How you can rock on Twitter
Many of you who read my Twitter post a couple of months ago took me up on the offer to get on the social networking site and started tweeting to help promote your business.
Unfortunately, many of you just don't seem to get Twitter yet (don't worry -- I'm not going to name names).
You can't just tweet over and over again about your products or services. Well, actually you can do whatever you want on Twitter, but just listing products in hopes someone will head over to your Web site and buy your wares is going to get you ostracized, aka un-followed, and fast.
For the majority of people out there that don't know, first I'll start by explaining what the heck Twitter is.
Don't pretend you know. You may have heard about Twitter on TV, but you're still scratching your head. I just spoke at a women's leadership conference in Omaha and when I asked an audience of 200 plus people how many of them didn't know what the heck Twitter is, 99.9 percent of the attendees raised their hands.
What makes Twitter so different from other social networking sites is that it's like a mini blog that is perpetually updated, but not by just one blogger.
The millions of people on Twitter update this public blog with small notes of 140 characters or less called "tweets."
So millions of people can potentially see your tweets. What better way to market your business?
The key is striking the right balance when promoting your stuff on Twitter.
People that tweet, for the most part, are looking to share interesting information. If you can share a great article, or an interesting video, be assured, you'll soon be getting a ton of followers. That's how it works. You follow interesting people and people follow you. The more followers you have, the bigger your audience.
Instead of focusing on what not to tweet, I thought I'd share an example of an entrepreneur, new to Twitter, who seems to have it down.
Tracy Barnhart owns the Web site MiniMeGeology and her Twitter handle is minimegeology. Her company sells rock kits for kids.
She's been on Twitter since Jan. 1 and believes it's helping to enhance her business. She hasn't done a breakdown on how many people actually found her on Twitter, but this past quarter her sales are up 25 percent over last year.
"I had heard people talking about it and at first I thought it was kinda silly," she admited. "But then I started using it and realized I could find people interested in the same things as me, or customers interested in hearing what I had to say."
Here's how she tweets:
If you have snow: Teach your kids about metamorphic rocks. Make a snowball and squeeze hard, see it change from snow to ice = metamorphism.
Good morning everyone! I'm working on igneous rocks today. Got a favorite? I'd love to hear it!
Need Easter Basket items? Check out our sister site www.MiniMeGeology.com. Mention twitter and we'll send you some rock candy w/ your order.
She maintains a nice balance of informing and trying to push her product.
Twitter has also provided her with a great business-networking tool.
She's in the process of hiring a sales team and found a prospect through a woman she met via Twitter who owns a toy store in Virginia.
Yep, it's all about making connections folks.
Have you started using Twitter, or any of the other social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn to promote your business?
(Go over to Twitter.com and check it out for yourself. You can also follow me at
www.Twitter.com/careerdiva and ask me how you're doing.)
