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Leveraging Twitter For Business

17 August 2014

Recently I ran an online workshop on this subject and it was both great fun and a useful reminder of how Twitter can support our business success.

I have seven twitter accounts, one for me and six for my books and have been using Twitter since the early days of 2009 when a handful of Norfolk folk would gather in the evening and chat amiably. I like Twitter and it’s a great route to market, so here are my top five Rich-rules about leveraging it for business…

1. Start with your brand. What are you trying to say to the world? Does your bio make you look unique and interesting and value-adding?

2. Make friends first. Too many people over-sell and then they ‘buy it back’ as a consequence. Take time to talk to people and to be friendly first….selling should be a slow and steady activity and not a panicky rush.

3. Have a process. Use Twitter to drive people to your website, or blog or Ebay/Amazon page. Post links and make it easy for people to find out more about your products and services.

4. Take it seriously. Instead of a few token tweets on a Friday, make Twitter part of your marketing plan and set targets for follower levels and tweet activity.

5. Beware of brand bashing. Don’t ruin your own brand by drunk tweeting, uploading curious pictures, airing bigoted views, swearing viciously or spending your time grumbling about life. People are often conservative and won’t tell you if you’ve offended them…but they will tell their friends.

So, this week take a fresh look at your Twitter account and ask yourself what else you could do to help leverage it for business?

Next week: Digital Darkness