation itself is little different for a system of equivalent complexity)
2. Improved backup and disaster recovery (typically, by comparison to many organisations large and small)
3. Remote access from anywhere in the world that offers internet access
4. Reduced costs up-front, as OpEx rather than CapEx
5. Potentially power admin costs and hassle through no need to have the staff to administer the system and database (although you'll still need basic app administration such as adding and removing users)

However  the key drawbacks of SaaS are:

1. Loss of management control, as with any outsourcing arrangement, unless you are a major customer of the app supplier and can exert superior influence
2. Reliance on an internet connection, for which at least two types of connection at each location is recommended so one acts as a contingency
3. Access security, especially for any apps that rely just on username and password (Why don't more SaaS systems offer at least an optional third level, such as an easily-memorable security question or numeric grid?)

Many SaaS systems are on a "multi-tenant" basis, where  various user organisations share one database with other organisations. Some providers offer an option to have your own database, either at their data centre or on your own premises (when it effectively becomes an on-premise web-enabled software package). In either case, you can have better control over if and when a software upgrade takes place, and avoids risks of sharing a database (however small they suggest those risks are).

Further details are in previous articles.

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News Update - Monday 25/10/10

Here's the pick of the last week's news stories that are likely to impact your business: 

Comprehensive Spending Review The dominant news story in the UK has been the coalition’s CSR. Apat from anything else, more opportunities for IT in government, to drive down costs?

Consumer technology trends - a 4-year view 4G, videos and privacy

Apple puts iOS functions from iPhone onto Mac Will this encourage iPhone and iPad users to move from PC to Macs?

Online spend still on increase Brighter outlook for e-tailers?

New IBM cloud consultancy Issues for corporates and SMEs alike. See the Cloud articles