Twitter For Business

Whenever I go to an Internet workshop, Twitter always comes up both in the conversation and during the presentations. So I’ve gathered my notes together to create a list of tips regarding Twitter use for business.

• Add your Twitter username to your business cards, website, and forums you frequent.
• People do business with people they Know, Like, and Trust. Your comments should nurture that KLT factor.
• Use Twitter to ask questions that are open-ended, thought provoking, or gather opinions.
• Tweet about blog content, links to relevant information, motivational quotes, current events, press releases, news and upcoming events in your business or industry, your thoughts and ideas, new products or services, announcements, even the weather and sports.
• Don’t mention anything too personal or vulgar, false claims, rates, links to direct downloads, or sales pitches. People want to know you, not some pushy salesman.
• Don’t send an automated direct message when people follow you. If I already know you, there’s no need to thank me and hope we’ll get to know one another better. And if I don’t know you yet, I get the feeling I’m being stalked when I get your private message.
• Twellow is the yellow pages of the Twitterverse. You can add your Twitter accounts to their directory categories and complete a profile page. It’s also an easy way to find people of interest to follow. Their Twellowhood lets you search for people in your local area.
• If you’re anxious to know how you rate in Twitterville, you can use TwitterGrader to find out how influential you are.
• Retweet the comments of others to compliment them and validate what they’ve said.
• Use Twitter for market research. Ask your followers to participate in a survey or just answer a question. Use hashtags in front of a keyword or phrase to keep track of all of the comments related to that topic. The more you interact with your market, the more you’ll find out exactly what they need and want.
• Twitter is great for customer service. For little expense, you can create brand awareness.  As a consumer, I love not having to wait days for an answer to my problems with a product or service. Companies are forced to have accountability and full transparency. We need to listen and publicly respond to negative comments. And often that quick response will create raving fans.
• Give your customers ethical bribes. Offer them a coupon or discount for your product or service, a free report if they sign up for your email list, or a free gift if they leave a blog comment. Have contests to raise interest in what you provide.  Use TwtQpon to create Twitter coupons.
• Other business tools to help your Twitter productivity are Cotweet, Tweetbeep, TwitterFeed, Tweetdeck – I used this until I found Hootsuite and one big difference is that it runs on your desktop, and Twitdom for all things Twitter app.

There now. That’s it for my Twitter notes. Did I miss anything that we should know?

Carol

Save