You set up your Twitter account. You have a cool Twitter handle that supports your business and offerings. Hopefully you removed the funny egg avatar and posted a pic of your smiling face.
You have sent a few tweets but just don't know what's wrong. Something isn't working. You don't feel the confidence you wish you had. You know the tools enough to be dangerous. However, getting a retweet that leads to actual engagement or relationship building is a different story.
Below are a few of the top recommendations we provide to our clients and students when they hop onto Twitter. Even if you are still building your social media or business plan you can start on most of these right away!
7 Easy Steps to Zoom Your Tweets!
1. Plan. Plan yer work and work yer plan as granny would say. This is where you develop a business plan, marketing plan and an integrated social media plan.
If a social media consultant tells you “don't worry about a plan, just start spending 2 hours a day posting to Facebook and Twitter” I say “Run Forrest, Run”! You will not pass go or ever see the road to a positive return on your tweets and time in social media if you are only executing random acts of social media. Remember, social media is not free. It will take your greatest asset which is time. Integrate now or pay the price later, trust me!
The best way to think about this phase is:
- WHY are you doing what you are doing? (goals and objectives)
- WHO do you want to do it with? (target audience, market segmentation etc.)
- HOW and WHAT do you want to do with and for them?
- WHEN will you do it? (tactical execution plans, milestones, target dates for launch, achievement of goals etc.)
- How will you MEASURE your success? These are metrics that will help you measure the “WHY,” the objectives and goals. (sales conversions, engagement, community growth, brand impressions, event attendance.
2. Listen & learn. Social listening is where we start to listen to online conversations. By listening we read what people are saying. We look at the words to understand the context, intent, sentiment. We want to get the “tone” of their engagement with their peers, partners, and your competition.
Social listening can be done in parallel to developing a plan for execution, developing your online brand presence, and social profiles. It's best to start out in social listening mode while you learn the industry niche, market segment, audience demographics and associated platforms.
Any good agency or consultant offering social media services should be able to help you with this first step. Ask them specifically what their process is, what type of data you will receive as part of the analysis etc. The quicker you can understand how you can have a relevant conversation with your audience the quicker you will see results.
It's not just about having a conversation. It's about having the right conversations with the right people.
The planning and social listening phases give you the information required to ensure the rest of your efforts bring results.
3. Know your audience. Get in the head of your audience. Know what they like, what they don't like. What keeps them up at night? What makes them smile? The more you know about your audience the more successful you will be.
8 Things You Must Know About Your Audience
- Who is your audience
- What are their pain points?
- What does your product or service do to minimize or mitigate their pain?
- How can your product or service inspire them personally or professionally?
- How is your product or service positioned?
- What is your zoom factor? How are you differentiated?
- What is your competition up to? How do they compare?
- What's your audience up to both offline and online?
4. Brand. (personalize your personal profile and online social presence)
- Remove the egg avatar. Post a real pic of yourself.
- Be consistent. It takes 6-7 brand impressions before somebody will remember. Consistency helps. Your brand should look consistent across the different platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ and your blog and/or website.
- Be relevant. Your brand essence should be relevant to who you are, what you offfer as well as your audience.
- Be different. Don't just find your top competitor and start copying their content. This is a recipe for disaster. Focus on how you can differentiate your services, products & overall positioning in the market. For example, focusing on only one market segment is not differentiation, it's simply go to market strategy. Focusing on what you offer that is unqique to others serving the small business segment would be differentiation. Usually better service, cheaper price are not considered differentiation, sorry! Differentiation helps you position yourself uniquely to your audience and markets.
- Trust Factor. It is important that you focus on establishing trust. You can do this via content, conversation, industry data, customer testimonials. Coming out behind the avatar and building a Twitter profile consistent with your brand positioning in market is a good first step.
5. Know your stuff. Knowing what you have to offer your audience is the first step. Being confident in the content you deliver is the second. If you struggle with how to connect your content with your audience, check out the below video and blog post for 3 simple steps to do such. It's great for newbies and veterans of content creation.
6. Have a conversation. It is true that social media is one big relationship fueled by one big conversation. At the core are numerous conversations. They happen between individuals, groups and communities. They happen one on one, two on one, three on three. Don't stress out about how to have the conversation. Focus more on the people, how you can provide value 
and the conversation will come more natural.
7. Get your tweet on! Quit being a party pooper. If you are sitting on the sidelines of the tweeting world, it's time to admit you are a party pooper. Come on, get up and get your tweet on! Be the person you want to be tomorrow, today! You can do it!
What Makes Your Tweets Zoom?
Are your tweets zooming? Or is this your opportunity to admit you have been a party pooper tweeter sitting on the sides of all the action? Why not make this the day you decide to get up and get your tweet on!? If you are already got your tweet on please share some tips to help those who need motivation, inspiration and help!
