When having twitter-sphere engagement with customers or even friends, it fascinates me that people wonder "what should I tweet about?" I have only 140 characters in which to fit my thoughts, and which ideas are most relevant?
Posted by Joanne Kleé,
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Be the Brand, Be You
In the "Twitter (Uni)Verse" people will follow you for different reasons. Perhaps the content is funny, relevant to their business perhaps articles new trends, or new approaches to fundraising. While we try to anticipate clients needs, and what THEY feel is relevant, I have found an easier model for twitter. Be You! Be Your Brand. You are a consultant, product or service provider. How do you vary yourself? How are you different from others? That's your twitter niche!
You can't always determine why people will follow you, so the best piece of advice that I give others is just be yourself. Stay true to your brand and the objective of your Twitter account. And tweet often as often as you like. Or tweet weekly if you prefer, however to be significant on Twitter it's found that at least a daily commentary is needed.
And I'm not the the only expert saying "Be Your Brand" to drive content, here's a nice article about building you advertising plan, be it twitter or facebook, and regardless of the vehicle you choose, stay true to you, to your "product."
So what is your Twitter account objective?
I have three Twitter accounts personally. There is my business mission as JK Events and Marketing, where I sell documents, tweet out information about marketing and event management, and stay true to the theme of my business account. For the most part my personal opinions and commentary on the day in the life of (insert name here) Celebrity does not belong in this Twitter account feed. Or does it?
You can't tell the readers what to read, you can't even encourage them to keep reading... Well that last part you can do!
Focus on YOU, and your content. And yet another reinforcement of the message to simply be good at what you do, and give the reader what they want...
We can't change what blog / twitter verse readers want. But we can give our readers more relevant to them content. By following which posts and tweets get attention and giving more of it. Be true to your audience, respect them and in this case don't try to drive the content... Be the content! More reinforcement articles here:
The Topics really are endless:
Using an interesting angle, or topic, to build an audience.
Of course if celebrity life is the cornerstone of who you are and your business you can most definitely include it in Twitter. Even if you're selling say paper every day, perhaps you want to include some interesting celebrity articles to attract attention from people whether they're interested in your paper products or not.
I recall in my previous capacity, once upon a time an internal company newsletter that was published by the accounting department. For the most part accounting, for me is not exciting. The day in the life of someone who is reading numbers all day long, is not an exciting concept for me. However I read their weekly newsletter, they included found articles about other events going on at the bank, other activities going on within their department, and the approach was humorous, insightful, and intelligent. This concept holds true for twitter.
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| Launching Social Media for your business is not step number 1. But when you do start interacting with the global market, have a plan, and be consistent. |
Give the News
I find myself on Twitter in the morning, to get my news. And I'm also finding that Twitter will have new stories up to 24 hours in advance of them being on mainstream media including TV and radio. Even Internet articles, which are the fastest means to publishing, need to be written and edited. Twitter however gives you that hashtag rich, 140 characters or less in order to post information. Sorting the news that's relative to me, of course I search hashtags. One of the easiest means of using Twitter for business is the "retweet." Finding articles and relevant information to your business, or trending new ideas, go ahead and retweet those articles to your audience. You will become a one stop "news feed" for content.
A word of caution. I have found after using Twitter that many frequent articles are simply copycats of each other. The top 10 ways to use Twitter, and everybody listed the exact or nearly exact 10 reasons. Try to find truly innovative content, truly new articles with content that hasn't been written about before. For example my articles on tips and tricks for starting a blog. Those are new ideas that I personally use and did not find in my search of the web (wait - did I invent something? Nope, just creating unique content).
Be the gatekeeper, and the secretary. Provide reminders on deadlines and important dates.
Another way some of us use the "Twitter verse" is to remind us of deadlines and important dates. I might be following my school's Twitter account to get reminders and when the spring break vacation is, or the fact that we're returning to school after an extended break. Also to get information and updates from the school events and happenings. Important dates sharing easily translates into a business services as well.
Encourage clients to follow you on Twitter, where you will post relevant updates and deadlines to your advantage or a project that you're managing.
There's multiple ways to leverage Twitter in business when it comes to updates and important information. You might be clogging your feed with updates related to a particular events so one option is to start a Twitter account specific to that event. Specific to that events updates for the Board of Directors, the volunteers, and the staff that you're managing. Or create a #hashtag relative to the event. Folks can then go ahead and search the hashtag on Twitter and find all the relevant news in their feed. Hashtags make searching for the event information also easy to find. You know how it is when you try to find that one email where its listed the conference call time and date. Post that to Twitter and the information is at your fingertips.
I realize this might sound complicated, starting yet another Twitter account or a hashtag to manage? I'll advocate that it is a time commitment. However, in the era of smart phones when you have a computer in your pocket, anything really is possible. We just have to be creative in our approach and commitment.
Interact with your Followers
Did you get a retweet. Does the user follow you. An easy way to interact with your network is to ASK for the follow. Ask those who found your tweet interesting to follow you. And once they do follow you. use the same formatting to "Thanks for the follow."
As you begin the tweeting adventure, you will start to get some follows. Interact with those folks. Thank them for the follow. Some users Direct Message new followers as a means of product placement "in your face." It's a good strategy when used correctly. I prefer the simple - "thanks for the follow."
Interact with your Followers
Did you get a retweet. Does the user follow you. An easy way to interact with your network is to ASK for the follow. Ask those who found your tweet interesting to follow you. And once they do follow you. use the same formatting to "Thanks for the follow."
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| Invite users to follow you: "Thank for the retweet, follow me to learn more." |
As you begin the tweeting adventure, you will start to get some follows. Interact with those folks. Thank them for the follow. Some users Direct Message new followers as a means of product placement "in your face." It's a good strategy when used correctly. I prefer the simple - "thanks for the follow."
Retweets are not the End All of Tweeting, it is a diving board to jump off of.
As you navigate Twitter, as you manage retweets, and as you read articles that are relevant to your business, you will start to have a opinions, you will start to have ideas that will be the trigger for new fresh content that you write via tweets (or perhaps blog post you can then tweet about).
First, Read It before you Retweet It. I hate those hook and lure headlines that are not about the articles content (HATE IT!). Your readers are intelligent and treat them as such.
Second, hand in hand with First, if the article you read is a regurgitation of a previous tip list, skip it. Give readers relevant NEW content. New Tips, not those I have seen 100 times! Yes this method takes time, and effort to be good quality. But you will find (then follow) reliable sources. You will grow to good quality tweets on your own. Go back to tip: Keep it manageable. Allow for the time you need to be a good content provider by reading, then tweeting. Nothing takes 5 Minutes. Just because you day it doesnt make it true either. So build in time for twitter, so each time you'll tweet better.
Did you know that there is way more to know about retweets. This nice piece covers advice about YOU deciding how your tweets becoming retweets are handled, tips on article links, and my favorite - the repeat tweet. Tweet that attention getting good tweet again,... and again. If it was attention grabbing once it probably will be again. Like here.
Lastly, if you have something to say about what your about to Retweet, use the new "comment on" feature. Your comment can put a framework around why your retweeting said article. Read more here.
Blog about it
As you post more tweets, as you find your groove on twitter, blog about it... As I did here at jkleemarketing.blogspot.com . Then post your article to twitter (verticle irony, I know). Even if you don't maintain a business blog, tweet about your learnings on twitter, treat those 140 characters as a micro blog. Get good solid content out onto the web by any means you find most suited to your business style.
Keep it classy, keep it manageable
Tweet as often as you like, but realize building content, traffic and business credibility won't happen at one tweet a month! Weekly interface is good, daily is better. But twitter shouldn't drive your business, it's an extension of networking, twitter is not the end of true face to face contact. Don't get caught up in the hype.
Now that your tweeting, one final thought on impulse. I realize this often goes without saying, but keep your content professional (and a class act!). Don't tweet about competitive gossip, hardships, or on the downfall of the competition. You can celebrate getting thru the final round of bids for a contract without the criticism of the fallen. Unless your managing an Ed Debevics (a former Chicago classic) brand thriving on ridicule, keep it classy.
It's really those impulse tweets that are the daggers. See something funny in your feed and you want to tweet it... For me, it needs to be relevant to my business in addition to pop culture humor.
From the Everyday to the Extraordinary...
Joanne
Owner | Consultant
Joanne Klee Marketing & Events
Service Excellence | Detailed | One Stop Solutions
