You’d think Twitter is a miracle drug from the way us social media experts talk about it. It is helpful, it’s a great marketing tool, and it’s fun — but it’s far from essential. If you use it well, you’ll get a lot of benefit from it. If you choose not to use it, that’s just fine. The Earth will continue to rotate and the recession will get no worse. Just remember that if you use it, you are joining a personal conversation between real people. If you jump in with a lot of self-promotional sales, you’re going to look like an idiot and turn people off.
What to do:
- Keep it personal. You need to respond to other people, offer up some interesting links, and be part of the conversation. If all your posts are about you–no one is going to follow you.
- Repost your stuff. Link to all your own blog posts and interesting things you write. It’s the #1 benefit of Twitter. If have 1,000 followers interested in you, they’ll be interested in your posts.
- Set your own style. Decide what your Twitter style is going to be and stay true to it. If you’re all business, that’s OK — @delloutlet just shares coupons in the Dell outlet store. If you’re all personal, that’s OK too, but a mix is best. The only thing you can do wrong is start personal and then start blasting out ads to your followers.
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I've been seeing this question make the rounds of my personal twitter account (as opposed to the one I write and read for work), but a question I'd like to see debated is how many posts per day is too many? Some people update once or twice a day, some people three and four times an hour.
That's a great question– as spending all day on Twitter responding, re-tweeting and passing along interesting finds will undoubtedly land you a strong following. But what's a strong following if you've used an entire work day to stay "connected?" I think the @delloutlet is a great example of how to provide value to current or potential customers. I think the key is to engage where needed and provide value in the medium. We typically tweet about 6-8 times per day– but want to be sure it's well-received and in line with our mission.
That is a good question. Would be interested to hear more thoughts. I usually tweet 1-3 times per day, depending on what's going on. If there's lot of news, more than once. If it's a slow day or I'm swamped, just once.
At Waterford and Wedgwood, the number of tweets we post per day depends on the news or events currently underway. When an on-air event or in-store event is scheduled, we may tweet up to 15 times for the day. In other cases, we may only tweet 2-3 times per day. I don't think there is a right or wrong way, it depends on your business and specific goals.
However, I do think you should always be "on brand" with your messaging and strive be a good community member by replying & retweeting valuable messages.
Follow our brands on Twitter: http://twitter.com/waterford http://twitter.com/wedgwood
Very sensible advice, Andy.
I love #3. I wrote on a guest post for twitip saying that there are stages of growth on Twitter.
The way in which I Twitter has changed since I wrote that post. More to the point, the frequency.
Twitter is like a living, breathing thing…and it changes as time goes on.
Thanks.
@AuntieStress
P.S. Off to RT this!
The challenge on twitter is finding a balance. The more followers you have, the harder it is to have a personal conversation. I think it is a matter of being respectful and looking for opportunities to for genuine connections.
Just be yourself, do what feels right for you. There is no best answer.
[...] SmartBlog On Social Media » Andy’s Take: How to use Twitter without going nuts smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2009/02/24/andys-take-how-to-use-twitter-without-going-nuts – view page – cached You’d think Twitter is a miracle drug from the way us social media experts talk about it. It is helpful, it’s a great marketing tool, and it’s fun — but it’s far from essential. If you use it well, you’ll get a lot of benefit from it. If you choose not to use it, that’s just fine. The Earth will continue to rotate and the recession will get no worse. Just remember that if you use it, you are joining a personal conversation between real people. If you jump in with a lot of self-promotional sales, you’re going to look like an idiot and turn people off. — From the page [...]
[...] SmartBlog On Social Media » Andy’s Take: How to use Twitter without going nuts smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2009/02/24/andys-take-how-to-use-twitter-without-going-nuts – view page – cached You’d think Twitter is a miracle drug from the way us social media experts talk about it. It is helpful, it’s a great marketing tool, and it’s fun — but it’s far from essential. If you use it well, you’ll get a lot of benefit from it. If you choose not to use it, that’s just fine. The Earth will continue to rotate and the recession will get no worse. Just remember that if you use it, you are joining a personal conversation between real people. If you jump in with a lot of self-promotional sales, you’re going to look like an idiot and turn people off. — From the page [...]