In last week’s Entrepreneur Poll results I asked you What Was The Best Thing You’ve Ever Done For Your Website? The number one answer was focusing in on Social Networking and Social Media Marketing.
Using Twitter was a popular choice for many of our readers so this week our new Young Entrepreneur poll is:
What is the best way to build your business through Twitter?
Many entrepreneurs are just coming on to the service and have no idea how to use it. What strategies are working for you? How do you use your time on Twitter to build connections and grow your business?
I would love to hear your thoughts so we can build a list of best practices for other young entrepreneurs to follow.
Please post a comment with what you’re doing on Twitter to build your business and stay tuned for the results!
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Evan Carmichael
Twitter has been an awesome experience for me! I started out thinking it was a pretty dumb idea, but quickly learned what a powerful tool it can be for an entrepreneur. I have been able to connect with people I would have never been able to otherwise.
What I have learned is, you just need to be real with people. I don’t personally use the “auto-follow” option, I only follow people who are interested in getting to know me.
As far as strategy goes, I think of it kind of like email marketing… Only offer value to your readers/followers. If all you are doing is promoting your latest affiliate link, you will get un-followed pretty fast!
I have also found that having a custom profile background also helps stand out from the crowd. It’s not a must, but it helps.
You have a great opportunity with Twitter to brand you as a professional and a leader… Don’t abuse it.
Paul Cooley
http://twitter.com/PaulCooley
I think it has to come down to being human…and not a sales machine.
We’ve probably all heard the analogy of Twitter being like a party: you’re just there to hang out, socialize and get to know people. The “stuff” about your life and business will probably come up in conversation, but that should never lead the way.
Directing people to your personal blog which then bleeds into your business efforts is probably the most natural flow to working with Twitter.
I’m starting an internet company.. I have read many tips for using Twitter more efficiently.. one of the things I read consistently is not posting too many comments per day, your comments should be relevant to your business (I personally hate getting personal tweets from people I’m following) and shouldn’t be all about promoting you or your business.. you should mix up your tweets to consist of advice – actually helping people! These steps have helped me build followers on a consistent basis.. looking forward to reading some other practices that have worked for others.
really focus in on search.twitter.com and if your using tweetdeck which you should be set up a bunch of columns for your searches.
Then monitor your keywords and get into some conversations and answer questions.
By being helpful and showing your expertise in your field people will follow through and check out your stuff.
Also check out the advanced search options and you can set up some really awesome searches for your keywords.
I’ve not tried twitter yet but I recently tried out a new (at least for me) method of advertising on You Tube. I wanted to promote my own system. I researched how this was done on You Tube. What I found was that nearly everyone posted long videos going into great detail and explanation. I only watched a few before I started to skip sections. So I made a very short video is the style of a tv commercial. It has driven more traffic to my main website and as a resultI have made more sales. Look on You Tube for the 30 second cash machine. My blog has alos benefited.
I may well try a similar approach on Twitter. If I do I’ll let you know the outcome.
Dean
Using Twitter effectively boils down to consistency in posts (at least once a day), no blatant self-promotion, and content of real interest. Post your thoughts on industry news, insider information about your company, etc. Use Twitter as a tool for putting your constituents in closer touch with your business, not just as a micro blog.