‘Too many Tweets make a T**t’

This might be the case, Mr Cameron, when it comes to click happy politicians but when it comes to business it becomes a highly effective marketing tool…and its not just for the big players.

Just because you have a small business with a brand that hasn’t (yet!) become a household name doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be exploiting this opportunity to its limits. If you could generate just a few customers from a couple of tweets then does it really become a waste of time? Or is it time well spent where you may otherwise be driving halfway across the country wasting time and resources for someone who may or may not be interested after an hour of chatting around a table.

‘Can Twitter get me business or is it a big waste of time?’

There are 400 million active users on Facebook, over 50 million professionals on LinkedIn and around 10,000 people joining Twitter every day. If you can HONESTLY say that you don’t need that exposure or the potential business it could offer you, then by all means leave now.

On the other hand if this looks like the sort of customer base you want to reach then read on…

Social Networking has gone beyond time rich students and bored teenagers, the average age of a ‘Facebooker’ is 35, a figure which is on the rise. Another thought to remember is that all those students with a firmly established dedication to reading their newsfeed and updates will be the clients of tomorrow requiring any number of business services. Now is the time to pounce and establish your social media presence!

‘To Tweet or Not to Tweet’

Where to start is the key for many businesses and it may be overwhelming to begin with. Generally speaking start with the basics, Twitter LinkedIn and Facebook….all three if you are feeling daring.

• Twitter: Instant messaging to share your thoughts with anyone willing to listen. Also known as a micro blogging site,   it allows you to express any thoughts or share any interesting web links with the world. You can ‘follow’ people that post interesting things and if you are lucky, patient and say something interesting, people will follow you too. You can post as often as you want but only with 140 characters, it acts as a constant stream of information, you can find out the latest from the BBC to Britney Spears.
• Facebook: This is just catching on for corporate use as previously it was mainly just personal use. There are many options when implementing a presence on Facebook Pages, Groups, Profiles etc,  read the Facebook rules when setting your business up on the site to avoid clashes of interest. Unlike Twitter Facebook can let you write a little more about yourself or business and you can use applications to link twitter accounts and blogs. Facebook is great for offering promotions or discounts…a great way to get people to connect with you. Once you have created an account include a vanity URL to make it easier for people to connect with you, put this at the bottom of your email signature for increased coverage. Facebook also offers advertising to targeted audiences by age, occupation, location, gender and keywords, something else to consider in connecting people to your company.
• LinkedIn: If you are operating solely B2B then this is a network to join. It can enhance Marketing and Branding, finding new employees, finding information about customers, setting yourself up as an expert in your field and creating on-line relationships with potential clients. This all goes towards making yourself a trusted business person and building relationships before people want to do business with you rather than doing it because they want your services. Answer enough questions that have helped enough people and you will be noted for your expert advice on the network.

These make for a good start and there are many more social media platforms available as well as ways to sync them together to make it a lot easier for you to manage them…more of that later.

General Rules

The number one absolute golden rule is Don’t Sell, no one likes the hard sell, particularly if you are invading their space. Social Networking is not about telling everyone how great you are and how much better than the competition your company is. It’s about relationship building and showing people through advice and answering questions, that you know your stuff. This applies across the board of all networks.

Another important note to observe is manners…In the real world if someone passed on your information to their friends you would thank them, its the same online. If Joe Bloggs Retweets your message – ie – regurgitates it to one of his posts so that all his followers can see your message then drop a little note of thanks. ‘Thanks for the RT’ doesn’t take long and it may mean he will do it again.

If you have special deals or offers, don’t limit them to your fliers and website, tell all of your loyal followers on the social networks, they are interested in what you do so are clearly a target market…don’t ignore them!

Direct Direct Direct, send people to your website its where they will learn more about you and build on the relationship you are cultivating in the networks. people are interested in you and your business…don’t hide things from them, your online customers are no different to any others.

Don’t post lengthy links, if you only have 140 characters you don’t want them all used up with a web address, shrink the link using free applications for example Shrink This Link.

Join groups, comment on posts, offer advice in industry forums and answering questions gets your name around and makes people aware of you and the business you are trying to promote. Be Sociable, now one will add or follow you if they don’t know you are there…you can’t just expect it to happen, it takes a little work and nurturing… just like any other relationship.

Tweet Strategy

If you are time short but want to take advantage then you need to establish a social networking strategy. For some this means spending 30 minutes in the evening, for others this is 10 minutes in the morning as they drink their coffee, either way experience has taught us that its easy to get wrapped up in it and spend hours writing and reading.

Tweeting into the future: For those who don’t have the time to tweet on a regular basis or who forget about it there is an alternative. An application where you can fill in tweets for weeks at a time to be released at a time of your choice applications such as TweetLater can do this for you. It also allows you to see who is clicking through your links or seeing your posts.

Getting In with the Industry In Crowd: Twitter gives you a chance to get in front of the big players in your industry. Search for people who’s names you know and you always wanted to meet and start following them. Who they are following may read like an industry who’s who which you can in turn hand pick people who interest you. Start saying something interesting and they may well follow you or even re-tweet what you have said…building your profile further and gaining respect both online and in the office.

Managing Twitter: You may be wondering how on earth you will be able to find the questions you can offer the answer to or how you can you find someone among all the others who may be interested. there is a simple solution. There are many ways of connecting all your social media accounts into one neat little application, Tweet Deck, Twit Hawk, Twitter Feed as well as many more allow you to search key words or tags, upload info from a blog or synchronise all your status’ in one place…and are free to download and install.

So get Cracking!