Twitter For Business And Personal Use – My Two Cents

Image by Matt Hamm @ Flickr

My two cents on my first six months of using Twitter from a business and personal perspective. If you are a business owner or manager and are curious about this new technology then you may just learn a thing or two from my own experience.

I was really unsure what to make of Twitter before I first started using it.  Call me a skeptic but I just could not see the value.  From a website analyst point of view I felt that the Twitter home page really needed to work on getting the point across.  Six months later and there has been many lessons learned, although the point of it is still a mystery.  I have discovered that there are social media experts, social networking etiquette, bots and spammers.  Sounds like an awful lot to think about in 140 characters or less.

How I Use Twitter

• I only follow people with a photo or image and a bio or website link.
• I always check new followers by viewing their profile and visiting their website if they have one.
• I block obvious bots or spammers.
• I follow people that I find quirky, interesting, helpful or funny that have similar interests to me.
• I like to follow other solo business owners as long as they show they’re human.
• I only follow automated tweets from people/businesses/websites that are of interest to me.
• I only send out a promotional business tweet a couple of times a week, if that.
• I send out a tweet about a new blog post that includes the words ‘New Blog Post’.
• I don’t follow people that are only trying to sell me something.
• I don’t do #followfriday or #musicmonday or any other day related tweeting.
• I don’t thank people for re-tweeting.
• I don’t expect to be thanked for re-tweeting.
• I don’t thank people when they follow me.
• I don’t expect to be thanked for following someone.
• I don’t have an automated welcome direct message when someone follows me.
• I don’t follow people just because they follow me.

Does any of this make me a bad person?
Am I breaking any social networking rules or etiquette?

Feedback welcome!

What Is A Social Media Expert?

Image by jgarber @ Flickr

This is a question that’s been floating in my head for a little while now.  I hear that businesses actually hire social media experts to teach them how to use a service like Twitter.  This makes my jaw drop!  Not at the thought that people are making money this way but the fact that there are businesses who need this help.  Is social media really that scary?  There is a heap of free information available on the internet from websites such as TwiTip, yet they feel as though they need to pay someone to teach them how to write a message less than 140 characters.  Bizarre!  Even more bizarre is the companies hiring people to manage all their tweeting for them.

So what exactly is a social media expert?

Somebody, please, answer this for me because I need to know.  Is it someone who just happens to know about the existence of social networking websites or someone who has a Twitter account and they know how to use it?  If that’s the case then I can put my hand up as being a social media expert (happy to be paid to tweet, that’s for sure).  Forgive my ignorance and sarcasm but I am yet to find a definitive answer to this.

Business Or Pleasure?

I am a small business owner and I use my Twitter account for both business and personal purposes.  I am a sole trader so I have no qualms about doing this.  I have read from some social media experts that you should have two Twitter accounts; one for business and one for personal use.  They say you need to separate your business and personal tweets to maintain your professionalism and credibility.

My response to this is Why?

I am a human being and I want to connect with other human beings.  I can accept that they are human and I don’t think any less of their credibility when they tweet something on a personal level.  I feel that there is no connection or valuable conversations that can arise if all I was to be tweeting about was my business and vice-versa.  I suppose this applies more to solo businesses, rather than big companies but still, you have to show some personality.

The Automated Tweets

There are some websites that provide a real time Twitter feed to those who follow.  This is pretty cool when it’s actually helpful.  One such website doing this is prangz.com (@prangz).  This website provides real time updates of car accidents in New South Wales, Australia.  The website itself gives you a map that pinpoints the location of an accident while the Twitter feed gives you the details of the accident with a link back to the website.

While prangz.com is a great example of practical use of the Twitter API, there are some not so practical uses that exist in the form of automated spam followers.  Some clever people think its good marketing practice to automatically follow anyone who mentions anything related to what they are trying to sell.  They create simple profiles with one tweet that contains a link to a spammy website.  I am in the habit of blocking these accounts forever but unfortunately, they keep coming back.

Is It A Popularity Contest?

It’s easy for the first time user to think that it is a popularity contest.  After all, you have a list of people that are following you and it makes you feel special when you get a new follower.  Some believe that followers is what Twitter is all about and that big things await them.  That’s not the way it works.  It still comes down to the value that you add and how engaging you are.  You must assume people are following you because they think you are interesting in some way.  Another way to think of it is this; the most popular person on Twitter is Ashton Kutcher and he’s a tool.

Check your followers from time to time to do a clean out.  You will want to block any spammers that are following you.  Also, check the people you are following and unfollow anyone who seems inactive i.e. no tweets in the last month.

Am I Convinced?

It’s hard to say how convinced I am of the value that Twitter adds to my business.  To be honest, I haven’t gained any work directly from using it, but my business is young and I am patient.

On a personal level I think it’s a lot of fun to be able to connect and converse (and live vicariously) with interesting people and other business owners through a simple website.

For solo businesses thinking of using Twitter I can only suggest to give it a try.  Don’t be afraid of new technology and remember these important points:

• Be human, not a business.
• Don’t bother with separate business and personal accounts if you are a sole trader.
• Provide as much information as possible in your profile and upload a photo.
• Check the profile of your followers to determine whether to follow them back.
• Block spammers.