Nearly every business owner I have spoken too about Twitter, seems to be under the impression that the main objective is to get as many followers as you can. And blast your message out to them as often as possible.
I believe this thinking comes directly from the “get 100 hundred followers a day programs” that are popping up all over the place. Being that I have been on Twitter for over two years now, and also due to the fact that I was fortunate enough to learn how to use Twitter the correct way. I believe that this theory is seriously flawed!
What I am going to do for you in this article is explain exactly how I use Twitter for business, and how you can use Twitter to engage, interact and add value to the people you choose to follow. So that your business reaps some real benefits from you being on there.
Twitter is just a tool.
So it need to be used correctly to be effective. You wouldn’t try and cut a piece of wood with a hammer would you? Yet this is effectively what people are trying to do when they set their Twitter account up as an ATM (Automatic Tweeting Machine).
Twitter is a real time interaction tool. By that I mean that you will get the best results by actually sending all your tweets out personally, so that you can directly interact with people.
A great way to engage them is too find something that you have in common, sometimes it takes a little while but it is well worth the effort. Let me give you a great example of this that actually happened to me. I was working away one morning writing a blog post from memory, anyway the old brain got a bit distracted and I wandered over too ninemsn to see what was going on out in the real world. There was a story about a crocodile that had been trapped in a swimming hole where we used to swim as a family, when we lived in Darwin.
So I tweeted out the story something like I used to swim in this waterhole when I lived in Darwin! Within a couple of minutes I get an @ message back saying so you are a Darwin boy then? I went on to explain that I wasn’t, but built up a friendship with this person that has lead too me being invited to blog on the Coolum Beach site on the Sunshine Coast, as well as being asked to be a social media judge at an event in the future.
Twitter is also an exceptional tool for creating business connection’s, and getting around the gatekeeper who often ends up with your email’s! This is my number one Twitter tip…
If you want to speak directly to someone that you are have trouble contacting, see if they have a Twitter account. You see Twitter is a direct reflection of an individuals personality. Smart operator’s recognize this and rarely let the gatekeeper have access to their Twitter account. The added bonus is there are so many Twitter apps for phones, having some-one’s Twitter name is just as effective for contacting them as having their mobile number.
Never use Twitter as a sales tool unless…
It is someone you have known for a while and built up a friendship with or they specifically ask me to recommend a product to them.
Nothing is worse than someone trying to shove their products and services down your neck via Twitter.
Just wait until it happens to you the first time and you will know exactly what I am talking about!
Author Bio: Adam Bean (@beanie72 on Twitter) specializes in teaching Entrepreneur’s and Business Owners how to leverage the power of Information Products, Blog’s and Twitter. Adam has been on Twitter for over 2 years now and has unique views on exactly how Twitter should be utilized, as a real time interaction tool. For more information, visit Adam online at wwwsmallbusinessmarketingideas.tv.
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