A Little More on Business Twittering
I reviewed over a thousand Twitter feeds to come up with the list, but I didn’t provide much explanation for why I think the businesses I selected are worth following. I’ll start with a quote from Aliza Sherman:
Twitter is about listening to what others are saying, thoughtfully engaging others in conversation, contributing meaningfully to the conversation, and building real contacts and connects.
Well said. I was looking for businesses that fit that description, while actively seeking to promote themselves. I do think that businesses can gain benefit from tweeting without being conversational, but a salesperson who doesn’t listen gets pretty tiring after a while. There is more benefit to be had by actively engaging with the Twittersphere. Here are a few tweets from @ClearViewWater, one of the businesses I put on my list:
There’s a lot of goodness in just these few tweets. For example, he is very positive. I don’t know for sure, but I imagine he’d be that way to work with. And he is promoting other businesses. You can bet that those businesses will return the favor. And he is promoting himself with a real, compelling example of a project he’s worked on. To be sure, he also occasionally tweets in a more overtly self-promotional way, but he keeps people engaged with interesting content and meaningful, positive commentary on what’s going on around him.
In my list I tried to find a variety of types of businesses using Twitter in different ways, but all engaging with prospects and/or customers. If you know of others I should include, please let me know!
Here are a few resources to help an aspiring business Twitterer:
Aliza Sherman’s How To Avoid Seven Common Twitter Mistakes – this is a good list, and I much prefer advising on what not to do. The businesses I like to follow don’t appear to follow a formula, they just express themselves. But they do avoid these mistakes.
Kris Skavish commented with this great article on various styles of business Twittering: Four Styles of Marketing on Twitter – thank you Kris!
Klout is a service that measures influence and audience. You type in your Twitter name and it provides a detailed analysis of how you rate. It also has helpful tips for how to improve. I rate a pathetic 16, so I guess I have some work to do.
5 Responses to “A Little More on Business Twittering”
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Nico
Thank you again for the unexpected, yet positive feedback on what I do with Social Media! This is the way I explain Social Media to friends and colleagues:
You’re at a party and one person is overheard all nite saying things like “I just climbed a 14er….I just bought the best car…My business is incredible….etc” By the end of the evening, most people will see that person as self-serving and move away from him/her.
Same party…a 2nd person says things like “You love to hike?…you need to talk to Susan, she rocks”…”Thanks for the compliment on the car, but the real credit goes to Tom since he turned me onto it…”Yea business is great, but I really credit it to XYZ marketing, they are rock stars…”
End of the party- most people will be honored by their time with the 2nd person because he/she is all about serving others. The key is to be authentic about it and truly match your on-line persona with the entire sales/service process in the real world.
That is…that’s what super cool people like @SaberMarketing, @ChuckBlakeman, @AmandaVega, @Deetells have taught me!
Best,
Rich
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by nicobrx, Rich Anderson. Rich Anderson said: @PlumbingGirl @EcoFuturesBuild @EightBottles @Deetells UR famous courtesy of @nicobrx! http://bit.ly/5JVtPu [...]
Rich,
One of the reasons I started this blog was because I believe that local businesses *should* be benefiting from social media more than the big guys. In the offline world businesses like yours have succeeded by contributing to the community around you since long before the internet, possibly since before written language. But I see so many SMB’s struggling to figure it out, while big companies invest in social media strategies and hire social media mavens.
So I hope that businesses see what you and the people you mention are doing and jump in to the conversation. And thanks so much for telling a bit more of your story!
Cheers, Nico
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by nicobrx: @ClearViewWater hey, heads up – I mention you in a blog post: http://bit.ly/5JVtPu hope you don’t mind…
[...] is or isn’t. The way people are using Twitter is bound to be evolving. And anecdotally I know several local businesses that are finding new customers through their Twitter accounts. I still believe that broadcast [...]