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Alright, now that you have a grasp on what Twitter is and how other businesses are using it in their social media marketing plans, it’s time for you to “join the conversation.”

Part 4 of the Minnesota BBB”s 2009 Focus Seminar provides a basic walkthrough of the steps involved in setting up a Twitter account and offers some tips on how to best configure it as a business marketing tool. Like initiating any business or marketing strategy, it never hurts to be prepared.

Keep in mind your overall marketing objectives as you set up your account. It might be a good idea to think through or even prepare a few of these before you start like your username, bio, what picture you want to use (yours or your company logo?), a background image, etc.

Creating Your Account

1. Choose your username
2. See if your friends are on Twitter
3. Choose others to follow

Configuring Your Account

1. Choose your time zone
2. Write your bio
3. Select to protect or not protect updates
4. Add your phone number
5. Choose to receive update notices
6. Upload your picture
7. Design your background

For more tips and insight on using Twitter to get you more business, watch Part 4: Creating and Configuring a Business Twitter Account. And be sure to stay tuned for more from, “How to use Twitter for Business.”

As a marketing tool, social media is a relatively new concept for many people and many businesses. You might be familiar with what Twitter is or even use it to follow your friends, but where do you even begin creating a marketing campaign centered around it?

What should you know about Twitter before getting started

• It’s relatively disorganized…
• Communications are short… 140 characters
• Offers an API which makes it easier to use… otherwise not very user friendly
• It’s quirky… 98% up time in 2007

Well, one place to start is by looking at what other companies are already doing. The third video segment of the 2009 Minnesota BBB Focus Seminar, “How to use Twitter for Business” begins with a few examples of actual business’s Twitter accounts and different campaign strategies and offers advice on what you should know before you Tweet. 

For more Twitter tips on how to use it as a social media marketing tool for your business, watch Part 3: “What you should know before you tweet.” And be sure to stay tuned for more from, “How to use Twitter for Business.”

Video has come a long, long ways in the last few years in terms of web friendly video. High definition video cameras can now record video as progressive footage, meaning there is no need to de-interlace the footage prior to viewing it on a computer monitor. By nature, high definition (or HD) footage is also convenient for computer monitors since it uses square pixels, thereby eliminating headaches associated with pixel aspect ratios. By having similar characteristics to that of a computer monitor, HD video is ideal for the web.

But what if you’re not shooting in HD? What if you’re shooting DV footage? How do you make DV footage look good on the web? Let’s talk about DV footage first.  Native DV records at 720×480 non-square pixels. DV footage is also interlaced meaning that each “frame” of video is actually made up of two fields (each containing half of the information) that are combined together to create an image. Computer monitors on the other hand, use square pixels and display video progressively (or non-interlaced.) So as you can see, DV footage, in nature, clashes with the web.

How to get DV footage to look good on the web

Now let’s talk about how we get our DV footage to look good on computers and (more importantly) the web. There are two major adjustments that need to be made to the video. Remember that no matter how little the alteration is, you’re going to lose some quality. The amount you lose depends immensely on the methods you use when altering your video.

First, we need to de-interlace the video.

As I said before, computer monitors display video progressively. What this means is that each “frame” of video is one image, unlike interlaced video that is broken up into two separate fields. So what we have to do is make the video progressive or “de-interlace” the video. This will eliminate those annoying “saw teeth” or jaggy edges you see on footage that wasn’t de-interlaced.

Most NLE (or non-linear editors) contain built in de-interlacing methods or filters. In most cases, the software will either blend the fields together or interpolate (eliminate half the lines and use the average of the two lines to fill in the missing data.) There are also a large variety of third party plug-ins and filters available for specifically de-interlacing video footage. 

For example, Virtualdub, a free video utility, contains several advanced de-interlacing filters that can provide very nice results. For myself, lately I’ve been using a plug-in for Adobe After Effects called Topaz Enhance to do my de-interlacing. It’s made by Topaz Labs and is by far the best I’ve used. A free 30 day trial is available. 

Second, we need to change the pixel aspect ratio.

Since DV footage natively records in non-square pixels, we need to change it to match the square pixel ratio that computer monitors use. Without doing this, the footage will look stretched and disproportional. There are several ways this can be achieved.

For myself, I use Adobe After Effects. I like to import the footage and change the interpretation to “square pixels.” Then I’ll move the footage into a new composition and render it out at 640×480. This tends to work very well and is quite easy to do, especially if I’m already de-interlacing the footage.

Many NLEs will also contain presets for doing this. For example, Sony Vegas contains a specific video size preset for “640×480 square pixels.” [Note: 640x480 is the resolution at which DV footage will look correct when using square pixels.]

Again, remember that when applying these changes you’re going to lose some quality. Therefore, be sure to experiment a bit and figure out which method works best for you.

So now you’ve got yourself some footage that was once native DV and is now 640×480, using square pixels and de-interlaced. What are you waiting for? Upload that!

The second video segment of the BBB seminar, “How to use Twitter for Business,” addresses the question, what is Twitter. By definition, it’s a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read each other’s updates, know as tweets (Wikipedia). But what’s interesting are the different ways companies are using Twitter.

Popular ways companies use twitter:

• As a public relations or marketing channel
• As a research channel
• For internal/group discussions

As you start to think about how you can use Twitter for your own business, keep in mind that although it is free, it does require time and participation.

For more information on Twitter and how companies can use it as a marketing or public relations tool, watch Part 2, “What could be better than free?” now and be sure to stay tuned for more from, “How to use Twitter for Business.”

If you missed the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota’s FOCUS 2009 Luncheon Series, “How to use Twitter for Business,” you’re in luck. We’ve got the whole presentation (by our very own Executive VP, Christian Del Monte) and we’ll be posting it in easy to watch, 10 minute videos over the next two months.

The seminar focuses on how to use Twitter as a business and marketing tool to stay in touch with clients, increase brand awareness and get your company in front of new prospects.

If you’re interested in learning:

• Who’s using Twitter and how to communicate with them
• How to increase your Twitter following
• How to Tweet like a pro with popular software programs
• How to monitor what’s being said about you and your industry and
• How to track results and calculate an ROI,

be sure to stay tuned for the upcoming blog posts.

The first video, “How to use Twitter for Business Part 1: An Introduction to Social Media” serves as an introduction to social media, explaining the value it has for business professionals and companies. With a very loyal audience, who’s highly involved and a reach similar to that of television, no matter how much time you have to invest in social media, it can still be very beneficial to your business.

Twitter can help you:

• Network
• Build / extend your social community
• Gain market research knowledge
• Communicate with other professionals
• Communicate with your target market directly
• Create brand exposure
• Generate leads
• Increase sales

And the best part is? Yup, you guessed it. It’s FREE!

To learn how Twitter can help your business, watch Part 1 now and don’t forget to check back next week for Part 2.