More and more I’m seeing LinkedIn Group Members using LinkedIn Discussions to add Facebook and Twitter connections. At first glance you think to yourself, hmmm, this is a good idea. After a little time though, you realize that this is a failed strategy. Why? Well it gets back to a point we make over and over again at this company, when it comes to online marketing, it’s about QUALITY over quantity. Too many business owners make the mistake of thinking that if they have a large quantity of followers they will be successful. Unfortunately, that’s not the case if ‘quality’ is missing.
So what does this LinkedIn strategy provide to business owners? Does it align to your goal of selling more products and services? Let’s find out.
These LinkedIn Groups are full of business owners, all of whom are looking to grow their Twitter and Facebook following. They see this discussion topic and decide to go through and ‘Like’ all of the Facebook pages posted in the discussion thread. Then they post a link to their own Facebook page and let group members know that they have already ‘Liked’ all of their pages and request that those owners do the same. Those owners oblige and your Facebook ‘Likes’ jump from 100 to 125. You’re thinking, brilliant! I just increased my Facebook ‘Likes’ 25%. That’s great, now what?
Once you’ve increased your Facebook ‘Likes’ and Twitter followers you continue to post content on those channels expecting that this will lead to more comments and ultimately more sales. What too many business owners are finding out is that once the other owners follow you on Twitter and ‘Like’ you on Facebook, they NEVER come back to your Facebook page and NEVER interact with you on Twitter. If they’re not engaging with you that means your content is never showing up in front of their audience, which means you aren’t going to generate more comments and you’re certainly not going to increase sales.
On the surface this LinkedIn strategy for growing your social media connections seems like a quick fix to that nagging issue of not having a lot of Facebook ‘Likes’ and Twitter followers. Unfortunately, this strategy doesn’t help you achieve your ultimate goal of selling more products and services. Why? Because it’s a quantity-focused strategy and not a quality-focused strategy. If you want to sell more products and services then you HAVE TO focus on QUALITY social media connections.
What are Quality Social Media Connections?
Here at Catalyst we ALWAYS tell clients not to worry if you have 5 followers or 500, as long as those who ARE following you take the time to visit your Facebook page and leave comments and ReTweet your content on Twitter. You want Brand ADVOCATES. You don’t want random followers who never take the time to see what you have to say. Quality social media connections are the folks who are going to stop by your event, share your blog article with friends, and take advantage of your promotions.
Next time you’re thinking about ways to increase your social media following, perhaps take a few minutes to instead think of how you can ENGAGE the people who are already there.
Thoughts? Leave your comments below.
Social Media tools like Twitter allow small business to connect, and build real relationships with, their customers and prospects. Businesses that have success with Twitter use it in this way. Those who use Twitter as another microphone to shout their marketing message to followers usually don’t see results. By sending an Auto DM to a new follower you’re essentially shouting at him/her right off the bat. Many people don’t like being shouted at and this might entice that new follower to stop following your business on Twitter right away.
With the above being said, be sure to tweet other content in between the times that the same tweet is going out. You don’t want someone coming to your Twitter profile 2 days later and seeing the same tweet posted 3 times. Once you tweet it for the first time, you can go ahead and tweet other content (examples might be your old content, ReTweet others, or even 
There are a number of different types of Twitter Contests that businesses can run. Many share similar goals. For this post, we are going to discuss one of the most basic Twitter Contests out there, but one that when executed properly, definitely drives results. Running a ReTweet Contest for your small business can be a great way to promote your content, drive action from current followers, and accumulate new Twitter followers. 
Just the other day, I was the lucky winner of a local ReTweet Contest. 
If someone ReTweets your content, you can then ReTweet that tweet, and say “thank you” in your tweet. It’s a great way to get your original tweet back into the Twittersphere. Here are the steps we take to make this happen:
As I’m sure many of you know, when it comes to your home, foundation problems are the last thing you want to hear from a contractor. A strong foundation provides the stability for your home, and the same is true for your Twitter profile. You might be saying, well that sounds good in theory, but how do I build a “foundation” on an online platform like Twitter? Great question. When I say, build a foundation on Twitter, I mean, find your voice, determine what you want to tweet about, figure out what your goals for Twitter are, so that your future actions are a direct result of trying to accomplish those goals, build out your profile, add an image, and then, actually start tweeting. Notice I didn’t say, “start following people”. There’s a reason for that…
Most of the time, people understand that you may be new to Twitter, so you don’t have a ton of followers, but if you also have a semi-filled out profile, with no profile picture (whether is a logo or personal image), AND hardly any tweets, then it’s likely that the majority will assume that you’re not an active Twitter user and move on without following you. NOW, if you’re just starting to use Twitter for business and you create a plan for what you’re hoping to achieve through Twitter, fill out your profile, upload an image, and start tweeting on a regular basis, then after 1 – 2 weeks, you’ll have 100+ tweets (hopefully), which is good for a new user. Now, as long as what your tweeting about appeals to your target followers (which is a post for another day), you’re more likely to attract those folks.
TweetDeck is a social media browser. It allows users to manage their social media efforts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Myspace. If you’re using Twitter for business, you can use TweetDeck to manage your efforts. We use TweetDeck to manage 
Through TweetDeck, users can type or paste a full URL into the Twitter text input area and TweetDeck, through it’s integration with bit.ly (or other URL shorteners) will automatically turn your link into a short url. No more copying the URL that you want to share on Twitter, navigating to http://bit.ly in your web browser, pasting the URL into the URL input area, and then copying/pasting your short url into Twitter. Now, simply copy/paste your full URL into TweetDeck and everything is done for you.
Another thing that’s great about TweetDeck is that you can use it on your mobile phone. Downloading TweetDeck for your mobile phone is free and really easy. TweetDeck is still evolving and definitely has its limitations. With that said, it’s one of the better Twitter management tools out there. Like other online social tools, TweetDeck will continue to evolve as user needs change. Definitely consider using TweetDeck to make communicating with customers and prospects on Twitter more manageable. 
Now, I know some of you may say, “well, I’ve been using Twitter for Customer Service already”. If so, that’s great. You rock! With that said, you still may find some value in this post, so stay with me. 
