Just because tweeting only takes a minute or so of your time doesn’t mean you can just tweet whenever you want without having a solid strategy in place.
Have a clear strategy in place
Of course, you’re free to do whatever you wish, but if you want to grow your business, then outlining your goals and your overall social media strategy should be your first step.
I’m saying ‘overall social media strategy’ because Twitter should be just one of the platforms your business should have a presence on. I would suggest that you select only the top three or four platforms that are relevant to your business and focus your message there.
Be clear on your intentions for using Twitter or any social media for that matter; – do you want to drive traffic back to your blog? Do you want to get people to sign up to your mailing list? Do you want them to purchase your products or sign up for your services?
Set up an awesome Twitter profile
Before you set up your Twitter profile, check out your profiles on other social media platforms. Make sure your Twitter profile is going to be consistent with the others.
You can try using the same cover image or the same profile picture. If not, then make sure people can easily identify your brand. Use your company logo and brand colors if you have those. It will help with your branding activities and will make you look more professional and more credible.
For your Twitter name, always use your brand or business name. For your handle (@user), try to go for your brand or business name as well. If it’s no longer available, then use something that people can still identify as you, so that when they mention you in their tweets, their followers will recognize your brand as well.
Your Twitter bio is limited to 160 characters, so it’s important you make it count. You can either tell people what it is you do, how you can help people, or why they should follow you. You can also try including hashtags that are relevant to your business.
Follow and engage with influencers in your niche
If you’re totally new to Twitter, you need someone powerful like a Twitter personality with a huge following to help give your account a boost. You can do this by following and engaging with thought leaders and influencers in your niche.
You want to get your name out there so you should add value to conversations these influencers are participating in. You want them to get curious about you. You want them to think you’re giving away plenty of value.
Retweet their most important tweets, mention them in your own tweets, etc. all while making sure to include their Twitter handle in your tweets.
Many influencers react positively when quoted and would not hesitate to retweet your message to their followers. This gets their followers curious about you – specifically why you got a retweet or a mention from someone they look up to.
So, they’ll go check out your Twitter profile. If they think you’re worth following, then they’ll click on that follow button!
In short, network and build relationships with the most important people in your industry. You just might be surprised one day you’ll go from a few followers to a few hundred or even thousands!
Give value before promoting your brand, offers or services
You’re not going to get real people to follow you if all you tweet about is yourself, your brand, or your business. People will think they’re not going to benefit anything if they follow you.
What’s needed first and foremost is for you to give out value. And by value, I mean sharing nuggets of information that people can actually use in their lives or in their businesses. Don’t ask them to follow you or buy your product, instead give them something useful wherever you can. Something that they can put to good use right away. My experience tells me that you’ll be justly rewarded for your efforts.
One of the best ways to do this is to spend time doing some research. Find out what they are doing, what the key points of their industry are, and what their problems are. Using social media is probably the easiest way to do this, but there are many other avenues you can follow to glean this background information. Once you have this you’ll be in a great position to talk to them at their level.
When people realize just how helpful you are and how much value you add to your community, then people will start to follow you.
Your Take Away
Work hard to address their communities and get them in your sandbox. keep the hard sell in the drawer as people can still hit that unfollow button in a heartbeat. Answer their questions, provide great content and the sales will follow. Need help getting your Twitter system started? Give us a call, we’d love to help.
Find me on Twitter; Goto www.twitter.com/rfm360.
