Who Cares about twitter anyways? (5 different ways to use twitter)

The first and most valid question you could have reading the headline of this articles is.

Who cares?

I mean, that in the most literal sense of the word, who cares about twitter? Who is using it and are your target audience using the platform?

Since that this is both vital and valid question we will first go through some data and numbers of who is using twitter and how is twitter being used?

Then we will go through the list of 5 different ways to use twitter (other than a micro blogging platform) to benefit your Dubai based business both in the MENA region and globally.

Let’s look at the numbers shall we..

In the most recent report http://bit.ly/2coDD4d the state of social media marketing 2016, Marketing profs published the following states about twitter:

  A-     Twitter came in the second place right behind Facebook as the social platform that marketers use in both B2B and B2C focused markets.

  B-      Twitter came third as the paid social media platform right after Facebook and Google ads (technically we can considered it second since Google ads is not a social media platform ) .

  C-      In terms of number of worldwide social network users Twitter came with a sizable number of audience of 320 million users.

(That was right behind Instagram aka Facebook’s gallery sidekick, which came with 400 million users).

Now you might be thinking this is only on a global level which is great for branding reasons like building an online reputation or brand online existence or even gaining global online traction and traffic yet how will that benefit a Dubai based business targeting the MENA region ?

Well let’s look at regional numbers shall we?

According to the Arab social media report published last year http://bit.ly/1Ux2M93  there are some interesting facts about twitter:

  A-     39% of the Arab users access twitter on a daily basis.

  B-      In terms of subscription KSA and UAE were the highest countries from the Arab region with (53% and 51% respectively) .

  C-      In terms of accessing Twitter through an app, the highest were UAE and Bahrain (45% and 40%, respectively).

There is a very important point that needs to be addressed here before we go further, these numbers and stats are not to stay drop everything and implement a radical paradigm shift to both your business and to your marketing plans toward twitter based campaigns, yet these facts show that twitter as a platform has both regional and global influence that needs to be addressed and added to your marketing tool kit.

And here are 5 different ways you can harvest the power of social media through twitter for your business.

  1-      Customer service tool.( monitor your own handle or handles)

        If you are wondering should I have an online presence or not?, or if you are       wondering should I interact with negative comments or not?

Your customers are not.

They are both online and active,

According to the Microsoft’s 2016 Global State of Customer Service Report 55% of consumers’ customer service interactions now begin online rather than on the phone or in person. This percentage jumps to 65% for consumers ages 18 – 34.

 That is why brands responsiveness on twitter has increased from 14hrs to 9hrs in 2014.

Some of the tactics that you can use to enhance the customer service side of your brand.

A-     Monitor your brand twitter handle and set up an alarm for quicker respond.

B-      Monitor your brands services and products as your customers might not be aware of your twitter handle , yet they might have experienced your products and services.

C-      If you have the funding  for it set up a situation room for your twitter accounts (https://www.quora.com/Which-companies-have-physical-social-media-listening-centers)

  2-      Competition monitoring.( adding competitors)

Some of the tactics that you can implement to monitor both your market and your competition are:

    B- Monitor Key words that relates to your industry in general.

    c- Monitor trends and new buzz campaigns even especially if it’s not yours.

  3-      Establish thought leadership in your field.

Facebook has mark zugerburg, Apple Had Steve jobs, Microsoft has Satya Nadella who do you have?

In other words who is the face behind your band and how is that face interacting with the public. Twitter can help humazing your brand and engage in creating your brand identify here is how:

A-     Set up an account for your brand ambassadors and your brands leadership team.

B-      Engage in twitter chats and twitter conversations.

C-      Link back to your Brands account from the bio of your ambassadors and your thought leaders account.

  4-      Social listening and Market analysis tool.

Twitter lists is an option that your brand can benefit from , lists gives your brand the option of social listening option to a specific need or your market potential needs and letting your target audience know that you are listening , monitoring and interacting. Here are a couple of lists that you can create:

A-     List of a market need either actual or potential.

B-      List of key words that relates to your market.

C-      List of other partner markets for example of you are in hospitality you might need to listen to (referrals programs- customer service complaints – tourism and destinations).

  5-      Creating a social buzz around a specific campaign.

The final and one of the strongest strengths of twitter is events, twitter feeds on that being a mico blogging website and the average lifetime of a tweet is about 18 minutes if you have an event for your brand you need to feed your tweet to the platform with the highest volume of tweets as you can here are some effective tactics that you can use to maximize your reach during an Event:

A-     Live video coverage during the event especially that now twitter allows longer videos .

B-      Create a hashtage dedicated to the event and drive traffic to it.

C-      Encourage conversations by having a showcase screens in the event with the live coverage of the conversations.

D-     Transfer the offline atmosphere and environment of your event online through creating a story telling narrative of the event duration.

Feel free to extend this conversation on twitter of course 

My handle is :@Fouad_khafaga 

What are some of your favorite podcasts to listen to in the morning?

An interesting question and some amazing answers here,

I second every podcast mentioned here some of the stuff mentioned I am addicted to.

so here is my list I hope I don't duplicate any of the resources already mentioned,

Inside Personal Growth

This is how they describe themselves
“Inside Personal Growth provides listeners with high quality interviews featuring leading authors in the field of personal development.”

Podcast Episode Archives - The One You Feed

I came across this podcast from Maria Popova’s brain pickings , I find the podcast both beneficial and fruitful.

the idea of the podcast comes from an ancient story that an old man was teaching his grandson and told him that inside all of us two wolfs a good one and a bad one and they are in a constant battle, so the kid asked grandad which one wins? the grandfather said the one you feed.

Writers' Bloc Podcast

Even if you are not a writer I think you can appreciate the create of writing specifically of those who create some of best selling TV series and programs.

The show describes itself as
“Writers’ Bloc is a podcast about comedy writing hosted by J.R. Havlan, an 8-time Emmy Award-winning writer for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. “

Unmistakable Creative Podcast

Interesting in-depth conversation with some of the most talented creative minds, the podcast explore, investigate, create and enlighten about the subject of creativity and innovation.

Books and Authors

I will directly quote the description here “Featuring Open Book and A Good Read. In Open Book, Mariella Frostrup talks to leading authors about their work. A Good Read features Harriett Gilbert discussing a range of favourite titles with guests.”

92Y
92nd Street Y (92Y) is an arts, educational, cultural and community center serving people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds. The most recent episode was with Actress Natalie Portman

The Entrepreneurs - Radio

A tour around the startup world, Looking at the global SME’s and business world, very interesting thoughts and interviews.

Interviewing Authors with Tim Knox, Author, Talk Radio Host, Serial Entrepreneur, Small Business Expert - Interviews with bestselling authors.

Interviewing Authors is one of the Web’s premiere blog and podcast destinations that focuses on the process of creating, writing, editing, publishing, marketing, and selling an author’s work.

I am working on a list of 100 must listen to podcast.I will share it here upon completion.

feel free to reach me on Twitter : @fouad_khafaga

Familiraity breeds Creativity ( creative thought process ).

Familiarize 

Monsters of the wild and creatures of the sea adapt to the environment they live in as much as they physically can.

If they could not adapt or evolve, they go extinct. If the climate is changing, they change the immigration path, if it is too hot for them they try to move to a cooler place and vise versa.

Only humans had the creativity and aggressiveness not to adapt to the environment but use the environment and make it adapt to their needs.

Humans are able to cut through mountains, fly into the clouds, dive into the deep of the ocean not because they are the strongest or the most skilled, but because of their ability to familiarize themselves with the most abstract and most challenging situations their environment has to offer.

So how does one adapt? This technique is used by magicians, stand-up comedians, painters and different artist of all kinds.

Magicians are the masters of using this technique; it is the only way they function. From weird character concepts to magicians who cut people in half and artists who disappear in less than 30 seconds while they were chained in a pool cage filled with water.

Just to illustrate how early the magician’s circles adapted the concept of familirisim, here is a story from ancient times.

 In ancient Egypt, there was a magician called Dedi and the story goes as follows:

According to the Westcar Papyrus, prince Djedefhor brings up the story of Dedi.

He stands before his father, king Khufu, and says: “There are only tales of miracles which happened a long time ago, something known by past generations. Truth and falsehood cannot be distinguished here.

 But there is someone under thy majesty´s own lifetime who is not known, someone who is able to make a ignoramus become wise".

 Khufu asks: “What's the meaning of this, Djedefhor, my son?” Djedefhor answers: “There's a commoner named Dedi, living in Djed-Sneferu.

 He's a simple citizen, but 110 years old, eats 500 loaves of bread, a shoulder of beef and drinks 100 jars of beer every day. He is capable of resurrecting decapitated beings. He is also said to be able to make wild lions so obedient that the animal would follow him with a cord dragging on the ground. Furthermore, this Dedi has the knowledge of the number of I put in the wenet-sanctuary of Thoth.”

The pharaoh spent a good deal of time seeking for these chambers, planning to build something similar to his horizon. And Khufu orders: “You thyself, Djedefhor, my son, may bring him to me!”

Even in that very early start of humanity the magician was painted in a more of a mythical figure. He does not eat , drink or live in a normal manner and this lifestyle made him able to perform bizarre and abnormal actions. In other words the magician was able to familiarize himself with unfamiliar surroundings.

A great modern example of how we as a species are able to familiarize ourselves with the environment with disregard to how abstract the object in question is, would be the modern technical field of IOT. 

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an environment in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.

 IOT has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) as well as the Internet. The concept may also be referred to as the Internet of Everything.

It is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. The following examples are to elaborate on the implementation of such a concept in real life and how we are again using our creativity to familiarize our environment;

Smart Cities

Smart Parking: Monitoring of parking spaces availability in the city.

Structural health: Monitoring of vibrations and material conditions in buildings, bridges and historical monuments.

Smart Roads: Intelligent Highways with warning messages and diversions according to climate conditions and unexpected events like accidents or traffic jams.

Smart Environment

Forest Fire Detection: Monitoring of combustion gases and preemptive fire conditions to define alert zones.

Snow Level Monitoring: Snow level measurement to know in real time the quality of ski tracks and allow security corps avalanche prevention.

Earthquake Early Detection: Distributed control in specific places of tremors.

Smart Water

Potable water monitoring: Monitor the quality of tap water in cities.

Chemical leakage detection in rivers: Detect leakages and wastes of factories in rivers.

Pollution levels in the sea: Control real time leakages and wastes in the sea.

This concept as shown above can be used in a variety of fields by listing the field , the topic , the story , the character or the industry on one side of the table and create a list of 10 unfamiliar tools, things , approach on the other side of the table. By matching, eliminating or just brainstorming a process with the creative team.

Some Final thoughts

According to Dr. Yuval Harari, there were three major revolutions in the history of mankind; a cognitive revolution, an agriculture revolution and a scientific revolution. It is of no coincidence that the three revolutions are made by the capacity of the human brain to both innovate and create. Creativity is a unique feature of our race.

 For far too long the human mind was lost in the woods of ignorance until the mind have let the light of innovation guide us through this dark forest. Innovation skills and techniques are observed in all the aspects of our lives from business to parenting, from survival to discovery and in both creating and destructing.

This book offers a crack to the code of innovation through experimenting some case studies and examples. Yet creativity in itself is just a tool that should guide to an ultimate goal. Just being different doesn’t mean it is useful, just being innovative doesn’t grantee success. The tools that are offered in this book should be used as youtility built that is making the process of reaching a specific goal easier, faster and overall more efficient.

This small E-book should be my personal guide to create another book under the same title both longer in length and deeper into the code of innovation.

So if you’re reading this and have any ideas, feedback or thoughts on what would you like to read in the next edition of the book feel free to contact me and send your thoughts.

twitter : @fouad_khafaga

Just what kind of a leader are you? (Expectations & knowledge skills)

I have developed a healthy addiction to MOOC’s they have a great impact on my understanding of marketing, markets , Human thought and Leadership.

In a MOOC offered by edx.org Titled “Leaders of learning” they introduced an interesting four models of leadership that I am about to share with you.

Hierarchical Individual Expectation:

Being a successful leader in a Hierarchical Individual learning environment means bringing the external requirements of a governing institution (Frequently state or federal government) into the work and practices of the organization.           

Knowledge & Skills:

•Manages successful superior subordinate relationships.

•Focuses the organization and its learners on clear performance targets

•Marshals the human and material resources of the organization in the service of those performance targets.

•Builds and sustains stable relationships with learners and their families based on high expectations.

Hierarchical Collective Expectations:

Being a successful leader in a Hierarchical Collective learning environment means leading according to the requirements of an external authorizing environment, while also encouraging and enforcing the norms, values, principles, and practices specific to the learning community.         

 

Knowledge & Skill Requirements:

A Hierarchical Collective learning environment typically values a leader who:

•Articulates and models the key values of the organization.

•Incorporates external requirements into the specific values and practices of the community.

•Builds and sustains stable relationships with learners and their families based on norms specific to this learning community.

Distributed  Individual Expectations:

Being a  successful  leader  in  a  Distributed  Individual  learning  environment  means  articulating  an  appealing  vision of  learning That  is  shaped  by  the  needs,  preferences,  and dispositions  of individual learners.

Knowledge & Skill Requirements:

A  Distributed Individual learning environment typically values a leader who:

•Responds to learner  needs  and  interests,  and  consider  how  they  will  change  over  time.

•Is unafraid to embark on new, entrepreneurial ventures.

•Builds and inspires a team of collaborators with diverse knowledge & skillsets.

•Mobilizes  human  and  material  resources  to  respond  to  learner  needs.

•Closely  monitors  learners’  engagement,  interest,  and  connections  to  the  learning  environment.

Distributed Collective Expectations:

Being a successful leader in a Distributed Collective learning environment means identifying and supporting the common values, beliefs, and goals that bind the learning community together. Often it means openness to sharing ownership of an educational vision with the community.    

Leadership Knowledge & Skills:

A Distributed Collective learning environment typical values a leader who:

•Inspires individuals and organizations with common interests to operate in networked relationships

•Recognizes shared community values and articulates them within the community and the larger world

•Identifies community members ‘resources, and motivates members to share them

•Brings resources from the external world into the community while maintaining community norms and standard.

Source: http://bit.ly/2085N5N