Archives For twitter

Why Are You Tweeting?

August 1, 2012 — Leave a comment

It seems as if everyone is on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. But why? What is the purpose of using social media in your business?

The three main reasons for using social media in your business are to engage your audience and to continually build those relationships. I believe, as a general rule, it’s impossible to build a solid relationship through social media, but it can be the genesis for building business relationships.

And whether you think social media is a waste of time or not, you have to be using the tools because many of your potential clients are using them. Think of it this way. If you knew you could go to a networking event and possibly meet 100 new prospects for your business, would you do it?

Of course you would. When you use social media, that is basically what you are doing. You are attending a networking event that is open to anyone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

But you can’t just show up. You have to engage, start conversations, and share information that your target audience will find interesting, entertaining, and shareable. You want to create posts that your audience will want to share with other people like them. That is where the real power of social media comes into play.

Can you make money from using social media? That is like asking if you can make money from a press release or from a networking event. It goes back to the basics of business. It’s all about the relationships you build and social media is just one more tool you can use to start conversations and start building relationships.

So, when you are posting something to any of your social networks, ask youself this question. Why would my audience care about this post? Is it something that will help them in their business or help them get to know you better? Is it something they will find entertaining? Is it something they will want to share with other people like them?

Also think about the time of day you are posting. Studies have shown the best time to post (or tweet) something is early afternoon. Show up when your audience is more likely to read your post.

One of the best strategies you can use on Twitter is to retweet someone else’s tweet. On Facebook, posting a comment on a post that someone made is a great strategy.

Make sure whatever you post on your social media is worthy of being retweeted, commented on, or shared. Post things at the right time to increase the chances your posts will be read. If you do these things, you will get better results from the time you invest.

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How To Use Twitter Lists

June 20, 2012 — Leave a comment

Twitter is a microblogging platform that allows you to engage your audience using 140 characters or less. It’s a great platform for building community and connecting with people who share your interests.

It also allows you to follow people without them needing to respond or accept your request. And people can follow you in the same way. This provides an easy way to connect with a lot of people quickly.

But what do you do with all these connections once you have them? How do you keep up with everyone? How do you keep track of what people are posting?

You probably will not want to keep track of everyone, but you will want to follow a select group of people.

That is where creating lists in Twitter can really help. Lists allow you to segment the people you are following into specific categories and more easily keep track of what they are saying.

Here is how you create a list in Twitter:

1. Go to your Profile tab on your Twitter page and select “Lists” from the dropdown menu. The Profile tab is located in the top right hand side of your page with the little head image and the down arrow next to it.

2. Click “Create List”.

3. Enter the name of your list, a short description, and whether you want the list to be private or public. Note: The name of your list cannot exceed 25 characters and cannot start with a numerical character.

4. Click “Save List”.

To add people to your list:

1. Go to the Search box at the top of the page and type in someone’s name you would like to add to your list.

2. Once you find them, click on their profile picture. This will bring up this person’s user profile.

3. Now click on the little head icon located next to the Follow button on their profile and select “Add or remove from lists …”.

4. Click the list you want to add them to and select the “X” in the top right corner of the popup and they are added to your list.

That’s it. You now have a segmented list you can use for research, engaging your selected audience, and creating more time to work on other things in your business as a result of having your Twitter profile more organized.

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Help, I Don’t Have Anything To Tweet!

May 7, 2012 — Leave a comment

The biggest hurdle for most people when it comes to implementing their social media strategy is finding something to tweet, post on their Facebook page, or just having something to say that’s worthwhile.

If you want people to follow you and your business online, you have to be saying something worth their time to follow you, friend you, or link to you.

Here are a few tips to help you overcome writers block when it comes to finding something for your status update or something to tweet.

1. Retweet other people’s posts.

2. Talk about yourself and your business. Do you have any special offers, new products, new blog posts, etc? But make sure you adhere to the 80/20 rule with this one. Only around 20% (or less) of your posts should be selling or promoting.

3. Have you just completed a project for a client or attended an interesting event? Let your followers know about it.

4. Post something about the latest trend in your industry.

5. Post a link to an interesting article you just read.

6. Recommend someone who has helped you in your business or someone you follow who provides a lot of interesting and useful information.

7. Post an interesting quote. Don’t overdo this one because so many people use quotes in their posts.

8. Offer a review of a product you recently used and liked. Offer opinions on the latest trends or news stories about your industry.

It’s also really helpful if you keep a notebook or something where you can write down ideas for future posts and tweets. You will get the most benefit out of social media by always having something interesting to say.

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