If you are a small business owner who is using Twitter you probably already understand the importance of networking, and you know the value of a team of friends. Online social networking is just an extension of what businesses large and small have been doing for years through their local Chambers of Commerce, Professional Associations, various leads groups, and MeetUps. In fact, if you are a small business owner and you aren’t using Twitter now is a great time to start. Why? Well, several reasons actually; but, the primary one is that there are many, many prospective customers for your products or services who do use Twitter. And the number of Twitter users is growing rapidly everyday! Having an active Twitter account is as important today as having a good website was 10 years ago. But like any good marketing effort you need a strategy. So, here’s how your small business can Team Up with your existing business contacts for a Winning Twitter Strategy.
Let’s begin with a quick review. We are going to assume that you already know the Twitter basics. How to tweet, retweet, follow, unfollow and send direct messages. You have a basic understanding of how to use hashtags ‘#’ and you have tried several apps and found your favorite twitter client. If you can’t answer YES to all these assumptions then hop on over to the side bar and download the TwitterFools Official Twitter Guide right now. It’ll get you up to speed on the basics in no time.
We are also going to assume you’ve read our previous posts for small businesses: 3 Tips to Get Local with Twitter and 7 More Twitter Tips for Your Local Business. If you had, you are now adept at finding, following and engaging local tweeple. You are showing up and have a real presence on Twitter. You are engaging others, starting conversations about your business, frequently promote others, and have added your Twitter username on your business signs, cards and email signature. Right? Okay, a few of you may need to go review. Go ahead, we’ll be here when you get back.
Build Your Twitter Team in 10 Steps!
Social Networking online with Twitter is very similar to networking offline through the various groups you participate in. Your goal is to connect to other people and businesses and learn what value they offer and what they need while also sharing information about your products, services and ideal customer. You do this so when someone else in your network needs something you have a ready reference to share. You become known as a resource which is good. The understanding is that those in your network will also recommend you when the time is right. The overarching principle in both online and offline networking is give, give, give so that you can also receive.
Well, why not put that existing offline network to work for your mutual benefit on Twitter. Here’s the plan:
- Identify those you’ve networked with offline who have been your strongest referral partners and then look to see which ones are currently using Twitter. Find at least 3, but more is even better. If you can’t find three…focus on your best partners then talk to them about Twitter and the rest of this strategy and see if they’ll join you. If you’ve been a valuable referral partner in the past, the chances are darn good they will join you.
- Reach out to each of your prospective partners and find a time when you can share coffee, have a side conversation at an upcoming offline networking event, or even just chat on the phone. Ideally, you’ll get everyone together at once so you can agree to your strategy, but if you have to talk to each target partner individually and make sure to explain the networked aspects of your plan.
- Agree that each member of your Twitter Team is going to follow each other. Further, identify the key messages you want to share with the Twitterverse about each business – keep it to three key points. Write them down and share them with the group.
- Develop a list of short urls that point to each team member’s website, blog, or contact us page. Make sure you choose an url shortening service that provides you with analytics so you can track the traffic you generate. If your not sure check our post on Url Shortening Services here.
- If any of the members use specific hashtags to make their tweets more easily searchable, document and share them with the group
- Discuss strategies for each team member to identify and follow the local target consumers of your fellow team members’ products and services.
- Now simply agree to monitor your local Twitter stream for opportunities to talk about the key business messages of team members. For example, if one of your team members is a plumber and you see a local person complaining about a plumbing problem you are ready to help! Tweet out, “When I need quality plumbing services, I call Smith Plumbing shorturl link“ You get a boost for helping someone out and helping a friend. Win-Win!
- Agree to monitor and retweet when members of you team announce new business news or initiative. Ideally, you will all visit Twitter at different times so your retweets of each others’ content is stretched across the day or week.
- If your business or services lend themselves to coupons make sure each team member visits twtQpon, Cheap Tweets, and Tweet Wagon to assess which of these may offer opportunities for team members. If any are selected share them with the group then make sure you tweet them up. While these services are fine, you might just try tweeting out your own twitter coupon messages without any other service attached. For example, a restaurant on you team sends a tweet like “20% off regular lunch prices today at Tony’s Diner if you mention this tweet! shorturl“ In this case the shorturl can be a link to the website or a map of the location. Then another team member might retweet with “rt @user 20% off regular lunch prices today at Tony’s Diner if you mention this tweet! shorturl <count me in!”
- Get back together in a few weeks to see how thing are going. Check traffic generated to your respective websites and note any increase in foot traffic or phone calls. Look at what worked, what didn’t, and fine tune you plan going forward. The more you do this, the better you’ll get and the more buzz and business will be generated over time!
A strategy like this will reap rewards after consistent implementation and fine tuning. As you grow and succeed by all means add other partners to your team. However, we caution you that this strategy will fail if the only thing you are tweeting about is your own business or your partners. Make sure you are still listening to and responding to other conversations. Continue engaging tweeple outside your group and looking for genuine opportunities to promote your partners. On Twitter, just like in offline networking, you need to give, give, give in order to ultimately receive.
Of course, we are always happy to hear about other strategies that have worked. If you have one please share. Be well and Happy Tweeting!
