Posts tagged twitter

 … love to hear the birdie go tweet tweet tweet!

(Here’s a more business focused post from late last year, it still holds true - while a lot of my online pals are in-bound marketing like good’uns - many small business owners are still a bit flumoxed by Twitter and unconvinced of how it might help them. If you are a fence sitter this post might encourage you to take another look.

Since writing it I’ve run a couple of sessions about Twitter and other online networks for groups of people feeling a bit bemused by the hype. It isn’t difficult to get started and more and more success stories are adding to the good news about the advantages of social networking for small businesses). 

My gosh there is so much twaddle about twitter online, it’s a wonder any sane person signs up at all.

Get past all the celebrity nonsense or the silliness talked about the possibility of building millions of dollars worth of business in a week and what have you got? People talking to people about the stuff they like or don’t like. It all depends on whether they fancy themselves as ‘love puppy’ sharers or net savvy debunkers on a mission to give us all a dose of their personal reality.

There’s a growing number of businesses that are using twitter and other social networks to create genuine interest in what they have to offer, simply by engaging their customers where they like to hang out.

Whatever they’re up to - the trick is to get the twitterati to like you! If they like you, they’ll tell others about you by retweeting your tweets and then maybe they’ll follow you some more and after a while, if you keep them interested, they’ll want to know even more about you. That’s when they’ll leave tweetlandia and come and find your blog or your website.

People like free stuff. They like it even more if it’s the really good free stuff. So all you have to do - is figure out what you have that is good and useful and that people will really like and start twittering about it.

If people like your stuff, they’ll tell other people about it and before you know it - they’ll all be wanting more of your really good stuff!

Hang on a minute - that’s like the old days - when word of mouth was king - and brands like Ben and Jerrys created a buzz by doing what they did best - really well. People liked it and told other people about it and soon thet got to show loads more people their good gear.

Can’t be that hard then? Here’s three things to figure out today, to get you started.

1. First off before you start, ask yourself what it is that you are really good at? Think about what you are really passionate about? Is it something you could give advice and help about online? That’s great. Your in bound marketing campaign can begin!

2. Figure out a good way to share this good stuff with your social network buddies for free! Don’t forget to invite them to find out more about you and your other good stuff.

3. And now you need to keep up the momentum. Make sure that if they do love your advice, your funky little art sketches or your wonderfully useful widgets, you’re ready to offer them more. Once you start this ‘make ‘em like me by giving them freebies’ malarky - you’ll need to keep it up, don’t worry it will pay off.

Experiment with this in a small way for a few weeks and notice how many more followers you pick up - and who they are. Come back and tell me how you got on, and what cute things you came up with to get retweeted.

I’m betting that your new friends will all be people interested inyour products and services too. Now you need to turn that new twitter follower into a customer.

Communication and marketing types call that lead conversion!

Step 1: Visit LinkedIn.com and Click the Blue Twitter Button

Step 2: Allow LinkedIn to Connect to Your Twitter Account

Step 3: Make your Twitter account visible to everyone and decide if you would like some or all your Tweets sent to LinkedIn.

If you would only like a select few Tweets to be sent to your Linkedin,chose “Only Tweets that contain #in”. Now, only if you use the #in hashtag in your Tweet, it will go to LinkedIn. (Best option Linkedin types aren’t interested in your every tweet - this is your business profile, so just tweet Linkedin relevant content).

Step 4: Send a test tweet with hashtag #in.

Step 5: Check your LinkedIn profile to see if your status is your most recent Tweet.

By sending tweets to your LinkedIn status, your profile is more dynamic and you can frequently update your network about what you’re doing.

Step 6: Select the checkbox on LinkedIn.com to allow your LinkedIn Status to update your Twitter Account.

Now, whenever you update your LinkedIn Status, it will also update your Twitter Account.

What do you think? Will you link your accounts? Will you send all your Tweets to LinkedIn or only a few? Why?

article posted by Rebecca Corliss to inbound marketing blog and reproduced