Ever wondered how important Twitter is to a business?
A couple of weeks ago I was down in Leicester. I went to see a Marketing company. We were talking about Blogging, Copywriting and Social Media.
There were definitely some mixed opinions on Twitter, but I think that it is one of the best platforms for getting leads for your business…if you know how to do it correctly. To be honest, most of the guys at the company hadn’t used it enough to realise it’s true value.
As Gary Vaynerchuk said in the Thank You Economy, most of us aren’t a giant brand like Pepsi. Therefore, there probably isn’t going to be much online conversation around your brand.
So…what do you do to get ‘em talkin’!?
The answer is simple. You have to go broad. You have to give people a reason to talk to you and talk about you…Even if that means talking about something that has nothing to do with your company or offering.
OK, I know what you’re thinking. What the heck is the point in that?
I think that there are two main points:
- You are subconsciously increasing brand awareness - Say you’re a web design company having conversations with someone about the weather. If they have 500 followers and they are tweeting back to you, some of their followers will see your Twitter username and may check out your profile. Obviously, the weather has nothing to do with your business, but you are exposing your brand in an ethical and non-pushy way.
- You are showing people that you are human - Twitter is not a mini press release site or a broadcast medium. It is a place for two-way conversation. By chatting to people you are showing everyone that you are human, just like they are. You’re showing them that you’re not some pushy sales person trying (but failing) to push your products or services. I know it’s cheesy and clichéd, but the truth is that People Buy People.
Think outside of your box. For example, the owner of a restaurant may enter into general discussions about the local area that have nothing to do with their restaurant. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. If you’re helpful and genuine and add to the conversation, people will start to trust and respect you. If they’re talking about the local park and you say “Hey, come check out my restaurant!”, it’s probably going to piss them off. Be relevant to their conversation.
Be general, but relevant. If you’re a local brick-and-mortar business, talk to people in your local area. If you’re trying to generate leads, there’s no point in talking to someone in New Zealand if your business is offline and in London!
What keywords relate to your business? Search them on Twitter and ask yourself if you can add value by creating a conversation around that topic.
Here are a couple of examples of people that know exactly how to use Twitter for business:
- @RMCTECH – This belongs to my good friend Ryan Critchett who runs an iphone repair business.
- @boloco - This is a Mexican food place with a load of branches in Boston. In a couple of years, they have managed to create an amazing hype around their brand.
Look at how these guys interact and respond if you want to “get” how Twitter really works for business.
The takeaway
Times have changed. Social Media is all about the long run and having patience. You can still make progress by not talking about your brand. Talk to enough people about enough different things, and people will soon start talking about you. Remember the 80/20 rule – spend no more than 20% of your time trying to promote your business.
Your turn
How much value do you place on Twitter? Have you used it to expand your business? Do you use it for a different reason?
6 comments
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Ryan Critchett
March 6, 2012 at 5:19 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Love the examples my friend. You make a good point that hasn’t been talked about. Most brands are not huge brands, so they have to go out seeking conversations.
A million thanks for the shout out and link! Glad I can give you a good example to share with your readers, Robert my man!
Ryan Critchett recently posted..iGraveyard Series: Don’t Sit On Your Phone
Robert
March 6, 2012 at 6:20 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Yo man!
Thank you. Yeah, you have to look for conversations and create them rather than just responding (that will come later).
You’re welcome.I just hope more people start following your example. It’s not rocket science, it’s just being human and creating genuine engagement.
Speak soon brother!
Robert recently posted..What should you talk about on Twitter?
Bill Dorman
March 6, 2012 at 6:18 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Business people who have connected with me on LinkedIn definitely know I’m on twitter as they see my stream flowing through. I’ve had a couple of people drop me because there was too much traffic and most of that was only coming because I was RTing some Triberr mates. Therefore, I don’t know if that has been a good thing or a bad thing.
I would like to think I’m fairly consistent however and there has been nothing I tweeted that I wish I hadn’t. When I decided to link the two I probably should have given more thought as to my purpose.
I am definitely more comfortable with the 80/20 rule; most know I’m in commercial insurance but I don’t beat anybody over the head with it. At this point in my career 99% of my successes come from the relationships I have made up to this point. However, I’m sure there are ways to have social work ‘smarter’ for me and the ‘right’ kind of tweets just might be able to do that.
Bill Dorman recently posted..80 and 1 but oh so close to being done…
Robert
March 6, 2012 at 6:26 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Yeah, quite a few of my blogging “connections” that I have on LinkedIn have pretty busy feeds, but I don’t care as I’m not on there enough!
It seems like a logical step to link the two together, but I don’t know how effective it is. I suppose it depends how much you’re tweeting and how often, and how relevant it is to your connections.
Re: Your job, I think you’ve done it the right way. People know what you do but you don’t try to push your business or get leads through your blog. But, if someone who knows you needs commercial insurance, they may come to you. I’m not saying that’s happened, but I’m sure that it could. I think people have a great deal of comfort in knowing they can come to your blog and not have anything pushed in their face.
Robert recently posted..What should you talk about on Twitter?
Ashvini
March 7, 2012 at 6:11 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Hi Robert,
Very well said. Twitter is a great way to reach audience. I had a few days back unfollowed a lot of people. The reason was (you know it), that the stream simply ran away. There was so much information to consume. Now I follow a few people but the things they tweet are really relevant. I even have conversations on twitter sometimes and also see others engaged in their own conversation.
It is a really interesting place to interact with people and you have mentioned rightly how it needs to be done.
Ashvini recently posted..Should you trust the experts always?
Robert
March 8, 2012 at 12:46 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Hey Ashvini,
Always a pleasure to see you sir!
Haha, I actually did the exact same thing a couple of weeks ago! I don’t think there’s any point in following people back for the fun of it. As you said, it just means that your news feed is clogged up with unnecessary and irrelevant stuff. I actually unfollowed about 700 people and much prefer Twitter now! My news feed is much more interesting and relevant, and I can actually see Tweets from the people that I know and have built relationships with, or simply people that I’m interested in.
Yes I think Twitter has much potential. Thank you for your kind words sir!
Robert recently posted..What should you talk about on Twitter?