Thread: 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business

First Steps

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.
3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
5. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
6. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)
7. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out.
8. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)
9. Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.
10. Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga.

Ideas About WHAT to Tweet

11. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
12. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
13. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
14. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
15. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
16. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
17. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
18. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
19. Don’t toot your own horn too much. (Man, I can’t believe I’m saying this. I do it all the time. - Side note: I’ve gotta stop tooting my own horn).
20. Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck out of others, too.

Some Sanity For You

21. You don’t have to read every tweet.
22. You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
23. Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation ( got this from @pistachio).
24. Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
25. 3rd party clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier to manage Twitter.
26. If you tweet all day while your coworkers are busy, you’re going to hear about it.
27. If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting all the time, you might hear about it.
28. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
29. If someone says you’re using twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.
30. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.

The Negatives People Will Throw At You

31. Twitter takes up time.
32. Twitter takes you away from other productive work.
33. Without a strategy, it’s just typing.
34. There are other ways to do this.
35. As Frank hears often, Twitter doesn’t replace customer service (Frank is @comcastcares and is a superhero for what he’s started.)
36. Twitter is buggy and not enterprise-ready.
37. Twitter is just for technonerds.
38. Twitter’s only a few million people. (only)
39. Twitter doesn’t replace direct email marketing.
40. Twitter opens the company up to more criticism and griping.

Some Positives to Throw Back

41. Twitter helps one organize great, instant meetups (tweetups).
42. Twitter works swell as an opinion poll.
43. Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
44. Twitter at events helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
45. Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially if the news impacts online denizens).
46. Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s?
47. Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).
48. Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
49. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (mine are).
50. Twitter can augment customer service. (but see above)

Source

Great guide buddy... thanks for bringing this here..

Great sharing Himo... Many friends of mine have twitter profile but is that worth?

Originally Posted by mit

Great sharing Himo... Many friends of mine have twitter profile but is that worth?

i just started using it and I am still checking it out...

wow thats a great share Himo. Thanks. I never tried twitter, I gonna give it a try now.

Originally Posted by manik

wow thats a great share Himo. Thanks. I never tried twitter, I gonna give it a try now.

i started trying it now too when I read omar's post on using twitter to generate traffic and it might work

Excellent list !

We really can't deny the fact that businesses are testing out Twitter as part of their steps into the social media landscape.

Such an EXCELLENT tips for using twitter... I like to share these to everyone..!!

Nice tips for Twitter users to make online business.

Hello dear,Nice tips thanks for the shearing.

1) Fill out your profile completely to earn trust.

2) Establish a business account if you don’t already have one.

3) Stay out of trouble by reading the Facebook rules regarding business accounts.

4) Install appropriate applications to integrate feeds from your blog and other social media accounts into your Facebook profile. (Although you should be careful before integrating your Twitter feed into your Faceboook profile, as a stream of tweets can seem overwhelming to your contacts.

5) Keep any personal parts of your profile private through Settings.

6) Create friends lists such as “Work,” “Family” and “Limited Profile” for finer-grained control over your profile privacy.

7) Post a professional or business casual photos of yourself to reinforce your brand.

8) Limit business contacts’ access to personal photos.

9) Post your newsletter subscription information and archives somewhere in your profile.

10) Obtain a Facebook vanity URL so that people can find you easily.

11) Add your Facebok URL to your email signature and any marketing collateral (business cards, etc.) so prospects can learn more about you.

12) Post business updates on your wall. Focus on business activities, such as “Working with ABC Company on web site redesign.”

13) Share useful articles and links to presentation and valuable resources that interest customers and prospects on your wall, to establish credibility.

14) Combine Facebook with other social media tools like Twitter. For example, when someone asks question on Twitter, you can respond in detail in a blog post and link to it from Facebook.

15) Before traveling, check contacts locations so you can meet with those in the city where you’re heading.

16) Research prospects before meeting or contacting them.

17) Upload your contacts from your email client to find more connections.

18) Use Find Friends for suggestions of other people you may know to expand your network even further.

19)Look for mutual contacts on your contacts’ friends lists.

20)Find experts in your field and invite them as a guest blogger on your blog or speaker at your event.

21) Market your products by posting discounts and package deals.

22) Share survey or research data to gain credibility.

23) Use Facebook Connect to add social networking features to your web site.

24) Suggest Friends to clients and colleagues — by helping them, you establish trust.

25) Buy Facebook ads to target your exact audience.

26) Read up on Facebook Beacon to see if it might be useful for you.

Thanks..

Thanks for sharing himoacs.

Great guide buddy.Thanks for your sharing.Good job.

Nice tips for twitter, thanks for sharing.