25 Twitter Tips for Small Business

With the launch of my book, Twitter Marketing for Dummies, I have been getting a ton of questions about Twitter and the use of Twitter for business. I wanted to update and republish this blog post from the beginning of last year… to better inform you on some tips for using Twitter.

Use them. Learn them. Love them.

1. Use your personal picture in your Twitter profile. There is only one situation where you can use your logo… if you have two profiles. Your personal profile and your company profile.

2. Don’t setup an Auto-DM to send when users follow you. Why you ask?

Here are two posts talking about why you should not:
Tweeter Blog: How to STOP These Freakin Auto DMs
Social Media Club: To Auto DM or Not to Auto-Dm

3. Use Twitter Search to find subject matters that interest you. This can cater to your business interests, as well as your personal interests. This will help you find people that share intriguing content.

4. Add in some of your personal life while you are using Twitter. What is important to remember is that you are using Twitter for your business communication as well. The people following you want to know that you are REAL and want to interact with you. This is especially important if you are a small business owner.

5. Use it. It is important to use Twitter but do not waste valuable time when at work. Tweet about what you are reading online.. Maybe a new insight you found while reading the night before. Try to use Twitter a couple of times a day.

6. Reply. Reply. Reply. Whenever you get a response (@yourname) make sure that you respond to the reply. This is extremely important because your most valuable followers are the people that respond and communicate with you.

7. (via John Janstch) Use strawpoll to create a survey to feed into your Twitter stream. This will be an awesome way to get information regarding service offerings and products.

8. Follow some awesome business Twitter people (@problogger, @chrisbrogan, @gacconsultants, @jaybaer, @roundpeg, @Ribeezie)

9. Use a business Twitter account (example: @brandswag) to create a great place for customer relationship management. Teach your clients to use Twitter to keep with the happenings of your company. Also, it can help you share the news and information regarding the success of your clients.

10. Use Twitter as a discussion forum. Ask your clients and prospective clients what they would like to see, hear, taste, and experience.

11. Help. (via Twitip) Always help before asking for money. Twitter is not a place for you to hard sell individuals on services. We are here for discussions and not sales.

12. I started out with a personal profile that allowed me to create relationships before starting my company profile. (also via Twitip) I was able to cleaning transition between two accounts because people trusted me. If you start two accounts at the same time you will be overwhelmed and underwhelm your followers.

13. Use Hootsuite for productivity. Hootsuite allows you to pre-post Tweets to be sent out throughout the day. The important thing to remember is that you need to be involved in the conversation. If you are not there to interact with your followers there really is not a point for using the tool. However, it does help for those random tweets to stay in front of your followers.

14. Take pictures and share on Twitter. Add pictures on Twitter using Twitpic using your iPhone or mobile phone.

15. Use Google Analytics to measure the traffic directed from Twitter to your blog or website. If you can measure the traffic related to sales or aquisitions it help you understand an ROI from the tool. You can also use PostRank to measure engagement or your followers and your blog.

16. Encourage your employees to join Twitter and become part of the conversation.

17. Twitter connets thought leaders. Talk about a great brain trust!

18. Fill out your profile. Make sure you put information regarding your personal life as well as your business life. This is important because.. everyone reads it.

19. We add our Twitter URLs to our business cards. I also like to add my LinkedIN account and blog URL. This will encourage more of your networking friends to follow you and communicate more effectively.

20. Follow @Zappos. A perfect example of corporate twittering.

21. Download TweetDeck. Tweetdeck is a powerful tool to help you be productive while using Twitter.

22. Are you using a Blackberry or iPhone? You should definitly be looking at downloading an application to help you manage your twitter account while you are out of the office. Tweetdeck will sync your entire system together on one platform (fyi).

23. Thank you. When someone shares your post or tweet make sure you send a DM or Tweet thanking them for their support. Just as you should be emailing people to thank them for comments… same goes with Twitter.

24. Create a column or search feed on your Twitter productivity tool (Hootsuite or Tweetdeck) and start following potential clients, competition, and industry leaders…. Be very sure to organize them out to keep the messages separate.

25. Don’t add hundreds of people when you first join Twitter. Let the entire conversation happen naturally… your follower base will grow naturally

If you have anymore tips. Please add them below! Get on it!

Social Media + SEO = Social Media Infrastructure

Since 2002, Chad H. Pollitt has played an integral role in designing, developing, deploying, executing and tracking robust web marketing strategies for over 100 client companies and organizations and is an Internet Marketing Expert.Chad is a decorated veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and an Internet Marketing Manager at Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., the leading web development and internet marketing agency in the Midwest. His white papers and articles have been published in over a dozen newspapers and websites throughout the world. With over 10 million dollars of tracked ROI for SEO alone, he has been featured on multiple radio shows, podcasts and in The Wall Street Journal.

View the slideshow presentation of this blog here > Social Media Infrastructure

How do you optimize social media to come up in search? What social media sites should I use for my business? Won’t social media take up all of my time? These are questions I get every day and the answer is simple: Build a Social Media Infrastructure.

1. What is a Social Media Infrastructure? Definition: Social media platforms chosen for engagement and how they are connected to one another with a Blog at its base pushing content to other platforms.
2. Why should I build a Social Media Infrastructure?

• SEO – By connecting your social media platforms via RSS and traditional backlinks you are building a “keyword neighborhood” that will raise the relevancy of all of your web platforms in the infrastructure for those keywords.  The result, if properly executed, will be multiple first page results for some of the keyword phrases in your “keyword neighborhood.”
• Saves Time – With a Blog at the base of your infrastructure you won’t have to post content on multiple platforms.  Once the infrastructure is in place you will only have to post once.
• Increases Reach, SOV and Website Referral Traffic – The more social media platforms used in the infrastructure the more people will see your content, brand and message resulting in more referral traffic for your conversion platform or website.
• 3 C’s – You will have Consistency, Clarity and Congruency of message throughout the web.

3.  How do I build a Social Media Infrastructure?

• Do a Keyword Workshop
• Gather your digital assets (video, pics, graphics, audio, presentations, press releases, etc.)
• Build a Blog
• Choose multiple social media platforms based on your digital assets and target demographic
• Connect the platforms with links, RSS feeds and widgets (recommend http://twitterfeed.com as a start).
• Make sure lead generation websites, microsites and/or landing pages are linked into the infrastructure.

5 Ways to Use Foursquare for Business

Some would say that Foursquare has blasted into the scene of location based social networking applications with a vengeance. I would tend to agree with that sentiment. The best way to describe the service is to actually use the source. From the Foursquare site:

People use foursquare to “check-in”, which is a way of telling us your whereabouts. When you check-in someplace, we’ll tell your friends where they can find you and recommend places to go & things to do nearby. People check-in at all kind of places – cafes, bars, restaurants, parks, homes, offices.

You’ll find that as your friends use foursquare to check-in, you’ll start learning more about the places they frequent. Not only is it a great way to meet up with nearby friends, but you’ll also start to learn about their favorite spots and the new places they discover.

I will be completely honest with you (side note: I love that saying because it is a funny thing to say… just so you know… I will always be completely honest with you) I have not realized the full potential of Foursquare personally but I have seen it being used across a multitude of different users… from power users to newbies.

What I strive to accomplish while writing this blog is to give the reader practical uses of emerging digital technology and ideas to use them effectively. So let’s get this party started!

1. Encourage Foursquare Users to Check in and Post Reviews about Your Location

Foursquare allows a user to view where their friends have been within 3 hours of a certain update. This could have huge potential for a hotel chain. David Fleet mentioned in his blog post, Foursquare’s Potential for Hyper Local Marketing, the advantages of using Foursquare to check where your friends have stayed (the night) in a given location. A hotel, sauna, or day spa could encourage Foursquare users to check into a given location and put brief thoughts about the service in their tip updated.

Example : Give users of Foursquare a discount on their tab for a favorable tip update. (This could also be applied to any social network)

2. Use the Points Structure of Foursquare to Support a Local Charity

Users will gain points when they accomplish certain activities like checking in, making multiple stops in a day, adding a new venue, making a repeat visit, or consecutively checking into a certain location. Encourage users to rack up the points and put a value to the points they are accruing (Ex: $0.04 per point). At the end of the promotion donate the amount of money to a charity. This encourages visits to your business and gives back to those who need our help!

3. Use the “Mayor” Status as a Perk – You Become an Authority Figure

The user that checks in the most at a certain location will gain the notoriety of becoming “mayor” of that location. I have actually witnessed people fight over becoming mayor. If you offered special perks to the mayor of your location (ie: name on a board, gift certificate for the month, free beverage, or maybe a puppy!) it will encourage Foursquare users to visit your location more often.

4. Utilize the To-Do List to Give Users Tasks to Complete – Scott Hepburn

Each business has the potential of creating a to do list for Foursquare users. If you visit a Foursquare page for a business (Click here for an example) you will find a button to create a to-do list. This could be utilized as a contest for people visiting the location. You could offer perks much like the user became a mayor of your location.

Example : Give a to-do list of what the location wants to improve upon in terms of service. Allow users to help improve those services by viewing the to-do list and adding tips for improvement.

5. Encourage Users to Become Superusers of Your Location

When a user becomes a SUPERUSER at your location they have the ability to edit venue information. Some of you may be skeptical and hesitant at giving users the ability to edit YOUR data… but let’s be honest… it isn’t really YOUR data anymore is it? It is easier to have users edit your location information because they are actually using the tool and experiencing your company in a completely different way. Also, this help for annoying bad data that could be spread through different users.

Foursquare is an infant compared to social media titans like Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter… the important thing to remember is that it is growing and people are using it.

Is your business getting reviewed on social applications? You would be surprised…

What Is Social Media? I Mean Really.

Jonathan is a 2008 graduate of the Farmer School at Miami University. He works at a small web development firm in Cincinnati where he brings a fresh interdisciplinary approach to project management and business operations. He’s always either checking in or tweeting his iPhone and he’s passionate about people and bringing digital connections into reality. He’s an active blogger for continuous web and a founder of the group’s Cincinnati meet-up. Got questions, shoot him an e-mail

What (the hell) is social media? I hate that question. I even hate the term. It’s truly just the Internet. It’s so many things and it’s expanding every day and, quite honestly, I don’t care how it’s defined. What’s great about everything that’s happening in the digital space right now is that it can mean something different to every single one of us. Let me explain:

In game theory, utility is defined as “a measure of that which is sought to be maximized in any situation involving a choice” Another definition says “the state of being useful, profitable, or beneficial.”

Here are the important words that I see in those definitions: choice, maximized, useful, beneficial. What’s so great about those words? They can mean entirely different things to you than they do to me. They’re all tied to intrinsic value, REAL value…not market value — and “real” means whatever I decide that it means. It’s what is essential to me.

What does utility have to do with social media? In short: everything. In our country, we seem to have a fixation on ROI. In a social space, it’s difficult impossible to put a measurable ROI on interaction…on being involved. ROI in this space is, by definition, unquantifiable. How many dollars will I make? How many customers will I gain? Traditionally, that’s how a business might measure its return on investment when investing its time, people, research, and dollars into a new venture. When investing in social media there needs to be a paradigm shift.

Someday soon, it won’t be about the ROI some business gets for investing in social media — it will be about the ROI that a consumer person gets for investing in a brand. (aside: i’m not talking about a financial investment, I’m talking time and energy. The important question will be “What do I get for interacting with your brand”) That ROI will be measured in utility.

I believe that we’ll see a shift toward a consumer-centric economy where extrinsic value is replaced by intrinsic value. @nickseguin and I have had many discussions about the importance of intrinsic value and how the success or failure of a brand will correlate directly with its ability to engage its audience. Rather than brands and organizations asking about ROI, they’ll be asking how they can improve the consumer experience. The consumers will be the ones making decisions based on ROI.

As a rational (economically) consumer of goods and services, I will be choosing to engage with brands (products, services, organizations, etc.) that provide me with utility.  The paradigm shift that I mention earlier relates directly to this — brands are losing control of not only the content, but the medium on which that content is exchanged. Social media The Internet will be how i digest this content. At my convenience. AT. MY. CONVENIENCE.

As consumers, we will become the center of the universe for brands. And damn it, I can’t wait!

Social Media Creates TRUE Networking

I have talked at length about the value of combining your offline and online networking. I have been believer in the absolute value of social networking sites being the pinnacle of true networking… the pinnacle of creating a valuable relationship between two people.

I was reading a post at the Winnepeg Sun called The Re-Wired Generation. Although this article was written about the Internet driven Generation Y it had an excerpt from University of Toronto sociology professor, Berry Wellman:

“Far from replacing face to face time and breeding a generation of reclusives, Facebook and Twitter are actually enhancing interpersonal relationships offline…

The Internet is complementing, continuing and maintains relationships,” he said. “It’s letting weaker relationships stay in contact.”

There was a time in the business world where you would meet individuals at networking events and forget them the next day. The faces and names would be categorized into a business card pile and shoved into a dark desk drawer. This “networking for forgetting” has been all but erased if the two people are connected on a social media platform  like LinkedIn. The personal development between an individual and their client is based on touch-points. The more touch-points you have with a person the greater the relationship (we would like to think so). The essence of social media is built around the touch-points on the Internet. Can you connect to prospect using LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook? The wealth of information given to you in a single sitting is exponential!

Instead of dismissing social media and using the old forms of communication. Try developing your weaker business or personal relationships using an online model. You may be pleasantly surprised.

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Marketing Through Social Media is Not Easy. Plan Accordingly.

If you haven’t figured this out already… running a small business is not easy… managing a network of 100 sales professionals is not easy… running a marketing department with a budget of $100 million is not easy. Accordingly

Marketing your products and services is not easy.

Nothing in this world… that is worth anything of value is EASY to obtain. Well…unless you grow money on trees or you are just THAT good (Ben Affleck in Boiler Room)… The majority of us have not found the seed to grow a tree that sheds Mr. Benjamin Franklin ($100 bill for the layman) twice a year.

It is hard to get to where you WANT to go in life. It shouldn’t be easy.

I am amazed that people want the easy way out. How do we make this tool easier to use? How can we spend the LEAST amount of time possible to get a project completed? Why do we have to spend money on marketing? How can I get to the 4-hour work week? No thank you.

Integrating social media into your marketing is not easy and it is not cheap. If you want the intangible (branding) and tangible (product sales) benefits of social media you have to agree to work hard or pay someone to work hard for you.

Don’t confuse or try to convince yourself that social media is the answer to all your problems and concerns. It works when you combine the new with the old, the traditional with the web 2.0/3.0.

If it was an easy thing to accomplish wouldn’t everyone be doing it? Wouldn’t everyone be successful at it?

What is the first step to tackling the monster? We use an acronym to explain the process of marketing through social media.

MOST: Monitoring. Objectives. Strategy. Technology.

Listen. Build. Plan. Interact.

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Involving Your Corporate Culture in Social Media

There is a massively argumentative and substantially humorous conversation circling the steel and glass of corporate culture.

1. When should we jump into social media? Loaded question.

2. Should the CEO have a blog? Should upper management have a blog? Maybe even the peons? Yes. Yes. Yes.

3. Should the blog be Internal or External or BOTH!? This is all dependent on your strategy.

4. How do we combine a work tool with a social tool? Check out Social Media Tool’s for Work and Learning and also Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation.

5. Should Sharepoint be used as a social media tool? HELL NO. Do you have a paper towel? I just threw up on myself. Okay.. maybe I am over-reacting. You get to it Microsoft! Don’t take my word for it… read this from ReadWriteWeb.

6. How do we manage and protect proprietary information on social media platforms? You can’t. Unless you control the social media platform (refer to question 4). It is extremely important to start building out policies that relate to the use of social media for internal communication (as well as external)

There are, of course, hundreds of questions that follow the simple ones listed above. The biggest problem corporate America has with social media is not necessarily managing and building of the platform… it is the beginning. How do we get in and utilize social media? What is the best way to enter the information flow? Should it be a corporate strategy or a marketing strategy?

Douglas Karr does a great job at answering this question:

I advise that social media and blogging are not a marketing strategy, they’re a corporate strategy. It’s not simply putting yourself out on the market to jump on the latest band wagon and consumers will flock to you. Social media takes time, a strategy and the right resources (both tools and people).

As one of the leading GENIUSES behind Corporate Social Media, Douglas knows what he is talking about. Both Douglas and I have written extensively about being authentic when writing a blog or getting involved in a social media community.

Also from Doug: You must involve all the leaders in your company – those who own the strategy of the corporation.

Strategy and Marketing should go hand-in-hand when debating whether to enter the social media world. This message is not only catered to corporations it should also be the focus for small businesses. Do not throw yourself into social media (whether blogging or networking) if you do not have a sound strategy. Without a social media plan/goals your productivity will plummet! You will be inundated with thousands of pieces of information and overwhelmed (as will your employees)

Strategy. Content. Participation. Authenticity.

Social media can be a fragile world, an extremely narrow path, proceed with care.

Most of all, HAVE FUN! This isn’t a corporate board meeting with Fiji water bottles. This is the information highway BABY! Take your time, hit it hard, and reap the benefits of open-communication!

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10 Steps to Encouraging Your Customers to Become Evangelists

We have talked about the value of turning customers into evangelists when using social media. I wanted to give you a few pointers on how to accomplish the task.

10 Steps to Encouraging Your Customers to Become Evangelists

1. First. Make sure you prepare yourself for the focused effort of turning happy customers to loyal promoters and evangelists. Prepare your mind. Maybe yoga?

2. You have an email list right? Use your email list to make sure you are connected to your customers on the social sites you use frequently.

Importing and Exporting Contacts Using:

Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, and Plaxo.

3. After you have imported your contacts into the social media sites of your choosing… make sure you add and contact them through the sites.

4. Once you have connected to most of your customers start communicating on a daily basis with them. We are not talking about sending sales information or product information but asking about their day… etc.

5. Create a list of your high level and value customers. It helps to have a list in place to set some goals toward customer evangelists. Start out with 5 people or companies.

6. Set up Twitter Searches for your valued client’s industries or services. For example, if you have an accountant as a valued client make sure you setup a Twitter search feed for accountant or tax advice. When someone ask for advice make sure you reccomend your client.

Disclaimer: You do not have to always monitor the Twitter search but it is good to have around. I know we all have about 5 mins of free time a day.

7. If the client has an event or seminar coming up in the area make sure you share that link with the multitudes of your followers online.

Share it as an RT in Twitter

Share it on your Facebook Wall

Share it as a status update on LinkedIN

8. Recommend your client on LinkedIN. Why recommend on LinkedIN? It is simple. If you want recommended by a client on LinkedIN it is always better to recommend first. Do it and see the benefits.

9. Share an exciting story about your client’s business to your contacts. It is important to share the quality information even if it does not relate you your business.

10. Ask for the recommendation. It never hurts to ask. Encourage your best clients and friends to tell YOUR story across the masses.

Remember it is important to give before you receive. If you help your clients become thought leadership in their industries or grow their business using the Internet they WILL become your evangelists.

Social Media Changed My Life!

This weeks guest blog post is by Becky Robinson, a social media consultant and blogger for Mountain State University.   (Do you want more than that?) If so: She is also the mother of three daughters and currently lives in Chicago, IL.

This week marks the one year anniversary of my entry into the social media world.

I am going to say something bold (and risk sounding corny, too):

SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGED MY LIFE.

I am still the same person at my core: my values, my beliefs, and my purpose, but becoming involved in social media has changed my habits, my activities, and my aspirations. I have a new career path and every day brings new relationships and opportunities.

My social media involvement started with Facebook, last New Year’s Day. Less than a month into my Facebook experiment, I reconnected with lots of old friends. Then one day, a high school classmate I hadn’t talked to or seen in more than twenty years posted a status update looking for freelance writers.

I have always wanted to write. At age 8, my friends and I created newspapers and went door to door trying to sell them. As a preteen, I filled a series of flannel covered journals with lines of poetry and stories.

I majored in creative writing in college but after graduation I got married, went to grad school, and got a job (not writing). After several years of 9 to 5, and 12 weeks of maternity leave, I wanted nothing more than to stay home with my daughter, so that’s what I did. Three daughters and 8 years later, I had a store of creative energy waiting to be unleashed.

Being involved in social media has given me an outlet for creativity and means for connecting in relationships with people all over the world. On a personal level, blogging, Facebook, and Twitter are just plain fun.

Professionally, though, social media has provides an amazing platform for building not only my personal brand, but also the brand of the university that I represent.

My old friend John, who got me started with freelancing, works for the marketing department at Mountain State University. When I became a part of the team there, we started to explore the impact we could make with social media.

We started with a blog. To the blog, we added a Twitter presence. Then we started to experiment with expanding the university’s Facebook presence.

The whole point of social media for Mountain State – for anyone – is relationships. We are finding new approaches to connect with current students, new ways to make our brand known to potential students. We are finding new methods to delight and engage our students, and new avenues to involve them in community with each other.

And you know the best part? It’s really just plain fun.

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ISBDC to Sponsor 3-Month Twitter Tour

The wonderful people over at the ISBDC (Indiana Small Business Development Center) are sponsoring a 12 part seminar series over Twitter through the state of Indiana. I am blessed to be presenting for the serminar series to support my book (Twitter Marketing for Dummies)! If you can make it out to any of the events that would be awesome! Here is the basics of what we will be talking about:

—————————-

Increasing Sales and Revenue through Twitter

WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?

Building an online presence is a great first step, but how do we use that presence and use social media to make money? Using Twitter you (and your sales team) will have the ability to increase close rates and sales by building new connections and strengthening existing connections with your prospects! It doesn’t matter if you market to farmers, stay-at-home mothers, or C-Level employees, Twitter gives you the tools necessary  to connect on a deeper level with potential clients.

YOU WILL LEARN:

• The best way to design a Twitter marketing plan
• How to search and find information that will help with your sales process
• Connect with your prospects before you meet them!
• How to take online interaction to the offline environment and SELL!
• Tracking your close rates and measuring your success through social media
• 5  marketing points you can implement today!

FREE ADVICE ABOUT YOUR INTERNET WOES:

The 3-hour seminar will be followed by a 1 hour Q&A session with Internet experts designed to answer questions and address issues with regards to online initiatives.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Sales and marketing executives, small business owners and entrepreneurs

If you are interested in attending please send me an email or the associated ISBDC office! Thanks!