In my personal opinion, Twitter is awesome! Anyone who has taken the time to speak to me, knows I rave about Twitter & the opportunities presented there. However, you must know how to seize these opportunities.
Just last week on a radio interview I did, I was stopped mid story & asked to repeat myself. I was talking about how I daily get referrals & inquiries from Twitter itself. My interviewer asked “you mean you get clients from Twitter itself?” I simply said, of course. The majority of my clients come from my social media platforms & from word of mouth referrals.
My interviewer then went on to tell me she had been at a conference a little time before this & the speaker had asked the audience if they thought the social media hype was all it was cracked up to be…and then asked if anyone was actually getting clients from social media platforms. Only a handful of people actually raised their hands. If I would have been there I would have been one of those people. I also could have given the crowd a few pointers too.
For example.
Twitter isn’t about selling. It’s about networking person to person. You should be trying to build relationships with people, not sell to them. Once you become friendly with people, they are more likely to want to do business with you any day.
Businesses think of Twitter as a way to personally broadcast their business instead of a relationship building opportunity. Big NO NO!
Be a person. Show The people on Twitter you are a real person. Be human. Be helpful. You will genuinely attract people who are interested in you & your business with this approach.
Stop expecting overnight results & start focusing on building your relationships. Do you realize how much you can learn about your potential customers if you pay attention to your social media accounts?
Stop trying to take short cuts. Sit down & learn the process. There are no short cuts to building relationships, plain & simple.
You need targeted followers, not randomness. Something I help all my clients obtain. Just plain followers, will not help you. You need followers who are looking for what you have to offer & followers who want to learn from you.
You should be posting meaningful/value oriented content, not ramblings. Think about what you post before you post it, is all I’m saying.
Be helpful. People always want to follow people who are sincerely helpful to them. Don’t you like these people too?
I hope this is helpful
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent Post – I don’t think I could have put this better myself!! We spoke on twitter and I thought I would take a look at your blog – LOVE your bio BTW. Great stuff!! I Love it
Thanks! I love social media & I hope it shines through!
I LOVE it! Awesome blog. I’m so glad I found you on twitter. :0) I’m pretty new to this whole twitter thing; this post was very helpful.
-E
Absolutely excellent post!! Thank you for these pearls of Twitter wisdom.
~Melody Lea Lamb
Excellent post.
I did some Twitter training at a company. Within five minutes of starting, I knew it was a complete waste of time. The company is extremely bureaucratic and rule-bound, and staff are wedded to their job descriptions. Their leadership is dull and unimaginative. I came expecting to explain the ins and outs of Twitter itself but ended up explaining the concept of interacting with their customers, which they just could not comprehend.
My instinct turned out to be right; three months later they had posted just one tweet, congratulating themselves on winning some nonsense award.
Social media is a culture, not a feature.
Love that!!! “Social media is a culture, not a feature.”
Thanks for the pointers, I’m working at getting better at twitter and you pointed out some missed opportunities for me.
Awesome article, Amy!! Thanks for sharing
Aloha Amy I think your website is simply awesome informative and filled with interesting articles and stories. I was hoping you can help me spread the word about my Mission as described below with this rough economy we all need to save and Make Money.
My Mission Is Simple! To help people Save Money by Eliminating their Wireless Cell Phone bills and to help people make Money Teaching others to do the Same!
http://goo.gl/fKcqw
Great post, and a very good reminder. I am working on getting better about my tweets as I believe Twitter is a very good business tool.
Thank you, Amy.
This is helpful. I started twitter wondering what it was. I came from Linkedin.
I want to use twitter for my business. I am trying to send messages to followers just to be personal; no business yet.
Encouragement, leadership, and instruction; all needed….thanks for the help!
Please keep me informed.
Respecfully,
Rich
Twitter is definitely way different than LinkedIn….. I actually like LinkedIn the least.
I should put more effort on doing some posts about LinkedIn. Stop letting my bias effect my posts. lol
Keep reading & trying on Twitter, you will get it.
Great article, thanks for the tips..
Amy, you hit the nail on the head with “You should be posting meaningful/value oriented content, not ramblings. Think about what you post before you post it, is all I’m saying.”
I don’t know how many mind-numbing tweets I’ve had to waste time glancing at about a genealogist getting a Starbucks and loving Fridays. Keep your personal tweets on your personal account.
Great post! I think your message about relationships should be on a billboard! Building a familiarity and rapport with others are the hallmarks to a good relationship . Twitter is a great vehicle to do that — and can eventually lead to good things! Thanks for the reminder.
You said it sistah!
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