So, David Martin, Vice President, Primary Research at Nielsen Online – a research company that delivers audience and Internet measurement metrics – released some interesting data last week on his blog on Twitter, its retention rate, and predictions on where Twitter will be if retention rates don’t improve.

You can read the report for yourself, but basically, its says that more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month and therefore the site’s growth rate is limited.

After he received a ton of feedback and comments, David issued updates to his study and research which included 30 other applications and websites that feed into Twitter. The results didn’t change.

This is great, interesting data – if its correct – but, so what?? For me, it’s not the intrinsic issue. I feel marketers are so stuck on predictions: Where will Twitter be in the next year? Is Twitter just a fad? Does it have staying power?

Marketers are waiting for “someone” to officially give the stamp of ROI approval on Twitter, but in the meantime are not taking action, and are missing out on opportunities NOW to strengthen customer and partner relationships.

I believe that companies that are agile and have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon with a good strategy and Twitter team are getting great results that compliment their overall marketing and sales strategy. Companies like @Jetblue, @DunkinDonuts, @woot, @zappos, @WholeFoods, @SouthwestAir are just a few that come to mind. Follow them to see what they’re doing on Twitter…

Twitter is not the quintessential or all-important element of your marketing outreach. Its only one piece. But its a powerful communication piece.

If Twitter does dwindle out, so be it. But right now, times are tough, and we need many different channels to reach out to our customers and partners, to talk and connect with them.

So I believe its about acting now and making the difference.

PS: I personally think that a large amount of the Twitter retention problem is about content – and I’ve said this from the beginning – tweets needs to provide value and need to be compelling. I “unfollow” tweeters who tweet about having coffee, watching a great sunset, or getting kids from school. This just does not motivate me to continue to follow them, it doesn’t provide me with anything of value. I think if tweeters get that, less users would drop out.

I thought it was a great gathering: The keynote speaker was Ray Kerins, VP Worldwide Communications, Pfizer. The panel that followed was moderated by Melanie Milstein, author of Twitter and the Micro-Messaging Revolution with Dave Armon, President PR Newswire, David Sacks, Founder of Yammer, Paul Gennaro, Chief Communication Officer, AECOM, Morgan Johnston, Corporate Communications Manager, JetBlue, and Marc Monseau, Director, Media Relations, Johnson & Johnson

The forum then broke out into roundtable sessions moderated by professionals in PR and Marketing who are involved and active in social media and real-time communications.

It was exciting to actually meet and talk to all of these good people that are the front-runners in embracing and using social media and real-time communications to strengthen their brand and connect and communicate with their customers.

I must say, it was mostly in a B2C context, but the forum tried to cover B2B as well.

Everyone was fired up; the room was abuzz with talk, questions, and networking. All the social media buzzwords you could find were flying around: Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr, blogging, tweeting, video, RSS, IM, email, wikis and on and on…

I felt that people could not get enough information. Everybody was thirsty to learn more.

The questions seemed to be unanimous and ubiquitous:
How do I start?
What does it take from a tactical point of view? One person or a team of 10?
What are the risks?
What are the benefits?
Can I calculate ROI?
How do I get executive management on board?
How do I manage a crisis?
What is a fast response? Two days, two hours, 2 minutes or 2 seconds?
How do I control what’s out there?
How do I manage and aggregate all the different platforms for RTC?
What about traditional media?
How do I get buzz going for a small company that’s not a JetBlue or J&J?

Some questions were tackled and answered, some were not, some got an honest “we don’t know the answer to that yet”.

My key takeaways – and I hope this helps all of us – were:
- Start by discovering what conversations are going on in the social media space like Twitter, YouTube and blogs
- Monitor these everyday by getting RSS feeds through Google RSS or Google Alerts
- Make sure you understand and define your goals and what your communications strategy is
- Don’t be afraid to dip your toe into this fast-flowing social media river.
- Conversations are happening about your company anyway, so get involved
- Depending on your corporation or business, you should decide how to become part of these conversations and who should be answering
- Key: BE HONEST, BE TRANSPARENT
- Employees are spokespeople for the company – they are out there using Twitter and the likes, so they should be brought up to speed
- To do this, and do this right, in a big corporation, there needs to be a mind shift from the top down. Changes in the organization need to be made. Processes need to be streamlined. The social media spokespeople need to be empowered to reply quickly
- To quote Morgan Jonston from JefBlue, “This is about humanization of the brand!”
- Be careful not to seem like the overbearing “big brother”, don’t be intimidating
- Open up, LISTEN to your customers, be committed to change
- Remember and be aware: The line is thinning between traditional media and social media – many journalists have left traditional media and are now influential bloggers/tweeters

Lots of *stuff* to take in…

I look forward to a follow up event, which, in my opinion, could be a full day event, instead of half a day.

If you’d like to hear the two main sessions they are available here.

*Please* add your comments – I would love to hear your opinion and additions!

Excuse the pun, but LinkedIn will now allow you to ‘link in’ all of your other social networks and online applications to create tentacles to your real life and your broader digital life. For example:

• Link your blog to your profile for auto-updates of your latest posts with WordPress or Blog Link by SixApart
• Post your presentations through SlideShare or Google Presentation
• Promote your readling list with Reading List by Amazon
• Map your travel to connect with your connections in other cities with MyTravel by TripIt

Plus a host of other applications…..

I also manage/co-manage two groups on LinkedIn; PRSA-NY and PRSA Technology Section. Until recently, other than posting the logo like a lapel pin on your profile, being in the group didn’t give members any benefits. Now there are many more ways to interact, including:

• Contact group members directly
• Posting questions (discussions) and comments to the group
• Adding news articles of relevance to the group

Hopefully there will be more ‘social’ elements to LinkedIn. Might I suggest a Twitter app and link to your Flickr account for starters.

1. Pick 2-3 platforms and commit. Don’t overextend your social networking butterfly tactics. If you can’t actively participate in discussions or have a significant presence (update/check in 2-3 times per week).

2. Decide if its entertainment, news or work. Since I am married and have 2 kids, and run my company, I don’t have much time for online entertainment. If you are a busy executive, you may feel the same. If you are monitoring a million sites and participating in too many social circles, you may never get beyond the superficial participation. Although I monitor the news for my clients (and I am a news hound by nature) I cut off the sites that don’t provide me with work-related value. It’s your call but if you are limited on time, focus on the social participation that will give you a return on your time investment.

3. Turn online into offline networks. If you are ‘socializing’ with folks online, try to turn them into offline relationships. (i.e. Following someone on Twitter does not make you friends.) It’s not enough to be a voyeur and it’s usually not enough to only communicate through the online medium. Business still takes place in the real world. Use your social networks to make offline, in-person introductions at meet ups, on the phone or conferences. (And, you can still ask people out to lunch.)

4. Measure up. Figure out what you want to achieve from your online engagements, and measure the value of your participation over time. If you are not getting what you need, you may want to disengage or you may want to up the ante on your participation.

Although there are people that live online, I have a pretty busy life in the real world (my two-year old does not text just yet!) If you are spending hours a day on social networks, it can enrich or disrupt that balance. Just make sure you are doing it for the right reasons and not just because its the lastest trend. For most people I know, time is the most valuable asset they have, and I want to make sure that mine is well spent.