GOOD TWEET - BAD TWEET - LETS TWEET

 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business



   First Steps

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search
    to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words
    that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.
3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this
    doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
5. Share links to neat things in your community.
    ( @wholefoods does this well).
6. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead.
    ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)
7. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it.
    Others will tune out.
8. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories.
     ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)
9.  Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.
10. Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga.



      Ideas About WHAT to Tweet

11. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”,
      answer the question, “What has your attention?”
12. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit.
      People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
13. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s
      coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
14. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
15. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets
      interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
16. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly
      impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
17. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful.
      Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
18. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering
      to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for
      human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
19. Don’t toot your own horn too much. (Man, I can’t believe I’m
      saying this. I do it all the time.
      – Side note: I’ve gotta stop tooting my own horn).
20. Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck
      out of others, too.

    Some Sanity For You

21. You don’t have to read every tweet.
22. You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you
      (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
23. Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel
      there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation
      ( got this from @pistachio).
24. Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if
      someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
25. 3rd party clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier
      to manage Twitter.
26. If you tweet all day while your coworkers are busy, you’re
      going to hear about it.
27. If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting
      all the time, you might hear about it.
28. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and
      all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
29. If someone says you’re using twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an
      opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.
30. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have
      posted is a great way to build community.

    The Negatives People Will Throw At You

31. Twitter takes up time.
32. Twitter takes you away from other productive work.
33. Without a strategy, it’s just typing.
34. There are other ways to do this.
35. As Frank hears often, Twitter doesn’t replace customer service
    (Frank is @comcastcares and is a superhero for what he’s started.)
36. Twitter is buggy and not enterprise-ready.
37. Twitter is just for technonerds.
38. Twitter’s only a few million people. (only)
39. Twitter doesn’t replace direct email marketing.
40. Twitter opens the company up to more criticism and griping.

    Some Positives to Throw Back

41. Twitter helps one organize great, instant meetups (tweetups).
42. Twitter works swell as an opinion poll.
43. Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
44. Twitter at events helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
45. Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially
    if the news impacts online denizens).
46. Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can
    do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s?
47. Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities
    to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).
48. Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
49. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are
    online (mine are).
50. Twitter can augment customer service. (but see above)

    What else would you add? How are you using Twitter for your business?

    The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to
    writing 100 useful blog posts in a row    about the tools,
    techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your
    business, your organization, or your own personal interests.
    Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series.