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Although I am a Management Trainer and Team Builder I use Twitter extensively to promote my business.  When working with teams who are using Twitter to promote their business I always give them the same advice.  If you are using Twitter to promote your business or are considering using it my ‘Twitiquette’ tips might be useful.

Over the last couple of years ‘social media’ is a phenomenon that has exploded across all of our PC’s and laptops.  There has been commentary from some quarters that if you haven’t rolled up your sleeves and dived in then you’re behind the times, a bit of a dinosaur and in danger of being left behind while the rest of us techy geeks take over the world and win all of the business.

Well obviously that’s nonsense.

However, for those of you that don’t know a tweet from a retweet, this article will help clear up some of the questions you might have about Twitter and how it can help your business.

Twitter’s official definition reads:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called “Tweets” of 140 characters or fewer.

What the official definition doesn’t include is ‘business owners’ as one of the groups who use Twitter.  Twitter has become a very useful tool for businesses who realise that it can be a quick, free marketing tool that can help them to:

• Raise brand awareness
• Reach a huge number of local, national and international people who might be interested in their product or service
• Stay in regular contact with their customers
• Deal with complaints effectively, efficiently and publicly
• Identify new customers
• Increase sales
• Share information about new products
• Share information and news about things they are interested in
• Publicise events – either their own or someone else’s
• Show the world what wonderful, engaging, interesting and kind people work in your business – more on that later!

If you don’t think your IT skills are sharp enough to delve into this medium, don’t worry.  It’s a great deal simpler to use than you think.  If you are a total novice, I would recommend going to Twitter Basics http://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics to learn the mechanics.  All of the information you need is there and written in plain English.  You don’t even need to create an account to read this information as it is freely available on the Twitter Home page.

One of the most powerful aspects of any social media platform is the etiquette or ‘twitiquette’ you need to adopt when socially engaging.

TWITIQUETTE

One of the most important things about Twitter, and in fact, any social media platform, is that there are some unspoken rules how you should conduct yourself in the ‘twitterverse’.  Here is a list of things to be aware of:

Good Manners

If someone mentions your username, or retweets one of your tweets, always, always respond appropriately.  Even if it is days later it’s just good manners to acknowledge anyone who has taken the time to include you in a conversation or pass on one of your tweets.

Positivity

Remain positive.  In the same way that you are positive about your business when you meet people face to face your twitter comments should be positive – no-one wants to buy from a grump!

Drop the Hard Sell

Don’t make it all about business.  This will only get dull and everyone will realise that you are only interested in selling and not connecting and sharing.  You will lose a lot of followers this way and could end up being blocked and even reported.

Share

Remember your mother’s advice about sharing?  It’s good to share.  Look for things that you think your followers would find interesting, such as music videos, websites of people you do business with, a local news story etc.

Language

If you use foul language in your tweets I will stop following you and I’m pretty sure I’m not unique in that respect.  I know there are lots of tweeters who don’t care one way or the other, however, my view is that Twitter is simply an electronic version of a face to face networking event.  You wouldn’t use bad language when shaking someone’s hand and saying hello so why do it in Twitter?

Have Patience

Unless you are selling something that the whole world wants for the lowest price it takes time to build your reputation in Twitter.  Don’t expect to have huge successes overnight.

You Aren’t Playing

Remember that for your business, Twitter is an excellent free marketing tool.  Many people feel that being on-line and ‘chatting’ to random folks is pointless and a waste of their valuable time.  You must see social media as one aspect of your marketing strategy.

People Buy From People

There’s no substitute for meeting someone face to face so use Twitter as a way of introducing yourself.  Once you have established a tweet connection it’s much easier to suggest meeting someone for coffee.

Policy

Make sure that anyone in your organisation who is using social media is aware of your policy on the inappropriate use of Twitter.  Your company reputation can be destroyed by one thoughtless tweet so everyone involved must be made aware of the tone, content and purpose of using twitter.  It’s also critical to ensure that you make staff aware of the consequences of not adhering to the policy.

Happy Tweeting!

Posted in: Motivation
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