Of course, not every small business is familiar with Twitter-speak. Stephanie Lichtenstein of Micro Media Marketing in Miami, FL is a frequent guest on affiliate marketing expert James Martell’s podcast Coffee Talk. As founder and president of the social media company, she has seen many people incorporate Twitter with good results. If you are trying to understand Twitter- related terms, she suggests Googling the words “Twitter business glossary” for a link to Twitter’s glossary.
Some of the most frequently heard terms are:
- Tweet- 140 character status update
- Retweet- Sharing a received tweet with your followers, just like forwarding an email
- Followers- People who receive your status updates. You don’t choose them- they choose you. You can also follow other people.
- Hashtag (#)- The symbol used to categorize key words discussed on Twitter
- Twitter feed- A scrolling list of updated Twitter messages for a business
Important Twitter Points
1. Your tweets are public- Anyone can potentially see them. Don’t send out any private information over Twitter that you don’t want exposed to the public. You probably don’t want to include your phone number or personal information.
2. Direct Messaging (DM)- If you want to contact another user directly, you have to both be following each other. A Direct Message (DM) will go to them privately in that case. To DM someone who isn’t following you, Lichtenstein suggests sending a tweet that says “Hey, I want to send you a DM. Can you please follow me back?”
3. Tutorials- Although Twitter can seem a little overwhelming at first, it really isn’t. Twitter has a tutorial that will walk you through everything.
4. Marketing tools- If you are concerned about the amount of time it will take to update and monitor Twitter for your business, then it can be very helpful to take advantage of one of the social media marketing tools that is available. Hootsuite allows you to plan out your strategy and schedule tweets up to a month in advance. You will still need to monitor Twitter for current issues but it will take off some of the stress. You can keep Twitter update with as little as 30 minutes to an hour a day.
Outside Help
If you are still worried about navigating and monitoring Twitter, you can hire someone to help you. Lichtenstein’s company, Micro Media Marketing, and other social media firms, can provide services that set up your account the right way. Even people who have accounts may not have them set up correctly for the most impact and Lichtenstein says they regularly tweak existing accounts.They will also add nice graphics so that your company looks really great on Twitter. Then they will develop a strategy that includes daily tweets with a plan of action so that you make the most of your Twitter presence with the least amount of work. They will set up Hootsuite as your management tool so that you can see what people are saying about your business in real time. You always want to keep an eye on that.
You may want to hire a company to train people in your business to be in charge of social media. They can learn to incentivize in order to really get creative building your brand. There are so many techniques that experts like Lichtenstein are aware of that are shortcuts to big results.
You may still not feel comfortable having anything to do with the social media strategy. That’s OK too. Companies like Micro Media Marketing can take over all of your social media needs:
- Setting up the accounts
- Creating a strategy
- Monitoring the accounts every day
- Updating all of your statuses and interacting with customers
No matter how you want to approach social media, it should be a part of your small business branding strategy. With so many people relying on social media for their communication, it is important to get involved.
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