How to Become a Twitter Guru
Social Media
Written by John Ranby
10th October 2014
So, you have finally made it on to Twitter and joined the other 6 million users, not bad when you think, Twitter was only created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey. Twitter is an Awesome tool to help grow your business and my personal favourite social media platform. So lets get started.
You may have heard the rumours from friends regarding the fabulous results Twitter delivers to their business and the marketing power it places in your own hands; speaking directly to your customers and potential customers. Which other marketing tool allows you to speak directly to your current and potential customers? Only Social Media!
Ok, let’s get started!
USERNAME
Once you have registered for a new Twitter account, choose your username carefully, this is how the general public will find you. We were very lucky at Bee Social UK, with our company name being available and quickly selected @beesocialuk. With 14 characters to use, keep it simple, should somebody across the world have the username you prefer, you will have to be a bit more creative.
BRANDING
The next important step you need to think about is branding.
One of the goals of having a Twitter account is to gain followers and few people want to follow an account that doesn’t look legitimate. If you have a web site, try to keep the same design, colours and style, this will help you brand look more professional and easier to find by potential customers and current customers.
Create a Background – This should represent what you and your company specialise in.
Create a Avatar (Photo) – Depending on your business, this could be your photo or logo.
Create a Bio, using up to 160 Characters – This will identify what you specialise in & your expertise.
UNDERSTANDING TWITTER FEATURES
Ok, so far so good. Most new Twitter users, get stumped at this point, What do I do Now?
Nobody will know, you are now on Twitter, use the search tab at the top and find your friends or other local businesses and competitors. That’s right, you can follow your competitors. You can follow anybody at all on Twitter, you don’t have a choice to turn away followers.
Hopefully now, some of your friends, colleagues or other companies have followed you back.
YOUR FIRST TWEET
The best advice and can give you, is to be yourself, be personable & human, nobody wants to speak to a Robot! Most of all, BE HONEST!
Your first tweet, can be a friendly hello, saying that you are new to Twitter.
Something unique, something that would make people want to hear more and something catchy.
“We have arrived on Twitter, Good Afternoon #Leeds”
You could send your first tweet to one of your followers and engage with them, give them a compliment, ask them a question.
“@sheeshmahallds We love your curries, best in Yorkshire”
“Good Afternoon @sheeshmahallds, could i ask, do you cater for vegetarians?”
GETTING THE BEST RESULTS
Tweet daily, it’s recommended, tweeting 4-5 times a day, brands see over 300 percent more retweets than when they tweet just once.
I prefer to tweet in the morning between 7-9am, lunch 12 -1pm, evening 5-9pm.
You can use a Hootesuite or Tweetdeck & schedule your tweets, in case you have a busy day or week.
ENGAGE, ENGAGE, ENGAGE with your followers and the people you also would like to follow you. By doing this as much as you can, you will quickly reap the benefits. It’s not only fantastic customer service for your business, but it makes you STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD!. You will be more memorable if you have had a conversation with someone.
USE #
This really puzzles new tweeters, it’s very simple to use and very effective to your business. When you’re tweeting, think of key words that relate to your business or the area you’re located in. By doing this, your tweet will reach a wider audience and more people who aren’t already following you. Most Twitter guru’s will regularly search their own # keywords
At the moment when you tweet, the only people who will see it, will be your current followers.
“@sheeshmahallds We love your #Curries, best in #Yorkshire”
“Good Afternoon @sheeshmahallds, could i ask, do you cater for #Vegetarians?”
The above tweets key words are #Curries #Yorkshire and #Vegetarians.
Taylor these keywords to your business and area.
You can also use the # at the top of the screen to search for other businesses you may be interested in, with similar interests and it’s a great way to make new friends.
RETWEETS or for short RT
Retweets simply means, when you see a tweet you like from one of your followers or a company that interests you, once the message is selected, their is a option to RT. Once retweeted, the message is again posted with this caption Retweeted by beesosocialuk. Retweets are a great way to get new followers and to get your company noticed more.
HOW NOT TO USE TWITTER
I see so many companies who just tweet about themselves, they don’t engage, they dont RT other peoples messages, when they get new followers, they send a non personal Direct Mail message (DM), which most people regard as Spam and delete without reading. The reason a lot of people send these DM, it’s just a lazy way to use Twitter, these apps allow you to choose a message which wont be personal and automatically send a DM once you receive a new follower. I’m sure you don’t read and delete your spam, so why do you think other wont.
I received a perfect example recently, I wont mention any names, but the DM was from another social media company like ourselves @beesocialuk
“What do you tweet about, we help businesses & manage their social media accounts”
1/ If they read my bio, they would know, I was a Social Media Agency also.
2/ If they had looked at my account, they would see what I tweet about.
So if you want RESULTS, ENGAGE! Don’t be a robot, or very soon; you will be uttering the words “Twitter doesn’t work for you.”
RESPONDING TO FOLLOWERS
Engage with your new followers and receive the best results, don’t DM, tweet a great personal message.
“Thank you for following, have a great day”
“Thanks for following, love your curries”
This is more personable, it shows you have taken time to respond and actually looked at their profile. They will more than likely to respond back to you and now your ENGAGING.
The other benefit to this, anybody following the other company you have messaged will pop up on their followers walls in their home feed, so your business will be seen by 100s or 1000s of other accounts, these accounts may also want to follow you, they may be interested in your services. NETWORKING WORKS!
HOME BUTTON
These messages are from all the people you follow, the home page is updated every second with the newest tweet, so you can actually view who’s online right now. You can see if any message interests you, maybe its your competitors sending out a new promotion or offer.
FINALLY the @
The @ symbol Identifies each account holder with their user name. e.g @beesocialuk
It shows all interactions good and bad, somebody could be talking about your business, maybe paying you a compliment for your fabulous customer service. It could also be somebody complaining to a friend regarding a bad experience they may have had with your company.
If you have been given a compliment tweet, you can RT this as it’s a great accolade to your business, take the opportunity to engage with them and thank them. After all, they made time to promote your business and this is also fabulous customer service at it’s best.
Hopefully you wont get a bad comment, but my favourite example is, a lady called Ruth once a month on the last Friday receives her favourite National Science Magazine through the post. This one time Ruth came home on the last Friday and the magazine hadn’t been delivered to her utmost disappointment, so Ruth tweeted.
“What will i do with myself, my #NationalScienceMagazine hasn’t arrived :(”
The very same Friday evening, 15 minutes after Ruth’s tweet, Ruth was responded too by the National Science Magazine, apologising and informing they would post another. The magazine was received on Monday and the late magazine also arrived. #Result
To me, that is incredible customer service and very powerful to your customers, showing you care or and the fact you’re interested. But ultimately, your brand /company image is strengthened. That is Fabulous Marketing!
Hope some of this helped!
What are you waiting for, GET TWEETING
