Top 10 Tips For New Twitter Users - Center For New Media Studies

Top 10 Tips For New Twitter Users

Written By Marcelo Lewin

Your friends are on Twitter. Your son talks about Twitter. The news mentions Twitter every other minute. Even your mom is on Twitter. But did you know who’s on Twitter that can affect your business? Your competition.

It doesn’t matter what you do, what industry you are in or how big (or small) your company is, you should be on Twitter engaging with new leads, checking out what your competition is doing and finding out what people are saying about you and your company.

Twitter is the world’s largest “cocktail” party and like all cocktail parties, there are some rules you need to follow so that you are accepted, become popular, attract the right “followers” and ultimately convert them into leads.

Below are my top 10 tips for new Twitter users (Top 10 music kick in now please):


Tip #10 – Provide useful and value added information.
No one really cares if you are drinking coffee now, if your kids just left for school or if you have a headache. Twitter is about providing tips, customer service and useful information that people can use on a daily basis. For example, if you are a photographer, provide daily tips on shooting better photographs. If you are a mechanic, provide daily tips on how to keep your car maintained properly. Providing these tidbits (in under 140 characters of course) that people can walk away with and use daily will keep you and your services in their mind space, and soon, you’ll be able to convert those leads into customers when they need your services.


Tip #9 – Listen to people first.
Like every cocktail party, if you walk up to someone and immediately tell them everything about yourself and what you sell, they will be turned off. In the Twitterverse, this is exactly the same. Don’t jump in and start “selling”. Listen to what people in your industry are doing and what they are looking for. Then jump in and provide useful information, but only if it adds value (see the tip #10).


Tip #8 – Participate in conversations.
After you’ve listened to people and understand what they like (and not like), jump in and start new conversations and participate in current conversations by adding your expertise. Answer as many questions as possible. Be honest and be passionate about what you offer. The effort you put in now to nurture these relationships will come back to you as business.


Tip #7 – Earn trust
I’ve always been taught that you earn trust, you don’t automatically get it. In Twitter, you have to multiply that by 100. You build trust by providing useful information on a daily basis, by answer questions honestly and without bias, by being transparent, by apologizing in public when you (or your company) did something wrong and by giving kudos to people that do great things (e.g. company partners, great employees, fantastic customers and yes…and even your competition). Once you have the trust of the Twitter community, they will seek out your services.


Tip #6 – Quality over quantity.
It’s not about how many “followers” you have; it’s about having relevant followers following you. What do I mean by “relevant”? That depends on your industry and whom you are targeting. If you are a catering company, maybe you want to attract people that just got engaged or throw a lot of parties. Perhaps you want to attract companies (or people) that you want to partner with (such as wedding photographers and videographers). The key is to have relevant followers. It’s better to have 2000 qualified, focused, relevant followers, then 100,000 generic people you know nothing about and may not be interested in what you offer.


Tip #5 – Seek out people that are “influential”.
As tip #6 stated, finding relevant people is very important, but finding “influential” people that are relevant to your industry is even more important. It’s much better to have 1 or 2 followers that are influential (known in your industry, have many relevant followers themselves) then to have 100 people that ultimately, can’t influence anyone.


Tip #4 – Give it away for free.
Provide as much useful information as you can for free and I promise you it will come back to you in the form of business. Social media is all about sharing and interacting with people. The more you share, the more transparent you are, the more people will want to “follow you”. Soon, you will be the “influential follower” that everyone wants to friend.


Tip #3 – Market indirectly.
Once you’ve earned the trust of the Twitter community, have become an influential person in your industry and have provided enough useful and value added information, you will be able to “indirectly” market to people your services and products in between your informational Tweets.


Tip #2 – Do not SPAM.
There are plenty of spammers on Twitter already. You can easily recognize them. They usually follow hundreds (if not thousands) of people, but only 10 people follow them (and those are usually fake accounts they created). They always link to their site, never offering any useful information. They don’t interact with other users in conversations. It’s always one way. Do not become one of those people. If you follow tips #10 through #3 above, you won’t be a spammer. Don’t start with tip #3 directly.


Tip #1 – Don’t expect to tie a Twitter entry to a Balance Sheet entry.
If you are the type of person that expects an immediate ROI after Tweeting for a week, then Twitter (and in fact, all of social media) is not for you. You will not be able to tie a specific Twitter entry to your balance sheet. It just doesn’t work like that. Twitter is a pre-sales tool that allows you to create relationships and nurture them to the point where you can convert some of those relationships into customers.


I hope this article has encouraged you to take on the leap on Twitter. Twitter is not only fun (and free) but it’s a great tool that allows you to build relationships with potential new customers, allows you to nurture the relationships of current customers and allows you to see what your competition is up to.


Join the Twittervolution today! If you are interested in learning more about Twitter, you can take one of our free Twitter webinars or you can, of course, follow me at Twitter.com/NewMediaDude for daily tips about new media.

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