Simple Twitter Tips that Attract Clients and Partners
By Meredith Liepelt (c) 2009
According to Mashable.com, a leading authority on social
media, there are currently over 12 million users on
Twitter. Another resource called istrategylabs.com reports
that 46% of Twitter users are college grads, and another
17% have post graduate degrees. Furthermore, 47% are
between age 18 and 34, and another 31% are between 35 and
49. Males and females are evenly ranked, with women
accounting for 53% of users and men 47%. If your target
market falls within these demographics, actively
participating on Twitter is probably worth your while.
Twitter is simply a micro blogging service. What does that
mean? It means that you write short updates (140 characters
maximum) called “tweets” and send them out to your
followers. And it is a marketer’s dream come true – it’s an
easy way to stay in front of your target market and
showcase your authority at no charge!
The myth around Twitter is that Twitter users (called
tweeple or tweeps) tweet about useless information such as
what kind of coffee they had with breakfast. Yes, some of
that exists and it is actually important as you’ll see
below, but once you understand the power of connecting on
Twitter, you may become a Twitter convert, just like me.
So, if you’re on Twitter or considering starting, the
question becomes, “what do I tweet about that will make
this a useful tool for me?” Here are some categories you
can consider for your tweets. There are others but these
will get you started:
Industry Tips
This is a big one. You are on Twitter to showcase your
expertise, so industry tips act as your credibility
builders. Here’s how to do it: Create a list of high value
tips (remember – no more than 140 characters long) and send
one or two out every day. If you don’t want to have to
manually do this yourself every day, consider a free tool
called TweetLater.com to set up your tweets in advance. If
your tweets are really good, others will send them out to
their lists as well. This is called a “re-tweet,” and it’s
a super way to quickly build your list of targeted followers.
Here is one of my recent tweets that had a great response:
Connect Others: Be willing to connect others even if it has
nothing to do with your business. What goes around, comes
around.
About Your Business
Use this category sparingly. In other words, if you use
Twitter as a place to advertise your products and services
too much, people will stop following you. This is not what
Twitter is about. It is really about raising awareness of
you and your business and impacting others. Use the 80/20
rule here. For every eight tweets about things other than
your business, you can post two things about your business.
Here is an example:
Hey Columbus: I’ll be on Fox tomorrow at 7:45 where you can
see me interviewed about my new book, Flourish!
Re-Tweets
When someone re-tweets you, they are giving you the highest
compliment you can get on Twitter! It means that the person
who re-tweeted you thinks that what you said is worth
sharing with their own list of followers. This is like
having someone ask you to a meeting so they can introduce
you their entire list of contacts. When you get a re-tweet,
send them a short tweet thanking them! Re-tweet others who
are tweeting things that you agree with or want your
followers to read.
If you are not familiar with Twitter, the example below
probably won’t make a lot of sense because of all of the
abbreviations, but they are necessary given that you only
have 140 characters. Abbreviations are outside the scope of
this article, but just know that it’s really not as scary
as it looks!
RT @getgreatcopy: New blog post: The Sixth Habit of Highly
Effective Communicators http://bit.ly/ 175XGS Gr8 stuff Jan,
as usual.
Quotes
Tweeps seem to love quotes. If you are also a fan of
quotes, compile a list and send one or two out every day.
Again, you can use tweetlater.com to set these up in
advance so you don’t have to manually enter them every day.
Simply set up these tweets for a month and then watch your
re-tweets happen!
Here’s an example of one that I recently posted:
“The pursuit of pleasure must be the goal of every rational
person.” Voltaire
Invitations
Invite tweeps to your free events. No-cost events like
teleseminars are great to tweet about because people love
to share high-value, low-cost information with their lists.
When you offer something without a cost – a workshop,
teleseminar or report, your tweets about it are likely to
get re-tweeted, which provides you with greater exposure to
your target market.
Here’s an example of one of my recent posts:
How 2 write your book in a weekend – free telesemimar w/
@donnakozik. http://bit.ly/ 127GtU
Personal
Include some personal things that are going on with your
life. What you choose to include is entirely up to you;
however, be sure to be relatable. You don’t have to share
your deepest inner thoughts or too much detail about your
family, but sharing something about what you did over the
weekend makes you more relatatable. Remember, Twitter is
about connecting with people. Other people on Twitter want
to connect with people – not stale businesses. People often
connect on a personal level over food, pets or hobbies.
This is why these seemingly unimportant tweets are actually
very fruitful. These are pretty safe personal topics.
General things about kids are another hot topic under this
category. Just be aware that anything you say is out there
for the world to read.
Here’s an example I tweeted recently:
Interesting pop culture moment: Told a story to my sister,
who lives in Vietnam & realized she doesn’t know who Sara
Jessica Parker is!
As you can see, Twitter is simply an online forum for
connecting with others in 140 characters or less. Big and
small brands are using Twitter to connect and impact their
target markets and locate joint ventures. Can you, too?
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Meredith Liepelt, President of Rich Life Marketing, offers
a free report called “101 Ways to Attract Ideal Clients,
Build Your List and Raise Your Profile,” which can be
downloaded immediately at http://www.RichLifeMarketing.com .
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Brought to you by David Budlong, co-founder of KickInTheButt.com
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