Twitter For Business: Top 37 Steps You Should Take Immediately

Twitter, When Used Correctly, Is A Great Part Of Your Marketing System

Too many people don’t understand how to use Twitter for business, but that hasn’t stopped them from blogging about it.

Twitter, the micro-blog that lets you send 140 characters across the Internet to anyone who has followed you (and then be resent (ReTweeted) by others), is a highly-targeted tool for marketers – and it works well with other social media marketing tools.

For those of us old enough to remember party-line telephones, it’s like listening into the conversations of your neighbors and then adding to their chat only when you have something that applies to them. No need to send messages about photography to people interested in politics or television. So in THIS way, Twitter lets you laser-target your messages.

For me (and I admit there are other ways to approach this), I have 10 Twitter accounts, each based around specific keywords. For some of my accounts I’m building a list of followers who are interested in businesses I already have operating. For others, I’m building lists around topics that interest me and will figure out later how I will monetize them.

After all, having a LIST of interested prospects is the most important part of marketing and running our businesses.

So, with that as prologue, here are my top 37 steps you should take immediately to use Twitter for your business.

Twitter: Get Set Up

1. Set up an account at Twitter.com, using a keyword phrase as your username. You have 14 characters, so be succinct. (Two of mine are UltimateWAHDads and PhotoCharlie)

2. Add some personal information to it – people like to do business with people they like and they like people who are like them.

3. Add a photo – not one of you and you cat, not one that twirls around (I guess those folks are trying to attract more attention, but most people find them distracting), but one of YOU that shows you clearly.

4. Add your business’s website URL (you DO have a website, right? If not, stop this, find another blog about setting up your own website that includes a lead generation name capture form, and come back to this one!).

5. Step away from your computer, grab a pad of paper, and write down at least FIFTY keywords someone might use to describe what you do and use when they search for someone like you in Google. Most people skip this step and never come back to it… and then wonder why they aren’t successful.

6. Purchase this very inexpensive but VERY helpful product so that you can speed up the growth of your list. Bill’s Twitter Traffic Machine http://budurl.com/fnhm You’re reading a post about using Twitter for Business, so you must have interest in it. Why take the next three weeks to begin to build a list when Bill shows you how to do it mostly on autopilot. I use it, I recommend it, and I’ve gotten to know Bill. Do this now. OK, so it will cost you a little bit: get over it. I just upgraded my screen capture video software today and it was $149 (and it’s the 6th version I’ve used!). Bill’s is WAY less than that: check here: http://budurl.com/fnhm

Twitter On Steroids: Once Bill’s Twitter Magic Is Setup, Now What?

7. Bill shows you how to find people who share your interests – and it’s all done on autopilot. Oh, sure… you can use Twitter Search if you want to find a few people and manually follow each one, but Bill’s system will do that for you. So… use the system, input your keywords so that potentially you have 50 or more keywords working for you to increase the size of your list.

8. Now that you’ve found people who share your interests and you follow them, you need to set up your system (SYSTEM, it the key to all of this) for it to automatically follow those who follow you. And can still manually add more and you can manually UNfollow those you find out you don’t want to connect with, but set up the autofollow so that you add as many people who share your keywords.

9. Now that you found people who share your interests and have auto-followed those who choose to follow you, it’s time to set up your system to send out messages for you automatically. Yep, Bill’s system does that too. He shows you how to find great blog posts that fit with your keywords and send them out to Twitterville automatically. This is key to letting people know what your interest are.

10. You can set up messages in advance when you have specific messages you want to send that contain links to products you have. Do NOT do this often. People use Twitter to get information, not be bombarded with advertising messages. But when you have products that people on your list will like (because you share common interests), sent out Tweets to tell them (and set those up to go out now or some time in the future). By the way, Bill’s videos show you how to set all of this up. OK, so it may take you two hours to set it up initially, but it will pay dividends over and over.

Twitter Zooming: Once Bill’s Twitter Magic Is Bringing In Followers, Now What?

11. Watch your @(yourname) section on Twitter… when someone tweets your name (for example, one of mine would say @UltimateWAHDads and you say that “At UltimateWAHDads), reply back. It’s pretty clear how to do that… you’ll see where the @ message came to you a way to click a little arrow that will put the other person’s “@name” in the tweet box so you can reply to that person. Know that EVERYONE on your list of followers can see that message (which is one of the HUGE powers of Twitter – you hold conversations with someone like ME and others pick up on it… when THEY are interested, they will tweet “@” you and me!

12. Look at your DM location (the location of the Direct Messages that are seen JUST by you). You can reply directly back to the sender from there OR copy the person’s @name and use the regular tweet box so that everyone on your list sees your reply. (Keep private things private, but tell others when it helps you).

13. Find a few people who look interesting (from the information you read on their Twitter home page – just click their little photo and you’ll go to their home page) and start to @chat – chat with them, but so everyone can read it. This is a great way to strike up some friendships with people who share your interest in the keywords you’ve chosen. After all, this IS supposed to be Social Networking, so now that you have some people on your list, get social with them!

14. Remember, you don’t have to chat just about business topics either… maybe one of your followers is a songwriter and you want to chat about that, even though YOUR keywords are about Internet Marketing (for example). None of us is unidirectional – we each have MANY interests, and it’s great to share them here.

15. Be sure to share links of things you find interesting. OK, so Bill’s Magic will do this too, but you can add other off-topic things like photography, cooking, singing, vacations, etc. Knowing you as a more-complete person will attract people to you.

16. When you blog, be sure to include a reference to it in a tweet. I certainly will send Tweets about THIS post, attracting more people who are interested in using Twitter for Business.

17. Ask lots of questions, take polls, get people to reply to you off of Twitter. Money isn’t made ON Twitter, it’s only made when people are interested in you, like you, trust that what you tell them is correct, and then you send them to other links including your website.

18. When you see someone sending tweets and you go to their homepage to learn more about them, remember that you can manually follow more people from anywhere in TwitterWorld. And it’s usually as easy as clicking one button: Follow. And if those people happen to have LOTS of followers, you’ll gain from them whatever system or information they use to stay in touch with their followers.

19. Often you’ll find a ReTweet button (as I have on this blog post): USE them! USE Mine! Let people who follow you know the type material you focus on and they will become drawn to you as an expert.

20. Use @Tweets to people you don’t even know! That’s right… if you see someone who shares your keyword interest and he or she has LOTS of followers, send an @Tweet (using their name after the @-sign, of course). Like sending one to me if you didn’t know me – “@UltimateWAHDads – I read your blog post at http://bit.ly/qA32s and agree that Bil.ly is powerful” People will just assume that you know me, and that gives a mystique about you because they THINK you know people will lots of followers.

21. You can manually resend tweets several times a day. It seems that MOST people are on Twitter around the same time every day. So if you send a tweet at 8:00 AM, a person who only is on Twitter from 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM will miss it (unless you send it as an @message directly to him or her). So… retweet your OWN messages 2 – 3 times a day to attract more attention to them.

22. Though there is no way you will be able to read EVERY tweet that comes your way (once your list grows through Bill’s system), but work hard to reply to every @Tweet so that you can build a relationship with people AND so people will see you replying to others in your TwitterWorld.

23. Be sure to pay attention when Bill shows you how to grow quickly and get past the 2000 follower hurdle. So many people do this wrong, but Bill pointed out to me how to avoid the pitfalls of this artificial limit placed by Twitter. And sometimes that means UNfollowing people you have been following, and Bill’s clear about how to do that. I’ve had to do it several times, but it’s like pruning a bush – trim away those who aren’t productive for you so new growth can occur.

Twitter For Business: Pros And Cons About

24. People will say it takes up a LOT of time. (Just chuckle to yourself – those are the people that are doing it by hand or using one or two of the free tools out there. Bill’s system will get you just nodding your head in agreement, because you won’t want to give away your money-making secret!)

25. Twitter takes so much time that you won’t have time for other productive work. (Chuckle again – and you know why). But when I posted a tweet about a new product, I watched the metrics that Bit.ly was giving me IN REAL TIME and I saw 37 people click on my link within 3 minutes. They were going to see this video about generating leads online: http://bit.ly/72nFU I was a bit giddy to see how quickly people saw my tweet and clicked on the link. Fabulous and instantaneous!

26. If you don’t have a great strategy, it’s just a waste of time. Definitely AGREE with them, even if you don’t give away the strategy you’ve learned here!

27. Those Twitter builds big lists, it doesn’t replace your Opt-in Email List. AGREE AGAIN. That is SO right. It’s not meant to. Do your blog posts replace your sales pages? Do you direct-mail campaigns replace your email campaigns. Each has its place and as part of a SYSTEM, it’s very powerful.

28. Twitter, while only using 140 characters, is meant only for computer nerds. HUH? I represent that statement! Well, I mean, OK… so I know how to use computers, the Internet, direct response marketing, etc, but that doesn’t mean that others can’t be taught how to use Twitter for Business correctly. Once you set up Bill’s Magic Machine and follow my directions here, YOU will be marketing in a system and using Twitter as a part of it.

29. Twitter, especially when connect to Facebook (and it’s easy to post a tweet in Twitter and have it get added to your status in Facebook – Facebook has an App that lets you do that once you get Twitter set up), is a very powerful way to communicate around the world (which is especially useful for people like me whose products aren’t restricted by geography). And I remember on the evening of the US National Elections that I was sending tweets (also to my Facebook profile) and hearing from people around the world who were excited for the USA. The news travels VERY fast this way.

30. Did you see what happened to Twitter once Oprah had a show about it? It seemed that EVERYONE was trying it… but not too many were taking the time to learn how to use it correctly. At least YOU have take THOSE steps already and are MILES ahead of others who are just plodding along PLAYING with Twitter.

31. Here’s a suggestion now that you have your main system working – set up ANOTHER Twitter account for your personal use. You can use the same photo and information, actually. But only follow those people you really want to learn from. I have such an account with under 1000 following me but I only follow about 53… that way I can track better what they are tweeting. These are important information marketers and I want to stay on top of what they do and say. They are also following me (and I follow them) on my UltimateWAHDads account, but I can’t follow their every move the way I can with my personal account.

32. Remember who you are and why you are here. Don’t lower your standards about WHAT you say and HOW you say it. If you’re short and abrupt with people in your business, OK, that can work on Twitter. But don’t get that way if that’s now the person you want to project on Twitter.

33. Those who LIKE and those who do NOT Like your products and services will chat on Twitter – great way for you to learn BOTH sides without being obvious about it.

34. Even if your present clients and customers aren’t online or even if you have a very local business (say, perhaps, as a bricks and mortar store), you should use Twitter to learn what others are saying about your industry. Best to be forearmed and forewarned, right?

35. Use what’s called Hash Tags. Here’s an example: #ttm. See, it’s a number sign (called a Hash Tag) plus whatever you follow up with – in this case I selected 3 letters to represent Bill’s Twitter Magic product. I also set up a URL for that: http://UltimateWorkAtHomeDads.com/ttm which also works the same way as http://budurl.com/fnhm But with several free tools dealing with Twitter, you can search for anything that starts with a #, so those wanting to find out all the messages about #ttm search for that Hash Tag and will find any tweet – from me, you, or anyone else. Can be a powerful way to use it.

36. Spent at least 15 minutes every day on your Twitter account. I can’t tell you why because it’s something you have to experience yourself. By watching tweets fly by (hit your F5 key to refresh you Twitter home page to see how the tweets keep coming), you’ll get a sense of what is happening in your market, what you should tweet about, and even what products people want. And when you create a product that people want, you’re able to sell it MUCH more quickly than one YOU want that you are working to convince people they should have interest in.

37. Have fun. This isn’t drudgery. It isn’t brain surgery. Loosen up, show your personality, and let people in to see who you really are. And then go make money!

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
A Work At Home Dad, succeeding in this economy

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