What is the best way to build your business through Twitter? – Entrepreneur Poll Results

The results are in from our latest YoungEntrepreneur.com poll:

What is the best way to build your business through Twitter?

We had a number of contradictory suggestions but the top 6 responses were:

1. Offer Real Value

- “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!”

- “You should mix up your tweets to consist of advice – actually helping people!”

- “I also like to direct my followers to other products that may be of help to them in their day-to-day, all of which I don’t get paid for.”

2. Stay On Top Of Your Industry

- “Search for terms that relate to your business, and then start to connect with the people that fit that mold.”

- “If you just solely follow people on Twitter who are in the same or similar industry to yourself (without stressing over whether they follow you back) and just read their tweets and links to additional information etc. you will learn an awful lot of new information, and gain so much more knowledge, and be made aware of so many different and useful websites that you may not have otherwise discovered in your lifetime. Sure, you can type what you are looking for in a search engine, but Twitter puts useful information right in front of your nose each and every day that is just one mouse click away. Yes, it is time consuming, but it is worthwhile if you focus your efforts and follow the right people!”

- “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.”

3. Be Yourself / Be Genuine

- “I’ve found that being yourself and knowing what interests you will bring in like minded people.”

- “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.”

- “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 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.”

4. Start Following Others

- “Start following people, they will follow back”

- “It is often said that you should follow those that follow you, but that certainly doesn’t always happen. Personally I try to follow people that I feel have a potential common interest with me, or that I could be of assistance to, or vice versa. If I follow someone and they do not follow me back, I make a personal note of who did not return the favor and when they post a tweet, I try to reply to that tweet in an effort to make a personal connection with them. This way they notice me, maybe remember that I followed them a few minutes or hours earlier, and come to the realization that I might be interesting to follow too. This has worked on several occasions for me, kind of like nudging someone on Twitter and subtly making them aware that I exist and that we may have some common interests.”

5. Automate Your Processes

- “Automate your twitting with RSS and automate followbacks to build a bigger list of followers”

- “I also do an auto-follow because I don’t want to spend my days looking at the people following me to see if they are interesting enough to follow back. You can always un-follow someone if they aren’t up your alley.”

6. Mix Up Personal And Business

- “At ADS, we stand for collaboration and transparency, in order to enable our customers and succeed. For me transparency goes beyond just business, and getting a little personal doesn’t hurt. I represent my brand, which means people should know who I am, not just my company. Minus the health issues, we all know a lot about Steve Jobs. His getting personal only helped him.”

- “I think you should tweet away and sometimes share personal stuff. People want to know YOU, not just get business information all of the time.”

Some of the other replies were:

Limit Your Time Spent

- “Once, you have many followers don’t get overwhelmed by the replies. Spend 10-15 minutes on it and cut it off after, otherwise it could take over you life. “

Create A Custom Background

- “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.”

Do Not Post Too Many Comments Per day

- “One of the things I read consistently is not posting too many comments per day”

Post As Much As You Can

- “I post all the time and have not lost followers or business because of it. People have advised me to put as much as I want out there, and if people want to tune it out, they can, easily”

Focus On The Business

- “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”

Thank you for all the great suggestions and for sharing your top tips for Twitter success! Stay tuned next week for a new Young Entrepreneur poll!

Evan Carmichael