How to do well on twitter if you are a small biz

1. Twitter tips for small business by www.smallbizfix.com
This article covers what to look for when trying to find tweeters to follow and how to create and
join the social media conversation.
So you have set up your twitter account, you are ready to fly…. you drop a few tweets out there.
The usual sort of stuff “Hi, I’m Jeremy” “new to this place” “be gentle” with me etc..
Now you have the account and have tweeted one or two things… who to follow? We are of course
assuming you are setting up this twitter account to promote your small business and ultimately
drive sales.
Firstly, invest in hootsuite or download tweetdeck, these tools allow you to see multiple searches
and your own twitter stream on the one page.
Twitter gives you some superstar suggestions when you first login, ignore them.
What you need to do is identify the leaders in your industry. You also need to identify the people
with a ‘voice’, that is much harder.
There are solid services out there such as Klout and twitter grader, use them. These will tell you
who are at the top of your area of business on twitter. Follow these leaders.
Those people are not the be all and all of your twitter following. But they can be useful for
advanced strategies (those you will have to pay for).
You need to find people to interact with, people who are customers in your line of business. The
simplest way of doing this is a #tag search.
The first and most simple #tag search should revolve around a concept called #FF or #follow Friday,
this is a tag that people use to recommend to others who they follow. look for these tags on your
leaders stream and follow these people – you will very quickly notice the nepotism, they all
recommend each other. Your challenge will be to get on that list (that’s another post).
Lets say you are in the singles travel niche. Then a search for #singlestravel #lonelytravel will return
a combination of companies and purchasers, follow a few – maybe 20.
Then tweet some more, mostly stuff that is going on in your business/area of expertise – link to
news items that are in your niche too.

2. Then follow more people from your search – maybe 30-50.
Continue this theme for at least 10 days, by this time you will probably be following around 700
and you are likely to have around 250 – 350 following you. When someone follows you, say thanks
for the follow publicly. It is good PR, it gets you noticed and more importantly you have started a
conversation.
In your tweet stream you will have tweets from the leaders you followed at the start this process.
They will likely be commenting on things at the leading edge of your business. Read what they say,
then offer your own opinion on the issue.
You will find that your followers will start to engage with you, you are now having the
‘conversation’.
After a number of these conversations, it is time to drop a link to your website or product in your
stream – only 1 in every 10-20 tweets. Always make these link drops relevant to your thinking at
the time.
The above isn’t a comprehensive strategy, but at the very outset of your twitter journey it will
provide you with some vital tools. Namely; the identification of leaders, a technique for joining the
conversation, getting your voice heard and an appreciation of the applications available to help
you.
This article is written by Jeremy Beynon, Jeremy is a thought leader on transforming your business
through using internet strategies.
Twitter tips for small business by www.smallbizfix.com