6. ASK Questions
PRAISE your Customers
ENGAGE Individuals with “@”
THANK Any Re-Tweeters
INCLUDE Twitter Handles of Your
Customers
in Your Posts
Reply Retweet Like
GET NOTICED ON TWITTER
6
Welcome to this social selling course.
Social selling is an exciting opportunity for you to grow sales and create relationships with customers and prospects online.
This content has been developed by DT and Thought Horizon, an Atlanta-based consulting firm.
Let’s begin by taking a look at the key takeaways you will gain by completing this course.
Twitter is an important social selling tool. The immediacy of Twitter makes it an ideal place to get up to the minute information about what is happening in the business marketplace and offers a fast and easy way for sharing information with others using the Twitter platform.
In this section we will cover the following topics:
Basic knowledge of Twitter
How to set up a profile on Twitter
How to grow your personal network using Twitter followers
And finally, how to engage in the Twitter community with sales messages for your prospects.
Let’s now begin with the basics. I think you are going to find many similarities to LinkedIn.
Think of twitter as a large family gathering around a central table. Many conversations are going on simultaneously. Many are speaking but more are just listening. In order to get information you are interested in, you must focus in on certain conversations but not others. This is Twitter in a nutshell! Because so many conversations are happening at once there are rules in place to keep it all manageable.
Conversation posts (or tweets) need to be short--only 140 characters. This limit is reduced if you include a weblink/url, video or picture in the tweet.
Hashtags make it easy to find the conversations you are interested in. The hashtag looks like the number symbol or ‘pound’ sign. Adding these markers makes your conversation searchable to others. You can also use hashtags that other people are already using to add to the conversation.
Twitter is a powerful search tool, people use to find information on topics. When you tweet remember to make it findable by people who care about key topics, such as our example where HASHTAG iPhone appears.
Just like LinkedIn, before you get started with customers on Twitter you need to establish a good profile that makes you look like a wireless business expert.
It is important when social selling that you are consistent with the topics you post on twitter. If you have multiple interests you wish to tweet about, we recommend you have 2 profiles, one for work and one personal. This allows you to use one for posting about wireless industry and business topics.
While twitter is a bit more relaxed and causal, you still need a professional profile that explains who you are and what you do.
Get a good headshot that shows your face. Feel free to show off your DT brand.
Describe yourself in your profile using the 3 P’s. You want to have one short statement about each of the following:
Something Personal – You can see Matt’s Millen’s profile says he is a husband.
Something Professional- Maybe add your job title and customers you serve.
Something you’re Passionate about - If you are an “obsessed sports fan”, you could share it.
Top off your account by including your geographic location and the business web address to…for example: DT.com/business.
Now that you have a solid profile, let’s talk about who to follow and how to build a following on Twitter.
Notice that each profile shows a list of followers (people who want to see this person’s future tweets) and people that this person follows. You can follow someone by clicking the FOLLOW button.
You are now ready to start following people. But who?
Who you follow on Twitter matters. Connecting with relevant people will give you access to their ideas and information that you can share (or Re-Tweet) with your customers and followers.
Follow the DT brand and other key executives. Follow your leaders and others on your team.
Next follow your customers. Follow their brands and their leaders. Follow your day-to-day contacts too.
Now, look at the profiles of the people you follow and follow their followers. Follow anybody who might be relevant to your business or your customer’s business..
Next, you are ready to begin Tweeting
You need to be active and tweet on a regular basis on consistent topics of interest like telecom or your customer’s business.
You also need to respond to others who you follow.
Let them know they are heard and use the information you learn by passing it on.
Let’s now look at exactly how to engage on Twitter.
By interacting with others on Twitter it builds interest in you and will help grow your Twitter following. People want to follow and interact with those who have something to say.
When you respond to others, ask questions to prompt a response. Be ready to take the conversation offline if it warrants a private conversation. Always thank those who retweet your tweets.
You can also reply to a Tweet to engage with others directly. Keep in mind that anything you say is public on Twitter. You can retweet the tweet which will share it with all your followers. You can also like the tweet as a way of thanking the person who posted the tweet for sharing. Finally, you can mention a customer’s handle in a tweet using the @ sign (such as has been done in the below tweet to @DT_M2M shown here) This calls out the tweet and makes sure they see it.
We have now finished the section on Twitter and we’re ready to talk about a new tool that will make social selling even easier for Sales teams.
Best Times for you to post on Twitter & LinkedIn are during the mid-week (Wednesday & Thursday) around 10 AM through 1 PM CET; then again around 2 PM through 4 PM CET; and finally 5 PM thought 8 PM CET.
You should avoid posting more material on Monday, Tuesday, and Holidays because of low engagement rates.
Times to Avoid posting range between 8 AM through 10 AM CET & between 10 PM & 6 AM CET.