Niall Cook gave us some useful advice on business uses of Twitter. He states with this advice, “As Twitter gathers pace, we are seeing more use of the micro-blogging community by companies and brands. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but like blogging that went before they will come unstuck if they don't take the time to understand the platform before just wading in.” I could not agree more - see for a "what was he thinking" example ..
Here are his guidelines for the business use of twitter:
Listen. Niall points out that it is easy to set up and subscribe to a search of your brand or company name. I am now using TweetDeck for this.
Add value. Provide useful content for those that choose to follow you.
Only follow when followed or mentioned. Having an anonymous entity follow you is a bit like receiving spam. On the other hand, be careful who you follow. Niall says that if your following:followers ratio is more than 2:1 then you are probably being a bit desperate. I saw this with Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social tools. I have also now seem a number of 1:5-10 people. But do not be a snob. When someone follows me, I look at the profile to see if there is relevance. Then I look at their recent tweets to see if there is value to me. This is not a judgment of their absolute value just if there is stuff I want to see.
Reply. Respond to every tweet directed at you. Be sure to say current. Tweetdeck helps on this.
Use replies rather than direct messages. Be transparent about what you're saying to others on Twitter. True, but sometimes the reply is personal and/or you do not want to spam the others. Use DM when it is relevant.
Thanks to Niall for these. Some tips are similar to blogs and other social media and some are particular to Twitter. One thing that seems clear to me that doing Twitter right takes time, just like blogging. Do not start unless you are willing to put in the time. I am just experimenting with twitter. I leaned a lot from my fellow FastForward bloggers. Any reader of this blog is welcome to follow me at https://twitter.com/BillIves. But I will warn you in advance, that unlike the blog, my Twitter use may be inconsistent. Especially since advance Twittering is an oxymoron. However, I am seeing the value more and more.
Comments