#FollowFriday #SuperStarLadies @chrisbrogan style
Friday, May 28th, 2010Please read my orginal #FollowFriday post to understand how this works 
(more…)
Please read my orginal #FollowFriday post to understand how this works (more…)
My last post “50 Ways to get More from Linkedin” got a good response, so I decided to do one about using Twitter for business. Twitter is perceived in some quarters as a lesser business tool and sometimes suffers from a bad press. I personally have found it to be a very effective tool – provided of course you go about using it in the right way. To date, Twitter has generated for me – the most return vs. the time that I have put it, when compared to the other social media.
When using Twitter for business, It’s important to have a plan so that you have something to measure your results against. In my experience, the individuals and businesses that fail to leverage Twitter effectively are also those who have employed no strategy and/or have not taken the time to understand how to use it. So what better way to help you to get off to a great start, than taking advice from some people and businesses that use it well. So from me and some of my Twitter friends here are:
1. @CindyKing Remember that Twitter is a tool in your social media marketing/communication. It is like a hammer or a telephone… and so are all of the fun apps. If it’s a new medium for you, then don’t go blindly wielding that hammer all over the place. Spend lots of time listening to people on Twitter relevant to your business. Notice the different tactics people use. Start slowly. Give yourself 1-3 months to get a feel for the environment and to figure out the best way you can use Twitter to help your business.
2. @CindyKing If you remember that Twitter is just a tool, once you understand the environment it is easy to see how you can use it best to fit in with your business needs. And this approach also helps you to see how to integrate your Twitter activities into an overall social media marketing plan.
3. @whatswhat_sian It’s free and simple to sign up to Twitter. To make your listing look good ensure you have a catchy bio with a link to your website. This way someone can find out more info about you or your business if they need or want to. Ensure you add an avatar (Picture), preferably of yourself, as lots of people don’t like to interact with someone hiding their identity. If you are on Twitter to market a brand name then make sure your twitter name is your brand.
4. @whatswhat_sian Don’t protect your tweets if you’re aim is to converse with people.
5. @whatswhat_sian To speak to someone directly, type their twitter name preceded by the @ sign – eg. @whatswhat_sian Anyone following both of you can see those tweets. If you wish to say something to someone without anyone else seeing then you send a Direct Message (DM).
6. @davidabrock If you want, you can lurk for a while to get a feel for Twitter and what’s going on. Both look at interesting people, figure out the etiquette, etc.
7. @davidabrock Know who you are and how you want to be perceived in Twitter. Stated differently, know your personal brand and be true to it.
8. @skipanderson Post several dozen tweets over a period of several days (or more) before starting to follow people. Many visitors want to know what you’re all about before they follow you, and your tweets do that better than even your profile.
9. @whatswhat_sian It’s great if you already know someone on Twitter and look at who they are following or who is following them – it’s simple to click to follow them then. And the majority of the time they will follow you back.
10. @rbconsulting Plan on how you going to use the service. For me, I don’t really use it for chat, but more for circulating interesting info / links in relation to my areas of expertise or interest.
11. @Barros_Isabel Although there are many applications to back up Tweets I think the easiest and more reliable way is to create a RSS feed of your own Twitter account to yourself (email account). This should be done as soon as possible (ideally when you create your Twitter account).
12. @calebgardner It’s OK to start small. Follow some people that interest you, some that you want to network with – and be sure to upload your email contacts and follow the people you already know. Gradually you will start to build your network.
13. @calebgardner Don’t sign on to a service that guarantees you tons of followers in a short amount of time, and don’t immediately start following tons of people. Both are frowned upon in the Twitter community and will make lessen the quality of the medium for you.
14. @emmattdigital Don’t simply just self promote, but join in on conversations. Establish yourself as an expert.
15. @fredchannel ensure not to go mad with the “integration” fever. If you integrate everything you’ll annoy your audience. I would strongly suggest that you DO NOT integrate anything until you understand what’s going on, what message is coming from “here” and going “there”…
16. @fredchannel After launching a blog post for example, make sure that you use Twitter to spread the word. First, use tools like Hootsuite.com or any Twitter client that allows you to schedule tweets. Depending on the frequency of your posts, you’ll go ahead and schedule tweets for the following days (e.g. if you posts only once a week on Mondays, then schedule tweets for the rest of the week), so you post gets exposure to your Twitter audience AM and PM. You only have 140 characters so keep it short. What I suggest is that you first announce that you have a new post, then include the title (tell people what you wrote about!), then include the LINK to your post (extremely important) Finally include an engaging question that makes people want to learn more about your post.
17. @whatswhat_sian Follow people that are in the same location as you, or the same industry as you, and the businesses that you could benefit – there are several different apps for finding these.
18. @whatswhat_sian Put your twitter address on your website, emails, correspondence and your business card.
19. @rbconsulting I use twitter to circulate links to my blogs and articles of interest or discussions that I have started in LinkedIn etc.
20. @calebgardner Be careful just using Twitter as a way to continually blast out your own content. This is a sure-fire way to get ignored at best and unfollowed at worst. Instead start responding to people and having conversations. Share other people’s content. Then, when people come to know and trust you, you can share your own content.
21. @careerscoacheu Your tweets should be relevant and add value to your audience. Ask yourself does this tweet add value for my followers.
22. @careerscoacheu If tweeting a link – tell your followers the subject of the link so they know what they are clicking on.
23. @nialldevitt Twitter allows you to use up to 140 characters when creating a tweet. When tweeting a link, It’s a good idea to use a URL shortener to save space. Also, if you are planning to get RTed, you will need to leave space for the person/s doing the RTing.
24. @fredchannel I use Tweetdeck as my primary way to handle Twitter. It is a fantastic tool. When you’re actively looking to network, besides the chit-chat, there’s nothing better than look for people asking questions and try to hello them! Go to the very lower left (First column showing the people you follow) and click on the option below: you’ll find a space where you can search for keywords in order to filter the information in the stream of tweets. The best way to find people asking questions is very simple: just insert into that space “?” and everybody asking a question will pop up
25. @whatswhat_sian I believe networking on Twitter is basically done by chatting to people and getting retweeted (RT’d). Using tweetdeck it is simple to see other people talking and there could be something you are interested in chatting about too or maybe someone is asking a question and you know the answer to. If you are able to see the conversation then you are following them so it should not be a problem if you speak to that person. Getting something you say RT’d is huge networking as someone with perhaps 1,000 followers will RT you and there’s a possibility of those 1,000 followers seeing your tweet. Even if you think 10% are online at that time you’re still reaching 100 more people that maybe hadn’t heard of you before. This is much quicker than face to face networking. I look at it as follows – imagine you are stood on a stage in front of your 500 followers and you say what you want to say (in 140 characters of course lol). Of that 500 only 50 people are actually listening to you and only 5 of them decide to tell other people what you have said (i.e. an RT). Those 5 have a total of maybe 2000 followers between them and working off that 10% your tweet may have reached 200 people who aren’t even in the same place as you are on a stage and have never heard of you. Of course if your tweet is interesting enough it could be RT’d again and again – growing awareness of you. Don’t know about you but I’d never stand on a stage and talk to people so it’s a perfect way to network for people like myself.
26. @davidabrock Use Twitter as the starting point to build relationships. Reach out and touch them, get to know them over the phone, in person, via something more than 140. Some of my most valued relationships started in Twitter.
27. @rbconsulting Find out who tweeting on areas of interest to me and RT their tweets ts or reply with a response/question to their tweet.
28. @ganeca I’d suggest finding those local people & businesses using Twitter. Connect with them, and join in on their conversations that you can add to. You can use these sites to do that:
Twitter Advanced Search
ChirpCity
Nearby Tweets
Tweepz
Twellow Pages
29. @calebgardner Add yourself to services like Twellow and WeFollow. Start following people in your field and have conversations with them. See when others are posting their content and comment on it. Twitter is a fantastic networking tool when used that way.
30. @nialldevitt Its easy to get sucked in and waste a lot of time on twitter. At the start just spend a few hours a week seeking real results such as making X number of introductions etc.
31. @careerscoacheu Be disciplined about your time. Don’t get distracted with idol chit chat – that is if that is not your objective.
32. @calebgardner I’ve found that turning off Twitter completely for a period of time is the best ways to get things done that absolutely need to be done. There are also programs like Concentrate for Mac that will actually close programs for you and not allow them to open until a certain amount of time has passed.
33. @davidabrock Find good tools and leverage them. For example, Hootsuite is fantastic. It allows me to have a great twitter presence without actually spending a lot of time on Twitter.
34. @davidabrock Don’t let Twitter consume you. You can be seduced into spending all your time on Twitter. Set specific time for tweeting, stick with it, and again use the tools to leverage your presence. While I have a pretty good Twitter presence, I actually spent less than an hour —spread through the day—on Twitter.
35. @skipanderson Be real. Be yourself. Find your “Twitter Voice.” Authenticity will set you apart from all the Twitter noise and make you attractive to potential followers.
36. @careerscoacheu Follow mentors and competitors as well as targeted customers.
37. @whatswhat_sian Start building up your Twitter friends by following people – use friends that you already know or follow and look through their followers and followers. It’s likely you’ll have the same interests if they are friends of your friends.
38. @calebgardner the most important thing to remember on Twitter is: be a human. No one wants to follow a robot, and more importantly, robots don’t gain loyalty or get RTs (unless you’re a Dell or NYTimes, which you’re probably not.
39. @davidabrock Follow who you want, don’t feel obligated to follow everyone who follows you.
40. @davidabrock It’s about quality, not quantity. It’s actually very easy to get 1000’s of followers very quickly. But who cares if they are never paying attention to what you say. Focus on developing a strong, loyal following. Be loyal to them.
41. @davidabrock Be generous in your RT’s and in crediting others. Twitter is about sharing, RT’s are a great indicator about sharing.
42. @rbconsulting A great way to engage on Twitter is to place a short question at the end of your tweet – e.g. “Windows7 provides great performance – are you seeing this improvement on your pc?”
43. @calebgardner two keys to getting RTed are loyalty and quality of tweet. If people are loyal to the person behind the account, they’ll RT you just out of that loyalty. The more compelling your message, the more interested your followers will be and more likely to get RTed.
44. @skipanderson If you must directly self-promote yourself on Twitter (“Read about my new affiliate program that makes me money while I sleep!”), make sure you submit 50 non-promotional tweets for every self-promotional tweet. Blatant self-promotion makes me exercise my unfollow finger.
45. @careerscoacheu Be polite – Always acknowledge new followers and thank for RTs and Mentions.
46. @elainerogers Use the Pareto Principle – 80-20 rule – 80% of your tweets should be interactive and informative (including RTs), No more than 20% should be self promoting and declarative (without replying to anyone)
47. @davidabrock If Twitter is a part of your business strategy, then you got to be there. You can’t come in and out. You have to build relationships and results over time. Too many tweet for a few weeks, are disappointed in the results and give up. It takes time and building a presence and reputation. Related to the previous point, be clear about how/if twitter fits your business strategy. If twitter fits your strategy, there is not an excuse for not tweeting on a regular basis.
48. @nialldevitt Remember Twitter is like any other business tool, it’s possibly to use it effectively and it’s possible to use it poorly. Ultimately all social media is really about people and not technology. Always try to keep that in mind!
49. @careerscoacheu Engage, Engage, Engage – You have no visibility unless you contribute.
50. @davidabrock Have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously.
Please share your Twitter Tips in the comments section below.
Related links:
The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter
137 Small Business Twitter Tips
13 Twitter Tips and Tutorials for Beginners
Linkedin is a very powerful business tool. It’s wonderful for Networking, Personal Branding, Sales & Marketing, Job Seeking, Recruiting and More! 
I have used LinkedIn successfully for over a year now. Just to prove the point when creating this post, I posed a question in the Q&A section on Linkedin asking for people’s tips. Thanks again to everyone that contributed! So including some of my own here are:
1. Realise that Linkedin is a complex and multi-functional tool; it’s going to take some time to learn to use it wisely – Niall Devitt
2. Contact/connect with experienced users and ask them for their advice as to how best to use it – Niall Devitt
3. Know why you are using Linkedin – what is your primary goal? This will determine your strategy – Lisa Murray
4. Decide whether you are going to post a resume/CV-oriented profile or a customer-oriented one. If you’re looking for a job, the first is appropriate – Dave Stein
5. If you’re happy where you are but would like to further highlight your personal capital to your customers, use the latter. It should include accomplishments you’ve made from the customer’s perspective, not from your next employer’s. They’re usually quite different – Dave Stein
6. Just be real and authentic, don’t hype yourself or your product if it isn’t the truth. I always make it a point to get to “personally” know people and what they do…after all; this is ’social media’! – Jody Maley
7. List all your experience and education- Sahar Andrade
8. List all your achievements and honours- Sahar Andrade
9. Ensure your profile is set to full view – Lisa Murray
10. Personalise your Linkedin profile URL - Sahar Andrade
11. Create a proper profile with keywords, no typos and proper grammar – Sahar Andrade
12. Make sure you use a professional photo – no blanks or logos – people like dealing with other people! -Lisa Murray
13. Choose a good picture: ensure to have a clear, professional picture in your profile instead than a holiday pic – Fred Caballero
14. Update your status regularly to share your expertise in useful ways – Lisa Murray
15. Use your three links! You have the option to create three outgoing links to promote your company, blog, twitter account, etc. Use these to generate traffic wherever you want and edit the text so it becomes more attractive to click on. e.g.: don’t leave “My Company” when you can write “Social media blog” for example – Fred Caballero
16. Use box.net to add samples of your work – Sahar Andrade
17. Make sure to set up and add your company page to Linkedin – Niall Devitt
18. Give recommendations, endorse the people that you know are good at what they do – Niall Devitt
19. Get recommendations: one of the tops 5 things that most of the people pay attention to are your recommendations. These say a lot about you. Make sure you request an endorsement to everyone that knows how you work to share that experience with others – Fred Caballero
20. Always write a personal message when connecting with someone – Ian Cleary
21. Double check that you have spelled the person’s name correctly when sending invitations to connect -Ian Cleary
22. When someone connects with you, thank them for doing so Niall Devitt
23. Don’t reject invitations by hitting the IDK (I Don’t Know) button. Archive them instead – Judy B. Margolis, MA
24. Don’t upload your address book as a short cut to building your network. Instead, invite contacts one by one with a personalized invitation – Judy B. Margolis, MA
25. If you make a list of people you want to connect to and they are not in your network, join a group that they are a member of that you have a similar interest, start contributing to the group and then make a connection – Ian Cleary
26. Leverage your connections to get introduced to people you would like to form a relationship with, after all that’s what it all about, making connections – Niall Devitt
27. Join and participate actively in Linkedin groups. You’ll get known to the participants and be top of mind not only for their needs but also when other people ask “do you know someone?” Shel Horowitz
28. Choose relevant groups and be active: offer value and connect with other people in the group. -Fred Caballero
29. Make sure to read and observe group guidelines – play by the rules! -Niall Devitt
30. Stay away from self-promotion in Groups; instead demonstrate your expertise by contributing, asking questions, starting discussions and adding value -Niall Devitt
31. Start your very own group and invite people to join, this is a super way to get noticed and build your contacts – Niall Devitt
32. Demonstrate your competence and expertise by using the Groups and Answers features to help people, not sell your wares! – Lisa Murray
33. If you correspond with someone as part of a discussion, follow it up with an invite to connect – Niall Devitt
34. Upload valuable articles and posts to the news section – Niall Devitt
35. Don’t just connect on Linkedin, pick up the phone or meet for a coffee, you will really start to see the full value of Linkedin when you take your on-line relationships off-line – Niall Devitt
36. Ask and answer questions in the Q&A section: show your expertise – Fred Caballero
37. Don’t forget to close any questions you ask in the Q&A forum and rate them – Judy B. Margolis, MA
38. Set up an RSS feed for the category of questions/answers you are interested in so you can monitor them – Ian Cleary
39. Don’t flag/report questions and answers willy-nilly because you don’t agree with the politics or don’t like the individual or it looks like spam to you – Judy B. Margolis, MA
40. Use the events application to promote your events – Sahar Andrade
41. Attend events that your contacts are attended and arrange to meet up face to face – Niall Devitt
42. Connect before you arrive: do your homework and check out on Linkedin each on of the people’s profile before going to a networking event – Fred Caballero
43. Connect proactively: When you meet with someone face-to-face ask them if they’re on Linkedin. If they are not, INVITE THEM, and keep in touch. They’ll always remember you for that – Fred Caballero
44. Use the network updates for fresh content (SEO and networking) Sahar Andrade
45. Make relevant comments about your connections’ status updates: that shows that you care about them. Also try to offer help or assistance if there’s anything you can do to get them closer to what they’re looking for -Fred Caballero
46. Don’t hide your contacts. Share! Leave them open so your contacts can see who you are connected with and request for introductions. At the end of the day Linkedin is about getting connected. Facilitate that job. Be a good sport! -Fred Caballero
47. Do an advanced search based on whatever you want to keep top on and save this as an RSS feed e.g. recruiter might set up a search for “looking for a job” – Ian Cleary
48. Embed a video in your Slideshare application – Ian Cleary
49.Leverage your profile with applications: Embed your blog, show people what you’ve been up to and share your expertise. Include presentations with Slideshare and add the Amazon app to share with other what you’re reading and learn from others – Fred Caballero
50. Attend some Linkedin training or get some Linkedin coaching- Niall Devitt
Please share YOUR LinkedIn tips in the comments section below.
Twitter is the fastest-growing social networking site in the world.
“ Barack Obama used Twitter to generate publicity during his 2008 presidential campaign.”
In June 2009, following allegations of vote-rigging during the Iranian presidential election, protesters used Twitter to communicate with the outside world.
Harvard University found that 10 percent of users created over 90 percent of the content on Twitter. It also showed that many only used the service to follow others and did not post content of their own.
So much has been written and spoken about this modern day internet phenomenon.
On Thursday the 3rd of Sept at 6pm GMT and 1pm eastern time, I will host a Top Sales Experts International Masterclass “Twitter for B2B, It’s About Friends Not Followers”
I invite you join me in learning how to utilize Twitter’s amazing potential to nurture relationships and create sales opportunities in B2B.
To register for this Masterclass, just click on the banner (Top Right) - remember it’s free if you become a VIP Member
Update 02/09 it has come to my attention that there was a bug in the system so I am offering this masterclass for free. Register below
I am currently attempting (I stress “attempting”) to create a list of the most influential business twitter users in Ireland.
I am basing this on three factors and weighting them in this order
Num of Retweets and @Mentions
Num of Irish Followers
Total Num of Followers
The results so far have proving very surprising to say the least. Here is a taster of what I mean.
#People with 10,000s of followers and virtually no RTs or @mentions.
#Big Irish brands with lots of followers, but very few RTs or @mentions
#Irish State/Semi State bodies with lots of followers, but very few RTs or @mentions.
#Irish Social Media/Tech Experts with very few RTs or @mentions.
#In fact if you take the top 100 Irish users with the most followers, a surprisingly large amount have very little no RTs or @mentions.
Now this was never going to be name and shame project. In fact my objective was rather to discover the people in Ireland I had most to learn from. That being said, I am very surprised with lack of effectiveness of so many Irish people and organisations with large numbers of followers.
To be clear, I am not questioning the tool here, I am questioning the people using the tool I think it raises an interesting question.
Why would people continue to put time and energy into a tool that appears to generate so little return for them?
Here are some possible causes in my opinion, please let me know if you can think of more.
#Many continue to be obsessed with numbers of followers. The fact that these same followers are paying no attention does not appear to resonate.
#Many continue to view and use Twitter as a broadcast tool only, they remain oblivious to its potential as a relationship builder.
#Many organisations start using Twitter because they feel it’s expected, rather than asking, what could Twitter add to this organisation?
#Twitter merely reflects a society where many are bad listeners or are only focused on the “what’s in it for me?”
#The wrong people within organisations are being entrusted with the responsibility to manage Twitter
#Much of the training/content spoken and written about Twitter is focused on the wrong places - It lacks the sophistication needed to teach people to get the most out of the tool.
The reality is that in most cases, it is probably a combination of above and more. The challenge as I see it is this. Twitter is an extremely easy tool to start to use, the amount of learning is minimal. Twitter is a difficult tool to use effectively, the amount of learning required is much more.
There lies the gap, most people can use Twitter but many struggle to use it in a sophisticated and worthwhile way. In many cases, followers aside, we are still struggling to get it.
Btb Guest Author
Bob Hogan
Here are some very practical tactics that any business can use to reduce their business costs in areas that often have low cost visibility but with unnecessarily high costs. Just pick and choose the ones that suit your business best.
1. Mobile Phones: Do your research! Choose a tariff that delivers you best value for your money – driving the cost of other calls and call types down e.g. free internal calls to all company mobiles and landline numbers. Constantly monitor and amend your plan to take full advantage of your actual usage profile/requirement. Ensure your provider does what you want them to do. If not, move to an alternative provider.
2. Desktop Print: Set the default printing function on all your office PCs / Laptop to print black & white and on both sides of the pages. Office paper is one of the single biggest costs and by taking this action you could not only reduce your paper costs by up to 50% but avoid paying for colour copies, often about 10 times the cost of Black & White!
3. Print Material: Switch all your variable print material (business cards, leaflets, compliment slips, etc) to be printed digitally. The quality today is fantastic and turnaround times can be measured in hours! This can lead to reducing printing costs by 60-70%!
4. Mobile Phones: Introduce and implement a “fair use” policy for all staff that have mobile phones – sharing the responsibility for individual bills with a “3 strikes – you lose it” caveat. If your staff know the bills are monitored, spends will be significantly lower than a similar business without the same policy.
5. Energy Costs: Electricity & Gas can be a significant cost for most businesses and this can run to tens of thousands of Euros per annum. There are two ways to drive these costs down, 1. Demand challenge – related to the volume you use. There are many web sites giving you lots of tips and hints in how to reduce energy costs. 2 Supply Challenge - recent competition to the market has allowed a number of very reputable alternative business energy providers to enter the market. We recommend you research these providers and select one suiting your supply profile. Savings here can vary from 5-30%pa!
6. Desktop Print: Install MFDs (Multi Functional Devices) into your offices. This utilizes the benefits of a single high tech device to replace your traditional photocopier, scanner, printer and fax. Not only will you reduce your overall hardware costs by implementing an all inclusive monthly cost structure but you can also reduce your monthly operational costs and avoid additional charges such as toners, service and maintenance.
7. Office Stationery: With this low value / high volume item, appoint a single source of supply. Working with that supplier to set up your own ‘essential items’ catalogue of pre-selected items at pre-agreed prices. Maintain these benefits by reviewing your monthly suppliers report – taking appropriate action as needed
8. Office Stationery: Ensure your provider “swaps” brand name products for “own brand”. You can set up this arrangement in advance with your supplier so that any of the more expensive branded items ordered are automatically ‘swapped’ and the suppliers own brands are the ones actually delivered – which can often be as low as 25% of the branded items costs and manufactured by the same company.
9. Mobiles: Ban all costly premium services. These can account for a significant amount of a businesses total bills and generally very little if any is business related.
10. Print Material: Rather than paying an external print company to produce your standard business forms (especially the internally used ones), set all these forms up on a shared business drive. Your staff can then print these forms when they are required (and if you’re clever, even merge with the required data!). You’ll also have the flexibility to make changes at very short notice with no wastage or obsolete material!
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Bob Hogan is managing director of New Wave Purchasing a company that provides purchasing expertise for Irish businesses. Working mainly with SME’s to reduce their spends in key cost area such as Telecoms IT, Company Print, Marketing, Desktop Printing, Office Stationery, Energy (Electricity and Gas) and IT Consumables - their focus is on driving unnecessary costs out of your business. Although a new arrival to the Irish Market, New Wave Purchasing has already delivered on average 31% cost savings for our customers.
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In the News
New Linked Group “Growbiz Tweets”
For people that are interested in using twitter effectively and organically to grow business.
Following on from the success of Sales Leadership Ireland and the great response I had to my Twitter posts last week - I decided to start up a new group dedicated to using Twitter for biz.
Just click on the pic below to join.
Follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/growbiztweets
Part one received a great response. A BIG thank you to everyone who took the time to read it.
Are you being Talked About?
You hope so?
This is a very simple way to use twitter. You can monitor for mentions of you or your brand. If people are saying (tweeting) good things, and even when they are tweeting bad things; if you engage in the conversation - Twitter gives you an opportunity to market yourself in a positive way.
Get Talked About (RTed)
It’s easy, just SHARE
I am not a big brand, so when I started using twitter, I had only a very limited number of mentions in the twittersphere - I knew I needed to change this.
Now, if I twit a piece of information like a new blog post on Twitter, many others will RT which in turn sends additional people to my blog. So far, this has meant an additional 50-100 visitor per day.
Note: All this helps to build your friends (followers) organically. Simply put, the more you put in - the more friends and RTs you will get back out.
RT @nialldevitt #twittertip make sure you comment/recommend why someone should read the RT
RT @nialldevitt #twittertip if you want to be RTed, make sure you keep your tweets to less than 140 characters
Who are you Talking to?
The art of conversation
As I mentioned, I am at heart; a salesperson - this is the bit that really interested me about Twitter . Can it help me to sell my services? The answer is a resounding YES.
One big advantage, Twitter has over other social media is that it predominately happens in real time - hence you can have live conversations in the Twitter virtual world.
If you think about it, Twitter is the perfect online environment for the sales professional because:
And these are all key skills in developing relationships (prospects) …..Yippee!
Ok, so the questioning and listening skills that are required might be more subtle; than say those needed in a traditional face to face setting (meeting). I definitely believe it’s worth the effort, because the opportunity to do so is enormous.
Remember: RTing is at the start and heart of this process - In essence, it is both the seed and the building block rolled into one.
One of the reasons I really get Twitter is, I know that with the right amount of savvy - I can get to talk to key people within organizations right now. Going down more traditional prospecting routes, these same conversations could take me weeks to achieve. If you factor in the Twitter culture (the RT) you quickly come to realise - that Twitter is highly sophisticated business development tool.
Taking it Offline
VERY IMPORTANT!
If you really really want to maximise on Twitter’s potential, the next step is to take these relationships offline. Again, this is easy, start by sending a DM and then arrange to have phone conversation, a coffee or a meet up.
RT @nialldevitt #twittertip every day, take one online relationship and make it offline
It’s Additive
I hope you enjoyed my Twitter Story thus far. I am off to tweet and retweet. You can catch me on Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/nialldevitt
Please don’t be a follower, be a friend
As some may already know, I was once upon a time social media sceptic. While I could see a distant value in using these tools, I remained unconvinced as to how an old fashioned sales gun like me - could generate real B2B sales using social media.
If I was sceptical about social media in general, I was entirely sceptical about Twitter. It appeared to me at first glance to be a lowest common denominator kind of tool.
My initial impressions
Having thousands of followers appeared to be the name of the game. With so many tweets and re-tweets, how could a B2B salesperson like me develop anything that resembled a meaningful business relationship on here? Where is the sophistication I thought? This is a nothing but a school yard tool containing a myriad of little broadcasts and where no one appeared to be listening.
So about two months ago and against my own better judgement - I decided to persevere with Twitter.
I started with Three Objectives
So what I have I learnt?
Is Unique because it’s Pick Up and Go
Twitter is unique; It’s a “pick up and go” tool. It is it’s simplicity of use that makes it so effective. As I said earlier, I initially thought that this was a failing, but now realise that this is what actually makes it so effective . This is also probably one of the main reasons behind its massive popularity.
It Takes Time to Truly Get It.
That’s right, even though it is easy to use, it still takes time to work out how best to use it. While its functionality may be straight forward, the potential of this functionally is not. This is where the learning is, and this is what takes time to master.
So it’s a Broadcast Tool, Right?
Yes it is, but that is less than half the story.
Twitter is a truly amazing broadcast tool. It allows you to instantaneously tweet and get information out there. If others see value in this information, they will re-tweet it, further maximising on your potential audience.
It’s about Followers and Lots of them?
NO ITS NOT!!
The term “followers” is in my opinion an unfortunate Twitter description. It is the interpretation of what is a follower? And why should I follow? That turns people off understanding and using twitter effectively.
I prefer to think of my followers and those that I follow as “friends” or perhaps a more approvite description might be “potential friends”
The Most Important Letters are R and T
RT @damienmulley: Advising to follow “influencers” on Twitter is downright ignorant/fatal. Everyone has influence due to 2 letters: R and T
Damien Mulley brilliantly highlights through one of his tweets why re-tweeting is the most important thing that you will do on Twitter.
Think of retweets (RT) as Twitter’s very own currency.
In Part 2
In Part 2, I will be discussing why in my opinion, Twitter should be used as both a Sales and a Marketing tool and why if you only see Twitter as a marketing tool - you might very well be missing the Twitter boat.
In the News
Over at Top 10 Sales Articles, Diane Helbig has taken a commanding lead, but it’s still early days - have you voted yet?
Btb Guest Author
Jonathan Farrington
Micro-blogging service Twitter remains the preserve of a few, despite the hype surrounding it, according to research.
Just 10% of Twitter users generate more than 90% of the content, a Harvard study of 300,000 users found.
Estimates suggest it now has more than 10 million users and is growing faster than any other social network.
However, the Harvard team found that more than half of all people using Twitter update their page less than once every 74 days.
And most people only ever “tweet” once during their lifetime, the researchers found.
“Based on the numbers, Twitter is certainly not a service where everyone has seen it has instantly loved it,” said Bill Heil, a graduate from Harvard Business School who carried out the work.
On a typical online social network, he said, the top 10% of users account for 30% of all production.
“This implies that Twitter’s resembles more of a one-way, one-to-many publishing service more than a two-way, peer-to-peer communication network,” the team wrote in a blog post.
Silent crowds
Twitter is a social networking website where people can post messages of 140 up to characters - known as “tweets” - that can be seen by other users who subscribe to their feed.
Its growth has been described as “explosive” and has become the poster child of social networking sites, particularly amongst media companies.
Twitter is a broadcast medium rather than an intimate conversation with friends.
Recent figures from research firm Nielsen Online show that visitors to the site increased by 1,382%, from 475,000 to seven million, between February 2008 and February 2009. It is thought to have grown beyond 10 million in the last 4 months.
By comparison, Facebook - one of the most popular social networking sites by number of visitors - has 200 million active users and grew by 228% during the same period.
Research by Nielsen also suggests that many people give the service a try, but rarely or never return.
Earlier this year, the firm found that more than 60% of US Twitter users fail to return the following month.
“The Harvard data says very, very few people tweet and the Nielsen data says very, very few people listen consistently,” Mr Heil told BBC News.
‘Super user’
The Harvard study took a snapshot of 300,542 users in May 2009. As well as usage patterns it looked in detail at gender differences.
For example, it found that men have 15% more followers than women despite there being slightly more females users of Twitter than males.
It also showed that an average man is almost twice more likely to follow another man than a woman, despite the reverse being true on other social networks.
“The sort of content that drives men to look at women on other social networks does not exist on Twitter,” said Mr Heil. “By that I mean pictures, extended articles and biographical information.”
However, said Mr Heil, the most striking result was that so few people used the service to publish information, preferring instead to be passive consumers.
For example, the median number of lifetime tweets per user is one.
“Twitter is a broadcast medium rather than an intimate conversation with friends,” he said. “It looks like a few people are creating content for a few people to read and share.”
Some “super users” can have thousands or even hundreds of thousands of followers.
Currently, the most popular person to follow on Twitter is the movie star Ashton Kutcher who has over two million followers.
However, the service bills itself as a way to “communicate and stay connected” with “friends, family and co-workers”.
“The Twitter management need to decide if this is a problem,” said Mr Heil. “And if they decide it is, how they will tweak Twitter to become more acceptable to the average user?”
Very interesting!!
Thanks to BBC News.
Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author, and consultant, who has guided hundreds of companies and tens of thousands of individuals around the world towards optimum performance levels. He has authored in excess of three hundred skills development programmes, designed a range of unique and innovative process tools and has been published extensively on a wide range of business topics including organizational and sales team development, leadership and the customer imperative. Jonathan’s first book, “Tougher At The Top” will be published early in 2009. Visit his website @ www.jonathanfarrington.com
In the News
Here is a second very interesting post from Jonathan called “Dear Customer, Meet Me On Twitter. Dear Vendor, Why Should I Do That? “
“We all know that a vitally important sales activity is that of managing existing customer accounts, to consolidate and grow the relationship. Yet unfortunately, when compared over time, the customers’ interest levels increase while salespeople’s interest levels tend to decrease. This creates a “relationship gap” and is due entirely to complacency. I happen to believe that “complacency levels” are increasing alarmingly, and this goes some way to explaining declining levels of sales achievement”
Jonathan highlights why increasing dependence on Sales 2.0 tools may end up decreasing the levels of time and activities spent managing existing accounts and relationships. I think he makes a very strong case why salespeople should proceed with caution.
Staying with the Twitter theme, Jordan McCollum tells us that to”Breathe into a paper bag. Put your head between your knees” because Twitter traffic is now at best flat or maybe even declining.I guess I may have to start looking for another replacement addiction
Over at TSE
TSE Masterclass Schedule
Today @ 6pm
“Engage More…Sell More” presented by Skip Anderson
Thursday @ 6pm
“Cold Calling in the 21st Century: The New Rules” presented by Wendy Weiss
Thursday June 25th
“Mom Was Right! Honesty is the best policy and, in today’s tough selling market, a very profitable one” presented by Colleen Francis
Tuesday June 30th
“The Incredible Value Of Sales Team Audits” presented by Kendra Lee and Jonathan Farrington
Remember each masterclass is $59.50 on it’s own, but if you join through my blog as a VIP member - you get all this and more, much MORE for $25 so why not:
Take the tour
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Carlsberg run a TV advertising campaign, based on always having more than 2 choices. The punch line, “there is always choice c”. Choice c, in this instance refers to some on the spot clever thinking - leaving the person in the ad with an out - from some kind of sticky situation.
When faced with the competitor question, a business or salesperson may believe they have 3 choices.
They can:
Join the Competition
Beat the Competition
Ignore the Competition
Why is it, that many continue to choose c?
Markets are smaller, competition is greater than ever, yet many companies and salespeople persist in choosing to operate “a head in the sand” approach - when dealing with competitors.
A Wake UP Call!!!. Competition is fierce and it’s not going to go away. There are only two real choices, because c is not a choice - It’s in-action and a non-decision.
Wait a minute, I hear you say “what about cutting prices”. Surely; this is an effective way to deal with competitors.
“NO, NO, NO, it’s not”. It’s taking choice C again. Here’s why, cutting prices may have a short-term impact. It will initially win you business. However, sooner rather than later, the competition will work out how to effectively deal with your price-cutting - or they will match it.
So around and around you will go, until you are right back where you started, only this time - you have created a whole new set of problems for yourself.
So here are the 2 real choices.
a. Join the competition through forming strategic alliances and partnerships.
or
b. Beat the competition through competitive positioning, developing a strategy for dealing with the competition question and using competitive selling skills effectively when selling.
When dealing with the competition. Remember, there is only a and b…………there is no choice c.
In the News
Check out these four posts:
Dave Stein asks “How Do You Fix Sales Ineffectiveness?”in a brilliant post that’s generated lots and lots of debate. Dave says “There is a proven path. The answers are there for everyone to see. There are companies you can read about and observe that have achieved sales excellence. So, recession aside, why is sales as a profession and function, losing ground?”
Dave Brock investigates and attempts to provide answers in his three posts ” Sales Force Ineffectiveness, Conjecture on the Future of the Profession Parts One Two & Three“
Over at TSE
On Tuesday, we will witness the launch of the new Top Sales Expert’s site - probably the most significant sales related site on the internet. To coincide with the re-launch, a new Executive Board has been formed to oversee the team, and a “working commitee” will also be appointed in the coming weeks.
Here is the new board.
Top row, left to right: Paul McCord, Jill Konrath, Jonathan Farrington, Colleen Francis, Keith Rosen and Joanne Black.
Bottom row: Wendy Weiss, Dr. Greg Stebbins, Nancy D. Solomon, Kevin Eikenberry, Linda Richardson and Kendra Lee.
Over at SLI (Sales Leadership Ireland)
Now 145 members and counting, To join click here.
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Well, I think sales people don’t have a bad reputation. They are simply no more RELEVANT. Why? Read “death of a sales man”. No no no - I mean read it NOW - read it again - NOW. It will tell you WHY. If you don’t believe me - you don’t believe me like the main character in the plot didn’t listen to the youngsters who took over. Dave (Stein), you want to give them a “entirely different orientation” - wooo how cool is that. Terry, are you still hanging on to the old “solution selling stuff” from 30 years ago? Next comment may be about the “reference selling” method, or all the other good old ways of selling. Anybody up for the “killer instinct” Rarrrrrrr. How about the good schools from Miller Heiman…
Come on people what are you dreaming about at night? You are over fertilized and squeezed out people that try harder and harder to meet the commission, the forecast to walk through your “funnel” that is more like a “tunnel” with no light at the end. You get asked to work harder - you pull in more cold calls, you “align” you call centers… How about finding yet another more fine tuned sales methodology based on Yogi what’s his name. Don’t you realize that YOUR way of selling is DEAD
This is a comment by Axel Schultze from Dave Brock’s post “Why do Sales People have such a Bad Reputation?” on The Customer Collective. This new type of pitch from a new type of salesperson refers to the role of social media tools in the B2B selling environment. Axel followed this up with his own post on this topic Death of a Salesman - Version 2009.
So REALLY, how effective are these new technologies in producing additional sales? and are they now, as has been claimed in some quarters already replacing established sales methodology and processes?
Well according to a new study by ES Research Group, Inc. (ESR), one of the leading research and advisory firms on sales effectiveness, social media tools such as Jigsaw, LinkedIn,Twitter, Plaxo, Facebook, Hoovers and OneSource may be useful for other purposes, but most of them aren’t helping sales teams close many B2B deals today. The survey was developed in cooperation with The TAS Group.
Based on a survey of nearly 400 sales professionals in the U.S., the report found that only LinkedIn (86%) and Hoovers/OneSource combined (61%) were used by more than half of respondents in their selling efforts. Facebook (50%), Plaxo (48%), Twitter (31%), and Jigsaw (26%) trailed in use.
Note: Hoovers and OneSource are separate companies but were combined for survey purposes because of their similar services.
Of respondents actually using the tools for sales, Hoovers and OneSource were the only tools helping more than half (54%) of them win B2B sales sometimes or often. LinkedIn was next at 42% and Jigsaw followed at 35%. Worst were Facebook (15%), Plaxo (13%) and Twitter (13%).
“The results demonstrate that with all the hype and buzz, most social network tools aren’t helping sales teams sell more yet,” Said Dave Stein, CEO and founder, ES Research Group. “For example, Twitter has not come into its own as a salesperson’s tool. It is presently a marketing tool that can potentially benefit the sales organization by contributing to the generation and nurturing of new sales leads. For now, the use of sales methodologies integrated with CRM systems and other sales enablement tools are proving far more successful in driving sales.”
Other key findings include the following:
The ESR survey of sales representatives in a broad set of industries examined the prospecting process, the selling process, and the storage and retrieval of customer and prospect information.
No one doubts, the evolving role that social media technologies will play in the B2B selling environment, however the evidence clearly demonstrates that their present significance is no where near what some would have us believe. This is a topic of conversation that we will no doubt re-visit as the months and years go by. For now though, I applaud Dave and the ES research group for seeking out the facts of the matter, and for giving me the reassurance to continue to deliver the best advice for my customers and their sales people.
Buy the 10-page ESR/Insight™ Brief , The New Social Media: Do They Enable B2B Selling?
Over at Top Sales Experts,
Our Timetable for April includes:
First up in April is the inaugral TSE Roundtable- “The Future Of Professional Selling” featuring five of the world’s leading sales experts: Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Dave Stein, Nigel Edelshain, and Jonathan Farrington.
This an event you really should not miss out on - simply click on the banner below for full details and to book your place.
On April 16th, we launch the TSE Webinar Series, and I know that you are going to be very impressed with the line-up of almost FIFTY top sales gurus, who will be delivering top class presentations - simply click on the banner below to see the full schedule.
On April 21st, we launch “Sales Hardtalk” a daily dose of hard hitting advice, commentary and sales tips - easily downloadable and in bite size chunks, not to be missed.
Finally, at the end of April, the Top Sales Experts team will be launching their latest Ebook, packed with contributions from all of us - more details soon.
