Everyone knows how powerful Social media is. How you use it is essential. I see mistakes being made every day from BIG brands mostly. The lovely thing about Twitter is that small business owners can get ahead of the big faceless corporates as they are usually run by either one person or a small team. This means that usually their avatar (Twitter pic) is a photo of the owner or the team.
You must stand out from the rest if you want to succeed on Twitter. This is very easy to do though as I discovered. What was the secret?
Be kind – How you make someone feel is really important. Don’t put others down, or bitch or complain about things we have no control over. e.g. the weather!
Assist others – This could be by simply Re-tweeting a start up (Sharing what they are saying) I have over 30k followers so this can be a huge boost for someone starting out.
Share your knowledge – Obviously don’t share everything! But let people into your world also. Let them know what works and what doesn’t. Be friendly and willing to help others who are just starting out. Content and story telling is an opportunity for you to show you are the expert in what you do. Give tips, share knowledge
Be consistent – Blog about what your area of expertise is. Like I am doing here now. I am giving tips for others who might now know how to use Twitter effectively. The more you write articles about what you do, and the more you share other tips from people in the area you are the expert in, the more people will see that you are the ‘Go to’ person. You CAN get sales from Twitter. Use it correctly and you will see those sales rolling in.
Start by building relationships at busy times on social media. Also stand out from the rest. Journalists are always watching popular twitter chats e.g. #irishbizparty (Wednesday 9-11pm) #womensinspire (Tuesday night 10-11pm)
Connect with influencers. If they are really walking the walk of what they do, most social media influencers will engage with you and have conversations with you. Treat them like the human beings that they are. Engage, chat, share their content, build a relationship with them first. Don’t just use them. We have a BS meter!
Ask…..use Twitter polls, Ask your audience what they are up to….go see how they are doing…not all about me. Listen – See what is going on ….what is trending. What are your audience talking about right now?
Think about who is watching/following. who are they? Do you know what age group are following you? I did a Twitter p0ll about this recently and it turns out that most are women between the ages of 36-45
Use Images: Visual story telling is v powerful. Us irish are great story tellers!! Tell your story. Put a pic up of you preparing for work, meeting your customers, doing that charity walk! Show us the team. We like to see that your staff are happy to be working with you.
This is how I built up my followers. I care about my followers. I know most of them and have met a lot of them as I take my relationships OFFLINE. I have also made many many real friends from Twitter.
As a result of doing all of these things, now I am recognised as being a leader in my field. I have had interviews about social media topics on radio, TV and I even created my own events to get my community together in one room and meet in real life! The Social Media Summit was a result of me seeing that there was a need for Irish companies to learn from the world’s top thought leaders in social media. I carefully hand picked each speaker from watching them and what they tweet about. I brought Ted Rubin over to Ireland ….a dream come true for me ….and he rocked the house!! Ted Rubin is a man who walks the walk….he engages with his audience, he talked with everyone, hung out at lunchtime with the attendees, sat in the audience. This man is Awesome! REAL and a gentleman.
Now as a result of being engaging, assisting others and showing I am the expert in what I do I was also on stage with Gary Vaynerchuk in the Mansion House. Wow! This was a huge opportunity for me to share my knowledge and meet some new people and build new relationships. I am truly honoured.