The Internet: From Pornography to Charity

I saw a video in Facebook about how flood invaded the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center complex. Through Facebook sharing options, the video became viral.

The video, by the way, is hosted by YouTube which has channels for different Ondoy-related videos. YouTube embedding options made it possible for these videos to be posted in many blogs.

Readers of blogs can tweet or plurk what they read or saw.

Speaking of Twitter and Plurk, it is a trend to ReTweet or RePlurk the different ways how one can help. Imagine how this 140 character statement, like the UERMMC video, can become viral.

Wiki Spreadsheet

My Twitter and Plurk timelines are full of these kinds of tweets and plurks. What caught my attention were the wiki-type platform of Sahana Disaster Management System and Google Spreadsheets. They have different, free, sociable mechanisms to help people help other people.

Ondoy might have threatened or taken the livelihood and lives of many but social media exists to resist this threat and, more importantly, save threatened lives.

For Hotlines/Directories and Ways on how you/different institutions/individuals can help, you can see Inquirer’s and/or Yahoo!’s compilation.

Take care everyone!

Learn to tweet in the corporate way

Corporate Tweeting 101: Foundations of Corporate Micro-Blogging

What is micro-blogging? Micro-blogging is an online communications platform that lets you say anything you want to say in a limited number of characters.

What is Twitter then? Twitter is a micro-blogging brand or service. It is actually the pioneer of and the most popular among the ones who offer this kind of communications platform.

Why do businesses need it? It is actually not a hard-need for businesses. But, if you want an online tool to stay connected and listen to your consumers and stakeholders, Twitter can answer this need.

What am I doing? Yes, that’s the question Twitter asks you to answer—but of course, it is not necessary for you to answer that. You might tweet about current events in your company, new products or services or just anything positive that you want your followers to know.

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Corporate Tweeting 104: Interpersonal Tweeting

Should I follow anyone who is following me? Well, not really. Most corporate twitters do not follow everyone who subscribes to them as a follower. But be sure to address anyone’s concern regarding your company or your company’s product.

Who should I follow? This is a tough question right here. Some corporate twitters add anyone if not everyone but I hardly discourage this. The first thing you can do is to invite your employees’ twitter accounts. Second, you can search for users who tweet about your industry, company and/or product. The Search Option would be your friend. Third, you can use Twellow, a yellow pages service for twitter. Search people who tweets about your industry.

Should I reply to everyone? Ideally, yes–especially when it is about your product or your company.

What if I have something to say which is more than 140 characters? Twitter can only do so much. If you have a new product for example, you can tweet a general statement about it. Moreover, if you want your consumers to know more or detailed information about your product, you can link that tweet to a product micro-site.

I heard about twitter bots, would that make my corporate tweeting easier? Sure it does. But it defeats the purpose of connecting with your consumers in the most human way. And your followers are intelligent—they’ll know if you are using a bot the same way they know how to spot a Spam email message.

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Corporate Tweeting 105: Public Relations in Twitter

What should I do if I see some bad tweets about my company? Reply to them in the kindest tone possible. Introduce yourself as someone from the company and negotiate with them regarding the issue. Negotiations could happen not in Twitter alone: Try emails, phone calls or even formal meet-ups so that you won’t be limited to 140-character negotiations.

What should I do if I see some good tweets about my company? First, feel good. Second, reply to him or to her through retweeting that tweet. In this way, all of your followers could see that there is some satisfied customer in your client pool.

Should I turn my twitter account into a helpdesk? Sure, your twitter account could be a way to address your customers’ concerns but be sure to retain your traditional customer relations programs.

Can I invite some of my followers in a corporate event? Of course! This would be a good customer relations program and could gain you some more followers. They call such event a “tweet-up”.

How can I know that my corporate tweeting is a success? Be sure to track the good tweets, the bad tweets and the number of addressed concerns and the number of people who went to a tweet-up. If the number of good tweets outnumbered the bad tweets, then this is a success measure. If you have addressed all the concerns in twitter then this is another success measure.

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Corporate Tweeting 145: Psychology of a Tweet

Do I need a custom Twitter profile background? To instil a corporate feel and credibility, having your customized Twitter profile page background would be good.

What should be the tone of my tweets? New Social Media advocates for casualness. Be sure to make it friendly and not too stiff—make it conversational.

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Corporate Tweeting 199: Tools for Corporate Tweeting

There are many tools to make your corporate twitting a breeze. Check this page for some of the best tools around.

Corporate Tweeting 200: Case Studies in Corporate Tweeting

Twitter for Business has provided the public for some case studies regarding corporate twitting. You may check for some case studies from Dell, American Apparel and Pepsi to name a few.

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Ready to get your diploma? I wish you well in your corporate tweeting!