In order to help you get the best out of you corporate blog, Facebook page or Twitter stream, Mirror Communications has just launched a series of Social Media Packages to choose from. They’re all part of a limited-time special offer, so make sure you check them out as soon as possible! Think of where you need the most help and decide how much of it you could use, then buy the Social Media Package that best suits you!

After a couple of months of planning, writing and tweaking, seasoned with  a few Twitter and Facebook hints, The Social Media Newbie’s Guide to Twitter for Businesses ebook, a simple guide to get businesses and individuals with a business focus started on Twitter, is now published, launched and ready to be bought!

I got the idea for the ebook while browsing new followers on Twitter (many of them businesses or professionals) and while checking out the streams of people I follow. I noticed that while the number of business accounts is growing, few have the right mindset and the right approach that would lead to their Twitter success.  To help them get started and make the best out of their Twitter presence,  I first wrote a few articles that became quite popular and then realized a more comprehensive guide was in order.

The Social Media Newbie’s Guide to Twitter for Businesses guide for Twitter business users is based on my own experience running several  Twitter accounts, on other users’ tips or examples, on patterns that shaped up on the microblogging platforms and on what others and myself liked or dislike about how some users acted on Twitter.

Who should read this ebook:

• businesses looking to integrate social media in their overall communication efforts
• employees tasked with promoting their activity and the company employing them on Twitter
• consultants, coaches and trainers wanting to establish themselves as experts in their field and attract new clients through Twitter;
• all of the above Twitter users who think their performance needs improving
• new Twitter users in general that want to make the best out of their social media experience, build relationships withing their community and reach their online goals.

There are two ways to obtain The Social Media Newbie’s Guide to Twitter for Businesses ebook.

If you need fresh marketing and PR advice sent to your inbox regularly along with the latest PR services and training discounts from the Mirror Communications PR and Marketing agency, then sign up for our newsletter and get the Twitter ebook for free!

If all you want is the ebook, then just buy the Twitter for Businesses guide today (14.99 USD)!

But before you decide, check  the sample chapter of the ebook here.

Once you’ve read it, I would love to hear your thoughts, comments and ideas. Also, if you have any questions, I’d love to answer them, so please send them my way!

If you’re wondering who’s responsible for the exquisite design of the Twitter ebook, it’s Alex Cristache of QBKL Media and Blogsessive who worked his magic the guide!

Hope you enjoy every page!

The hostess greeting guest at the door and taking them to their table, their waiter, other waiters and the way they act, the bartender serving them drinks while they wait for their table to be prepared for them, everyone interacts with restaurant customers and the impression they last tends to stick around.

No matter how exquisite the food is, if they are poorly treated, that mishap will make a long lasting impression and drive them to a different restaurant. Food that tastes great is not that hard to find, excellent service sometimes is. And no matter how clever your PR and Marketing efforts, once you have a potential customer inside your restaurant, it all depends on the service.

What can you do to make sure your customers enjoy their meal out and return? There are many aspects you need to consider and take care of:

• make sure your personnel is properly trained and knows how to handle customers – you cannot put your faith in good looks and natural charisma alone! Explaining to them how important it is to try to remember customers and their preferences does wonders!
• try to solve conflicts between employees fast, as the tension between them might be easily perceived by guests
• have enough employees to ensure a decent waiting period so that people don’t get anxious and your waiters don’t look like their working like slaves – they’d hurry to much and fail to provide the attention each guests need
• if someone is having a bad day, send them home! They’ll cost you less if they don’t drive customers away.

While excellent customer care will not change restaurant goers’ mind if your place is dirty or the food is bad, it will also be a valued business advantage in ensuring their return as often as possible. Moreover, without it, no one will really appreciate the carefully thought out decor, the delicious specialties your chef is renowned for or the extensive wine list. Simply because an extremely limited number of people like paying to be mistreated in restaurants!

GSbet is a sport bets franchise and while it handles national marketing and PR campaigns, they needed to explain to their 110 franchisees what they can do to raise awareness in their towns of origin. About 100 people from all around Romania attended the event and the joint Mirror Communications and PRwave presentation. Which also happened to be the opening presentation of the event.

We had lots of fun and it was all a big success. And we were happy to be there, especially since it was a bright, sunny day!

Given all this, what can the booth actually do for you? There are some benefits: better brand exposure, a certain privileged status, the possibility your package includes a list with the name of all those who have visited the exhibition and so on. But when comparing these benefits against the costs a booth entails and the issues it can generate, is it really worth it? First of all, booths do cost a lot – sometimes setting one up (adding your furniture, branding it, printing literature) costs as much as the whole trip there, your accommodation and a sponsored presentation.

Other than that, someone must always be in the booth. So if your team is there to also attend interesting tracks at the conference, they will take turns in missing what is really important to them. If you were planning to send just one employee, you can forget about it! You need at least two. And instead of having your team freely schedule meetings, fist they have to stop and negotiate who’s stranded in the both and for how long.

What happens when a very important prospect can only meet with your sales rep at the same time your PR officer has a crucial meeting with an influential journalist? Let’s hope you have a third employee over there!

What other possibilities are there?

You either have your team attend the event as visitors, not exhibitors, or you get very lucky and are invited to speak at the conference free of charge, or you think of other, more effective, sponsorship opportunities: a sponsored educational track where to speak, a lunch or a breakfast, a sponsored panel discussion, an entertaining activity in the evening and other such opportunities. Whatever you do, remember that being invited to speak is great, but never guaranteed, so you cannot build your strategy around it, unless you’re invited every year. And even then, things might change.

Why is booth still as important? In some cases, it depends on the company’s policy, in others, event organizers’ policy is the cause. I have, for example, attended, together with a colleague, an IT even in Chicago, USA, where you could not sponsor anything unless you were an exhibitor as well. Pretty smart tactic, as I am sure organizers knew the intrest in booths was on a descending trend. In this particular case, forcing booths on sponsors was not enough, and a B2B event turned into a weird mix of B2B and B2C. And the intended audience companies had come for was hard to come across.

What should you keep in mind to make sure you get maximum return from attending an event?

• Before deciding if you’re going or not, try to get some relevant opinions about it from people who have attended the event in the past. You can use existing contacts of ask a question on a business social network, such as LinkedIn. This is a crucial issue, as all the Power Points and details from those organizing the event won’t help you have a clear image of the event. If you cannot reach anyone who’s attended, the event might be important enough for you to take a chance. But if you can find out more, you definitely should.
• After deciding you’re going, analyze every detail of the event: does it require you to set up a booth and/or sponsor the event? Is it better to just attend it as a visitor? What networking opportunities are there? Which status (visitor or exhibitor) offers you more possibilities to meet potential partners, clients and the press?
• Can you sponsor the event without exhibiting? And if you can, are you getting all the benefits granted to exhibitors (attendance list, list of journalists and bloggers covering the event, a complete list of exhibitors and sponsors)?
• Are we going there with a team that will share booth duty and also complete their other tasks at the event? Or do we include a member whose only task is to be in the booth?

Whatever you decide, the important thing is to have a clear strategy, supported by solid prior research. Otherwise, if priorities and responsibilities are debated on at the event, you risk having your team caught in complete chaos and waste valuable time that would be better spent on getting more business.

Article originally published in Romanian or PRwave.ro.

Because we love WordPress so much, that’s what we’ve used for a content management system, with some clever hacks that brought to reality every single wish we’ve had. There’s still some finishing and tuning to be done and we’ve got some articles in the making with PR tips, marketing advice and real life examples of what we can achieve together.

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