Using Twitter For Business

My new client wasn’t “Tweeting” because she just didn’t “get it”. She had heard that Twitter could be a great marketing tool but didn’t know how to use social media in general, or how to use Twitter for business success. My time with her spawned this post.

(Keep in mind that the underlying principles listed here apply to any and all of the social media sites, not just Twitter.)

For starters can we stipulate that successful businesses are built on relationships? “Back in the day” a prospect that needed a product or service opened the Yellow Pages and called a couple of places that looked like they could help and then went in to that place of business and actually met the staff, looked at the shelves of inventory, maybe met the owner and purchased what they needed.

Online marketing and selling follows the same principles but everything is done “virtually.” Rather than forming relationships with people we meet face to face, today’s online marketers do all of the above – get found, provide contact information, answer questions about inventory, pricing, years in business, etc – via the web. Leveraging social media for your business is a great way to inform and build trust with a clientele that may never meet you.

Your clients and prospects are spending HOURS each day on social media sites. So having an optimized social media marketing plan not only offers business owners a method to contact huge-mongous numbers of people, it also provides the ability and opportunity to reach a targeted market, which is how Google makes its money and it’s the only way to sell today. And social media marketing and promotion is free (if you don’t count your time)!

Key Principle

Treat social media like a backyard BBQ at your neighbor’s house. By that I mean,

1. Show up.
2. Dress appropriately.
3. Don’t be stupid.
4. Be polite.
5. When someone asks what you do, tell them!
6. Ask them what they do.
   1. If they’re not interested in what you do SHUT UP!
   2. Don’t sneak your card into their pocket.
   3. Don’t slip your new company brochure in their pocket.
   4. Don’t slip your new company brochure in with their BBQ plate.
   5. Don’t shout at them about what you do because you think they didn’t hear you.
   6. Don’t play “YMCA” or some other really cool music and explain what you do because you think they didn’t hear you.
7. Be polite some more.
   
8. Stay late.
9. Offer to clean up.
10. Make it easy for others to reach you for whatever reason interest them:
    1. Share recipes.
    2. Share Fantasy Football ideas.
    3. Go golfing together.
    4. Go to the gym together.
       
    5. Do business together.
11. Remain visible.
    

The idea behind social media is based on forming relationships, which is where the majority of online marketers go wrong! Most are impatient, rude and driven only by profits. Rather than taking the time to get to know others, most rookie and “experienced” online marketers embark on an annoying social media advertising campaign before attempting to get to know their visitors and prospects, which amounts to spamming in the hopes of making a nickle here and there. (Look for my article on “Twitter Spam: Why So Many (Stupid) Tweeters Do It). Needless to say, this is NOT how to act at the neighborhood BBQ nor is it how to leverage social media for business success!

So how do you meet people on Twitter to attract qualified prospects to you?

• Create a customized/personal Twitter page with a photo of yourself. Use accurate keywords in your bio and inlcude a link to your website (a blog is a better choice. Contact me if you need help setting one up.)
• Use software to automatically follow your new followers and include a personalized message.
• Follow others who are in your target market. An effective way to do this is to locate a Twitterer that has already used Twitter to grow a large following in your niche – maybe even a competitor – and follow their followers. You can also add followers through your website, blog and other social media sites such as Facebook.
• Personalize your friend requests with a friendly message. Let them know you’re a real person, not a spammer, and you’re looking to connect with like-minded professionals.
  
• The etiquette on Twitter is that those you follow will follow you back. You can delete/unfollow those that don’t.
• As your list grows so will your spammers but so will the good contacts that you want and need to grow your business.
  
• Cut your own fingers off before you consider sending spam!
  
• Send followers to your blog. This is how people really get to know you in our virtual world today. So write often and write for real.
  

If you remain real, true and strive to provide value first you will grow your business through social media. You will stand out from the crowd and you will soon be getting orders from people you never even met! That’s magic.

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