Twitter As A Marketing Tool, Part 3: How To Build An Army Of Loyal Followers!
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So now that you’ve defined your niche, know how and where to go to get highly targeted followers and automated your twitter experience using www.socialoomph.com and the Hummingbird software, to make your strategy complete it essential that you can provide a mix if intriguing content. While the Twitter theme is “What Are You Doing”, that is only a small part of what it takes to truly connect with your followers. It has been said that “Content is King” and I would agree wholeheartedly.
You need to retain the followers you work so hard to build and engage them with quality information and authentic conversation so you may deepen your relationship with them. It’s also about sharing content so that both parties will benefit and grow as a result of the information exchange. It’s a two way street so part of the relationship building process is being engaged in the content of others as well. This is the essence of social networking and web 2.0 is all about interacting, sharing and disseminating interesting content.
The most important thing we can offer our followers are tweets that have value. Niche specific information is highly targeted, valued and appreciated. The information you provide is important to those in your niche because it will help them to learn, grow and improve the quality of their businesses and lives. Bookmark a number of sites that provide niche specific content and visit them daily looking for the best pieces of information that your followers will be thankful for.
General news and current events are appropriate to share regardless of niche. People have a broad range of interests and as humans beings as well as members of a society, we can generally relate to a wide variety of topics. Health & wellness, food/recipes, politics, sports are examples of topics that will more or less interest everyone. Sites such as www.HuffingtonPost.com, www.CNN.com and www.NewYorktimes.com are perfect examples of where to go for the latest news including some possible niche specific articles as well. Find a cool cooking site and share a favorite recipe once and a while, we all like a fun and tasty new dish to try out from time to time!
Social bookmarking sites such as www.Digg.com are an awesome place to find content. Articles are user submitted and people can vote (“digg”) on which ones they like which in turn increase their visibility. You can choose from a variety of topics many of which can be niche specific. I personally love to browse and tweet content from the “arts and culture” section to find cool visuals to send out to my following. As they say, a picture is “worth a thousand words” so I personally tend to look for cool photos and/or graphics and more often then not, it goes over with my followers very well.
www.StuffToTweet.com and www.Tweetmeme.com are a couple more great places to find articles with proven popularity. StuffToTweet is an index of the most popular content across the web. Find out what’s hot on top social bookmarking sites, Twitter, YouTube, news sites and popular blogs such as the #1 social media blog on the web, www.mashable.com. Tweetmeme indexes tweets that get the most retweets. Tweeting proven popular content greatly increases your chances of getting retweeted as well as opening up a dialogue with your followers. The content in these cases has already been “tested” and “approved” by the world at large.
Another tactic is to search Twitters trending topics which appear on the right hand column of your Twitter homepage. These are the most popular topics that the people in the Twitterverse are tweeting about at that moment in time. My all time favorite content to tweet are quotes. Everybody loves a good quote and will often retweet them so you’ll get extra exposure to their followers as well.
This is part of the real power of twitter….your posts can go viral! Not just quotes but any of the content you tweet that gets retweeted puts you in front of exponentially more people and provides another powerful way to gain even more like minded followers.
To get your followers interacting with you so the relationship building process can unfold, it is important to respond to other peoples tweets as well as retweet quotes or articles that your following may enjoy as well. You can also start conversation by posting questions or by polling your following to get them interacting with you. This can be fun and it’s this type of interaction that has most of us tweeting in the first place.
There is also the question of what not to tweet. Ego-centric tweets or spamming your website or affiliate links across the Twitterverse simply doesn’t work, yet you see this all the time. The golden rule of social media is do not spam your friends and followers. If you simply be yourself, you will naturally attract others of like mind and those people whom you attract will of course want to learn more about you and what you have to offer. No need to shove your info. down their throats!
You definitely want to keep it as interesting as possible! You will often see newbie’s following the “what are you doing” model tweeting one line updates about what they had for lunch, what song they are listening to, or what they are wearing. People crave value and if you are not delivering, they will drop you and find someone that will “bring it”.
Remember, this is about building relationships and if you truly want to succeed with Twitter As A Marketing Tool, keep the tweets about your followers needs, wants and desires and watch yourself and your business grow exponentially using the power and leverage of the hottest social media tool on the planet!
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Comments
3 Comments on Twitter As A Marketing Tool, Part 3: How To Build An Army Of Loyal Followers!
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Chris Cade on
Wed, 14th Oct 2009 8:24 pm
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Fredric on
Wed, 14th Oct 2009 9:21 pm
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Jaime on
Sun, 25th Oct 2009 12:46 pm
You really hit the nail on the head when you point out the importance of interaction. This is why we will see more and more celebrities actually engaging with their audiences on Twitter… shifting again from the “shout” technology to something more relational.
One thing I think is relevant to note is that although many people are quick to make blanket statements about what we should and should not tweet about, at the end of the day it’s all about connecting and building relationships. For example…
You mentioned for people to not make: “one line updates about what they had for lunch, what song they are listening to, or what they are wearing.”
However, I have found that if I am being conscious and aware of my audience, then mentioning those kinds of things significantly improve my relationships with others. For example, I’m a chocoholic and will occasionally tweet about what chocolate I am eating – and I get positive responses from the other chocoholics :)
Or if there’s a song I’m listening to that really touches me, I will occasionally share it – knowing that chances are, there are people in the audience I am connecting with who also resonate with the music (or message of the music).
So my own Twitter advice sort of extends what you’re saying – so that people realize they can really Tweet about *anything* as long as they are doing it in a conscious way with the intention to connect and an awareness of what will resonate with their audience.
Thanks for helping more people realize the value of Twitter, Fredric – it has the power to significantly affect world change (it already is), and even moreso when people grasp the magnitude of it and learn how to use it effectively.
-Chris
http://twitter.com/ChrisCade
Chris Cade´s last blog ..Entrepreneurs Know the Answer – By Loral Langemeir 
Hi Chris,
Thanks so much for sharing your perspective. Awesome response! My point regarding the one line tweets is that in order to use Twitter as marketing tool and build relationships with your followers, your content needs to include but extend way beyond the “What are your doing?” model.
You’re absolutely correct when used consciously, this can in turn help spark conversation and deepen relationships. It just so happens I’ve tweeted about what chocolate I was eating before and I got very specific and included the brand name, unique flavor and where it was purchased. I got quite a few responses as well.
Taking this a step further, you can snap a picture of what your eating and share that with your following or if your making something at home even creating a little cooking video or sharing the recipe will supercharge the content and bring value!
By simply being yourself, you will of course attract others of like mind. It is definitely important to keep the content interesting and always remember to bring value and give your followers information that will brighten their day and/or improve their lives.
~Fredric
Very good tips Fredric, I appreciate your knowledge and friendship..
Jaime´s last blog ..Sharing A Bit Of My Journey With You..
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