Twitter “Business Killers” To Avoid

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Anyone who has followed me for anytime at all on social media has heard me say this more than once –  I love Twitter!

Sure it is noisy. Yes, it is has quite a few spammers and bots and “push” marketers. I will concede that point, but just about everything good that has happened to my business has had its origin in Twitter. It is surreal quite frankly. You want one example? Just a few days ago, one of my Twitter followers sent me a link to this article published by Marketing Profs:

25 Top Most Retweeted by Digital Marketers

I am the 10th most retweeted person on Twitter by digital marketers, just behind ex-President Bill Clinton and the only woman in the top 10! Really? Me?

I am not bragging, honestly. I am telling you I was, and am just like you. Why have I been able to build a huge personal brand using social media and specifically, Twitter? Because I avoided two critical mistakes that kill 99%, no make that 99.9% of all Twitter presences. Anyone interested in what those mistakes are?

Here they are:

1. Twitter Business Killer #1 – Stop Making Twitter about YOU

I see this mistake all of the time, across all social media sites, but especially on Twitter. When you are done reading this post go to @kimgarst on Twitter and read my feed. You will see that I am giving social media tips, providing motivational quotes, chatting it up with people, answering questions, etc. There is not a whole lot of pushing products, preaching, creating false hype, etc. I am simply trying to lead with value and let the sales follow. It works!

So you say, “Yeah, but you are not doing business on Twitter”. Wrong. I use Twitter to distribute my blogs, support my newsletter, publish social media, motivation and business tips, “pull” people to my Facebook page with free e-books, announce new products, services, classes, advertise free webinars, etc. You get my drift here?  I try to provide value every step of the way.  I want to be your trusted resource for social media information for the “Do-It-Yourself”, small business owner or small entrepreneur community. I want you to see my commitment to you, not your commitment to ME!

How does that make me money? Trust me, when somebody finally decides their company needs to jump into social media, or a small business owner finally makes the commitment to learn it themselves, I am often the first person they think of.

So what value can you provide to your community that will put your company “top of mind” when it comes to a purchasing decision? Find cool, fun, consistent and creative ways to do that on Twitter and I promise the business will find you.

2. Twitter Business Killer #2 – Clear the Noise

You do not want to, or have time to “tweet” with the 500 million of us on Twitter now. In the world of limited resources, you need to connect to, have conversations and otherwise engage with “tweeple” in your target audience and in your target demographic. Yet, time and time again I see people dive head first into Twitter, start following everybody they can with little or no strategy and have conversations all day long with people who they could not possibly ever do business with. If you own a pizza shop in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, it is not going to do you a heck of a lot of good to spend hours a day on Twitter talking about the upcoming pro football season with someone in Seattle.

Do not get me wrong. I am not saying that you cannot have a community member from Seattle or that you cannot talk about football, but your core strategy should be building a community of people who are in one way or another connected to your real, non-virtual world community. These are the relationships you should foster and the people you should be serving up value to all day long so, once again, you will be “top of mind” when it comes time to buy what you are selling.

How do you do this you ask? Use search and advanced search directly on Twitter, or third parties tools like Hootsuite and ManageFlitter to find sort, follow and connect with people interested in the things you are interested in and having conversations about things related to your business.

Take these two pieces of advice and I promise, it will not be long before you start seeing results and loving Twitter as much as I do!

What do you think? Have I hit the nail on the head or am I missing something here? I would love to hear your thoughts below.

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Paul Gibson
Paul Gibson
11 years ago

Bulls Eye Kim, When I follow people I expect them to give me something in return i.e Good content. I have specifically stated on my bio that I don’t follow people who cannot give me good value. Plus I make it a point to restrain from publishing controversial topics like Political and philosophy.

Kim Garst
Kim Garst
Reply to  Paul Gibson
11 years ago

So glad you stopped by Paul!

Kim Garst
Kim Garst
11 years ago

You are very welcome James! Thanks for stopping by!

Holly jean
Holly jean
11 years ago

Always counting on you for great tips Kim… Thank you!

Kim Garst
Kim Garst
Reply to  Holly jean
11 years ago

Awwwhh… thank you Holly! I appreciate you stopping by!

Michael McDonald
Michael McDonald
11 years ago

Thanks for the great advice and this does truly work. People would rather talk about themselves than listen to someone else talk about themselves and surely don’t want to be pushed to buy something. Provide value and be on their mind when they do need you.

Kim Garst
Kim Garst
Reply to  Michael McDonald
11 years ago

Absolutely! Thanks for stopping by Michael!

Kim Garst
Kim Garst
11 years ago

Awwwhh… thank you Edmund!

Holly Jean
Holly Jean
11 years ago

Congrats on the TOP 10, Kim! AH-MAZING!

Kim Garst
Kim Garst
11 years ago

Thank you so much Christine! I appreciate you taking the time to stop by!

David Cooper
David Cooper
10 years ago

Great note and well done on top 10 listing!

Bridget Sarikas
Bridget Sarikas
10 years ago

Congratulations on the Top 10. The article is very helpful – I always gain lots of quick tips that are easy for me to implement.

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