My Twitter Motto: “There’s More to Life than Life Insurance”

You never want to be thought of as “THAT guy” or “THAT gal” on Twitter or any of the social media marketing venues.

You know, the person everyone finds distasteful and avoids like the plague!

Have you ever followed someone on Twitter who only talks about themselves or their business and products?

They’re either touting how wonderful their company is or how outrageously fabulous they are.  Yuck.

Very UN-attractive social media behavior.

Using Twitter for business really is easy, you just need to know “how” to go about it.

3 Steps to Avoid Becoming “THAT guy” on Twitter:

1.) Listen

2.) Respond

3.) Engage

Define Your Twitter Strategy – “Why” are you there?

  • Supporting a cause
  • Lead generation
  • Customer Support
  • Education
  • Product and Service Awareness
  • Mix of all of the above

Get Your Twitter Mix On

As an example:

10% – About yourself, your company, and your products or services

50% – Useful information for your target audience

20% – Joining interesting and fun conversations

5% – Posing thoughtful questions (which stimulate response and interaction)

5% – Tips which can make your followers lives better and easier

10% – Follow-ups and notes of appreciation for your peeps

Your Twitter-for-Business Plan

At the very least decide:

When (what days) and what time/s you’ll use Twitter and …

For how long – 15 minutes every morning?  1 hour every evening?

**If you’re an online marketer and small business owner who’s using Twitter successfully for business, what tips or suggestions can you add here?

Please leave your comments and help others who may not be having much success or finding much value in using Twitter.

Thanks!

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  • Sheila, I’m so glad you added a note of encouragement for Roberta. Thank you!

    Twitter can seem a little strange at first and there’s definitely a bit of a learning curve till you get the hang of it. But once you figure it out, it really is easy, fast, and a lot of fun — not to mention REALLY good for marketing your biz and branding yourself, as well as making some wonderful friends and potential JV partners!

    LOVED your list post today — especially the title. 🙂 LOL

  • Appreciate your feedback, Fiona, and you’re 100% correct — Twitter is perfectly designed for “talking” and “listening” (although some folks are still insisting on SHOUTING out their sales pitches) Sooner or later, they’ll figure out that approach doesn’t work.

    I’m still thinking about the food and wine festival you attended this weekend. Yum! 🙂

  • Melanie,
    This is a pretty good formula for keeping Twitter social. I would say that the bottom line is to have fun! I like playing with different Tweets and connections.

    I would tell Roberta to hang in there too. I use TweetDeck and set up different lists for Tweet steams it sure does help.

  • Excellent advice for a great Twitter mix. Once people understand that Twitter is more of a place to talk and listen, rather than shout, it really becomes an invaluable social media platform.

  • Well, I have no worries about you, Annie!

    As a social media specialist, you are more than aware (and teach, I’m sure!) the rules of engagement on social media. It’s just a crying shame that some folks just don’t or refuse to “get” it.

  • Have to agree with everything you are saying Melanie and love this post, there are so many of those That Guy and Gals on Twitter and Facebook as well, we all have to remember not to become them too 🙂

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  • That’s a great start, Roberta, and I’d like to encourage you (with every fiber of my being!) to stick with using Twitter.

    No lie — I HATED Twitter at first. I went in there kicking and screaming, as the saying goes. I thought a “micr0-blogging” platform was ridiculous. Who in the hell (excuse my French) could say anything of merit in just 140 characters! The complaint list goes on.

    It took a leap of faith and a lot of convincing from online friends before I settled in to using Twitter. Now … I’m a Twitterholic!

  • Still not convinced about Twitter but using Tweet deck and that makes me feel able to cope with the information on twitter