17
How Twitter Changed My Business
I’M NO STRANGER to “social media” or “online social networking.” 47 Ryze.com was one of the first business-oriented sites in the social networking universe and I had built a nice network there both virtually and locally.
Fast-forward to April 2008 when I signed up at Twitter.com. I had heard about it from a few people and decided to throw my hat in the ring and it didn’t do much for me. I tweeted, read about how a few others were eating lunch or talking about their latest blog post, but nothing rocked my world. I used it casually until the end of that year. Then something changed.
I decided to give Twitter one last try. I had gotten up to around 2,000 followers and decided to give it my all for one month, to see if it really was a viable networking tool. So January 1, I took my own 30-day Twitter challenge. I would eat, breathe, and almost sleep on Twitter.48 I added TwitterBerry to my BlackBerry, because it allowed me to access it on the go and tweet my heart out. At the end of the 30 days I was up to 10,000 followers and was hooked. I had made better and stronger relationships in that time span than all the other social networking sites combined. I had built a loyal following, booked speaking engagements, and gained consulting clients, without ever pitching a thing.
At the time of writing this book, I have more than 55,000 followers, a book deal, and a massive network of incredible, smart, and funny business colleagues I never would have found otherwise. How did I get here? In those first 30 days, there were five things that worked really well for me:
1. Tweet constantly: A single tweet has a short shelf life—to create momentum you have to keep active. I wanted such a presence on Twitter that if I didn’t tweet for a day or two, people would notice (and they did). It has to become a habit. Don’t let the shortness of a tweet fool you into thinking it doesn’t take any time to become known. You have to be present. I tweeted almost 7,000 times during those 30 days in January. Excessive? You bet. I don’t recommend you try it. I was waiting for the A&E Intervention team to bust down my door to send me to rehab. But I got into the habit of being present on Twitter and got people into the habit of reading what I wrote. I had someone come up to me at an event and ask me how many times I tweet a day. When I replied a few hundred, she gasped and said “Well, that’s just too much! I would never follow you!” I wasn’t exactly soul-crushed. It wasn’t as if I were sending 200 text messages directly to my followers every day. Twitter is a current chat. You don’t have to catch up; you don’t have to read everything from everybody. You pop on, look around, and jump in. The same woman was wondering what kind of life I could have if I tweeted that much. A tweet is shorter than a text message. I asked her how long it took her to send a text. She mentioned 10 to 20 seconds, which is longer than it takes me to send a tweet. It takes me roughly five to eight seconds to send a tweet. Even if it took me 10 seconds, I’ve now spent just more than a half hour sending those 200 tweets. Gasp! What a life I must live. There is no “right amount” to tweet. No one can tweet too much or too little because it’s your account. You can’t try to cater to certain followers because they don’t like your frequency. When you have something to say, tweet it. When you see something of interest, reply to it. People will come and go, just keep pushing forward and focus on those who are with you.
2. Tweet quality: Every day I thought about what I could tweet that would be helpful to others. At first I tweeted a lot about business, and then I moved to specific Twitter tips because people were asking me what the best way was to do things. Replying to requests for help also connects you with people quickly. It gets you on their radar. Even now with tens of thousands of followers, I recognize the ones who jump in when I ask for help with something. Those are the people I can’t wait to meet, and don’t have a problem with helping when they ask. It’s part of that social currency. Give before you expect to get.
3. Tweet retweetable content: This goes along with tweeting quality. Not only did I try to think up tips daily, but wrote them in less than 120 characters. Twitter allows up to 140 characters, but if someone wants to retweet it (RT) to show their followers, it adds to the original (i.e., they have to add “RT@UnMarketing” to the start of the tweet). The last thing I wanted people to have to do was to edit my tweet so it would fit. Why make people work to spread the word about you? Getting retweeted was the number one thing that brought me new followers. Since they read the retweet from someone they follow, it’s like a mini-recommendation of me to them. I suggest writing three to five tips a day that are retweetable.49
4. Be authentic: It is just a fancy way of saying “be yourself.” Twitter has a unique presence where people are connecting on a higher level than just a virtual business card. Give your opinion. Talk about your interests. Although entrepreneurs live their business 24 hours a day, it does not mean that they have to always talk business. I have met more fascinating business owners talking about music or movies on Twitter than any business topic. When you can connect with others on nonbusiness topics, it removes the impending threat of trying to sell to me. You actually want to get to know me? I’ll join in with that!
5. Use a face picture: It is amazing when I log onto Twitter and up pops a tweet from someone I recognize. It’s as if they just entered the room. I actually smile. When I see a tweet pop up with a logo as their picture, I don’t get that feeling. It reminds me that this person has a business and is trying to sell me something. And unless you plan on walking around the networking event with your logo on your head, I won’t recognize you when we meet in person. There is nothing better at an event than seeing someone you recognize, yet haven’t met, and are already having that connection. Also, make sure to use a good picture. It should not be an afterthought. You don’t have to spend a truckload of money on a professional shoot, but the faded Polaroid from 1986 of you and your dog isn’t going to cut it.50 Twitter is like online dating for business. It’s awkward when you use a picture from 20 years ago that looks nothing like you now. I used to use a picture that was about eight years old, mainly because it was from a photo shoot, and made me look like a GQ model51 with a serious model pose52 and no smile at all. This wasn’t me, but I thought it made me look “good.” I soon changed to a candid shot from a photographer friend53 with me smiling, mid-conversation. That’s exactly how I look and there is no “Whoa, that’s not what I expected” when I show up at an event.
A word about automation: You may be tempted to use automation to keep a presence on Twitter when you’re not around, but I advise against it. Twitter is a conversation; people think it’s you talking. If you use a third-party program to automatically tweet for you when you’re not around, it’s like sending a mannequin to a networking event in your place with a post-it note attached. It’s not authentic; it says that you want people to listen to you but not vice versa. A colleague of mine tweeted about his upcoming workshop and a few people replied with questions about it, but got no answer. Why? I knew for a fact that he was on a cruise for a week without access. How do you think he looked after that? It sends the wrong message to your followers and it’s not worth it. For further proof, there are multiple examples of conferences that have a screen up with live tweets from people using the conference #hashtag where the speaker is on stage, and a tweet comes up from them. While speaking. And not on Twitter.54
People give a lot of reasons why they feel automation is okay. They will tell you that automation allows you to reach people in different time zones, allows you to make Twitter scalable, and you get to build relationships when you aren’t around. Please do not listen to them! Automating tweets means that you want people to listen to you, but are unwilling to listen to them. There is no such thing as automated engagement. There is no such thing as programmed authenticity. Automating is like sending a mannequin to a network event. Stick a post-it note on it and wheel it in, multiple events around the world! Think of all the different Chamber of Commerce meetings you could cover! Different time zones! Let the relationship windfall begin!
You must realize that this is not a good idea. It is not the first tweet that builds the relationship. It is the conversation that comes afterwards. It is a different story if your account is a feed of events/news and that is what people follow you for. The problem is when people think you are tweeting to them and you are not really there.
There are also sites that will notify you when someone unfollows you and the tweet you sent that did it. I shudder thinking about it. Why would you want that? Do you like emotional pain? Do you really want to know every time someone leaves you? People have justified it by saying it can help you see why people leave so you can tweak how you tweet. Ugh. Why would you change for people who’ve left when the people who stay are there because of how you are? People unfollow for different reasons. Don’t care about them.
And the daddy of all automation: the auto-follow. Like any tool that becomes successful for businesses, there will always be people looking for shortcuts. Since human nature dictates that everything is a numbers game, people want to build up a massive following on Twitter. But who actually wants to spend the time it takes to build real relationships? In comes automation! These systems will follow 500 or so people a day for you with the prediction that the majority of them will follow you back. Then the system drops either the people who didn’t follow back, or everyone all together, making it look like you have a lot of followers but only follow a few yourself. I don’t even know where to begin with how wrong this is, especially in a forum like Twitter where authenticity is everything. It’s not about how many followers you have, but your engagement with them. Don’t look to build quantity, build quality. I started at zero followers, and have grown it out of engagement, one person at a time.
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.