Posts Tagged ‘twitter for business’

Don’t Use All 140 Characters in Your Tweets

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Are you currently using Twitter for business? If so, congratulations! You’re doing the right thing. Twitter is a great tool for connecting with customers, prospects, and other individuals who share similar interests. It’s also a great way to promote your online content, events, products, and services.

For those of you who might be just getting started with Twitter, you may or may not know that Twitter only allows you to input 140 characters when creating a new tweet. This means your tweets have to be concise. You need to communicate your message in as few words as possible.

Follow @RyanTaft Philadelphia on TwitterRetweeting is a process whereby another Twitter user takes what you have tweeted and tweets it out to his/her Twitter followers. You can tell when something has been retweeted when a tweet is prefaced by the capital letters RT. The “RT” is usually followed by the original author’s username. The image to the right shows that @KratzPR retweeted my original tweet.

Retweets can make a huge impact in your success on Twitter. If someone takes time to ReTweet what you have to say, they are endorsing you. They are also exposing you and your tweet to all of their Twitter followers. This means that you may acquire a few new Twitter followers. Now imagine if one or a few of these new followers likes your tweet and decides to ReTweet it as well…Now we are really cooking. Welcome to the power of viral marketing.

The biggest key to getting others to ReTweet your content is to tweet information that your followers will find relevant and valuable. The next biggest key to getting others to Retweet content is to make sure you don’t use all 140 characters in your tweet. For each tweet, try to leave at least 10 characters out of your tweet. This way, when I go to ReTweet you, and Twitter automatically populates the “RT” characters and your username, I won’t have to alter your tweet in any way. If you use all 140 characters and I try to ReTweet you, I’m going to max out on my 140 character limit. The easier you make it for others to ReTweet you, the more likely they are to do so.

Twitter is a great tool for small businesses. By learning little tricks like this, success with Twitter for business will be much more likely.

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Facebook & Twitter Alter the Emergency Procedures at Your Small Business

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Online social tools like Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp are drastically changing how business gets done. Period. With that said, I’d like to take a look at one aspect of business that’s really benefiting from the increased use of online social tools. Emergency Procedures. Does your business have Emergency Procedures in place? For example, if you conduct business in and around BucksMont, PA where we were just hit with a foot of snow or more this past weekend, do you have a procedure in place to let employees know if your store will be open, closed, or opened late? Now how about this, do you have an Emergency Procedure in place for letting customers know?

Social Tools Help with Emergency ProceduresDo you remember using that Emergency Call List when your business was going to have to stay closed on a normal working day? You know, with each new employee you bring on, and for every old employee who leaves, you update that list, print it out, and make sure everyone knows the procedure. Usually it starts at the top with the owner or manager deciding if their store will open on a day where weather or other emergency factors come into play. Once the decision is made, the owner calls the next person in line, then that person is in charge of calling the next person, and so on.

Perhaps your business still operates this way? You know what the worst part is, what if you cannot get in touch with the person you’re supposed to call? Do you leave a message? Do you call back a bunch of times OR perhaps call the next person in line? Either way, it’s anxious moments knowing that if you don’t get through, other people may not receive the emergency information before they leave for work. Well, those days are over…

Now, through tools like Twitter and Facebook, small business owners can write a new procedure. That procedure is as follows: “In the event of an emergency where you feel there is the possibility that our store will close (ie. bad weather), please check our Facebook fan page before coming to work. Someone from the organization will make the decision and post it to Facebook prior to the start of the day.”

Here’s an example of one of the Facebook Fan page messages I saw on Saturday February 6, 2010 due to the winter storm that hit the Philadelphia, PA area:“Tranquility LIFE Spa & Hair Design, LLC is CLOSED today because of all the Lovely SNOW!” Say goodbye to those employee call lists. Small business owners are now able to post one message on Facebook and Twitter and simply instruct all employees to check those social media profiles on days when they feel their could be a closing situation.

As you can see business owners are naturally migrating to these tools as a way to communicate with employees. Online social tools are making it easier for businesses to communicate with employees during emergency situations, but they have also opened up a totally new procedure that many business owners should be taking advantage of: Communicating your situation to customers.

BucksMont Businesses Use Twitter During Winter StormsBefore the advent of using online social tools for business, there was really no way of communicating to customers that a store would be closed for the day. Granted, on days like the Philadelphia area had on Saturday, many people aren’t going out shopping in the first place. With that said, what if you’re a doctor’s office or another type of business where customers have an appointment setup on a day that’s in question? Well, you’d have to pay someone to answer the phone and unless you have a redirect system in place, that individual would probably have to go into the office. Obviously, that’s dangerous during bad weather days. Now, all of that has changed due to more and more businesses using online social tools to communicate with customers. A big key to this is also the comfort which customers have in using those same tools to communicate with businesses.

Now, on a bad weather day, businesses can tweet to their followers that the store will be closed or that there will be a delayed open. Businesses can send a Facebook message to fans informing them of the situation. Before a customer gets in his or her car to head out to your business, he or she is now checking your small business Facebook Fan Page or Twitter account to ensure you’re going to be there. If you’re not open and the customer finds out while at her computer, she’s thankful you saved her the trip. If you don’t post a message on your online social tools and a customer travels to your store, only to find out you’re closed, well then, she’s not going to be happy.

Here’s a message that went out to Master P’s World Class Tae Kwon Do Facebook Group yesterday:

Subject: No classes today – Saturday Feb 6

Hi Everyone,

Just spoke with Master P and he asked me to let you know that we won’t be able to have classes today due to the snow storm. We don’t want to be contributing to the additional cars on the road which make it difficult to clear, not to mention everyone’s safety.

Enjoy your Saturday afternoon in the snow. We will see you Monday when classes resume.

-Ryan

And another that went out over Twitter. This one is from the Best Buy in Pottstown, PA:

GOOD MORNING FACEBOOK! At this time we are probably looking at an 11:00am or 12:00pm opening. http://bit.ly/bYGHDO

And just to round things off, here’s a message I put up on the Catalyst Marketers Facebook Fan Page and Catalyst Marketers Twitter account the other day. This was not due to the winter storm 2010, but the same principles apply. I learned that our host provider had a server down and guess what? That server hosts CatalystMarketers.com. In real-time, I was able to inform all of our Facebook fans and Twitter followers that our site was down. I was then able to immediately inform them when it went back up. This way, they were not left wondering what’s going on with the site and when it would be back up.

Facebook wall post (server down – 9:48am): Our host has a server down and our site is running on it. CatalystMarketers.com will be back up shortly – fingers crossed

Facebook wall post (server back up – 10:32am): CatalystMarketers.com is back up. Sorry for the inconvenience.

As you can see, online social tools are changing the way small businesses operate during emergency situations. These tools have allowed for easier communication with employees, as well as, created a communication system for customers. Are you using online social tools during emergency procedures?

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Photo Marketing Meets Twitter To Offer Big Savings at FOREVER 21

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

I was on TweetDeck today when this tweet came through from @KelleyRenee: How am I not following @Forever21_tweet yet? 10% off $40+ online, now thru 2/6! http://twitpic.com/117uf0.

Now, I’m not really in the market for anything from FOREVER 21, but I usually check these things out for the marketing aspect of it. I always like to see what others are doing with their online efforts.

FOREVER 21 is using Twitpic to promote a new Valentine’s Day 2010 special savings opportunity. Twitpic is a Twitter application. It’s a free online tool which allows you share photos on Twitter. Users can upload a photo from their phone OR computer and then customize a message to accompany the picture. You then submit the entry and it gets tweeted to your Twitter account.

Photo Marketing for your small business

Small businesses can learn from FOREVER 21’s new promotion. You can have a designer create you a promotional image (costs should be less than $50 if you create the copy) and then you can use tools like Twitpic to share your promotion with the world. You can run the same promotion without the photo, but imagery really appeals to the growing masses of Right Brain Thinkers. Just ask Dan Pink.

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Dell Does Twitter – Do You?

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

Dell is a shining example of an organization using new social tools, in this case Twitter, to build its brand and communicate with customers. Dell has not one, but multiple Twitter accounts. One key to promoting your business on Twitter is to not be overly promotional. Every tweet shouldn’t be “buy this”, “discount on that”. Tweets should be informative and even push users to educational content that’s relevant to your business. Dell takes this theory to a whole new level.

Since Dell wants to make sure that they get all of their promotions out there, but at the same, do not constantly interrupt their followers with promotions, they’ve created a Twitter account solely for promoting refurbished Dell computers and electronics – @DellOutlet. By following @DellOutlet, twitterers are essentially opting in to receive Dell promotions. Dell makes it very clear that this particular account will be used for promoting their specials. This strategy allows Dell to get their promotions out without offending their followers. Can you incorporate this strategy into your small business? I think you can.

In a recent article written on Open Forum®, Dell’s Senior Manager for Corporate Affairs, Richard Binhammer spoke about how Social Media can work for small businesses, “Make it easy for your customer to talk to you. Do simple things to thank your customers for their business. Ask them for suggestions. Go where your customers congregate, whether it be Facebook or Twitter or elsewhere, and participate in those conversations. Also, listen to your customers in the blogosphere. What they have to say is vitally important to your business.”

The tools are out there and waiting for you to use them for your small business. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, there are online tools that can help your business be more efficient, as well as, help you interact and build relationships with your customers. That’s what it’s all about in this economy. You have to think differently, think smarter. How can you stretch your marketing budget while getting more of a return on those dollars? The answer is easy, use social tools. Your customers are using them, there is a ton of help out there to get you started, the costs are almost zero, and with a strong strategy in place, the results are fantastic. Get your small business on social tools today. If you need help, simply contact Catalyst Marketers.

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What Social Tool Are You Considering Using for Your Small Business?

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

There are hundreds of social tools out there for business owners to take advantage of. With that said, in order to be effective, you must choose tools that fit your business needs. The first step to figuring out what tools to leverage versus what tools to stay away from is conducting market research. Figure out what tools your customers are using and make sure your business has a presence on those tools. If your customers are using FourSquare and Yelp, then you should be using those tools as well.

What online social tool are you considering signing up for and why? How do you think this tool will help your business? Leave your responses in the comment section. Hopefully we can get a good list of social tools. Perhaps you’ll even find a few new tools that you’ve never heard of.

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Add the ReTweet button to Your Small Business Blog

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Do you have a blog for your small business? I hope the answer is “yes”. Blogging is a great way to spread your ideas, get the word out about your business and your business philosophy, as well as, position you as a thought-leader in your industry. Blogging definitely takes time, but the results can be very effective for growing your small business. A question that I get a lot about blogging is, “once I create a new blog post, how do I get people to read it?”

A great way to promote your blog is through Twitter. Twitter is an unbelievable information sharing tool. If you’re not on Twitter, you need to be, but that’s a blog post for a different day. If you have a blog, then you should have a ReTweet button on each blog post you produce because chances are, many of your readers are already on Twitter. There are two great pieces of software out there that you can utilize: TweetMeme and ReTweet.

Here at Catalyst Marketers, we use ReTweet, but it’s really just a personal preference. The button allows readers, who have Twitter accounts, to share your article on their Twitter profile. A few reasons to add a ReTweet button to each of your blog posts are:

  • Allows your readers to promote your posts for you
  • Your post gets in front of more new readers
  • The post gains credibility in the minds of new potential readers because someone they follow on Twitter, so someone they trust or share similar interests with, has taken the time to ReTweet your article
  • There’s a counter on the button, so each time the post gets ReTweeted, the counter increases, which shows new readers that many people have found this post informative

Embed the ReTweet Button in Your Blog

  1. Go to ReTweet.com
  2. Copy the appropriate javascript code
  3. Go to your blog’s source files and select the Single.php file
  4. Paste the javascript code into the appropriate area of the Single.php source file – A good place to put the code is in the top left side of the post (see this post for an example)
  5. That’s it, you’re all set

Check out the image below to see where our javascript code appears in our Single.php source file. Feel free to use the Comments Section of this blog to ask any questions that you have OR go to the Catalyst Marketers Facebook fan page and post your questions to our wall. Definitely don’t let the coding scare you off. Adding the ReTweet button to your blog is an absolute must if you want to drive more traffic.

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