Twitter Update – What Are You Cooking For Dinner Tonight?

If your small business is in a culinary niche, then posting a Tweet like “What’s for dinner tonight?” is totally appropriate.  It’s directly related to your business and what you have to offer.

But if you’re NOT in a food-related industry, then what?

Most likely you’ll just “confuse” your audience and we all know what happens when they get confused, right?

They don’t take action.

As online marketers, we sometimes get mixed messages about the most effective ways to use social media to build our businesses.

I’m sure you’ve heard, by now, it’s never socially acceptable to send out a boatload of sales pitches on social media sites.

So if we’re trying to build a business and make sales and we’re not supposed to try to sell anybody anything, then what in the world are we supposed to be sharing with our target audience on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media venues?!

Certainly not what we’re cooking for dinner – once again, unless the information is related to your niche.

Your social media updates need to be a delicate balance of messages in these two categories:

1.)   Relationship-building messages

2.)   Promotional messages

My next post will go into detail and give some specific examples.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, please give me some of your ideas of what a “relationship-building message” would look like and one that is “promotional” in nature.

Are you sending out both?

Thanks and I’m looking forward to reading your comments.

  • Passing along a compliment or sharing a helpful resource are two great examples of relationship-building messages, Yvonne. Sounds to me like you’ve got this social media ‘thing’ down pat. 🙂

    You shine!

  • A relationship building message could be sharing a resource that you found that could be of benefit to the person/s you’re reaching out to or it may be commenting and complimenting them on something they’ve done.

    Not only are you building a relationship with the individual, but you’re showcasing them and introducing them to other people, say your followers or friends.

    Good reminders, Melanie. Thank you.

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  • Appreciate the visit today, Janette – thanks for knocking on my door. 🙂

    Sounds to me like you’re a seasoned pro who’s on the right track!

  • I have a book blog so a relationship-building post might be:
    What book are you reading right now?
    Do you have an ereader?
    A promotional post would state the name of my latest blog post and provide a link.

  • Not to worry, Karen. 🙂

    It’s all right to “diverge” once in a while and share something personal with your audience — like a song or a recipe. The important thing is how you share personal info and “where” you place it.

    In other words, let’s say you’ve been submitting articles, consistently, to article directories about having the right mindset to build a business. And then, suddenly, you throw in an article about your Grandma’s favorite meatball recipe. Your target audience would be left saying to themselves, “What??”

    Hope you’ll come back and take a peek at my next post. 🙂

  • Thanks so much for your input, Leanne — and I love that you used the word, “neutral”, because some messages will definitely fit that description.

    Let me see what I can do to help you come up with more relationship-oriented messages. Keep your eyes peeled for the sequel to today’s post.

    So pleased you stopped by — you’re doing a fabulous job and your blog rocks!

  • The fact that you’re giving special thought and attention to whether you’re sending out the right signals or not, Janet, is a GREAT start! Your mind is exactly where it needs to be. 🙂

  • Karen Terry

    Oops – I think I am guilty of this since I posted a recipe today!

  • I’m looking forward to reading your next post. Sometimes I post quotes (sort of relationship building messages, but mostly neutral). I post blog posts (and a lot of them promote others) and retweet other people’s posts a fair bit. Those are promotional (and also relationship building, I think). But I don’t do enough relationship-oriented posts. I would like to ask more questions and stimulate discussions to move more into the relationship end of things.

  • I don’t know if I am leaving the right kind of messages! I am working on it though. I will read your next post! Have a great day Melanie…