Twitter & Tweet…two of the most juvenile sounding words I’ve ever heard yet we may as well embrace them 
. Twitter is immensely popular and here to stay whether you like it or not. Fact is, Twitter is not just for kids anymore. It now now serves as an excellent, interactive social networking tool for gaining targeted customers since the vast majority (over 80%0 of current Twitter users are over the age of 25. Twitter enables you to engage and create community quickly with a large group of people using short messages. However it takes a little work on the front end to build a following but not to worry. Here are ten tips I’ve found useful in building a following and interacting with followers in a tactful manner. Obviously the first step is to visit the Twitter website and set up your account if you’ve not done so already at www.twitter.com.
1. Figure out what you wish to do on Twitter. Do you wish to send out weekly coupons? Perhaps you’d rather Tweet out a link to your bi-weekly newsletter or to offer free services or discounts on the fly during a slow day. For those of you Tweets can be set to hit your cell phone as texts pretty much guaranteeing that everyone would receive your promotion instantly. Be honest with yourself about what you and your staff can take on with Twitter and map out what you wish to accomplish with it. This can always change later but it is important to have a starting point and to take action.
2. After you set up your account, start following people. On Twitter you’re not able to email someone directly on Twitter who’s not already following you. But the more people you add chances are some or most of them will follow you back. You can also seek out businesses and organizations to follow which may be able to benefit from your services.
3. Have your staff members who are already on Twitter send out Tweets asking their friends to follow your business. I suggest they also follow up with direct emails either through Twitter, traditional email or Facebook to each of their friends with the request. It’s been my experience that a personal email or even a phone call goes alot further than the Tweet which often gets lost in the shuffle. I make a special attempt to reach out to Twitter users who I know have alot of followers already. Having such users follow you and eventually sending out Tweets of their own promoting your business can be huge.
4. Begin Tweeting immediately but resist the temptation to bombard your followers with spam or constant promotions for yours business. It’s been said that 15-20% of your tweets should actually have anything to do with promoting your business. So if you’re sending out coupons you should do that every 4th or 5th Tweet. In the meantime, share interesting Trivia, a great local news article, or even a great YouTube video you’ve recently seen in your Tweets. But remember to be tactful and represent yourself well. Tweeting should add “personality” to your business without sounding like a pushy salesperson or crossing the lines of PG-13 etiquette. Sharing information about your niche but not directly promoting your business is another great idea. Remember you can include a weblink to any interesting site or article you’ve read online in your tweets – it’s best to first shorten the weblinks by visiting www.tinyurl.com.
5. It’s been said the best times to send tweets are between 9 AM and 3 PM with perhaps the optimal time between noon and 1 PM. I’ve also seen research that shows Thursday, Friday, and Tuesdays are the top three days to tweet on and additional research suggesting you to tweet frequently (as many as 100 times per day if you have 100 followers). To me, such a frequency of Tweets is completely unrealistic however don’t be bashful about sending out 6-8 tweets per day with 1 or 2 of the tweets promoting your business in a tactful fashion. Better to be conservative than go completely overboard in my opinion. Just make your tweets count! If your schedule is extremely hectic, just make it a point to get on Twitter first thing in the morning to send Tweets and check for (and respond to) direct messages and for 20 minutes perhaps before bed to engage potential followers in conversation.
6. This is very important. Put up a link to your Twitter page on your company’s website and make sure to include a link in any emails you send out to customers. I’ve found that providing an incentive for customers to follow you (ie/ “we’ll be sending out coupons or special promotions through Twitter”) can be quite helpful. Also if your site contains a blog, there are plugins which you can add to your blog to give readers the ability to tweet your blog posts to their Twitter followers with one mouse click.
7. If you read an interesting Tweet, reply with a Tweet of you own asking a question about it or giving a word of encouragement. Often the user will respond with a tweet including your Twitter username. This can encourage others to follow you if they happen to find the interchange interesting or are curious about your business.
8. Respond to all replies and direct messages on Twitter. This lets people know you’ve paid attention to what they’re saying and creates stronger community. It’s also a good idea to respond to new followers with a short direct message thanking them for following you. Also, I make it a point to follow most people who follow me if I’m not already following them.
9. Consider using a software tool to help find new Twitter Friends such as Twitter FriendAdder. Other services such as Socialtoo can be used to automatically thank new followers for following you.
10. Consider using the free web-based Twitter console Tweetgrid to search for tweets and Twitter users by keywords. I like this service because for any keyword you type in it will show a real-time snapshot of tweets and users logged on related to you search term. This will give you the opportunity to follow new users and respond to tweets related to your niche.
If you’re like me, you probably still find the subject of Twitter a bit confusing and could use some quality guidance on how to best establish and promote yourself on Twitter. I’m able offer not one but two excellent reports at the very low price of $7 that include all you need to know about Twitter, ranging from set up instructions, how to customize your Twitter page, and comprehensive list of tools and links for promoting yourself on Twitter, finding tons of quality followers, and coming up with interesting things to Tweet about. At seven bucks this is a no brainer — simply click here to learn more. These reports are not difficult to follow but you’ll never find all this great information on your own so take the plunge!
One of my favorite new programs for adding new niche specific Twitter followers is called Twittenator. I’m completely sold on the fact that it adds up to 1,000 followers per month based on niche specific criteria you decide on. Not to mention for you bloggers and information marketers out there, it’s great way to monetize your Twitter account through the use of automated Clickbank product links.
Using the tools contained in this post and the special reports will help improve your following and communications with current and prospective customers through Twitter. Once you get started, Twitter makes promoting your business both easy and fun!
We are almost finished! But there is yet another important topic to discuss. We cannot overlook the power of one last free method for creating tons of backlinks and traffic to your site. Let’s move on to cover Social Bookmarking.. You will be glad you did!
“Have you ever considered adding much more videos to your blog posts to keep the readers much more entertained? I mean I just read by way of the entire article of yours and it was quite great but since I’m much more of a visual learner,I found that to become extra helpful. Just my my idea, Very good luck ”
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