“Sure, Twitter may work for Dell and Comcast and that other guy, but what can it do for MY business?”
It’s a question we hear a lot and if you’re in the social media consulting business, you probably hear it a lot too. We hear it from business owners who can’t relate to the social media successes of big brands or who believe the profitable campaigns from their competitors are just flukes. Sure, maybe others have used Twitter to great benefit, but your business is as unique as a snowflake. There’s no way it could work the same magic or help you do more, faster.
You’re too special.
[clears throat]
Right.
Instead of embarrassing ourselves and talking about how our Klout score is now 20 points lower (no one gives a damn), I thought we’d share just a few ways that your business can benefit from actually using the tools instead of whining talking about them. Because as Tony Adam reminds us, social media is about increasing your bottom line. Everything else is just unicorns.
If you’re not sure how your business, as unique and distinct as it is, can get value from Twitter, start here. Maybe go grab a pen or something and take notes.
- Grow your professional network.
- Find vendor/partner recommendations through conversations and “anyone know” searches.
- Meet, and get on the radar of, industry bloggers, reporters and media outlets.
- Discover likeminded people to collaborate or brainstorm with.
- Find out about local or industry events.
- Find mentors and teachers.
- Find interns and apprentices.
- Stay on top of industry trends and/or news.
- Research competitors.
- Share content to build awareness.
- Participate in discussions to build authority.
- Be inspired.
- Find new ideas for content, resources or whitepapers.
- Start important conversations & push discussions further.
- Organize brand-related meetups/ Find meetups to attend.
- Talk to your customers/readers.
- Research customers.
- Be a connector. Introduce people who should know each other. [It makes you look smarter.]
- Find out what’s bugging your customers.
- Solve other people’s problems.
- Ask them to help solve yours.
- Gain insights about pain points, concerns, and issues in the market.
- Give old content new legs.
- Help new content be found and travel further.
- Encourage the creation of user-generated media.
- Encourage online reviews and testimonials.
- Aid lead generation.
- Drive more traffic/ interest to your Web site.
- Create a better feed reader.
- Get recommendations on new tools or software.
- Eavesdrop on & learn from industry conferences you’re not attending.
- Find the parties and hotspots for conference you ARE currently attending.
- Highlight your staff.
- Tell your stories.
- Read customer stories.
- Reach out to potential customers complaining about competitors and introduce yourself.
- Share media pertaining to your business, industry or market.
- Identify influencers and get to know them.
- Use tools like FollowerWonk and Tweepz to meet cool people.
- Participate in or start a Twitter Chat or Twitter Party.
- Give new life to offline promotions.
- Test offline marketing copy/ideas on the cheap.
- Find a new job. Or employee.
- Crowdsource your next presentation or blog post.
- Crowdsource ideas for new products, services or offering.
- Get them named.
- Listen.
- Create a marketable personal brand.
- Put out fires and manage your online reputation.
- Take the mask off your logo and be someone people care about.
What’d I miss? Because we can either keep talking about our imaginary influence score…or we can continue to do things that give us influence, authority and, yes, increase our bottom line.
Your choice. Because, otherwise, this could be you.
