This was a presentation I gave in 2012 to a group of businesses just starting out or new to Twitter. It might just help.

1. by
How to use Twitter in your
Business
Starting Out!

2. Before you set up your Account!
Think about this…
WHY DO YOU WANT TO
BE ON TWITTER?
WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO
ACHIEVE?

3. What is Twitter used for?
 Twitter is used by millions of businesses and
people to monitor conversations, interact with
customers, promote offers and help with
customer service questions for clients and
potential clients on all aspects of their brand
 Your Twitter Username – this is vitally
important and makes up part if not all of your
username
 It will look like www.twitter.com/yourusername
 You can change this via the settings menu

4. Set up your Account!
 If you haven’t already go to www.twitter.com
and create your account
 If your using a business name create your
account accordingly.
https://twitter.com/thesomaacademy
 Use a picture of you or at the very least a logo
– never use an avatar as this does not let
visitors see who you are.
 Think about branding when you use an image
and what you are projecting.
 You an use a background image to promote
your brand
 Perception is everything.

5. How to attract followers (Tribe)
 When you first create your account its easy
just to jump in and start holding conversations
all over the place…but…
 Think about who you want to connect with and
why?
 How do you reach your target audience?
 Do you know who or where your target
audience are?
 Listen – I would recommend if its your first
time, a newbie, then listen in on a few
conversations first, there’s no rush
 Remember that your brand is at stake here.

6. Decide which ‘friends’ to follow!
 Once you have joined in on a couple of conversations
you can then decide who to follow
 They normally fall into the following categories:
 Sheep – follow everyone just to grow numbers
 Friends and family – enough said, but do they buy
your services or products?
 Clients / potential clients – these are the ones who
buy or will buy your products on a daily or weekly
basis.
 Brand Advocators – Probably your best ‘friend’ on
any SMP
 Remember this is not for ‘socialising’ it’s a business or
marketing tool

7. Updates and when to put them out
there?
 There are two schools of thought –
 1. add as many updates as you can and who cares if they annoy
people.
 2. be cautious and remember to be a good citizen when tweeting
 This has to be something you are going to be comfortable
with and be happy doing.
 Should it all be business?
 I would recommend the 80/20 rule
 80% business and 20% personal updates
 Amongst your 80% have every fourth or fifth update a
‘sales’ one
 You have to show that you’re a business with a person or
persons behind it and not just a soulless corporation
 Remember the aim of the game is to engage and then
making money will follow!

8. What type of updates do you send
out?
 This can depend on your business but remember
that people DO NOT like to be sold to…do you?
 The main point of this is you are trying to help
someone who has a problem that you can solve.
 If someone wants to book a hotel in the Lakes for
two nights and you can help them, that’s what
you do.
 Look out for people who need ‘help’
 Example – Twitter user “we love the lakes and are
looking for a weekend break in May…can anyone
help?”
 Hotel- “Yes we are the Bill Bloggs hotel in
Keswick and we have a range of dates available
in May you can check our available dates here”
Link to website booking form…

9. What type of updates do you send
out?
 As you can see from this simple example you
have helped someone with a problem and you
have filled a room…it’s a win win situation for
both parties
 So remember you have to be as helpful and as
flexible as possible if you want to score on Twitter.
 Something that a lot of businesses forget to do
when using Twitter, or any other Social Media
platform, is to add a link back to their website or
blog
 In a newspaper analogy think of Twitter as the
front page ‘headlines’ and your website or blog as
the rest of the newspaper.

10. Should you send updates to other
SMP’s?
 I think this is something you SHOULDN’T DO
and the reason…
 It likely that you will have different messages
for different audiences, they are different and
should be ‘talked to’ differently
 The other point to consider is that you will
post to Twitter far more than you do to Google
Plus, LinkedIn or Facebook

11. Keep it HUMAN!
 Remember that you are speaking to ‘people’
and therefore you should always try to:
 Speak like a human, don’t us techie speak
 Be sympathetic to their plight, especially if
they have a problem
 If the conversation needs to be taken ‘offline’
do so
 Never argue online unless you can win and
look good in the process

12. Making it easy!
 Sometimes it can be hard work sending out updates
on a regular basis, although I would recommend you
do this in most cases as you can respond in a more
‘human’ and ‘meaningful’ manner
 There are times when you just don’t get the time and
in these cases we can use a ‘helper’ such as…
 Tweetdeck – www.tweetdeck.com
 Hootsuite – www.houtsuite.com
 Both these programs are free and can not only send
out tweets to twitter but also to other social media
platforms.
 You can schedule your updates to go out when you
are not near a computer of if you know you will be in a
meeting or workshop!

13. Making it easy!
 As with everything in life its quality not
quantity
 Don’t SPAM your tribe as it will come back to
bite you
 Send out quality Tweets and retweet others
 Don’t tweet anymore than once an hour
 Use #hashtags, tweets with #hashtags
receive twice as much engagement than
those without!
 Short #hashtags work best

14. Making it easy!
 Replies and Re Tweets are the order of the
day and remember not to over promote what it
is your selling
 Retweeting others posts and updates will
create a better and more lasting relationship
further down the line. So don’t be mean with
your retweets and reshares
 Remember to share pictures and video when
you can, this creates more interest and is
something out of the norm
 Vine is really good for Twitter users as it
allows only six seconds of video

15. Before we finish I will ask again…
WHY DO YOU WANT TO
BE ON TWITTER?
WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO
ACHIEVE?

16. keithmcmean.com
That’s All
Folks!