Rethinking Twitter for Business
Anyone who knows me knows that Twitter was not my first love. In fact, I really thought it lacked in any kind of value (business or personal). But, over time I changed my mind and have grown to appreciate and enjoy the community that has developed on Twitter.
When it comes to social media my opinion is that social media is about the tools (Twitter in this case). But those tools do indeed lead to sharing of information that, potentially, leads to conversation. And from a marketing perspective, that makes social media a communications channel for business.
Over time I have established my own rules for using tools like Twitter. I don’t follow everyone who follows me. And because I got tired of having to go back and unfollow all the people who auto-DM’d or spammed me, I only follow people who have had a conversation with me. I also find and follow people who might be interested in my services (that’s the business part!).
Yesterday I was really giving Twitter some thought from a business perspective and I tweeted the following:
“Sometimes I wonder why I follow so many people who never chat with me. Yeah, yeah, marketing, blah, blah. But really…why? Thoughts?”
The responses I received were interesting:
- Well most people I follow don’t talk to me! But I can still gain amazing insights from their posts and opinions @Liela
- It can be frustrating when folks don’t respond/engage, but they can still say things/post links that interest you. @Wzzy
- I think there are just too many people blasting and not listening, Beth. They have no interest in conversation. @thurley
- Mmmmmmm…hopeless optimism? @annebuchanan
- I learn from @chrisbrogan etc…, but don’t expect them to talk to me, unless I’ve stimulated thoughts @mikegero
- Because you never know where you’ll find insight. Cast a long wide antenna. @TomMartin
- Hmm. I like to share, I guess. It might be useful and engage or it might fall flat and only be interesting to me. You never know? @leahcdaniels
- Because they’re entertaining and/or informational. The line is crossed from conversation to broadcast at that point. @digitalvision
- I usually jump in to chat when I can answer a Q or comment w/ value. I think there’s more broadcasting then chatting, don’t you? @dockane
- I follow ppl who don’t chat w me b/c I’m interested in what they say. I like learning from them, even if the convo isn’t 2way @RaToTheBec
- If they NEVER chat with you… Why follow them? I understand that people tweet at different levels but never? @PreppyDude
- That’s the question! This is one-way communication = that’s why I think much of this isn’t ’social’ media. @allenweiss
- It’s a great question! I have found the 80/20 rule applies here too, it’s not you, it’s Pareto
@karenswim - Because, just like in real life, we tend to gravitate towards like-minds. Especially when there’s so much chatter out there. @josh_sternberg
- When we follow, we don’t know whether peeps will interact or not. Then it’s a matter of pain/cost to unfollow. Least resistance. @swoodruff
Perhaps I should have posed my thought this way:
“Sometimes I wonder why I follow so many people who never chat with me. What’s the benefit to me as a business, really? Thoughts?”
Does that change the context of where I was heading with my thought? I think it so. What I meant by “Yeah, yeah, marketing, blah, blah” was the notion that businesses think they need to use social media (in this case Twitter) to market to and engage with clients/customers (existing or new). And they need to follow everyone who follows them. But what if your followers (i.e. your market) don’t talk back? Is Twitter the correct marketing tactic then? To Allen Weiss’ point, if it’s only one-way conversation…it’s not really social. And isn’t that why businesses are investigating social media? To be social with customers, clients, etc.
Someone once said to me that I should follow all those who follow me because you never know where business will come from. Is that a valid business assumption?
If so, how would you answer my revised thought? (And really, we are just answering the question a lot of businesses are asking/thinking.) I have my opinions and I know the answer as it pertains to my business, but I want to know your thoughts.
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I’m relatively new to the arena of social networking, and there are many people I follow who I haven’t engaged with yet. But I think that so many people need to learn this medium, and the best way to do so it by observing those that are successful. In the few weeks I’ve been on Twitter, I’ve learned a great deal through observation, and then putting those observations into practice. If no one was willing to engage with me through my learning process, I wouldn’t have the learning opportunity.
And I’ve already started using what I’ve learned, and giving it business applications, through networking, making people aware of my products, etc.
Not sure if this entirely answers your question. But I look at Twitter like a great big classroom. There’s really no textbook (although some good blogs I’ve found through people’s posts) and we’re all the teachers in some way. As we get better, we get better at applying it to business. Make sense?
See I don’t look at my time on Twitter as something I am doing to grow my business. I give my time on Twitter as something I am doing to connect with more people and share something of value with them.
And a BENEFIT of that, is that I’ll get more business. But I think if my sole goal for using Twitter was getting more business, then I would change the way I use Twitter. I would tweet differently, and stop being as personal. And IMO, that would make it HARDER to connect with others.
And I have often gotten leads from someone that emailed me from Twitter, that I connected with over a completely different topic there. I’ve already gotten two client leads because we ‘met’ on Twitter while chatting about football.
I try to advise companies to think in terms of what they want indirectly from social media. Like if you want to grow your business, make that your INdirect goal. Make creating something of value for others your DIRECT goal, and if done properly, that helps you reach your INdirect goal. I try to view my time on Twitter through the same lense.
For me, the emphasis is on the networking more than it is on the social. I’m still relatively new to Twitter, so I may have different insights and observations in another six months.
But for now, I’m getting some great info and resources from like-minded people who I wouldn’t ordinarily run into offline.
When networking, I’m typically looking to meet and engage with people who I may have something in common with, at minimum. It’s how I select who to follow on Twitter. If that individual doesn’t follow me back, even after I try and engage him/her in conversation or on a point that we share interest in, I may eventually unfollow. It’s like life that way. But not before I see whether I can meet other interesting, engaging people through that individual. Confession: I currently have at least six Twitterers (and even Twitterati
that I plan to unfollow. I’m just waiting to see whether their extended network offers new individuals who may be more inclined to be “social.”
In life and in business, kindness and courtesy go a long way. So I tend to follow those who take the time to reply or retweet my posts. But in the meantime, I’m enjoying the twitter ride.
Beth,
I am new to Twitter and started using it based on recommendations from several business partners.
I follow people that I think will post information that I find informative, so it’s not a “you need to chat with me or I won’t follow you” position.
I am using Twitter for 2 reasons:
1. As a resource for industry information. Following the right people will turn up blog posts, articles, etc that I would have never found.
2. To make connections with potential partners that can help me market my business.
3. Hopefully return the favor to people who follow me by providing some insights / thoughts that are useful.
So far I have found it to be well worth the time and effort.
Thanks,
Dave
hi Beth
Great post. I guess for me it’s a combination of building presence and visibility. It also helps me to learn (I follow quite a few social networking tweeple) and then to share. It also because of the short nature helps me to refine – if you can’t say it in 140 characters then you can’t say it on twitter which really helps with thinking!
Claire
I think your question is appropriate and relevant. We should constantly be questioning any and all marketing tactics relative to our objectives and strategies. Invest more resource in the winners and ditch the losers.
However, I feel services like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, etc… go beyond just pure business purposes. They integrate business opportunities with social connectedness. I find I personally gain value on both sides of this equation.
Now, do you have to follow everyone who follows you, I would say the answer is no. Following is a personal choice, not mandatory. Also, when you follow someone else and they do not follow you, they have exercised their choice. But you follow them because you are interested in them and what they are tweeting.
You and I have conversed through Twitter many a time, but our most interesting conversation was over the phone. I think that is another way to look at this, if you would possibly want to talk with that person on the phone in the future or meet in person, then that would be another reason to follow.
Those are my thoughts and I do like your post, valid question and insights on another interesting social media ecosystem issue.
Bert DuMars’s last blog post..We’re Getting Killed By Customer Reviews Online
Thoughtful as ever Beth.
I have actually recommended to 2 clients to retreat from their Twitter engagement – it wasn’t adding business value, yet they thought it should.
For me, it’s part of my work, so it adds value that way, to connect with peers such as yourself, and continually learn. But I also connect socially and for news. So it has multiple value streams.
I think if Twitter is a tool that reduces the “friction” of connecting with your target audience and enables useful dialogue between client & company – then there’s value.
Giles Crouch’s last blog post..Atlantic Conversations: Social Media in Atlantic Canada
I always like to follow the people who follow me on Twitter because I think that it is some kind of action to show my respect to them.
I like what you’re saying. I too have previous blog posts in which I pooh-pooh’d Twitter because I felt it was a productivity/time-suck. But then I went on maternity leave with newborn twins. I discovered Twitter as a great way to connect with other professionals and to freshen up on challenging my assumptions of traditional and online marketing (especially for B2B).
As one of the co-founders of a technology start-up, I post my passions, which are often related to the company. I know this annoys some folks and they feel I am too promotional, but when you’re passionate about your business – it’s also what you love to discuss and talk about.
I’m also just exiting the lurker phase. I’ll admit it, I wandered around Twitter for a good while like a single person at a speed dating event. I didn’t want to make a bad first impression and wasn’t sure who I liked and/or wanted to get to know in the crowd. So I lingered and watched and then slowly, slowly started to engage. So maybe the answer to your question is that some of those non-conversationalists are just taking their time and will jump in after they’ve had a few drinks (so to speak).
Thanks for the thoughtful post.
mcolacurcio’s last blog post..Don’t Shoot the Messenger …
From my perspective, I totally agree with Jennifer Wong. I too am fairly new to it all and am learning by observing. When I follow someone, it’s totally an act of respect for that person.
The reason I haven’t joined in much yet is because I feel a bit like I’d be butting in and would be considered “noise” – but I’m getting over that.
There’s much benefit for me to follow you – I learn and you gain a fan. Not so sure there’s that much benefit for you to follow me. Except maybe that I will eventually get into the groove and may be able to give back in some way. And if you didn’t follow me, you’d miss that. I’m thinking positive.
Those points are really well made Beth, on having conversations with people on Twitter the reality is we all speak to relatively few as it’s not really possible to have a constant dialogue with 1000 odd people.
I was actually surprised by how few – favtwits.com tells you who you have been having conversations with, and the number of people I’ve had more than 5 exchanges over the past few months is around the 50 mark – so less than 1 in 20 of my friends. And I am guessing I am not unusual in that respect.
Personally that’s a must do better for me, though as other comments here have already said, you do get a lot out of following and listening into other people’s tweets.
Dirk Singer’s last blog post..Twitter-mania
That’s an interesting question,Beth. I have a few thoughts.
First, I don’t think you just should follow everyone who follows you (I know you probably don’t do this). I believe you should only follow folks with which you have common interests (and take in a few with divergent perspectives from time to time to keep your conversations from becoming to one-sided). Now, you use Twitter in a little different way than I do (more for business), but I still think that holds true to an extent.
But I do think you can definitely benefit from following a large group of people. Here’s why–it’s all about your network and referrals. They may not be engaging you on a daily basis. Heck, they may not even be engaging you on a monthly basis. But, for the most part, if they’re smart, they’re listening. They know what Beth Harte represents. They understand the level of thought, creativity and professionalism you bring to the table. And, hopefully, they tell their friends and business colleagues. So, now your network just went from 5,000 followers to 5 million. Gotta be some potential business opportunities in a bucket that big, right? That’s really the biggest business reason I see you having at this point. It’s all about your referral network.
Arik Hanson’s last blog post..PR Rock Stars: A Conversation with Greg Swan
I have a very open policy about following everyone. And I’m very comfortable with that.
My questions back would be: Does it have to benefit your business? Is it all about you? What if these people offer serendipity?
Sometimes I crowd source for information that is very tech oriented or random. When people respond, I’m glad that I’ve followed them because they bring their value proposition to the table.
Does everyone need to engage me? I’m glad that they don’t. I have my hands full keeping up with those that do. The reliance on DM’s almost scares me. People are replacing email with that method & a lot of work related info is exchanged that way. (that kind of scares me because I’m not plugged into Twitter all day & people assume that I am. I’m afraid I’ll miss something).
And I’m using Twitter for my personal, professional and work network. That covers a lot of territory. I’m thankful for my broad network that is growing organically & if I can give back in whatever way I’m glad to make the first small step of following them & making myself available.
This person reached out to me by DM & I’m so glad that I followed Rachel. She wanted to let me know that she found value in my blog. http://tinyurl.com/b5l3vd
Connie Bensen’s last blog post..Dave Evans & Social Media Marketing
Beth, great question, but Mack, even greater answer. If you’re looking to Twitter to derive business, then you need to approach Twitter from a different aspect/angle. But… I think if you do, then you’re going to end up being like the thousands of marketers and businesses who are a) doing it wrong and b) misunderstand the purpose or utility that is Twitter. Its conversation first. It always has been..
The other thing is this Beth. When you speak to a group of 100, 200, 600 or a 1000, do you expect to speak to all of them one on one? No. Do they expect a 1to 1 audience with you? No. They would like it but dont expect it. But they do show up to hear what you have to say…anyways. If some wait to talk with you afterwards, then you oblige them. They took the time, and you generally do too! The same to me would seem to validate what you’re saying.
Understand that you have something valuable to say and people want to hear that, but that doesn’t obligate you to talk with each of them on an individual basis.
Business indirectly derived from Twitter is great but shouldn’t be one’s primary goal using Twitter. It doesn’t appear to work well.
Marc’s last blog post..The Sweet Spot of Social Media
Great question, Beth! As one who struggled over my Twitter name (should it be my business name or should it be my own), I needed to define that exact question first and understand my strategy. In the end, I opted for my business name / first name because I wanted the visibility, branding and WOM while keeping it personable.
I also had to define my purpose in being on Twitter, which is to engage with other professional peers. Indirectly, that may lead me to prospective business contacts (and, in fact, has), much as Mack Collier explained.
I don’t always follow folks who follow me, unless at some point they engage me directly. I prefer an eclectic mix of followers and enjoy many viewpoints in many different arenas. That is in keeping with my strategic plan as well–getting my business name out there and engaging in conversation; in other words, creating a social network. And, as a lifelong learner, I am always learning from that network.
Twitter also allows me to be transparent, which can cut through the client/agency compatibility phase–another valuable aspect.
Linda Ld Jacobson, APR’s last blog post..Seven things you don’t know about me (and perhaps never wanted to)
I concur with Mack. He may as well be speaking for me.
Ari Herzog’s last blog post..Tropicana is Advertising. Are You?
I’d say that the answers to both questions are the same. Whether you’re using Twitter mainly as a business tool or a personal tool, the insights that can be gathered just from watching the conversation can help you in both aspects.
Take the problem with your blog last night, for example. I wonder how many of these people that helped have spoke with you in the past? Perhaps all, perhaps a few, perhaps none.
The point is, the help you received about your blog could benefit you either personally or professionally.
Conversation is great, but sometimes just listening is the best conversation around.
Danny Brown’s last blog post..Little Green Men
Great questions–and answers. Obviously Twitter strategies are as varied as are communications objectives. My follow strategy, in trying to build community around a brand, is based on establishing communications channels. Sometimes conversations occur within those channels, sometimes they don’t. Often they take a while, awaiting the right time and topic to surface.
I do follow most everyone who follows me, who’s not an obvious spammer. I believe it’s important for them to be able to communicate with me directly. I also go seek people to follow whose bios are descriptive of my interests, most often those in PR. And unless someone is adding great value, I will unfollow those who don’t follow back; again because for me, it’s about the channel.
Thanks for a very thought-provoking post.
Ed Nicholson’s last blog post..It’s Friday Afternoon. Know Where Your Kids Are?
Beth – If your followers are not talking with you regularly, that’s ok. They definitely are listening or they would not be following you for long. But while they are listening, they are forming their opinions of you and your expertise. If they become a client, they may never tell you they did so because of Twitter, but because you have proven you have something valuable they need.
Debra Murphy’s last blog post..Amazing Wordpress Plugins
“Someone once said to me that I should follow all those who follow me because you never know where business will come from. Is that a valid business assumption?”
Our time is valuable and should be spent on activities that have a purpose (personal or professional satisfaction).
It is so irritating to see so many ’social media’ advocates tell small local businesses to get on twitter and start marketing…without actually considering WHO their audience is.
Perhaps, my opinion is skewed because I come from a technologically slow area of the country… and most of my audience is NOT on twitter.
Businesses need to plan… need to have a purpose for their social media for them to see results.
With that said, Twitter is a great resource for me as a Marketing / PR professional. It helps me generate ideas that I can translate into actual local business.
One of my personal goals is to connect with local tweeters in Naples… and build a SM presence down here.
Thanks for the thought provoking post
Cyndee Woolley’s last blog post..cmwooll: Happy Valentines Day to All!
Hi Beth,
Good post, and some fabulous comments. I believe that Mack Collier captured my Twitter philosophy: I’m here to connect with people, learn from them, and share what I can. Business is based on relationships and shared connections, and Twitter is great for building the former and identifying the latter. Being active on Twitter also helps me stay top of mind, which can also come in handy.
To your first question, I agree with Tom Martin about “casting a wide antenna.” Plus, we need to remember that listening is as important (if not more so) as talking.
Best,
Daria
Beth, I wish I had seen your question “…I wonder…blah blah…thoughts.” on twitter yesterday. I would have answered immediately, but too busy to go there… I would have said: This social media crase is all new to me. I have a business and I have to do my own marketing, but I am not an expert. My expertize is as a writer and an innkeeper (one-woman operation). It’s a small operation, can’t afford to pay for marketing. So I rely on research, reading, and the internet for ideas. I have asked many questions on Twitter, to which I never got an answer. Ocassionally someone will respond. However, where I feel I get the most value out of it is by reading other chats and comments from people like you, as well as others who are experts in marketing and social media and other related fields. I’ve gone to the links they suggest, to their blogs and to their sites. I think focussing on utilizing the tremendous amount of info that is put out on Twitter and not on whether or not one get’s a response will reap the most benefits.
Nancy Hinchliff’s last blog post..Are you keeping your small business alive?
Hi Beth,
Like you I dismissed Twitter at first. Can’t recall what brought me back, curiosity I suppose.
I don’t own a business so I don’t use or see Twitter as a business tool. I do, however, see it as an incredible opportunity tool. Never in our lifetime has it been possible to meet and connect with so many people. This creates windows of opportunities which can lead to business.
I wrote in a previous post that for me Twitter is the handshake. The hello – how are you? Blogs are the conversations over a bottle of wine by the fire.
I don’t think Twitter can sustain relationships alone – its part of the big social media ball that we all throw at each other and ask – hey can you say something?
DaveMurr’s last blog post..Hail to the Blog
Hi Beth,
Very thought-provoking post — thanks.
“Sometimes I wonder why I follow so many people who never chat with me. What’s the benefit to me as a business, really? Thoughts?”
I am not a business owner but do have marketing responsibilities for my employer, so I mainly use Twitter for intel on social media/mktg best practices and insights, as well as to monitor the very latest mindset of our prospects (what they are concerned about, focused on, personal or otherwise). From this angle, tweets that are broadcasts can be just as useful, if not more, for my objectives,
than convo-starter posts.
In my parenting blogger life, broadcast tweets are also the most useful; they provide invaluable intel for blog topics. In only one case did a convo-starter/inquiry tweet lead to a new writing opportunity for me.
Personally, I try to balance my tweets to maintain an even mix of broadcasts (typically callouts of useful online articles I’ve come across or invitations to dialogue on my blog) and inquiries (usually requests for feedback on parenting issues, technology glitches, social media topic and others I feel might strike a nerve with the like-minded folks I follow/follow me). I’ve been extremely disappointed in the latter effort; I don’t think I’ve ever received a direct response to any inquiries I’ve put out there. And, in many cases, DMs or replies I send do not get a response.
So, are most tweeters only interested in just broadcasting anyway, or are many just too overwhelmed by the chatter to actually chat?
Susan Busch’s last blog post..Preschool Part 2: Notes from the Field
Beth – I think the important part of what you said is that Twitter is only a tool and should be thought of that way. Just like the Internet is a tool in the context of an overall marketing strategy. Managing expectations is a big part of any marketing strategy and Twitter is no different. It is new and trendy and will catch those who go for that – probably the reason I stayed away for so long – actually glad I did so when I finally got involved is was more about the conversation and less to do with the marketing per se – though a factor.
Only so many days in a week and so many minutes in the day so you must decide on all your initiatives, the why – for many I think on Twitter the answer is just because it is.
Good insights as usual and the answers you got from your followers who engage were insightful as well – thanks.
Rick Simmons’s last blog post..Apparently the Queen doesn’t need SEO
In all honesty I really think we over analyze Twitter. We deliberate on blogs so much about these questions of “Who do I follow and why? How do I use it, for business or personal reasons, and why? Do I follow back everybody that follows me? Why do I follow people that I never converse with?” blah blah blah . . . while it’s interesting that this one service is the subject of so much chatter, we already use it for ways that it wasn’t originally intended (the whole “Not ‘What are you doing?’ but ‘What has our attention?’”) and by the very fact that we’ve diverted the original strategy means (to me, anyway) that any “strategy” we try to apply will likely go astray. How many people have actually used duct tape on heat ducts? Not many, but there’s been an amazing amount of pop culture, marketing included, on other ways to use it. So my overall philosophy is stop trying so hard, stop over analyzing, stop ruminating — just use it and see what happens. Once people stop pondering all the whys and the hows they’ll see the obvious truth: much like duct tape, Twitter is what you make of it.
Stacy Lukas’s last blog post..Someone in South Africa’s doin’ social media right!!
Tons of useful info here – will grab your feed!
Like you, Twitter is not my first love. In fact, it’s still not (although it’s climbing the charts). So far, I’ve come up with these two applications that makes sense for my business and Twitter:
1) I love searching tweets via TweetDeck. That’s pretty good and valuable research.
2) Let your prospects and customers just see who you are. It doesn’t directly promote your business, but it does make you a real, approachable person that people would easily consider doing biz with.
Brett Duncan, MarketingInProgress.com’s last blog post..Napkin Innovation on Drew’s Marketing Minute
Re: “Someone once said to me that I should follow all those who follow me because you never know where business will come from. Is that a valid business assumption?”
I REALLY don’t agree with that. I mean it’s good, positive thinking for sure. But is it realistic? I don’t think so. And in my opinion, it dilutes the quality of your Twitter stream.
I screen people before I opt to follow them. If they’re the type of person that I ultimately want to be my customer, I follow and I listen till the time comes that I can be of service. Or if an individual is a giving individual (sharing informative links, etc.), I follow him/her. But those that follow me don’t necessarily get an auto-follow. They might if some day they throw me an @ message. Otherwise, I keep my followers to those regulars that I see on a daily basis.
Ricardo Bueno’s last blog post..Start Early!
This post and comments really show how differently people approach the questions of how many people they should follow and who. I am a strong believer the people should use Twitter in whatever way suits their needs; however, I see many people I know who are actively seeking work who follow but a handful. I think they are underestimating the power in having a widespread network. I don’t follow everyone who follows me unless I see some intersection in our interests or unless the person engages me; however, sometimes the responsibility lies on my shoulders to initiate the conversation.
Today I have a new business call with a connection I made on Twitter. I had two last week. I have won several pieces of business simply by following people and responding when they actually posted the words (yes, it happens) “I am looking for a PR agency.” I have fielded requests for interviews on industry blogs – a great reputation builder – that I never would have had the opportunity to do had I not been following these people. I have been asked to serve as a guest speaker in front of influential audiences thanks to the people I follow.
Sometime an immediate follow back doesn’t result in an immediate conversation, relationship or lead. Those things take time to nurture off the Web as well. I caution anyone who is afraid of having too much noise in their Twitter stream that you may be missing great opportunities to kick-off beneficial conversations rather than wait for them to come to you.
@Rachel Kay: you make an excellent point. I’m not overly selective to the point that I shield myself from new opportunities but I do ultimately screen followers (to see if we share some common ground) and to try and avoid the spammers that ultimately dilute the quality of my relationships.
I’m finding over time that my needs are evolving on Twitter. The most value I’ve gotten out of it comes from people I have two-way conversations with. Sometimes the conversations are business and sometimes personal.
I also understand that there are newbies and people still trying to find their way through Twitter and follow them to offer as much help as I can. I won’t follow sales gimmicks people who are blatantly there for themselves. Usually you can spot those a mile away.
Each person needs to determine what his/her goals are for Twitter. What do they want to get out of it? How do they want to invest their valuable time? The answers to these questions will help determine the types of people they want to interact with and how to navigate through Twitter.
I use twitter for knowledge & insight, which improves me as an individual, both personal and professional. I don’t engage in conversations much, dont know where i’d find the time, but I have started to spread the word to my clients about it to help them get some exposure to their products or services. I also plan on starting some name/link dropping for them every now and again when relevant, but think it will only ever amount to a tiny drop in their marketing bucket. TweetDeck keeps me plugged in to my wonderful city and community, my industry, my friends-old and new, and my diverse interests. I don’t follow many and wonder how/why some find me, but in addition to wonderful few I do follow, I use search terms to get my infomation-junkie fix.
I find this a fascinating conversation.
I’m on twitter for my business (@Felicitea) offering a contact source with my clients, to offer discounts, etc. I have come to love it this way for a number of reasons. I recognize how it doesn’t work as well for lots of other people – though I get great compliments from a number of my followers about HOW I use twitter as a business. Which makes me kinda think I might be doing it right… I hope so as I’m still trying to figure it out.
At first I thought the right thing to do was follow everyone – I mean, how else would people know I was paying attention? But a couple months ago, I changed my mind. I trimmed my follows WAY back. From 250-ish to 6. Yes, *six*. I’m up to ten now. I follow companies I work with, relevant review sites, and a couple organizations my business engages in. That’s it. Since then my number of @conversations & my number of followers has increased.
I still pay attention to the people I care to follow, but there’s a myriad of ways to do that w/o following them. Primarily I use Twitter Search, though Tweet Grid has it’s pro’s and I’m looking into it. I also name drop and talk plenty of @’s and run a little contest once a month. I think twitter is more about ENGAGING not about following.
And I know a number of folks who have cut back on follows. One friend cut back 10k plus folks – by hand in the last week. Talk about a project.
Everyone, thank you for the great insights and conversation here! My main purpose for this post was to provide companies with multiple voices sharing their individual social media insights, uses and experiences–and you’ve more than delivered!! Social media is simply not a “one size fits all” medium and that will be the hardest part for companies (and marketers) to grasp…but they will get there as they feel more comfortable with it.
@MackCollier, you and I think very similarly about how to use social media for business. I totally agree, it’s an INdirect method. Social media breaks down the barriers of how we look at potential clients/customers/partners/investors/etc. They are people, not numbers…and that’s an important distinction and lesson for businesses to learn.
@Claire, I agree with the 140-characters forcing a different writing & thinking style. Doing so really cuts back on the marketer’s tendency to be verbose!
@BertDuMars, Agreed. And yes, there’s nothing like a phone call or in-person meeting with someone you met in a social network. Again, just think of that from a business perspective…there’s a lot of relationship building and trust that develops before you even call/meet and that is very powerful when it comes to business relationships.
@GilesCrouch, that’s interesting and proves that not all social media tools will work for all companies. I just advised a company to forget about blogging and focus solely on Twitter because a basic Twitter search showed…(insert corporate ‘ah, ha!’ moment here)…that people were on Twitter talking about them, their news, their products and industry. They had no idea. So, the road they thought they should be on was the entirely wrong one.
@ChungBeyLuen perhaps that’s a cultural aspect that we need to be reminded of as our online interactions make the global world smaller and closer. Thanks for the reminder!
@mcolacucio, there’s nothing wrong with being passionate about the company you own…it is part of who you are and that comes with being transparent. I’m glad that you mentioned the “listening” phase…I think it’s a really important things for companies, marketers, etc. to understand.
@DebM…Give me your Twitter name and I’ll be sure to follow you!
@DirkSinger thanks for the favtwits.com site, quite interesting! Apparently I tweet with @MackCollier WAY too much! (Must be all those debates Mack!)
@DannyBrown, my Word Press blog problem is a great example of the value of Twitter as a business. I had a hand full of people who I knew reach out and try to help, but it was one person, David Burch (@YourGoToGuy), who I didn’t know at all, that gave me the exact line of code I needed to delete to fix the issue. And Jeremy Meyers (@jeremymeyers) walked me through the process because I didn’t want to mess up the site even more. If I wasn’t on Twitter, I would have had to call a WordPress consultant to help.
@StacyLukas, is that a post about Twitter I see on your blog?! LOL!
In regards to Twitter, if people only shared the answer to “what are you doing?” Twitter would go down like the Hindenberg because honestly, no one really cares that much about hearing what people are doing every minute of their lives. Twitter works because of that, plus the sharing of information and conversations…those are what make it a social network.
@RachelKay, thanks for the great case study of how Twitter has helped you with your business!