Using twitter

[Darren Spillett]

Hi,

I have been using twitter for my business for a while but I haven't had any success. I operate in a specialist market so my content will only appeal to a small number of people. Has anyone got any suggestions on how best to you use twitter to develop new business opportunities.

Thanks Darrren

 

[mixtureofmarket]

Hi Darren! Twitter is one of the effective platform to help your business grow. You can gain customers and converse with them. Here are some tips on how to use twitter to get more business opportunities.
1. Incorporate hashtags (#) in your posts. Especially use hashtags that are popular and in line with your business. Ex: #onlinebusiness #ecommerce. This way people who are searching or engaging in that tag will be able to see your post, thus creating more potential customers from target audience.
2. Follow some people in line with your business.
3. Engage in twitter list. This is very useful since you can find people who are in a circle of a particular field of expertise.
4. Simply say thank you Thank those who followed you.
5. Converse with people. Reach out with them to make connection.

Hope this helps!

 

[mixtureofmarket]

(Sorry for the multiple posts.) My internet got slowed :/ anyway, I hope you're able to receive my reply.

 

[mixtureofmarket]

Good luck in your twitter venture! I hope this time it will become an effective strategy in your business

 

[StevePoster]

Darren if you are new in Twitter you need to invest time to build relationship with your targeted visitors by following the individuals or company that are related to your niche. Prioritized your targeted audience by keeping them up to date with your product and services.

 

[fisicx]

Darren,

Twitter is not a good platform to build new business. The very fact that you only have a small customer base who may not use twitter anyway means you will always stuggle.

Use twitter to converse with your existing clients (who may refer you to others) but pay for adverts to pick up new business.

 

[AllUpHere]

Hi Darren.

Twitter is a waste of time for a business like yours. If you want to build a presence on Twitter, do it in your spare time. Don't make the mistake of convincing yourself you are working when you are on Twitter.

 

[packagingsupplier]

Twitter is ideal for building brand awareness and lead generation. We use twitter to build up our brand and to communicate with customers who have queries about our products. Every now and then we publish special offers and discount codes through twitter which get's us a few sales here and there. We know we're getting these sales through twitter by viewing our data in google analytics. I wouldn't say twitter is a waste of time. Use it, but use it properly and wisely.

 

[fisicx]

T....which get's us a few sales here and there.

But does the time and effort you put into your tweets have a good ROI. Have you calculated the cost of your wages against the profit from those sales?

 

[Nochexman]

I have been using twitter for my business for a while but I haven't had any success.

Hi Darren. The place to start is to tell us what you would consider "success"?

 

[packagingsupplier]

But does the time and effort you put into your tweets have a good ROI. Have you calculated the cost of your wages against the profit from those sales?

The ROI we're seeing is worth the effort we're putting in. Our social media management budget is fairly small and we only tweet once or twice per day. Getting sales out of our social media campaign is a bonus for us. More than anything we're getting lead generation which works very well for us as we sell wholesale products and we're converting most of the leads we get.

 

[Darren Spillett]

Hi Darren. The place to start is to tell us what you would consider "success"?

Hi,
At the moment I am keen to generate new business so I want to invest my time in anything that generates leads. My current leads come from cold calling, website enquiries and word of mouth. I suppose success would be direct enquiries from twitter or sending traffic to my website.

 

[money road]

You have to find your social network for niche- that is why try more: linkedin, facebook, google+ .and others.
My little experience as example:
I've start using facebook from second week after website start
linkedin- just after half year
I have found that from linkedin coming more visitors to my website comparing to facebook (specialy after that stupid algo update)

 

[DexSmart]

Twitter conversion is different than facebook and linkedin. Like other OP said try and follow people or businesses in your niche, try and get their attention. A good example that I read on Huffingtonpost was about a marketing company based in USA. The editorial was posted on Huffingtopost after a contributor saw their tweet about an application. Recently the company (a small one), said that they shared about 3-500 articles on Twitter until they got noticed by HP contributor.

So, my advice to you would be to repeat, repeat if you want results.

 

[fisicx]

Hi,
At the moment I am keen to generate new business so I want to invest my time in anything that generates leads.

Twitter isn't a lead generator. Twitter traffic to your site won't generate leads either. So while you can aspire to use the social tool for business it's just not going to happen.

 

[webmasterpride]

Twitter like other social media out there sure can help bring traffic to your sites.

 

[fisicx]

Did you even read the opening post? He doesn't want traffic, he wants leads

 

[webgeek]

By specialist market, are you referring to health and safety consulting services?

I thought any UK business with 5+ employees needed written policies and procedures... making this a rather substantial market.

If every business owner actually knew their obligations and the risks associated with failing to comply with this or that, you'd have customers lined up like a Starbucks each weekday morning.

Your potential customers are people. They're people who are motivated by the same hopes, dreams, fears and emotional appeals as the rest of us.

I would think that Twitter, for yourself and many others, would be about sharing insights and information which would benefit your target market. You do not need to only tweet about health and safety concerns, since business owners have a good many other concerns and could use a hand with them too!

Broaden your appeal, but keep in mind your prospects, what they have in common, and how you can tie that into the broad beneficial information you would be sharing with them. The more value you give, even broadly, the more you will harvest later as a result.

 

[Darren Spillett]

Interestingly I started to look at who was following the big players in the health and safety world on twitter. I found 100's of small independent consultants all following one of the large organisations. I tend to link up with these consultants on LinkedIn as this is a lace where we might trade business if one of us is too busy. However it is unlikely that either of us will be interested in each others tweets as we all tend to write about what's going on in he world of health and safety. There do seem to be a good number of consultants who use twitter a lot so I can only think that it is working for them.

 

[murphytan]

My 3 cents worth of thought. Be it SEO, Twitter or Facebook, the most important thing is that you have a product that's worth talking about and useful.

 

[fisicx]

There do seem to be a good number of consultants who use twitter a lot so I can only think that it is working for them.

Nope, they are doing the same as you and hoping it will bring in new bisiness. As you have already observered, you are all following each other. Prospective clients aren't in this circle of friends so won't know about what you do.

 

[AllUpHere]

Darren.

You are making the same mistakes everyone makes. Twitter is a waste of time in your industry, and networking with other consultants in the same industry is pointless.

Doing something because everyone else is doing it is the worst possible marketing strategy. In fact, doing the complete opposite is a much better idea. Following the herd was the reason that so many people wasted money on Yellow pages advertising towards the end of its useful life.

 

[PDC]

Twitter has its place in any industry but its very much a personality based social network. The key being the social aspect which many new business' seem to miss.

I've had more 'work' from twitter through a personal account than we have via our business one.

 

[Nochexman]

There do seem to be a good number of consultants who use twitter a lot so I can only think that it is working for them.

Sounds like the emporer's new clothes. Don't assume that because lots of other people are doing something that it works. I'm not down on twitter or social media, you just need to be clear what your objectives are and whether this helps you to achieve them.

 

[Gold-Star-Rob]

I would stop wasting your time on twitter. If you enjoy it, keep going by all means, but treat it as a leisure activity, not lead generation.

A study found email marketing was 40x more effective at attracting customers than twitter and facebook combined, so that gives you some idea of how effective twitter really is as a lead generation tool.

 

[tonyedd]

Agree with PDC... Twitter's worked well for me but it's a 'slow burn'. Initially I used 80/20 conversation/promotion but now it's closer to 95/5. Talk to people, be helpful and post interesting stuff in but mostly around your niche. Be human. Have a face not a logo. I don't do the cat photos or equivalent but I'll often chat about the news or films or sport. Interested parties will gravitate to your well crafted bio and its link to your website. I find clients appear out of the blue, they're often not even followers but have been monitoring my tweets...

 

[fisicx]

And while it seems to be working for you that doesn't mean it will work for everybody. In general if you want new leads there are far more lucrative ways to do this than twitter.

 

[MojoPromotions]

Hi Darren,

I think the best thing you can do to grow the right sort of Twitter following is by sharing the right content for the right readers. Maybe you have some great blog posts you could share with them? Tweeting images too between normal tweets makes your feed enticing to potential followers.

Another great way to make sure that you're getting the right followers is by particularly following a good 50 - 100 users. To find suitable followers, you could research your competitors following or search for relevant hash tags that users have tweeted about and follow them - then you know that they're interested in the topic of your industry.

After a couple of days, use a programme like Manage Flitter (it's free up to about 600 unfollowings per day), and login with your Twitter account. It allows you to unfollow any of those previous 50 - 100 users you followed a few days before. And that's it! Keep repeating that process and share valuable content and you'll make the most out of your Twitter!

I hope I've been of some help Darren!

Thanks,

Ellis

 

[James.C]

I'd continue with your Twitter activities. What's important is to identify thos einfluencers in your field and engage with them. Another thing is not to post links to your work all the time. Share the work of others if it is relevant. Also look at engaging on other social networks.

 

[hughsie0016]

Hi Darren,

I think some of the comments have been great.

Hopefully I can add a a slightly different take on how I see you using Twitter. I'll add it in point form here:

1. Your tweets are mostly doom and gloom (IMHO). I know why you are tweeting them but I think you need to mix up your content a bit even just to mix your Twitter stream up a bit.

2. Add more images to your tweets.

3. Construct your tweets to get people to engage i.e. compose more question style tweets, add in elements of intrigue and curiosity

4. Add more clear calls to action to your tweets i.e. "Please retweet" or "Click this link for the full story." or "click here to pick up my latest white paper." etc etc

5. Add some personality to your tweet stream i.e. introduce some light-hearted stuff into the mix.

6. Engage with potential leads and influencers by following them back as well as getting attention by re-tweeting their tweets.

7. Build a Twitter list of potential influencers (people or companies that can refer you) and keep in contact with and engage with them as often as you can.

8. Reach out via Direct Message but do it tactfully and don't spam.Its likely that you won't be reaching the decision makers via Twitter so find a way to get more info so that you then take the conversation offline and a possible meeting.

9. Use Twitter to keep existing clients informed and relationships strong.

10. You are trying to generate new leads so make sure you have some form of resource to send them to...not just a website home page. Case studies or info packs could work but not sure unless tested. And please request at least their name and email in return so that you have a chance at conversing with them more over time.

My thoughts are that a good old telephone call is still your "weapon" of choice...feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh and lastly, make sure your website link on your Twitter page actually works...Yours is listed as bos[dash]uk[dot]net at the moment. Probably want to change that pronto.

Hope this helps. Ping me if you have any questions.

Mark

 

[fisicx]

All well and good but how does any of the above help generate new buisiness opportunities? Even your website says email is better than SM.

 

[zevi]

Its a lot easier to build up a brand on Facebook then Twitter anyway simply by the recommendation of friends on Facebook.

 

[Paul Baldwin]

Hi Darren, hope you are well
I would agree with the sentiment that Twitter can be great fun and an excellent way of keeping in touch with contacts and clients. But like me I fear you are not going to get masses of business from it. We get the odd bits and pieces from our @cass_stephens account and even some from my own wafflings but it is never going to be a massive source of biz - PPC works a lot, lot better for us...

 

[hughsie0016]

Hi Darren,

I think the best thing you can do to grow the right sort of Twitter following is by sharing the right content for the right readers. Maybe you have some great blog posts you could share with them? Tweeting images too between normal tweets makes your feed enticing to potential followers.

Another great way to make sure that you're getting the right followers is by particularly following a good 50 - 100 users. To find suitable followers, you could research your competitors following or search for relevant hash tags that users have tweeted about and follow them - then you know that they're interested in the topic of your industry.

After a couple of days, use a programme like Manage Flitter (it's free up to about 600 unfollowings per day), and login with your Twitter account. It allows you to unfollow any of those previous 50 - 100 users you followed a few days before. And that's it! Keep repeating that process and share valuable content and you'll make the most out of your Twitter!

I hope I've been of some help Darren!

Thanks,

Ellis

Manage Flitter is a very handy tool for Twitter

 

[fisicx]

Hughsie, why u no answer my question?

You gave lots of good advice but nothing that specifically answered the OPs question.

 

[hughsie0016]

All well and good but how does any of the above help generate new buisiness opportunities? Even your website says email is better than SM.

Lol, was just getting around to your question

Here's a few ways I use Twitter to generate business:

1. Listen: This means find your target audience on Twitter and see what they are tweeting about
2. Start getting noticed: This means start retweeting and favouriting their tweets you enjoy (not all of them)
3. Answer A Question: If they ask a question in a tweet and you know the answer then give them your advice.
4. Reach Out: Send a direct message (only after you have done 1-3 above) and ask them a question to try and get a conversation started.
5. When they reply start a conversation and have a reason to send them to what you have to offer...this doesn't mean a sales page. In fact that is just like a cold call. Rather send them to a resource that you have that may help the in their business.
6. Send them to a lead capture page and then use email marketing to further establish trust and expertise.

The idea behind any social media is to establish contact points and then and then move your prospect off the platform into a physical contact situation i.e. phone call, meeting etc.

Hope that helps..

 

[fisicx]

Thanks. But the op said it was a small market, would your techniques still work for a small community who aren't using twitter for business?

 

[hughsie0016]

Thanks. But the op said it was a small market, would your techniques still work for a small community who aren't using twitter for business?

I think your answer is in your question. If their customers or prospects are not using Twitter then I wouldn't be using Twitter.

It goes back to my points of listening and knowing your target audience and where they are hanging out online.

You obviously can't find anyone on an online platform if they don't exist, lol

 

[Darren Spillett]

Thanks for the advice. There is a real wealth of knowledge in the responses and kits great to get a balanced view between those in favour of using twitter and those who are not. When I think carefully about it is highly unlikely that I would become a buyer of a service over twitter. I am far more likely to want to do business with someone I know, someone who was recommended or someone who approaches me through an on line network like this forum or LinkedIn, etc. I have never brought anything from anyone off twitter as I am far more likely to search Google for an appropriate supplier. With all this said I have come to the conclusion that twitter can be a useful tool but it is a very slow burner and it shouldn't take up too much of my time as my sales focus should be my website, email and the phone.

 

[drdialeruk]

You can have more than one Twitter account, and if you are servicing two niches, having multiple accounts can be a smart strategy to deal with that. I have multiple Twitter accounts! Just be a little cautious about starting another account. It means double the work. Make sure you can really benefit from having two platforms before you go down that road.