Jason Snell of Macworld.com wrote a nice overview on nine ways to use Twitter for business. It’s a great introduction for those who are unsure how Twitter can be used for business.
I agree with everything he says for the most part, with the caveat that you should assess any recommendations in light of your own audience, as well as what makes sense for your business. Consumer companies will have different needs from business-to-business companies who will have different needs from consultants and so on. The key is to view Twitter as a tool and not all tools work for all people.
The one recommendation I disagree with in part is “# 3: Follow people who are relevant…it’s polite to follow people. And by following people you are creating an ecosystem — people will see who you are following and consider those as suggestions for users they should follow as well.”
Yes, you should follow relevant people. And it may be polite to follow someone who follows you, but is it in your best interest to follow everyone who follows you? No is my philosophy. Follow people who make sense for you to follow. For example, I won’t follow people who:
- Never Tweet anything of interest to me
- Neglect to provide a bio and/or a link to more information about them
- Are only interested in selling me “stuff”
- Bombard followers with a plethora of Tweets daily — there are people who post 30 or more times in a day; and that’s way more than I want to here from anyone person 😉
These are some of my personal guidelines for following people. They’re based on my reasons for using Twitter. I view Twitter as an information resource. So for me, it’s about sharing and receiving information.
Here are the high-level tips:
- Don’t automate it
- Be conversational
- Follow people who are relevant
- Make sure your people are on Twitter, and refer to them
- Answer your mentions
- Search for your name
- Consider creating sub-accounts for sections of your business or customer base
- Use Twitter to ask your customers questions…and get good answers
- Be a good Twitter citizen
I’m curious to find out what blog platform you have been working with? I’m experiencing some minor security problems with my latest website and I would like to find something more safe. Do you have any suggestions?