In this blog post, we will talk about the following things:
- The 80/20 Rule
- 10 ways to effectively use Twitter for business
The 80/20 Rule
If you are familiar with this rule, feel free to skip to the next section.
The 80/20 rule is also known as the Pareto Principle. In mid-late 1800's an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 80% of the wealth in the country was controlled by 20% of the population. At first he found it strange, so he researched to find it the concept held true for all other countries as well. His findings were consistent throughout Europe. In his research, he also found that the 80/20 rule held true for other things in life (besides wealth). 80% of work is performed by 20% of people in a company. 80% of results are generated by 20% of activities. 80% of movie awards are won by 20% of people. You get the point.
My intent in this blog is to identify the 20% of Twitter activities that will generate 80% of results for your business.
10 Ways to Effectively Use Twitter for Business
In order to understand the effective Twitter activities I believe it is important to know and understand the ineffective activities that generate the minimal results. The following are activities that are eating up 80% of your time and producing 20% of intended results.
- Quest for a "perfect" Twitter profile.
- You follow other people daily with the hopes of them following you back. If they don't reciprocate to your "follow", you un-follow them.
- You post motivational quotes quite often
- You have a link to your Twitter account tucked away in some corner of your website.
- You tweets only include content from your website or content of interest to you.
- You post like a corporation instead of a human. In other words, your tweets have a personality of a rock.
- Converse. Build relationships by posting meaningful comments on other people's tweets. If you don't think you can keep up with all your followers, create Twitter Lists and add it to the ones you really want to build great relationships with.
- When people mention you or ask you a question on Twitter, reply back. It's not only good etiquette but it will create some fans for you. Most people with sizable following don't reply to others comments or questions. When you do, they will actually go, "Wow! S/He replied back. That's awesome!"
- Share great content that is of interest to your audience and not necessarily just you. For example, if you own a framing company, share content from around the web that will help people build lasting memories. Your followers will appreciate that.
- Let people know they can ask you any question about [your field of expertise].
- Stop auto following or auto un-following on Twitter. That's SPAM.
- Replace your profile picture from Twitter Egghead to a decent headshot of yourself.
- Add a sharing mechanism on all your blog posts and newsletters.
- Build custom pre-populated tweet buttons and spread them across your website. For example, if you have a special event or a news blurb you mention on a website, put a button next to it called "Tweet This". When people click on it, it should allow them to send a tweet about your event or news.
- Implement Social Logins for protected content. Basically, people can use their Twitter login to access the password-protected section of your site.
- Offer a Gift. When people follow you on Twitter, offer them some kind of a gift or a discount on your products and services.
I hope the material in this post helps you get more out of Twitter and grow your following. If you loved this blog post, write a comment below and make sure to follow me on Twitter @mayurgudka. Who knows? You just might love my tweets. (Say that last line 3 times really fast).
Cheers,
Mayur
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