This week saw me click over three years as a user on the Twitter platform, how time flies. It’s become part of my everyday business life and an essential part of my personal growth and network development.
This blogpost is not going to be one of those “reasons to be on Twitter” blogs, hopefully the world is over that one. I do however want to share some outcomes, experiences and learnings that have come to bear over the last three years to encourage others: -
Early Days (Followers 0).
- A bit random Not really knowing how best to use the platform.
- Not having a genre. Tweeting all sorts, business and personal.
- Following anyone that would follow me back. No particular selection process.
- Bit too focused on numbers of followers and how to acquire more. A zero sum game.
- Used the basic web interface. Found it frustrating and missed so much good content.
- Exchanged messages with a lot of people that I knew who had early adopted it – it meant I got to know a few people better.
- Sent too many Tweets. Didn’t realise that if you “machine gun” tweets out, it adds nothing.
Mid Term (Followers around 1,500)
- Switched to Tweetdeck – it all made a lot more sense.
- Set up search columns. Realised the tool is much more powerful than just following people/follow backs and could be used as a live “google search” on the terms I wanted.
- Saw the potential for personal learning (following great people and their insights), following journalists (trends) to see what is new in technology.
- Realised that it’s better to create a genre for my account. Business, Leadership, Innovation, Environment, Sales, Marketing, Trends, Social Media. Keep it focused on those elements, less about me, more about them.
- Accepted that followers is about engagement and influence. People will come and go as there tastes/jobs/lives change. Follower numbers are fluid, as I follow/unfollow, people will follow/unfollow me.
- Realised it could be used to effectively drive traffic to websites and blogs – providing the content has been filtered, is of good quality and enriches your audience. My blogposts are my own unique thoughts, not content from others. The more people see it and agree with it, the more likely it is they’ll stick with you.
- Started unfollowing people. Realised that there is no benefit to having Twitter followers if you have nothing in common with them or never interact with them. Otherwise, they are just meaningless numbers. Actively began to disengage with some followers, happy that my follower numbers may reduce – they didn’t, they’ve continued to grow.
Now (Followers around 3,600)
- No focus on followers – just on good content to share. Review everyone that follows me to see if I can learn anything from them. I don’t target followers, have a number in my head or see it as any kind of popularity KPI.
- Still a big focus on personal learning - Seeing what’s hot, new, changing. Using that to develop insight for personal development or company direction.
- Supporting Corporate and Personal Reputation. Being accessible as a business leader within a large multi-national brings opportunities to our door first. Great outcome as you can have first refusal on exciting initiatives.
- Filtering. Using search columns and interesting people to see great stuff and share it. I don’t send anything out unless I have personally read it and see it of value.
- Network Development. Twitter is my trawler net of contacts to meet in person, then add to my Linkedin network. My ratio of Twitter followers to Linkedin network is around 6:1 and continues to grow. That’s where I can distinguish who is an “associate” relationship, rather than someone I consider to be of longer-term value.
- To develop insight around individuals or businesses. To start/develop conversations with people to assist in the development of intelligence for business development purposes or opportunity engineering.
- To stay in contact with people in my wider network and underpin relationships. A chance meeting becomes much more meaningful when you can refer to something that has recently happended to the third party. I use filter columns in Tweetdeck to track important people, like a “live” electronic little black book.
- Housekeeping. It’s important to regularly review who has gone inactive, what your last 10 Tweets say about you if someone looks at your feed (delete stuff if you think it stepped outside your genre), thank people for RT’s and mentions, review the profiles of people that follow you to ensure that they fit your desired intention for your Twitter feed and – more importantly – keep the feed going with some regularity and frequency.
It’s very satisfying when someone says to you “I really like your Tweets, you always share interesting stuff.” There’s the point, if it’s interesting, of value, filtered, original and adds value to your network – your followers will grow.
Remember the film “field of dreams” with that famous line “if you build it, they will come.” Twitter is no different, see it as a long term investment in your personal learning, network growth and reputation. If you build a feed which is of value to others, they will magnetise towards you.
The world has shifted and it’s amazing to have been there when life changed. When people’s lives became transparent, when an individuals right to reply shifted large brands thinking, when disasters and major events unfolded with the people, rather than the news channels.
Status updates are an amazing thing, they are powerful, insightful and give you an ability to zoom in on the world, on personal conversations, on opportunity and ultimately – people. Here’s to the next three years.
Had a lovely surprise yesterday evening. Learned that I had been commended in the Goldentwits awards in the Corporate Individual category. Recognising the UK top Twitter folk, these were the first awards recognising individuals or companies on Twitter as a distinct channel. Winners such as Duncan Bannatyne, The Guardian and Compare the Market were named on the night. The winner in the Corporate Individual category was Alan Rusbridger who is Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian newspaper, a worthy winner and I’m pretty proud to be considered in the same league. It’s taken me about about a year to build my follower base, I’ve never chased followers, preferring quality over quantity and I’ve tried to post as much original stuff as I can mostly around business, social media, the environment and innovation. It’s great to be recognised, cheers to all involved and a real incentive to keep those conversations going.
On Thursday this week, I’ll be doing a keynote on the Business Benefits of Twitter and other Social Networks to an audience of SME’s. Here’s my top 10 tips for business beginners to Twitter.
- Fill out your profile; make sure you put a picture in. No picture on your profile, people think you’re a spammer.
- Listen and lurk first. Follow people you know, see who they are following. See how everyone else does it.
- Don’t do random Tweets. “I’ve put the kettle on.” It doesn’t add anything to anyone. People will unfollow you . If you have a burning desire to do that sort of stuff, open two accounts.
- Have conversations with your followers and people you follow. Think of it as a big conversation.
- Little and often is better. Too much Tweeting crowds out someone’s timeline, too little and you’re followers may leave you. Strike the right balance. I send 4-6 tweets a day max with gaps in between.
- Remember, Tweets are always in the public timeline and can’t be deleted (unless a direct message). Don’t say anything you don’t want committed to public record. Think twice.
- Use the search function box to quickly find people talking about you, your brand or your industry. It’s live and dynamic, in real time.
- Quality not quantity. Some people just chase followers. You’ll end up with thousands of random and irrelevant Tweets and it will all become unmanageable.
- Establish who you want to follow (genres or people) and stick to it.
- Download Tweetdeck, it’s a far easier interface for a beginner.
The most common question I’m asked around Twitter relates to its benefits to businesses. Speaking to a colleague last night and to a journalist today, I outlined a number of benefits from the obvious to the not so obvious. One of the not so obvious ones is about how you can build new relationships with people you – in normal circumstances – might not meet or be able to get hold of. In a time pressed world, people are very selective about how they use their working day and many execs (including me) have a whitelist of contacts lodged with their assistants of people who they will talk to on the phone. This of course makes it doubly difficult to try and reach out to a decision maker.
However, there is another way. If the person concerned is on
Twitter you could follow them, start to see what they are about and engage them on anything you think might be relevant. The trick is, not flying in there expecting to deliver a sales pitch as you’ll quickly realise that people wont engage with you. You need to contribute and add value but do this over time so as to build credibility. By doing this, you bypass the conventional gatekeepers and get to talk directly to your decision maker. It costs nothing and you’ll get to learn far more about your prospect so as to build rapport quickly.
One example of a Manchester business that has got this down to a tee is
Nicholas Jones bespoke tailors. They’ve cleverly used
Twitter to create an on-line persona called
NicolatheFiat which they use to have engaging and humourous discussions with other
Twitter users, if you click on the link you’ll get a good idea of the sort of postings they send out and why they stand out. They engaged in a conversation, made it relevant and fun and subsequently I’ve met the owner in person and been to their shop (which I’d recommend all dandy gents in Manchester to do). What mailshot or e-shot will do that for you?
Here’s part II of the blog that has been published today. I’ve put the key stuff down as bullet-points so you can work through it quickly:
For your business
1). Transparency. It’s a great way to build authenticity for your brand. Do you have brand values that you want to shine through? Then build a personality on Twitter. But don’t do it if you’ve nothing interesting to say. If you’re a small business, build trust with potential purchasers of your product and look for people in your locality using the search tool.
2). Traffic with no jams. It’s a great way to build traffic to your official website or blog. A well worded Tweet can entice people to click through to your website as part of your overall traffic-building strategy. But don’t cheat people or bend the truth or they won’t click on your link again; make it interesting. My blog traffic increased threefold after I started Twittering and readership has expanded to more than 20 countries, so it works.
3). Treasure and measure. Give something unique to your followers. Many of the well known global brands are already offering unique offers or pre-launches to their Twitter followers. This gives incredible ROI measurement when using unique codes.
4). Join the conversation. It’s a great way to understand what others are saying about your product or brand, and for people to share positive experiences with others. Buyer remorse is rife; the more support and reinforcement available, the better.
5). Shareware. I’m making this point twice (see below). The whole point of these platforms is to acquire and spread knowledge; if you build your brand/company reputation through a loyal following of people, they will help you spread your word.
For you in business
1). Grow up. You can increase your own personal learning and growth. There are some awesome and really clever people on Twitter who share their daily insights. Some of their Tweets are really thought-provoking. It’s free mind food.
2). Stay in touch.You can keep up with your key customers and contacts. A great reason to interrupt someone with something totally personalised: “I saw that you were… how interesting. Did you know?” You can see where people are and what they’re up to. Could you both be in the same place at the same time for an impromptu get together (called a Tweetup)?
3). I’m free. I’ve seen some really good consultants offer “free consulting” in their downtime between meetings. You can take advantage of this or give tasters of your goods or services to others. This is brilliant for smaller businesses – free advice.
4). Feed me. Ask questions of your followers to get instant feedback. Got a problem? You only need ask; people will give advice. Want to see some early feedback on a new product or service? Ask and people will reply. The community is building.
5). Shareware. The more you give, the more you will receive and the more your personal reputation will grow.
