Tweeting Your Way to the Top
The ever changing social media landscape has evolved way past the point of college students streaming random thoughts and pictures about their latest weekend escapade. If you consider yourself a savvy business person, but have no social media presence, you might want to take a long hard look in the most reflective part of your computer screen. Most social media accounts are free, so don’t cite the bottom line as your excuse for falling behind in one of the most increasingly important aspects of business growth and development. While a large number of businesses now maintain and regularly update Facebook fan pages, Twitter (the second largest social media site) is often either misused or unused by business and professional networking accounts. When used correctly, Twitter can be an invaluable marketing tool both entertaining and engaging followers on the way to building brand affinity.One primary mistake both businesses and celebrities using Twitter accounts professionally make is in the content they tweet. A steady diet of tweets containing only promotions, important dates, specials and sales related content will alienate a large portion of your following. While it is encouraged to offer discounts as an incentive to gain followers, relentlessly attacking the Twitter feed with same stream of similar information does not allow you to build relationships with potential customers. Social media is inherently personal and should be treated as so, even by businesses. The most adept business minded Tweeters turn the platform into an ongoing conversation between company and customer.Many less well known companies and aspiring professional talent accounts (i.e. writers, musicians, actors) have trouble gaining followers when they initially set up their Twitter page. As an easy way to meet potential fans and customers, you can join a Twibe, a Twitter group that shares a common interest. Twibes allow for likeminded people to exchange ideas about topics or issues that interest them and can be effective in establishing a grass roots initiative or enhancing word of mouth marketing efforts.