Terry’s Top Twitter Tips

Business-Building Actions From Terry L. Brock

Twitter is already a strong tool for communicating with important people.  More and more business leaders today are realizing this tool is a force for profits today.  Much like we gradually accepted e-mail as a force to be dealt with years ago, successful businesses are embracing today’s new technology.  Business leaders are embracing Twitter and other social media and social networking tools as a powerful force.

You open a new world of possibilities when you embrace the marketing options of Twitter.  The world of business has changed in the past few years and now is the time to see this.  How long Twitter will stay on the scene as a must-use application is open to debate.  For now, we know that those who embrace and learn what it can do are those who succeed today and will in the future.

Here are three of Terry’s Top Twitter Tips to help you monetize the effort you put into this marvelous tool for business.

1. Provide Value. Today’s social media culture demands value over hype.  In the past companies could buy ads and blast their message to the world. That was expected.  Today you must provide solid value before people trust you.  We’ve been swamped with way too much advertising and some of it is not always true.  Therefore, we are all at least a little bit skeptical.  We don’t want to trust just anyone who is selling something.  To get around that you can build relationships with your tribe — the people who are your stakeholders.

Build a quality reputation of being a good person first, and then as someone who provides value.  For instance, if you’re a dentist, don’t just tell me you can fill cavities.  Don’t just tell me that I need regular check-ups (all of which is true, of course).  Provide lots of fun, beneficial education with fun and interesting ways to connect with you at your office.  Offer a way to learn more.  Offer ways where you engage me as a person.  This is value.  Think of how you’ll do it in your business providing value (use that Blog you’ve got!).  

Many companies today are providing value by answering specific questions through audio and video.  These companies will start a “tweet”— a message in Twitter — and then link to a page on their website and/orBlog with more information.  A good tool for this is bit.ly where you can shorten a long URL into a much shorter one (www.bit.ly).  Not only does bit.ly shorten the link, but it also provides the ability to track how many people clicked on it. This is a very useful tool for tracking results.  No longer do you have to wonder if you’re providing value. You can quantifiably track the number of people who wanted what you’re offering.

2. Research.  Twitter is a great tool to research what is going on in the marketplace.  There are three areas you want to research regularly: 1) What your industry and marketplace are talking about, 2) What they are saying about you, and 3) What they are saying about your competitors.  A tool like TweetDeck (www.TweetDeck.com) can help you manage all this information.  You are already behind if you don’t research.  Know what is happening and leverage tools like Twitter and TweetDeck to stay on top of it and gain a competitive advantage.

3. Be Accessible.  The days of management hiding behind closed doors is over.  Companies who tenaciously hang onto that are on their way out. Companies who successfully use social media and social networking today are positioned to profit today and into the future.

This means using tools like Twitter as well as Facebook, YouTube and Linkedin (the Big Four) is essential.  In addition to these tools you want to have a physical presence where you connect with people through trade shows, seminars, conferences, personal visits (remember how Sam Walton leveraged this and helped generate billions!), and personal phone calls (remember those?).  More than any specific technology, accessibility today means that you have the attitude of being open to customers, listening to what they say and hearing problems from their point of view.  Develop systems to handle this so you can handle the volume of connections.  However you choose to make it work — stay with it to make it work.  It is a never-ending process.  Social Media and Social Networking are tools that let you connect with others and get to know them.

It is the human thing to do.  It is also the right thing for bottom line business!

Copyright (c) 2010, Terry Brock and Achievement Systems, Inc.  Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and professional speaker who helps businesses generate profitable results.  He can be reached by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com.  Join the Twitter adventure with Terry through his Twitter address: @TerryBrock