As one might expect from any event in Social Media, especially one after a week of utter social media frenzy in the press, the word chirping across everyone's lips was "Twitter."
It seemed from talking to people before and after the event that the attendees spanned a great spectrum of knowledgeability when it comes to Twitter. While a raise-your-hand-if-you're-on-Twitter poll showed that about 90% of the people there did already have an account, it seemed like a good portion of the people there, or at least the people who cared to be vocal, were still somewhat mystified about what it is that Twitter can do for them or their business.
Now, I'm definitely not one to try to put rules on how to use Twitter, or try artificially to police the way people behave in the Twittersphere. But if you're going to use it for business, I do think there are some "Oh Duh" marketing practices you need to apply if you're going to appeal to the members of the general Twublic. To me, and I think the panelists from last night might agree, everything one can learn from great examples of marketing on Twitter boils down to basically these three best practices:
1) Host a conversation, not a lecture
2) Be enthusiastic, but above all, be human
3) Don't be afraid to branch out from business
To my first point, Ron May asked the question early in the evening: Why should Twitter need to be viewed as a marketing tool? Why not just a tool for conversations? In my humble Web Evangelist opinion, I would propose that in order for Twitter to be successful as a marketing too, "marketing tool" is exactly the sort of image it needs to avoid.
I've been saying since I started tweeting months ago that it won't be long before people realize their self-indulgent, largely masturbatory tweets equate to random shouts into the darkness with the hope that someone is listening. I think people will be able to stomach this for a long time, but if they start to think that the only people who read their random musings are trying to sell them something, they'll sign off in a heart beat. People want to be heard, not talked to.For me, this means that in my daily Tweeting I look for conversations that I can contribute to, not derail. This brings me to my second point which is to be enthusiastic, but also be human. No one wants to feel like they're being randomly targeted for marketing. This is the reason people make a large loop around people handing things out on street corners, or go out of their way to avoid the kiosk people in malls. No one wants to listen to a robot on autopilot just spouting off marketing BS. That's obnoxious. Use your human skills of discernment to identify the people who will want to talk to you. It's not that hard. People wear their hearts on their sleeves on Twitter.
If I may digress for a minute, on my personal Twitter account I continually wonder why people select me, of all the hundreds of thousands of Twitterers out there, to sell me their ring tones or their marketing services or whatever. I don't want that stuff. I don't tweet about that stuff. And when I login to my webspace, I don't want to feel like I'm wandering through a crowded bazaar avoiding all of their crap. It's a stupid and pointless marketing tactic to hope the people you follow will care so little about what comes through their feed that they won't bother to read your profile before following back. I stand against this on a personal level, and I won't contribute to it on a professional level.
Therefore, I don't follow aggressively. I don't have a pool of 125 character responses that I send to people. If someone is looking for information that I have, I provide it. If someone is having a conversation that I want to listen to, I follow them. And when I @ or DM people, I do it with the intent of starting a conversation. Personal tweets aren't like brochures that you just throw at people. They're your gateway to have a meaningful talk about what you can do for someone. With a DM especially, you're essentially walking into a potential customer's home. Show some respect. Tweet others as you would be tweeted.
Finally, don't be afraid to meander off of the topic of business. As one of the panelists put it last night, you don't have a business discussion in real life without talking about other topics, too. By now everyone's heard the famous Zappos Pizza story (Thanks @Zappos_Service for helping find the link). The lesson? When you're selling shoes, but they're buying pizza, they can still walk away with your name and something to talk about.
In other words, be relevant as much as possible, but when the flow of conversation is taking you to a different subject, go with it. Best case scenario: you get people buzzing about your amazing customer service. Worse case: you go back to talking business. Either way it does not hurt to show that you care about things other than simply getting sales. Display your personality. If it's a good one, people will respond. Remember, it's hard enough for a sales person or a customer service rep to cultivate a relationship with the benefit of eye contact. Being expressive, approachable, and friendly online, especially in 140 characters, is hard to do. But the rewards are immeasurable.
I don't know if this was my $.02, or my $15, but for whatever it's worth this is my philosophy. It's working for me so far.
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