People are always saying to me, “I don’t get Twitter. It seems so pointless and I don’t see how I’ll make any money from it.”
I understand this line of thinking, and in a way I agree. Most people don’t make money on Twitter. I’ll probably get some arguments from this, since there are ALWAYS exceptions, but most of the people who are making money on Twitter are the same ones who are making money selling products or services in all those emails you delete. You get my drift.
But Twitter isn’t pointless, even if you aren’t probably going to make money directly from it. The way to give Twitter value in business development is to interact with your followers, or even people who aren’t following you. You can’t really expect to send out 10 tweets per day and think that someone is going to buy your service or product. It happens, but it happens rarely. It’s like going to a networking event. You can hand out your business card all day long, but you’re probably not going to make a sale until you follow up with the people who took your business cards and start building relationships by offering to help them or finding out more about who they are, etc.
The beauty of Twitter for business development is that you can tap a ton of people with your brand and personality. And the way you show people your personality is to interact with them. Retweet their clever quotes, ask others to follow them, get into the culture of Twitter. It takes time, and you might want to consider hiring someone to do it for you. But if you do it right, your brand will get attention. And increasing your visibility is the name of the game.
-Michele Rempel, Mandatek
Thanks for shedding some light on Twitter.
I have over 1200 followers in my Twibe and don’t know what to do with them! I try to post valuable info but really don’t know how to interact with people on Twitter. Facebook and Linked In are much easier.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
Theresa Behenna
I can not agree more. In general, we tend to underestimate the importance of long term networking as we are getting impatient in sales cycle. Twitter must be an excellent social networking tools for us to build formal or informal network in a natural way leading to enhancement of brand power. Thanks for sharing great idea !!!
I think you’re right on, Michele. Twitter is a terrific tool to grow your network, make connections and gain visibility. But there is no “tweet and get rich quick”. It’s kind of like PR. Every once in a while you can hit it big immediately….but this is the exception. More often, it takes months (or years) to get that hit you want.
Just now developing a glimmer of the value of twitter and creating a brand. Thanks for your valuable information.
John Sholty
I’m on the band wagon. It took me a while to figure out how to use it in business. I had a bad taste about the random thought part. Most importantly I think it is having a presence on all the different “platforms” of social media.
Thanks for this, Michele. I’m new to Twitter; I’ve yet to send my first Tweet. And I’m still trying to figure out how to use it productively. Increasing visibility is huge — I’m excited about Tweeting to do it.
Exactly. Building your brand takes time and twitter can be an excellent tool. It’s easy though to worry about how many followers you have but really, it’s not the numbers it’s who they are that matter. Good article thanks. CW