Twitter for business is still a term that gets lots of people confused. There are plenty of businesses using Twitter very effectively but there are also many businesspeople out there who still think Twitter isn’t for them.
Only yesterday I was told:
“Twitter isn’t for businesses. It’s just for chatting and wasting time.”
Therefore, I think it’s worth reminding our clients, regular readers and new visitors to this site of three important ways in which Twitter can really help businesses to succeed.
Follow Relevant Twitter Accounts
The first stage to business success for any business using Twitter is to follow a range of people. However, you need to make sure you’re following the right people.
If you work with me on building your online presence your first piece of homework will be to go and find fifty Twitter accounts to follow where you can give me a good reason why you have chosen to follow them.
The answers I’m looking for include:
“I’ll learn a lot about our industry from following this account.”
“This is a company we would like to do business with.”
“This person’s opinion really counts.”
Once you are following fifty such accounts you have made a good start to building your Twitter community and a Twitter community that will be helpful to your business.
Talk to people on Twitter
Just about every one talks about joining in the conversation. It’s what people remember about Twitter. Unfortunately, this can lead you in the wrong direction.
Join in an existing conversation would be better advice. Then think about the following:
- What are people already talking about on Twitter?
- What are they already interested in, and talking about on Twitter?
Before you think about starting your own conversations on Twitter, join in the ones that are already taking place. You’ll get yourself known as an interesting person if you are an interesting person. This is the basic building block of reputation building. It’s that simple.
Get involved. Help and advise. Add value.
If you do nothing else by working in this way you will find you are conducting excellent market research. You will learn what your industry is talking about and what people in your industry are worried about. With your business hat on you should then think about how to make use of what you now know.
Just remember you’ve gathered this valuable market intelligence for very little outlay.
Tweet regularly
One of the biggest problems that small businesses face is the problem of attention.
Small business owners, independent professionals, consultants, coaches and other experts have lots of different calls on their time. That means they forget to tweet or they get too busy to tweet or they are just too tired to tweet (except at midnight – which isn’t much good, unless your audience is online at midnight).
- Create a Twitter schedule.
- Stick to your schedule. (The difficult bit)
- Tweet to a timetable – whatever else you’re doing.
It will help. You’ll be noticed more. Your tweets will be picked up more. Your tweets will be retweeted more and so on.
Stop wasting time on Twitter
Your key aim with all of this is to stop wasting time on Twitter. I always monitor our clients’ Twitter activity when we’re working on improving web presence, so I know that most people waste time on Twitter.
It is a waste of time to automate tweets that go across lots of different platforms if you don’t know who you want to reach or what impact you wish to have on the people you reach via Twitter.
It is a waste of time to tweet without purpose at any time.
It is a waste of time to log into Twitter and not look at who is talking about you, replying to you, mentioning you and so on. You are missing opportunities to connect and to build relationships.
Focus matters, so focus.
What to do about Twitter
Give yourself permission to forget about tweeting until you know what you want to tweet about and what you want your Twitter presence to do for your business.
You’ll save time and you’ll bring in more business via Twitter if you work in this way. That’s a promise.
And now …
You can read my free online Twitter tutorial by clicking on the link:
If you’d like to Stop Wasting Time Online then sign up to follow the ten part development programme.
Click on the term: Stop Wasting Time Online
Do you want to develop a new perspective on your business? Sign up for our 100% Change updates to help you to reshape your business and become more successful one change at a time.
About Margaret Adams
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