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How To Become Twitter-Fabulous

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Written by Ivy | 11 November 2009

As the Twitter-phenomenon takes over our social makeup, I get so many questions from professionals about how to utilize Twitter for their businesses. Like everything worthwhile in life, there is no real secret to Twitter. It’s challenging to get professionals to understand that you get what you give when it comes to social media. I think there is a big misconception about the Web 2.0 world. Your site can become popular very quickly, but maintaining that popularity and having the kind of conversion rate that will grow your business does take some effort on your part. It’s hard to schedule networking time into our already hectic lives.

Here is some advice from Vancouver’s most followed Twitter user (and one of my favorite social media gurus and bloggers) John Chow:

1. If You Want Someone To Follow You, Follow Them First

It’s all back to you get what you give in the social media world. But don’t go overboard and just start following every person you see. “You want followers who are interested in what you’re interested in,” suggests Chow. And it makes sense. You wouldn’t go to the Moose Lodge if your key audience are young mothers and teenagers. So find the people who are talking about what you have to offer on your site and in your business.

The best way to do this is to do a key word search in Twitter. For instance, I’m trying to build a twitter following of the worship community because I want to be plugged in to what others are doing in hopes to get some ideas, as well as be a part of the online support system for the efforts I’m involved in at my church. So I search worship at least once a week and follow the people who are involved in worship at their churches. Chow also suggests to engage the users you follow in conversations and maybe even give them the Twitter fist bump by retweeting a few of their tweets.

2. Unfollow The Users Who Don’t Follow Back

Not everyone you follow will return the favor, so Chow sets a time limit for the people he follows to follow him back. If they don’t follow him back, he just removes them from his list. It may sound a little heartless, but there is a good reason for it. You see, Twitter places a limit on the number of people you can follow. This limit raises as people follow you. This helps cut down on spammers.

There is actually a site you can go to that has a mass unfollow button to help clear your following list quickly. The site is: TwitterFollower.com. The site has a mass will unfollow everyone who’s not following you. There is also a a database on the site of users who will follow you if you follow them, so that’s a great tool to utilize to build your traffic quickly.

This is how Chow built over 50,000 followers. It is time consuming, but Chow used a a program call Hummingbird to automate the entire process. This is the first time I’ve heard of Hummingbird, so I’ll let Chow explain it to you. His review of the program is at johnchow.com/hummingbird-professional-marketing-tool-for-twitter/

It is a program you have to pay for, but you can get 15% off with the coupon code “RECESSION,” this option comes up during checkout. Chow makes as mush as $500 a day with his twitter list and credits Hummingbird for helping him build his following. So if you’re looking to spend a little money upfront, I’d say this is a great program to invest in.

Follow John Chow at twitter.com/JohnChow

Of course, share some love and follow UnscriptedLife at twitter.com/unscriptedlife

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Introduce Social Media to Your Company – Must Read for Franchises and Small Businesses

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Written by Ivy | 24 September 2009

Small businesses have been hit hard by the economy implosion, but hard times often spark creativity.  I’m experiencing this first hand right now as I help my mother introduce social media marketing to regional ACE Hardware stores. It’s refreshing to see business owners ready to take on the challenges of the Web 2.0 society.

So many corporations are not utilizing the true potential of social media.  According to a recent survey by the Franchise Business Review, 72 percent of franchisors and 70 percent of franchisees are already using social media, but only 20 percent of these people are using it for professional purposes.

That means there are a lot of Facebook pages and Twitterers out there posting pictures from their family vacation, reconnecting with old classmates and taking part in conversations that interest them.  They are not using their already established networks to grow their businesses.

I found a great article by Gini Dietrich in the Franchise Times highlighting why corporations should start marketing online through social media.  The bottom line is that yesterday was the perfect time to start.  Generation Z and Generation Y already consider email outdated.  With 80 percent of these two generations taking part in social media, businesses need to catch up if they want to thrive in this Web 2.0 world.

Here are some great tips for franchisors and small business owners on how to get online the right way.  Thanks Gini for your guidance.

#1 Set visual standards: Social media should be approached in the same light as traditional media marketing when it comes to brand identification.  Set guidelines for standard logo usage and provide these graphics in a central location for download.  Decide on color schemes, provide generic backgrounds for social networking sites and develop a standard page design outlining what type of information should be displayed on social sites.

#2 Provide guidance: Corporations need to know where their target audiences are online.  When you learn something, pass that knowledge on and provide links to the communities and conversations.  Make suggestions on how to use advanced search engines and what kind of activity to get involved in.  Provide guidelines about how interaction should take place and what is appropriate (although it seems like common sense, creating guidelines from the start will help prevent future issues that may need addressed).

#3 Build a central location for help: Have a place your franchisees and employees can go to find strategies on how to connect with customers, locating target audiences and making new connections through these social sites.  Be specific.  If your franchise sees potential in a certain site, get the word out about why and how to utilize that site for the individual businesses.  Create an open dialogue about promoting your brand and listen to what your franchisees are finding online.  They may be already connected to a vital community, so listen to what they have to say.

#4 Provide content: Create regular, preferably daily, content on behalf of your corporate brand.  Create http://ping.fm accounts that will allow the corporate page to automatically populate franchisee pages with company social media campaigns, including promotions, contests and discounts (Great tip, Gini).  This should be considered non-negotiable.  It will be a little extra work in the beginning, but the benefit to your brand will be priceless.  The ping accounts update all connected sites at once.

#5 Provide RSS feeds for the outside sites they should follow: These feeds could come from competitors sites or influencers sites they could take part in.  Be specific about why each site is important and how to use the information for their individual businesses.

The most important thing a corporation can is to keep an open dialogue about why promoting the brand through social media is important.  You’re not policing anyone.  This goes against everything social media stands for.  To help eliminate that mentality, provide easily accessible how-tos about using the content you’re providing through rss feeds, links, automated pings, etc.  Be sure to communicate why you’re providing certain tools and how it will benefit their individual businesses.

It’s okay to provide quick how-tos on getting started on the social media sites, but don’t spend a lot of energy doing it.  Most sites already have these get started guides.  Instead focus your effort on branding and explaining why it’s important to have a generalized look online.  You’re all in this together, and that’s the message you need to communicate to your franchisees and employees.

And most importantly (I agree with you Gini) have fun with it. This is a new avenue you’re exploring. Don’t get hung up on technology and Internet lingo, instead explore the potential social media can provide for your marketing strategy.

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