Twitter may look disjointed and hard to follow, yet the benefits include spontaneous conversations with business leaders, reporters and other “hard to pin” down types.
Once you learn the way it works, you can harness the power of Twitter for yourself and grow your business.
How to Tweet Like a Pro:
1–Be succinct. Twitter gives you 140 characters which can go fast. It’s acceptable to use abbreviations such as “ltr” for later. If you’re not comfortable with abbreviations, then don’t use them. You just won’t have as much space.
Saying “this is my first tweet” is ok. You might even be welcomed.
2—Be conversational. Twitter is like a global water cooler. You can jump into conversations on any manner of topics from wine to your hometown. More on that in a minute.
3—Follow people—You control what you see in your tweet stream. You can choose to follow big media outlets like The New York Times and get news from them and you can choose to follow business leaders like Barbara Cochran of Shark Tank and other members of your community.
The quality of people you follow will dictate if your tweet stream is full of interesting news and conversations or a bunch of whiners. (Sorry, but true).
I recommend a healthy mix of well-known types and local folks.
4—Use a #hashtag to find people and conversations that interest you. By now you’ve probably heard on the news or elsewhere, “use hashtag x”.
A hashtag is the pound or number sign on your keyboard. That’s it, nothing more, #.
The power comes when you use this sign in conjunction with a word. For example, #philadelphia. If you put this into the search box, then you’ll see tweets only associated with #philadelphia. Likewise, with Doylestown near where I live.
If you take this tactic with your local area and use the Twitter search function with #plusyourtown, you’ll see people and organizations you recognize. For example, the United Way Bucks County is very active on Twitter. So, are many reporters.
I follow locals and businesses I’m interested in working with as a writer. I also follow lots of marketers since marketing is my business. Really, I follow most anyone who tweets regularly and looks interesting.
How a Farmer Uses Twitter
Last summer, my cotton farming dad wanted me to help him get set up on Twitter. Since he’s not sure how to reply to email I had no idea why Twitter was even on his radar. When I asked why, he admitted he wanted to follow the Gamecocks better.
My dad is an alum of the University of South Carolina and he’s passionate about the school’s sports. With Twitter, and using the hashtags, #Carolina and #Gamecocks, he could get a play-by-play, real-time accounts of the game from people in the stands plus the media. It makes for a richer, more nuanced experience.
Following events via Twitter is powerful. As the aftermath of Sandy unfolded across the Northeast, Twitter was a reliable real-time resource for news, road closures, getting supplies to those in need and much more.
If you’d like to learn more about using Twitter to build your business, you won’t want to miss this live class on Jan. 23rd. Click here to learn how you can tweet like a pro while building your business.
