It’s Follow Friday on Twitter. You know those #FF hashtags? That’s what those mean. Follow Friday.
So in honor of Follow Friday, ask me a question in the comments and as a thank you, I’ll follow you on Twitter! (Of course, this means you’ll have to give your Twitter name in the comments panel like so (@bizvolutions).
Okay?
So, what kind of questions do I mean?
Anything about using social media for business. Such as, how can I utilize Twitter to help my customer service team keep track of complaints or unhappy customers online? or Does Twitter work for an offline small business in a small, rural town? Or what’s the benefit for a small offline business to join Twitter?
I’ll answer those right now.
1. You can utilize Twitter as a very cool customer service tool. It’s like a radar that’s up all the time (24/7) looking for mentions of you or your business name. If someone is talking about your business, it will get to Twitter at some point. The first thing would be to set up a Google alert for your business name and your name (real/brilliant, inc.; Tricia Lawrence). Then each time these terms are mentioned anywhere online, you get an alert. Moving that to Twitter, if you monitor, say the state of real estate or the stock market or even unemployment, you’ll find those things out on Twitter. Plus, there are growing numbers of your peers using social media. Just this week, a report showed that over half of the Boomer generation are now online using social media. That’s your audience . . . and your competition. So, you sign up on Twitter, begin following other folks in your industry and you learn a LOT about what’s happening and who’s doing well at customer service. Does that help? Any follow-up questions? Today is Follow Friday. Today is your chance!
2. Twitter is already working for small businesses in small rural towns. Have you heard of Foursquare or Gowalla? These are geo-location applications that run on any smart phone. Chances are, your small town has already been littered with either Foursquare or Gowalla icons. Those icons represent a chance to be visible (even from a very remote rural town) out to all over the world. When someone checks in at say, your pizza place, their check in is visible on Twitter. You’re on Twitter when people check in at your establishment. Did you know that? This has huge potential for small businesses in rural towns. Suddenly, you’re not just visible to the rural town and surrounding community; you’re visible to everyone who drives through, stops in town for gas, hungry folks who don’t know the area, but really like the sound of your pizza. This is what social media is going to do for small businesses all over the world. It’s kinda huge, when you think about. Follow Friday follow-up question? I’ll follow you on Twitter, remember.
3. Say you’re still not impressed by the two reasons I’ve already given you in this post to join Twitter. Here’s one more: your audience may not like you if you don’t play by their rules. It seems stupid that a hair salon needs to join Twitter, right? But wait, what if your potential customers are huge Twitter users (this is happening more and more every single day and faster than you may think) and they don’t want to get their hair done at a place that isn’t social media savvy? It sounds dumb, but it’s happening everywhere. Businesses who used to depend on the yellow pages or on blinking online banner ads are having to change the way they do business . . . to fit the customer. This isn’t an outbound marketing world anymore (where you go find the clients), this is an inbound marketing world (where your clients find you). If no one can find you on Twitter (and your potential clients are already looking for you there, trust me), you’re toast. Don’t believe me. Watch and see. But you heard it here first.
Okay, I’ve got you started. Your questions to the comments section of this blog . . . STAT!
Action Tip: Ask me a question and I’ll follow you on Twitter. Just leave your Twitter handle (@bizvolutions) in the comments panel along with your question. And I’ll answer the question you ask, never fear! If you’d rather not be so public, sign up for my eZine (to the right of this post) or check my About page and email me back channel. I’m here so that you can find me in the most suitable way for you.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you recommend starting a separate twitter account for business, or continue using the same account? Also, any tips for an NPO trying to raise awareness using social networking sites? Much appreciated! @SomeSayWise
Hi, Siobhan, you are followed!
As to your questions: I do and I don’t. At one point, I felt consolidating the Twitter into one stream was best, but now I have a new opinion on this. Twitter works best for business when you get into a finely tuned niche of followers and people to follow. What is your goal with Twitter? If you’re trying to get people to hear you, then you’ll want to follow those people first (the strategy is: you follow them, they follow you, but these days you can’t guarantee folks will just follow you back), then you post content that is aimed for those people you follow and you retweet content they post (which shows them you’re paying attention to them; they then pay attention to you.) So for your writing, I would use your name, but for your business, use the business name. Is your current handle your biz name or your personal account? I would use it as a business name. And then your name (if you want) for your writing career.
Second question: Well, NPO and Twitter knowledge are the domain of Beth Kanter (@Kanter). She has a new book on the subject and is the expert. Hands down. I would definitely follow her with your business account and then go find people that she follows or that follow her and follow them. Her Twitter feed is a gold mine for you to learn about NPO and Twitter. And you may meet other NPOs that you could partner with, strategize with, whatever.
Thanks for excellent questions, Siobhan. Good luck!
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