Sep 19 2008
Betwixt and Twitter for Business
I don’t know about you but Twitter drove me up the wall at first. I signed up to follow a bunch of people and then I was deluged with the worst kind of chatter and small talk. Not only that but people seemed to be responding to someone else’s tweet and I had no idea what they had said so it was like only getting half of a conversation. I almost quit but then I consulted with my Twitter expert and this is what he said:
• If you want to use Twitter for business only follow people who you feel you can learn something from or people you want to hear from from.
• When you put in a tweet add a link to your blog or some interesting article to send people to.
• Only look at it when you feel like it. Don’t let it take over your time. If is important to look at how it can help your business.
That changed everything. I quit following some people and added a few new ones. Now the tweets are much more interesting. Does any one have any other suggestions on how to use Twitter for business benefit?
Great insight here, especially for Twitter newbies, like myself.
I found that checking out referrals from people whose judgment I trust has netted me higher quality posters. Occasionally I’ll still need to “unfollow” someone but not nearly as often as when I started.
Thanks, Kara. (I followed this link from Facebook, FYI.)
Natalie
Thanks for chiming in. I have discovered that all these sites can really eat up my time if I am not mindful. By carefully selecting a handful of people to follow, works better for me too. I do appreciate the ease of unfollowing people however and yes as we fine tune it that happens less and less.
I am wondering how Twitter is helping your business?
Hi Kaya,
I’m still feeling my way around twitter, having just joined myself. I envision some useful benefits down the road, but am having a hard time sorting through the multiple posts by some people (as in 6-8 in a two- hour period).
Christian Messer’s article on twitter was very good and I learned a lot from it.
I was thinking the other day that perhaps a ratio of personal or useful business advice to promotional (for instance tweeting about a new blog post) for me might be about 4:1 (four useful or fun to 1
that is self-promotional). Don’t know. I’ll play around with that.
I don’t have tons of time for twitter.
Judy
Judy
I have had the same response. At first I was deluged with way too many one liners and made me wonder how people are working if they are twittering all day. I need to see a way to use it specifically for business benefit. Yes- putting a Tweet out on a new blog post is one good way. I am also playing around with this so I would appreciate how it works for you after you use it for awhile.
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