Tag: Twitter

10 Twitter Rules for Business Success

As far as I am concerned, Twitter is a must have for business; whether you are using Twitter to promoting your business or establishing your expertise is a field it is a crucial piece of the puzzle to getting recognized and building relationships. But with all the clutter in the Twitterverse it’s important not to ignore the etiquette of Twitter, otherwise you might find that you are not getting the most of this popular social networking platform.

Top 10 Twitter Etiquette Tips for Business

1. Listen to your mother and Mind Your Manners
This is just good common sense. As someone who is a marketing professional first I always like to say, “New Tools Old Rules.” If someone mentions you or retweets you, if at all possible thank them. Not only do People like to be recognized for their efforts but this is a valuable action so not thanking them would be rude. This is also a great way to begin building a relationship on Twitter. This small gesture may open the lines of communication between you and a potential customer or business partner. Show your appreciation, and people will be more likely to re-tweet your offerings again and again. Even better, return the favor and retweet one of their posts.

2. Use #Hashtags Appropriately
I personally love hashtags, they are a great way to encourage participation not to mention help others track and find information. Having said that it is important not to overuse them. While I like the long hashtag as much as the next person, using it too often or putting a hashtag in front of every word of your post will do nothing more than annoy your followers.

3. Resist the Urge to Tweet Too Much
Time and time again, research has shown that there is a fine line between just enough sharing and too much. Often times business that are new to Twitter, don’t yet understand this principle. Don’t fill your followers’ feeds with spammy Tweets. The best way to engage your audience is to post relevant, interesting, useful, and original content. Before you post, ask yourself: “Would I care about this if I were a follower?”

Tip: If you have a lot of ideas, use a program like Hootsuite to schedule your tweets so that they can be spaced out.

4. Warn Followers if You’re Going to Tweet A Lot
If you want to live-tweet an event at your business or charity gathering, you will need to tweet a lot!. While it’s a good idea, you may lose more followers who feel assaulted by a barrage of tweets. A little fair warning will be much appreciated, and your followers will likely give you a pass for the day.

Tip: Tell them to check out Twalala or Twittblocker

5. Watch What You Tweet
There have been some famous and embarrassing blunders on social media that have gotten both individuals and even entire companies in a lot of trouble. Never use your brand’s Twitter account to discuss controversial topics, send inappropriate photos, or use explicit language. If you’re on a personal account, the sky’s the limit and you can debate anything you like. However, in a business setting, unless it directly pertains to your product or service, it may be best to leave certain incendiary subjects like religion and politics alone it may bring you more trouble than they’re worth.

6. Don’t Get Too Personal
Developing relationships with customers is one the primary goals of Twitter, but you should try to keep your posts about relevant business information. Your followers don’t need to know your personal business. I will concede that there is a benefit to adding a personal touch from time to time, especially in a small business. If you’re getting married or a favorite employee just had a baby, you may want to share the news for your brand loyalists to celebrate with you. Just be careful when considering what is appropriate to share.

7. Write Professionally
Your social media presence is an extension of your business persona. Always use proper grammar and spelling it will help you maintain a professional image. (No one wants to see a law firm or accountant office tweet “OMG! Its not 2 late 4 u to file ur taxes!”).

Tip: Be sure to use proper forms of commonly misused words like there, they’re, and their.

8. Be Aware of Your Audience
Keeping rule #6 in mind, try and tailor your content to fit your audience. If your brand is focusing on tweens and teens, speak their lingo. If you are a B2B company, you will definitely want to use industry jargon. Be sure to post information that is relevant and timely to those following you and those you want to follow you.

Tip: If applicable awards shows and sporting events are great ways to engage customers.

9. Be Timely With Communication
Once you’ve started a conversation with someone on Twitter, it is imperative that you respond to them in a timely manner. Even more importantly, if someone poses a question to you, answer them! Social media is great for giving you an opportunity to engage immediately and directly with your consumer base. Nothing is worse than asking a company a question and not hearing back from them for 3 days.

10. Address Customer Service Issues Privately
Almost any customer who tweets you with a complaint or concern wants to be heard, but not all want to engage in a public dialogue. Directly address consumers through direct message, off the public “floor.”

Tip: you can even ask them for a phone number and call them personally to show them you care about fixing the issue.

BONUS: Don’t buy into personal attacks.
There are always those people who complain and no matter what you say they will never be happy. To make this worse, Twitter is a medium of text communication which means a definite margin of misunderstanding because there’s no way to hear someone’s tone of voice or observe their body language. What may be meant as a joke could escalate into something more negative. if it seems a conversation is deteriorating into something contentious it’s wise to just walk away. Trust me, It’s just not worth it.

Twitter is one of the most effective ways to marketing your business of the last decade. Follow these rules, and you’re sure to have many happy tweets ahead of you.

Build Your Buzz!!

Twitter Marketing Your Business to Increase Sales – The Right Way

You’ve hear it before-adjust your message to your audience. It’s a trite saying, but what does it mean and how do you do it? Furthermore, if you have that part down pat and are not adjusting your marketing to capture your target audience’s eyes and ears you have missed the boat entirely.

There’s nothing worse than giving a talk to a group of ten-year-olds that was written for the scientific community. In effect, that is exactly what you are doing if you fail to target your message to your audience. The result of your speech falls on cement and the bottom line-you wasted a ton of time and energy, both yours and your audience’s to boot. While adjusting your message is vital to the success of any business, without adjusting your marketing as well your business will flounder and fail.

First, sit down and figure out who your target audience is. Where do they hang out? Do they still search the Yellow Pages or are they adept at using the online search engines? Do they get their news from the newspaper or TV, or do they get their news online? Do they read digital information products or in-hand books and magazines? What about Twitter, Facebook and the like? Once you have this information you will better understand the makeup of your target market. This will enable you to create a marketing campaign that will result in increased recognition and sales.

Now that you know where they hang out the next step is to use the mediums they prefer to market to them in a way that is compelling and clearly demonstrates how to take advantage of your product or service. Just knowing where to find them is a help but using these mediums incorrectly can be just as damaging as not using them at all-maybe even more so.

If you don’t know where to start, begin by following your competition around. Look at what they are using to market their businesses and how they present their case. This will tell you much about what works and what doesn’t. Try to glean from their advertising tidbits to help you better create your marketing message.

One such online medium that is gaining popularity among the 20 plus crowd is Twitter. Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central puts it this way, “Social media offers new opportunities to activate…brand enthusiasm.” So, if your audience hangs out on Twitter, then you too should be twittering. However, don’t just post inane messages and thus waste your time and theirs. Don’t just shout your message out, you could ultimately damage your reputation and repel your target audience all together.

Begin by listening to what your target audience is saying about your company or industry. Listen carefully and they will tell you what they want and need. Then gear your marketing message towards fulfilling those gaps. You may find that just offering direction or advice will cause them to sit up and take notice of you so that they are prepared to listen when you tell them how to fill their needs. My advice to you, be truthful, timely and most importantly, fun.

Once you have their trust you may be surprised how quickly they help you spread the word with what is known as re-tweets. Now you have a whole new set of avid fans who will take your message even further than you could dream of doing by yourself. Remember, it’s all about creating a ‘buzz’.

Use your knowledge to enlighten your audience and then offer an easily accessible solution. Be direct and clear as to how to obtain the help you are offering. Don’t take them down a path to your product or service. Rather, tell them exactly where to go to obtain it, not more information about it. Yes, you may also want to include a link to more information, but for those who don’t need it, don’t waste their time-you risk losing them along the way.

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