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26 Steps in Small Business Twitter Marketing

Published on February 2, 2010 by Flavio

I think that the big brands have certainly been utilizing Twitter to help promote their business message. I wonder, however, if small businesses realize the power of that social media has in pushing forward their local marketing efforts. I believe that any small business that wants to really develop that foothold in the community like local businesses used to have must turn to social media to create outreach in their local community and get people to interact with your business and employees on a regular basis.

When I think of small businesses that have been doing this well, I think of the trendy coffee shops and hip small restaurants. I know a few here in the the Utah Valley area that are really making a place for themselves using social media.

For those looking to get started, it doesn’t take much. If your place of business is dominated by the non-tech people and you may feel a little apprehensive about going about this process, the answer is simple. Go to you local college and contact the business school and say that you need an intern or a part-time marketing student to help your business. The position can have a hip title like Social Media Director or Customer Relations Specialist. It would be preferable to include something about social media in the title. You don’t have to pay a lot, most college jobs are not well paying jobs, so you should be able to match that or give them a little bit more, but even if you can just match the going rate in the area, just the fact that the individuals job will be to simple interact with others and develop an identity online for your business, it already makes the job better than anything else. Trust me, there’re plenty of people who would love a job where they just work on online presence and identity with social media.

The next steps are the basics to getting started. Chris Brogran recently wrote an article that outlines 50 ideas on using twitter for business, I’ve pulled out 26 steps that would help any small business get started in social media marketing. Some of these items will be quick, others may take a bit of work, but it’s well worth it and it’s important to remember that the purpose here is to develop that relationship with the local scene that businesses used to have back in the day.

  1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
  2. Add a picture. (@Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.
  3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
  4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
  5. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
  6. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)
  7. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)
  8. Throw in a few humans other than your social media person, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.
  9. Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga.
  10. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
  11. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
  12. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
  13. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
  14. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
  15. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
  16. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
  17. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections.
  18. You don’t have to read every tweet.
  19. You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
  20. Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation ( got this from @pistachio).
  21. Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
  22. 3rd party clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier to manage Twitter.
  23. If you tweet all day while your coworkers are busy, you’re going to hear about it.
  24. If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting all the time, you might hear about it.
  25. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
  26. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.

These 26 steps will get any organization started in the social media community and will get you started to developing that presence that every business wants with its local scene. The principles can also be applied to individuals who want to develop their online presence and connect with individuals in their line of work or with similar interests.

  • REMEMBER: Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
  • REMEMBER: Twitter breaks news faster than other sources.
  • REMEMBER: Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s
  • REMEMBER: Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn.
  • REMEMBER: Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
  • REMEMBER: Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (mine are).
  1. REMEMBER: Twitter can augment customer service.

26 comments



The Power Found in Social Networking

Published on May 23, 2009 by Flavio

socialnetworkingThe new craze on the Internet is social networking. Being able to connect with people all over the world gives individuals tremendous power to accomplish good, but at the same time it’s a two edged sword; you can very quickly and with relative ease, make a fool of yourself and discredit all that you’ve worked to accomplish.

I think we’ve all witnessed the good, the bad, and the ugly of social networking. We’ve probably also heard of the mishaps that have taken place because someone posted a bit much on Facebook or Twitter. A random party photo, or a snide comment about a co-worker or boss, can come back to haunt the individual.

In order to take advantage of the best social networking has to offer, we can’t just focus on doing the positive things, we have to also limit the negative things we do too. It’s like wanting to be rich, earning $500,000 dollars but then at the same time spending $500,000. In the end, your negative (spending) cancels the positive (earnings).

Social networking has some clear negatives to avoid, and good to do:

BAD: Irrelevant Updates: Unfortunately no one cares that you just woke up at 11 AM (actually, it makes you look lazy, and potential influential connections will look down upon these things). No one wants to know that you had cereal for breakfast, brushed your teeth, or walked the dog. Everybody does those things, so it’s nothing new, nothing important. There’s nothing wrong with the everyday things, but keep it minimal and interesting.

GOOD: Insightful Updates: Post about things you’re reading, comment on events, and what others have said. Updates are like free marketing, it is a great way for start-ups and companies to gain an underground following.  You can use it to broadcast updates, news and even articles and blog entries to the masses. Individuals can also use it to show their skills, talents, expertise, and by the value of your content, prove to others that you are worth the connection.

BAD: Insincere Connections: On more of the social variety of networks, it amazes me when people you haven’t spoken with in over 15 years request your ‘friendship’…only to turn around, after you accept, and never contact you again. Others post themselves on various sites just to be able to get more followers or contacts, just for the sake of numbers.

GOOD: Powerful Connections: Your contacts should be useful. You should stay connected with these people, comment on what they are working on, reading, actually stay in touch with them. When the time comes that you may need something, they will readily come to your aid. If you haven’t ever bothered to stay connected (other than just having the connection) there’s little chance that you’ll get any help. Show your worth and when your contacts need something, they’ll come to you.

BAD: Inaccurate Contact: If your contact information is old, and not up-to-date, it’s of no use to your contacts. If you have a Web site listed in your profile, keep it up-to-date. If you don’t have time to do that, make the site just a landing page with basic information on how to contact you.

GOOD: Up-to-date Contact: If you have work information, skills, experience, etc. keep that up to date too, you’ll be surprised how many people look at that and if the information is old you may miss some opportunities. I would suggest that you “Google” your name and see what is out there, then get to work at building your personal brand. Your personal brand is your name, if you have a common name it make take a little more work since there will be many other people doing the same time. Setup your basics, Web site (with your name [or a variation] as your domain name), Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GoogleProfile. Get your name out there, what you do, and how to contact you.

Taking some of these basic steps will ensure that you develop at strong, professional online profile that will be useful to you and not something that will handicap you in future opportunities. Developing an online profile through social networking will increase the influence you have from your normal social group of co-workers and friends to include a whole wide community of people with similar interests, skills, and experience throughout the world.

3 comments



The Personal MBA…Free

Published on May 14, 2009 by Flavio

A co-worker and I are really into the personal MBA program. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s an alternative to a traditional MBA program and it’s free*. It’s free in the sense that you don’t enroll in any program, but just complete a list of 70 books from various categories. The program, once completed, is intended to have you on par, if not ahead of those completing a traditional MBA program. The question to ask is not “Is an MBA worth it?” but “Is an MBA worth it for ME?”

Scott Berkun, in a recent Harvard Business article, cited the costs of MBAs as a reason to question the program’s worth:

A quick scan of BusinessWeek’s top MBA programs lists tuitions well north of $25k per year. Throw in living expenses and you’re above the average annual wage for adult Americans. For many, the choice to go for an MBA is one of the largest financial commitments they’ll make in their lives.

Furthermore, there are many in the business world that feel that MBAs have become over-valued. With the economic situation now, many employers are looking past the recent MBA grad and hiring those with experience instead. Those professionals with experience, but who also have the MBA knowledge set themselves apart from others in the field.

I still plan on getting a master’s degree, but since I am looking to complete it in a different field, Information Technology Management, which is a bit more useful for my career and also will further me in accomplishing the career goals I have for myself. This specific degree for my career field, along with the knowledge gained from the Personal MBA reading program, I believe that I can then maximize my effectiveness in my career.

“You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library.” – Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon), Good Will Hunting

MBAs are great if you’re going to be directly using it in the career you settle in, but not useful for most people and where they settle. I think many people who pursue an MBA do it for the knowledge that they will gain and how it will help them stand out from the crowd, rather than expect themselves to actually use it day-to-day. If this is the case, they stand to benefit more by completing the readings from the personal MBA program and get their degree or certificate in something that will give them better skills in what they want to do.

The Personal MBA (PMBA) is a project designed to help you educate yourself about advanced business concepts. This manifesto will show you how to substantially increase your knowledge of business on your own time and with little cost, all without setting foot inside a classroom.

The PMBA is more flexible than a traditional MBA program, doesn’t involve going into massive debt, and won’t interrupt your income stream for two years. Just pick up one of these business books, learn as much as you can, discuss what you learn with others, then go out into the real world and make great things happen.

I believe that with the knowledge gained from for Personal MBA, coupled with the skills from the workplace, and a master’s degree specified to your field of work, you become a much more valuable professional. You instantly set yourself apart from any other candidate that may be applying for your same position and the value you bring to any organization is greatly increased from just having the skills or the education from a regular MBA.

Currently, here is the list of the 70 books on the Personal MBA course:

I’m through 5 of the books, and enjoying the process. I look forward to learning more and completing the list.

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