Your business and twitter isn’t just about sending out tweets and getting your message heard 140 characters at a time. It’s actually a lot more than that and so I have a quickly put together 5 cool things to do with you twitter account to help out your small business.
1 Follow the leader
The great thing about twitter is the fact that you don’t need approval to follow someone. You find them, you follow them, end of story. Sure they may choose to allow you NOT to follow them, but this is rarely the case as obviously people want more followers.
With this in mind, the first thing I would do, would be to start following the leaders in my industry. This could be on a global scale, nationally, or even just a store across the street that you might be in direct competition with. Following people or companies that are in your industry will not only give you an idea of where they’re heading, but some research on the tweets they have already tweeted out could also give you information of what they’re done.
2 Answer the call or address the issue
If there is one thing I truly hate, it’s when I mention a person or company in twitter using their @username handle and they don’t reply or acknowledge it.
I hate it.
If you or your business is venturing down the path of being active on twitter, acknowledge or reply every mention (and especially any direct message) that is tweeted. Not only will it give you extra exposure and good rep, but if background searches are done on you, it will reveal that you are participating in the twittosphere and not just spamming out your message.
Huge companies like the ANZ and Qantas are doing this so your business should also.
3 Find the business
Strangely enough twitter can be used to get business, directly. I just did a search for #plumber and a couple of tweets were displayed, less than a day old, with people asking for plumbing services in my local area.
To take this one step further, doing searches for words relating to the plumbing industry can also reveal some potential clients. Terms like #bathroom, #toilet, #leaky, all revealed different levels of success
So write down your occupation or industry. Then write 10-20 words that relate to it, directly and indirectly. Search for them on twitter with a hashtag and see what comes back!
4 Do the research <insert your name here> P.I
Let’s face it, social media is becoming an important part of hiring (and sometimes firing) a potential employee. At times, their twitter handle is included in their resume and even if it’s not, trying to find it (if they have one) is a 5 minute exercise.
If you have a bad gut feeling about a potential candidate but can’t see past their impressive paper resume, do some research on Facebook and twitter to see what their personality is truly like.
This same principal can also apply to a company you are thinking of doing business with. A quick search of their twitter stream can give you some insider information to see if their business will be compatible with yours, or if their proposal is leading to something a little more sinister.
It could be the difference between making a good or very costly and time wasting decision.
5 Ask the question, crowdsourcing. (Ok so this does involve sending a tweet, but it’s brilliant!)
Crowdsourcing is a brilliant thing! It’s essentially running into a crowded room and asking a question then waiting for people to turn around to tell you’re their answer.
This can be achieved by placing hashtags # before the keywords of your tweeted question. I did this a while back and I asked “#googleapps or #office365. Which one and why?” Within minutes I had varying answers which ultimately swayed my final decision.
Bear in mind though that not every hashtagged word will receive a reply as it’s related to the popularity of that word or group of words.
A couple of examples would be:
“I’m buying my first house. Anyone know a good #mortgagebroker in Sydney, Australia?”
“I’m sick of my #mechanic. He rips me off. Anyone know one in the #Brighton area expert in #BMW?”
“#socialmedia doing my head in. recommendations for an agency for my #smallbusiness please. Melbourne, Australia”
So next time you’ve got a question to ask and don’t have the time to find it out on Google, why not tweet the question out? You might be surprised on what comes back to you.
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