Here’s a great example of how Twitter can bring more participation in the classroom.  Video explanation below:

Dr. Rankin, professor of History at UT Dallas, wanted to know how to reach more students and involve more people in class discussions both in and out of the classroom. She had heard of Twitter… She collaborated with the UT Dallas, Arts and Technology – Emerging Media and Communications (EMAC) http://www.emac.utdallas.edu faculty and as a Graduate student in EMAC I assisted her in her experiment.

Business Finds You on Twitter from Mark Gehrke on Vimeo.

One of the greatest challenges as a new small business owner is people finding your business.  Michelle Mangen is a virtual assistant that has used Twitter networking successfully to find and build her  small business.

We find Twitter to be one of the best networking tools to discover like minded people and kindle new relationships.  Twitter can be confusing in the beginning.  If you’re just getting started on Twitter we can give you a jump start on understanding how to best use the tool and help you develop a Twitter strategy.

Posted via web from kalalea’s posterous

@mmangen – Twitter Goddess from Mark Gehrke on Vimeo.

Debra Gehrke talks with Michelle Mangen about Twitter, the #newend hashtag and how to use Twitter to follow along with the NEW END event during the day and after the event.

Getting More from Twitter Starts with Asking for Help from Mark Gehrke on Vimeo.

Twitter is a great networking platform to connect with your audience.  Twitter can be valuable to build stronger relationships with your customers and your brand.  Twitter’s benefits really come through continued use and building a relevant network.  When you first start using Twitter is can be very confusing.  I believe this is why many people quit the service before they see the benefits.

In this video Debra Gehrke, of Mandala Life Media, talks with Kim Sippola ( @ATWairport ) about how having help with Twitter from Michelle Mangen ( @mmangen ) made a big difference to her understanding of how to make best use of the platform for her.

A valuable thing you can do when you’re first getting started on Twitter is find a knowledge user that can explain it to you.  If you have someone show you how to make sense of the terms, technology and practices you can get a huge jump start. Tweeting can be an enjoyable and valuable experience for you with a little support.

Our Recommendations:

• Find a Twitter mentor
• If you can meet in person
• Be open-minded and curious to learn
• Ask lots of questions
• Do be afraid to try
• If you don’t understand ask for clarification
• Jump in and practice, it’s not about perfection
• Think about how you can add value
• Participate in the conversation
• It’s not all about you
• It’s an evolving medium, keep learning

Want a jump start with Twitter?  We can help.

If you’ve been using Twitter and would like to expand  your Twitter strategy we love to help.  For small businesses using Twitter, getting clear about what you want to accomplish is essential.  Evaluate your strategy up front and remember that strategy to action is a continual cycle.   Your strategy needs continual attention if you want to see results.

Outagamie Co. Airport Uses Social Media from Mark Gehrke on Vimeo.

Outagamie Co. Airport Uses Social Media from Mark Gehrke on Vimeo.

Debra Gehrke talks with Kim Sippola, Outagamie Co. Airport Marketing Manager, about how the airport uses Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to connect with travelers and the community.  Interview conducted at Renew Summit 2009 presented by New North and NEW END.  We love to help support the local North Eastern Wisconsin social media business community.  Social media is still very new for most businesses and navigating these ever changing waters can be challenging.  We hope this video and the story we shared recently about how Grassroots A Salon is blogging to get their story out to the community will give you a little inspiration to jump in and participate.  And if you have more questions we are happy to help.

“Our immediacy and personal interaction with customers is part of the work we’re doing to make positive change for relationships with customers, getting to the root causes of problems that arise and fixing them for the long term,”  Eric Ketzer – Charter Communications

By listening to the conversations and monitoring your brand and your industry you have an opportunity to understand how you’re being perceived and fix challenges as they come up.

Twitter is one of the best tools available right now for monitoring and engaging in the public conversation around your brand.  At least if you have a business that people can talk about.

Laura Fitton ( @pistachio ) has some great additional off platform benefits from Twittering.  These are great ideas and show that even if you’re in a business that doesn’t have a lot of customers on Twitter you can still help your business through Twitter.

1. SEO – Findability on the web.  Twitter is a great service to help you move up the search results.  Use your business name as your Twitter user name to help manage your search rankings.  Bring people to your website with an active Twitter presence.

2. Research – Twitter is a great way to listen to what people are saying on the web about your field and research new ideas and directions.  You can ask questions and develop feedback loops for pretty much anything.

3. Content Generation Engine – setup a resource on your home page and use it to share and give your web site visitors a place to see what’s people are talking about.  Twitter can be a quick way to keep your customers in the loop for events and all kinds of things.  The quick communication platform is a tool with myriad possibilities.

4. Word of Mouth Pass-a-Long – Your promotions can spread beyond Twitter, even to your off – line customers if you create deals worth spreading.  A few followers could potentially share your promotion with their non twittering friends, spreading your good deals and positive word of mouth.

5. PR Gravity – sharing on Twitter can connect you to media professionals looking for great stories.  If you share great content you can become a resource for your local media professionals.  Most local media professionals are on Twitter.  You can often by-pass the press release and communicate directly with journalists through Twitter.

Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library TV talks about how Twitter is a game changer for business.  Gary shares the power of search.twitter.com the listen in on the conversations around your brand and Twitters ability to take you beyond the “presentation” and allow you to “work the room” engaging in conversations with your fans.

Want a service that’s faster than twitter?  Flutter evolves micro blogging to nano blogging.  Watch the video to learn more.