Posted by
John in
Business, Social Media, Twitter on July 8th, 2009 |
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Leveraging Twitter for your business – that’s an important activity! And that’s why I had to split up my 5 tips over 2 days. So, thanks for coming back for seconds. Yesterday I discussed The Account and Productivity in Part 1. In a nutshell – make sure you have a customized account that speaks to your brand and business, and learn how to speed up your Twitter usage with desktop apps and time management. For today’s Part 2, I will be covering Building Followers, Know Who to Follow and Rules of Engagement.
3. Building Followers
As a business owner using Twitter to create brand awareness, buzz or website traffic (or all 3), growing the number of followers for your profile is crucial. Crucial? Yes. Easy? Some might say yes, but chances are they aren’t putting much effort or thought into the process. Here are four ways to gain followers on Twitter:
- Be Popular: If you are a popular brand, then you have already got a huge advantage over the average business owner! Celebrities, big brands (think Dell) and anybody/thing with a recognizable name will find that followers just gravitate to them. We’re not all so lucky, so move on to the next actionable steps!
- Provide Useful Information: When you Tweet, think about how that message will resonate with your followers and potential followers. If you are providing information that is useful and meaningful, people will not only read your Tweets, they’ll follow and possibly “retweet” that information to all of their followers. Granted, this is a process that develops with time, but by merely providing value through your Twitter presence, you will attract followers.
- Proactively Follow Users: Another school of thought is that to get onto someone’s Twitter radar, you must first follow them. This can be effective, but this tactic has it’s downsides (as I’ll discuss more in section #4). If all you are seeking is an inflated ‘followers’ stat, than all you would have to do is start following Twitter users by the 100’s, 1000’s, and so-on. However, you want to attract followers who are interested in your business and who could become a potential customer. Only follow those who fit into this criteria – and yes, you will still increase your followers.
- Drive Traffic to Your Profile: I think that many people fall into the trap of thinking that growing a Twitter profile only happens within the microcosm of Twitter itself. This just isn’t the case. Part of your job when running a social media campaign is to get people to your profiles in many different ways. Put a link to your Twitter profile on your website, blog, business cards – even cross link from other social networking profiles. The point is – get people to that profile, let them see your fantastic Twitter presence and they too will start following!
4. Know Who to Follow
A lot of folks who try to use Twitter (or any other social networking site) for their business have a one-track mind. It’s all about getting followers and pushing products/services. While those things are important, remember this is social media – it’s a two-way street. You have to man up and follow people to make this gig work.
- Search Twitter Feeds: Keywords make the internet world go ’round. And this is how you can find the best Twitter users to start following and building a community around. Use tools like Twitter Search or Tweetscan to monitor Twitter discussions that use keywords related to your business. These are the folks that you want to follow so that you can become a part of their discussion.
- The Twitter Elite: Just like in the “real world” – it can be beneficial to bump elbows with the movers and shakers of your industry on Twitter. Following these Twitter Elite will not only put you on their radar, but you will effectively blend your network with theirs. You can use Twitter Search and Tweetscan for this purpose, but there’s a more effective method of finding these individuals. Head on over to Twitter Grader’s User Search tool. Twitter Grader (powered by HubSpot) monitors Twitter profiles and ranks them by number of followers and other usage factors. Just type in a keyword related to your business and see what brands and individuals pop up.
5. Rules of Engagement
Just like any other marketing tactic, there are particular rules you must adhere to. There aren’t any officially sanctioned rules for Twitter, but there are certainly accepted best practices that will keep your business from being labeled as SPAM by the masses.
- Be a Part of the Conversation: If you hope to ever sell anything to one of your Twitter followers, they need to have a reason to care about you and your business. If you are somehow able to find 1000 followers, but you never Tweet – people will forget you exist. Additionally, a Twitter feed that has no history of quality Tweets will instill zero trust in your brand. Participating in the conversation ensures that you remain top-of-mind and show everyone your true colors.
- Respond When Spoken To: When a follower takes the time to send a message to you (whether direct or via a reply), the worst thing you can do is ignore them. Take the time to reply – even it’s just a simple “Thanks.” Another place where this becomes a factor is when discussing “retweets.” If a follower retweets your message, link, what-have-you – thank them. They’ll be more likely to do it again in the future!
- Monitor Mentions of Your Business: Once you engage in the social media space, including Twitter, you must monitor the conversation that is taking place about your business. This enables you to quickly respond to negative mentions (online reputation management, anyone?), find new potential customers to follow and also to simply join a conversation – instilling a deeper trust in your business. Use Twitter Search or Google Alerts to set up RSS feeds around keywords important to your business. Monitor these feeds and respond appropriately.
That about sums it up. Utilizing social media for marketing is a delicate art and Twitter is no exception. I hope that these 5 points will help you to ramp up your Twitter presence and leverage the social media power for your business.
I want to know what you think about Twitter followers/following and the rules of engagement – leave me a comment!
