Build Your Business With Twitter.
140 characters that’s it! Not a single one more…
But how powerful can those characters be! Twitter has become ridiculously successful providing a Social Media platform for individuals and businesses alike to build relationships and get their message read by literally thousands. So lets look at how you can build your business with Twitter…
Put simply the name of the game with Twitter is sharing NOT selling. Your goal is to connect with lots of people who then, because you are interesting and worth following, click on links in your tweets to content on your website. The more time they spend there gives you search engine equity or, as I like to call it…Google Gold!
So here are four key strategies I use that will build your business with Twitter.
Follow Tweeple with a shared interest.
If your business is about selling cheese (why not!) you should be following people who tweet about food, restaurants, recipes, delis etc, and don’t worry if they are on the other side of the globe, remember you are sharing not selling. Using Twitter’s search tool is easy to find recent tweets about your main topics and there you will find the people you need to follow. Check their profile to see that they share your interest and then once you’ve found them see who they’re following, chances are they will be of a similar vein. Before you know it you will have a host of followers waiting for your next insightful tweet.
Make sure tweets are interesting.
If all you do is tweet about what you had for lunch or what colour underwear you have on it will be of little interest to most of your followers. Ultimately you should stick to your area of expertise. If you own a specialist record shop don’t tweet about your favourite football team, tweet a new CD release, or an artist’s tour dates. Once again most of your tweeting activity should be sharing links to valuable content on your website where you’re not limited to 140 characters, look at your tweets as bait to hook interested parties. Another strategy I adopt is to tweet something of value without a link occasionally remember you are NOT selling you ARE sharing.
Use shortened URL’s for your Twitter links.
Yep we’re back to the 140 characters again. It’s not a lot and can be very frustrating when you run out of space before you’ve finished and have to start again! Hootsuite offers such a tool while also having the added benefits of tweet scheduling, following multiple accounts and creating statistical accounts for your activity, oh and it’s free!
Do not treat your Twitter followers as customers.
Ok ok, I know I keep going on about it, but if I keep repeating myself you may just get it! Believe it or not this can be the hardest part to grasp, especially if you come from an “old school” marketing background. Twitter is not directly a sales tool, but used correctly and creatively, it is a subliminal sales tool. Remember valuable tweeting will lead people to visit your website, spend some time there, check out different pages and recommend your content to others or even link to your site from theirs and that my friend is SEO gold!
I am only scratching the surface here, but the above is a solid foundation to getting the most out of it and helping build your business with Twitter. If you want to take things a step further then why not hop over to my contact page and get in touch about this or any other aspect of SEO, it could just be very valuable to you and your business…