My husband, gotta love him, hasn’t mastered Twitter yet. Like many of you, when he realized it could benefit his speaking engagement, there were too many other things that took precedence. The show had to go on.

Twitter isn’t hard, but it is different on different smartphones and the apps also work a little differently. It looks easy enough, but I suggest reading this letter I sent him first. (Had I known he didn’t ‘get it’ I would have started helping him a long time ago!) I have his permission to post the letter I sent him later that day, so here it is! ~Susan

Dear Randy,

I know sometimes that it’s difficult to tell if you’re privately IM-ing me or if you’re tweeting, but don’t get discouraged. It really can be done well, and be used to build your reputation and buzz around your brand. Let’s go over a few things while they’re on the top of my head. (After this afternoon’s mistaken messages, we’d probably better just figure this thing out.)

First of all, there are three prominent locations for your events to be featured. Facebook pages, LinkedIn Groups and Events, and Twitter. Lets talk tweeting:

@RamquestRx is you. Anytime you use the @symbol, you direct your conversation or comments to a specific individual. You can do this multiple times in the same message. For instance, to talk to my team at the same time, you’d say, @skhamilton @ShariV @ScottAlberts @HawkeyesHobbies without using any punctuation, only spaces in between. Then if we all wanted to have a certain conversation and create buzz around our brand, we’d make sure anyone in our event would use #ztsm when they tweeted. If I tweeted it, it would look like:

@skhamilton @ShariV @ScottAlberts @HawkeyesHobbies We’re so excited to be on this roundtable together, share your questions here #ztsm

Starting like that would immediately make it easy to contact any of us.

Any hashtag choice can be used, it’s completely up to you. The amount of space is limited, but we managed to put the above information in 134 characters. Spaces are counted. You really max at mentioning 2-3 other names in a tweet. But if you use the hashtag, everyone who’s been instructed to use the hashtag will be able to find you and participate in the conversation.

Not only that, but those same tweets are not private, they also go out to the timeline of the person who shares your tweets or adds their own. That means the reach is amazing. This is a very successful way to do a local event or webinar. Now anyone who wants to get involved will also use your hashtag, hopefully to interact by asking questions. Anyone can chime in, whether or not they’re in your hashtagged conversation.

For your conference, I suggest telling your audience before you start and during the introductions to ask their questions through Twitter using the #RQUG at the end of their comments or questions. They can use their computers or phones. It would probably help you to have one person watching that tweet stream in your room so they can call your attention to a question if it needs immediate response.

I’d start with the members of your attending team:
@thiswouldbesomebody @whoeverthismightbe @whateverothernames We’re thrilled to be here, share your comments at any time #RQUG

I made up those handles, you need to ask for a couple of your team handles so you can address them. Everyone who participates in this hashtag conversation has given you a social link. That stream will show you everyone’s @handle. This can be tracked in the future and these people can be strategically followed and messaged whenever it’s appropriate.

Tweeting along with a webinar feature will help you to sell the entire presentation, notes, questions, and all to the companies who couldn’t attend. It would all show up in your recorded webinar service. Additionally, you could sell segments of any presentation for additional income generation. You could re-teach this stuff (conference information) for fee at any time all year. If you get a chance to read this, why not try it during your social time this evening? I think if we master this, we can keep ‘damnit!’ out of your future tweets.

My next email will teach you how to get more out of your Facebook pages. All of these emails will be posts on my blog to share with others how it can be done. Thank you for the subject matter!

I love you,

Susan

Your business should be active on Twitter, but how often does the day get away from us and we just can’t seem to make time? 

Make some fun for yourself and find out who likes to tweet while drinking their morning brew. Some of my favorite tweeting times are before and after working out, or during my morning coffee.

Everything is a little more alive and energetic during these moments and I’m much more likely to be cracking up over something ridiculous or poking fun at a social norm. That’s GREAT stuff to tweet! I’m not always plugged into the online chatty world, so I have to make the most of the time when I am.

I like a coffee and a tweet, you?

Twitter has a lot to offer the local business, but it’s all about strategy. It took me a couple of years to figure out. Back then, no one really thought about using Twitter in the office interactively. Few are talking about it now.

Let’s say you operate a micro-business, maybe one person in the office and a two to five people off-site visiting clients. By using Twitter tools like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and SocialOomph, you can build a network of local followers that are very likely to need your services.

Why Should Your Company do This?

I believe the beauty in what Twitter offers local business is the mobility. You see it every day, people staring down at their phones to text, search or call. To do that effectively requires a compatible phone. Those phones aren’t cheap. I think that’s a strong argument for segmenting the population right there. First and foremost for most companies is building a client base of customers who can afford their  products or services. Marketing on a mobile platform increases the odds that your message is going out to that base.

Add to that the ability those clients have to tweet to their friends and family about the great company they just hired, and you’ve again increased your company’s validity online. 

How Does a Staff Work Together for Your Company’s Brand?

Large corporations have been doing this for years. They learned early on that when a company has a presence on a powerful network like Twitter, they increase their brand awareness and customer loyalty.

Small companies can learn from this as well. Each member of your company should have a Twitter handle, and a company bio and link back to the website from the profile. They should all have a picture.

With Tweetdeck and Hootsuite tools, each member of the team can be monitored in column view by all or one person. In a micro-sized company like described above, the office staff monitors the column view while the off-site staff simply interacts and comments with their phones between customer visits. All have the ability to retweet a message.

With each of the members developing their own personality and list of followers as they build this network, they begin to approach and follow the others’ lists. Brand recognition ensues, and if managed responsibly, the local market is now exposed to a company where they are already looking when they need a product or service.

This method will work with any size company, from a chain organization to a mom and pop business.

For more insight into building your local business presence online with Twitter, download your free copy of The Very Best Way to Use Twitter for Local Business today.

Exact Target reports that Twitter users are more likely to post regularly to blogs, more likely to post product and service reviews, and more likely to share coupons on coupon sites. We’re also more likely to write articles, post videos, contribute to wiki’s, and comment on other people’s blogs. This rings true for me, because as a Twitter user, I like to find interesting or educational tidbits that I can share with my readers. 

I found the statistics above on Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim, a site I follow in Google Reader. They could have just as easily come from a short post and link on Twitter. Either way, I’m sharing with you here, and I’ll share this information on Twitter and our Zero To Sixty Marketing Facebook page, and a variety of other sites. Other people do the same thing, and that’s how online content gains wings.

What does this have to do with your local business? Give us something to talk about! Post your in-store specials to Twitter, offer recipes, how-to articles, tip sheets, etc. If it relates to your product or service or offers something of value, share it on Twitter, Facebook, and directly on your blog. Doing so multiplies your message and provides more opportunity for your readers to expand your reach. Get it right, and it’s free viral promotion for your business.

Are you on Twitter? Let’s connect! Just click the link or look for @ShariV. Please include your Twitter address in your comments, below.