How Twitter can help you build your brand and your business.
When I first learned about Twitter, I joined the site for one reason and one reason only – a friend had asked me to "follow" him. Upon receiving the invite, my first thought was "why should I go on this crazy site" – it made absolutely no sense to me. What would I say and how could I pare something down to 140 characters? How could I possibly market my business through that site called Twitter?" But my friend was someone I really like so I decided, to be nice, I would join.
I signed up and started struggling along. Now that I had joined Twitter so I felt that I should be using it. I kept going on the site to see how to write messages but it was about as clear as mud. I literally got more and more confused about what this crazy site was about. I then decided I probably should pick up some books to help me learn it, but I really wasn’t overly motivated so the books in turn sat in the bookcase gathering dust.
I then decided to to take two social media courses and become a part of the crazy online world – one through Social Media Magic University and one through the National Association of Realtors. It turned out that both courses were very complimentary to each other although I was totally overwhelmed at first. The #SMMU (hastag for Social Media Magic University – way to do searches on Twitter) was made up of eleven sessions - twice weekly – each two hours in length and chock full of information. The instructors were excellent, but my learning style (plus my advanced age) is such that I would have been better off with more time between classes – at the time I sort of felt like water was being blasted at me full force through a fire hose.
The NAR course was more of an overview of how Web 2.0 has evolved. I had the advantage of learning that at my own pace. Thank heavens for small favors.
What I have learned throughout my studying though is that there are definite ways Twitter can really help you get your name out there. Following are some of them.
- You can use Twitter to share the latest news about a new product you are launching and search for what people are doing in your industry..
- You can use it when you have written a new blog post and want others to know it is out there,
- It is extremely useful for someone to use Twitter to search for what people are saying about you or your company – also what is going on in your industry.
- You can build brand awareness by sending your messages out on Twitter
- There is a wonderful feature called search where people can go and check up on all the tweets that you have sent.
- you can monitor what people are saying about you. This way if people are saying negative things, you are in a position to rectify the situation before it gets out of hand.
I absolutely love it now. Once I got the hang of it, I found it could be addictive if I wasn’t careful. The positives are well worth the frustrations I went through learning the program. I have made many new "friends" that I would never have come across otherwise. A number of those friends have encouraged me when I have needed it. Those friends are in turn passing my information on to their friends. I have connected with people that I would never have had a chance had to otherwise – several famous authors and a number of people that are considered experts in their fields. I have been able to ask them advice directly and get really good information back from them.
So if you are looking for a social media site that can help you build your brand and your business, consider using Twitter for your business. I will be very surprised if you’re not delighted you did.
