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5 Ways to Use Twitter Tips
Without Using Twitter
 Just when you thought there was nothing more to say about Twitter, Anita Campbell, the highly respected Editor-in-Chief of Small Business Trends, has published 137 Twitter Tips: How Small Businesses Get the Most from Twitter. Last May, Campbell invited readers to share their very best advice for how small businesses can use Twitter.com, the social "micro-blogging" platform, to grow their businesses. She chose the best to include in her e-book.
But wait. You say you are not a Twitter fan? Heard it doesn't do a thing for your business? That it's just another huge time suck?
There are two sides of the Twitter fence. Seems you either love it or you find absolutely no value in it. But I'm not going to take on that issue today.
What struck me with Campbell's tips was that you can substitute almost any marketing or networking activity, and the tips still apply. Let's look at one tip from each of the five categories:
5 Ways to Use Twitter Tips Without Using Twitter
1. Getting Started- Vincent Ring of Maintent Enterprises says: Stay with it and build a campaign. I have too many associates that don't get it right away and give up, criticize it, and don't go back. The Takeaway: For any marketing effort to get results, you must focus on a couple of important goals and understand what results you are looking for. Measure them, even. 2. Smart Marketing- Rena Reich of Rena Live advises: Don't only talk about what's new with you. It's important to interact with the community. Create relationships. Business is personal. The Takeaway: Picture a Chamber of Commerce mixer. You wouldn't walk up to someone you don't know and say, "I have a website design special on right now for just $999. Would you like to hire me?" You build the relationship. Show your expertise in a helpful way first. 3. Observing Etiquette- Judy Dunn of Cat's Eye Marketing (hey, that's me) says: Please, please, please stay away from controversial issues that divide the community. The Takeaway: It's like going on a business forum or social networking site to make new connections and starting a thread on capital punishment or gun control or the presidential candidate you voted for. Not going to win, my friend. You will probably disengage (or enrage) at least 50 percent of your followers or readers. And yet I see some people do that. 4. Getting 'Retweeted'- Kathy Breitenbucher of the Pedestal Group recommends: Say something worth repeating. This is the same as if you were at a party-say something that the person you are talking to will go tell someone else. The Takeaway: Okay, a "retweet" is just Twitter language for a tweet that gets passed along and shared with someone else's network, thus giving your content more eyeballs. Whether it is your website copy or a newsletter or a networking lunch, offer value-something people will want to pass on to their friends and colleagues. 5. Managing Your Time- David Slatter of Customer CSI advises: Schedule and treat tweet sessions as you would a meeting. Be selective. The Takeaway: We have too many bright shiny objects to distract us from our work and social media is just another one. But if you have ever read any of my 15-Minute Marketer tips, you know how much can be accomplished with just 10-15 minutes of undistracted, focused time each day. This tip also applies to all of your marketing.
Now, if you are on Twitter, you know that these tips work in the Twitterverse. But if you aren't tweeting, and don't plan on doing it, don't the tips still make sense in the "normal" business world?
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