Twitter is the talk of the town from marketing firms to small business owners… how do we use this tool to increase leads and drive growth? This seems to be the question most people are asking across the business landscape. If you are skeptical and a little confused… believe me… you are not alone. I am immersed in social media on a daily basis and I am still testing strategies when using Twitter.
We are all trying to figure out this new world of online communication.. so where do you start when diving into Twitter.
Twitter is just another tool in your (business) aresenal to drive brand awareness across a specific group of people. So what do you do when first starting out? Limit your twitter use. It is extremely important to build out a usage plan for Twitter when first starting out on the tool.
An example:
Phase 1
- Use Twitter for 30 minutes a day
- Add 10 strategic relationships to follow every two days (between 30-45 followers a week)
- Tweet (send a twitter message) three times a day
- Write down all strategic relationships or new business leads formed when using Twitter
Phase 2
- Move up to an hour of Twitter usage a day. Example: designate 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes after the work day. You could also break the usage out over the day
- Sign up for a HootSuite account to help with Tweeting and follower management throughout the day.
- Move up to 10 tweets a day. If need be… use HootSuite for random posting through-out the day.
This is just small example of how you can build out a Twitter usage plan for yourself or your employees. There are a couple of important things to remember:
- Use the tool on a daily basis. It is important to build up a habit of using the tool.
- Measure. Measure. Measure. Measure. If you do not see some type of success from Twitter after 3-5 months.. re-evaluate your usage.
- Remember that Twitter is just another medium to reach potential consumers… don’t give up your other marketing strategies… integrate your approach
Twitter is a great tool to use for communication and brand awareness. Do you have any other productivity tips? Ways to be productive? This is just a small example but I would LOVE to hear from other people.
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J.R.
I jumped back into Twitter for today, Kyle, due to that look you gave me at the Rainmakers Main Event last week. Anyway…this is a good post for me – independent business owner, not sure of how to use Twitter effectively, without it becoming a huge time sink. One beef, though:
I hate the automated tweets that come from anywhere. When I see 5 consecutive tweets from 1 person within 1 or 2 minutes, I know that they're just "advertising." Reminds me of a fertilizer spreader, if you get my meaning. But recommending people use automation to "engage others" seems contradictory.
Ericka
Automation doesn't actually have to be a contradiction. Lets say you an author promoting your work. Now throughout the day you are looking at different articles and things. You believe they can be of help. So you put them on auto pilot and send them out randomly. Providing good information even when you are busy. Than during your actual time online you can spend that time actually communicating with people.
J.R.
Your example sounds like good use of Twitter, Ericka. You are using automation to broadcast helpful information, and engaging people manually. Both are legitimate.
I was complaining about seeing a number of consecutive posts that were obviously automated. That approach comes across as "anti-engaging" to me. Perhaps my criticism of Kyle's recommendation for automation was too broad. If people use automation tools as you suggest, Ericka, they certainly don't seem as much like advertising. Wording is important, to invite a reply or comment, is it not?
Stuart Foster
Awesome. Just sent this out to my agency. Was looking for a way to effectively break people into the process and you just saved me a bunch of time. Thanks Kyle :).
kylelacy
That will be $150. 🙂 ha.
Maria Reyes-McDavis
I love this, how you take it in chunks and apply consistency. Most simply jump in and quickly find themselves overwhelmed. Twitter is a beast, but it's benefits can be so great, it's a good idea to bite off what you can realistically chew and be consistent. Great post.
kylelacy
Thanks Maria! If you don't take it slow you could be overwhelmed.. which is not what we want.. ever.
Robby Slaughter
I have to recommend against this approach, Kyle.
Usually, "chunking" is a good way to increase productivity. However, setting aside a specific time to pursue a task is only wise if that task requires concentration and a major duration of commitment. Tasks which require what psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi calls *flow* (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%2… are well-suited for focused, scheduled blocks.
Twitter, however, requires entirely the opposite of concentration. Tweets are fleeting and momentary. Unlike email, in which every message requires some kind of processing, most of the messages in your Twitter stream will never be read by you. Furthermore, it's considered bad Twitter etiquette to send tweets in rapid succession. Also, conducting twitter conversations during repeated periods of the does not expose you to different experiences and people that appear throughout the course of the day, such as those on other schedules or in other time zones.
A much better way to use Twitter is to set up a program like TweetDeck in the background and completely ignore its existence. Then, add a few recurring appointments throughout the day, and when they go off—no matter what you are doing–stop, look at TweetDeck, respond to a message or two, and post a status update about what you are doing or thinking. Do not stay on for a more than a few minutes. You may need a second reminder to tell you to get off Twitter!
You can increase the number of reminders over time, but eventually you will start to check Twitter habitually. In my office, I have an old computer just running TweetDeck continuously on a dedicated monitor. During those times when applications are loading up, when people put me on hold on a phone call, or when I pause for a thought, I can check the other screen to see what is happening in the Twitterverse.
To be fair, there are types of Twitter tasks that are well-suited the approach you recommended. Set aside time to use a scheduling tool like HootSuite on a regular basis to schedule any Tweets that you want to appear as announcements. You should also filter all your new follow requests, and then add/reject and engage new followers all at once.
We actually do a free 15-minute presentation on Productivity and Social Media, and I'll speaking about this topic at blogINDIANA 2009 as well!
kylelacy
Well Robby. You do own a productivity company. I am not going to argue with research or personal experience you may have compiled in the past year. I only know what has worked for individuals we have worked with… 🙂
Michael Reynolds
Kyle,
I am a huge fan of HootSuite, as well. I find it extremely useful for scheduling Tweets (I just scheduled one tonight!) as well as managing multiple accounts with multiple users.
I also find TweetBeep very useful for "batching" research and prospecting. I can use TweetBeep to set up alerts for certain keywords and phrases for both myself and my referral partners. Then it emails me alerts whenever tweets are posted meeting those criteria. I can even restrict it by geography. For example, by setting up an alert for the phrase "moving to Indianapolis" can be on the lookout for anyone tweeting about their upcoming move to Indy, which means I can post a reply recommending my realtor who is a member of my BNI chapter. My fellow BNI members are amazed at how often I come into a meeting with referrals I've made via Twitter just by getting keyword-rich email alerts via TweetBeep 🙂