How to Use Twitter

Using Automatic Sync Programs to Post Across Multiple Social Networks

Facebook For Business, How to Use Twitter, Online Consulting, Social Media Advisors

As many of you probably know, in addition to presenting at conferences as a social media speaker, that I also do a good amount of social media consulting with individuals and small businesses. As we begin discussing how to use Facebook for business, the ins and outs of Twitter, how YouTube can grow their business, and several other platforms, I almost always get asked the question of how can they automate this content so that they can write it once and have it syndicated to all platforms.

I understand the thought that by using a syndicator, it will spread your message across all the platforms quickly and make life easier for you. But, what you are missing is that this is probably one of the most ineffective ways to try and build your business online.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Each social network operates slightly different than all the others out there. For example, Twitter gives you 140 characters and you must include the @ symbol if you want to have it mention someone specifically. When this publishes over to Facebook for example, your friends see messages like this: “That was very funny @jb140 @210consulting.” which makes no sense to them if they are not using Twitter. Also, the frequency you tweet is more than likely going to be more often than you would update your Facebook status. In my case, I might tweet 25-30 times a day. I don’t want all 25-30 of those showing up in my Facebook stream.

Also, Twitter limits the length of your update to 140 characters, so you may be abbreviating words or using online jargon to make your update. Do I really want that going over to a platform like LinkedIn in which it’s main purpose is a social network for business professionals? Needless to say, updates on LinkedIn that say “Way to go, @JB140, that is a definite #fail. I prefer cheddar cheese #FTW” does not always portray the image we would want on certain networks.

Because I See It On 4 Places Doesn’t Mean I’ll Read

One of the reasons I am writing this post is because of a post I recently saw on Google+: The person wrote: Sync Google+ to Twitter, Itenti.ca, & Facebook. I started reading the comments below and asked why would you want to do this though? And needless to say I then saw them along with many of their other friends that I follow had already set this up. So, when I went to their Twitter account, Facebook Profile, or Google+ account I saw the exact same status update. For those of us who have connected with someone on multiple platforms, I see this becoming a problem. You can actually annoy people by putting the same stuff all over the place all the time.

Take the Time, Post Individually

If you want to say the same sort of message on all the various networks, that is perfectly fine, simply copy/paste the message across and customize it to fit the platform. For example, as I mentioned the other day for my Facebook Page, I try to ask questions more than making statements. I found this to be more beneficial. So, I take that same statement I might have just made on Twitter, paste it to my Facebook Page and alter the text to turn it into more of a question. If I want to post it to LinkedIn, I would do the same type of thing customizing it to the audience on that network.

To do this literally takes you an additional 18 seconds or so and will increase your interactions immensely. I tested syndicating my content across all networks for a three month period of time and had almost no business come from it. When I changed things to manually update I almost instantly saw an increase in all aspects of traffic, interactions, and engagement from my online community. For me, I’ll spend an additional 3-4 minutes doing this to see improved results. Also, not everything I share on one network is necessarily worth of being posted to 4 other platforms.

So, before you set up your account to share your content across multiple platforms consider whether it is a help or a hindrance to your business. If you don’t agree with me, I’d love to hear why in the comments below!

Cyber Monday Email Marketing Blunder by AT&T

How to Use Twitter, Online Consulting, Social Media Advisors

This morning as I began my work week, my inbox like many others was littered with advertisements from dozens of companies making me aware of their Cyber Monday sales. One that really caught my eye was from AT&T. They are running various smart phones this Monday at various times for only one cent. I thought to myself that this was pretty cool and wanted to share this with my social media buddies. Also, as we have recently been sharing over in our photo blog, various social media marketing efforts of corporations both large and small. So, I have been scanning every piece of advertising that I come across lately,looking to see if they are integrating social media marketing into their email marketing, print & TV advertising.

As I scrolled down to the bottom of the ad for AT&T I saw buttons to share on Facebook, LinkedIn & Yahoo Buzz. Glad they have the ability for me to share on Facebook. That’s a good place to have your stuff shared as there are now over 500 million users and most people have at least 100 connections there. LinkedIn? Ok, I guess that would also be a good place to have your stuff shared since there is a good sized network there although I am not sure that the content would be relevant to what people use LinkedIn for. The third icon for Yahoo Buzz? I mean, I have heard of it, but I don’t have an account and have only ever heard one person mention it before. What blew my mind and where I think AT&T really missed the ball is that they left off a button for Twitter!

According to TechCrunch, Twitter has over 190 million users. Not adding the ability for someone to share easily on Twitter is a major marketing blunder by someone. For me, Twitter is by far my largest group of connections with 6,710 followers of my personal Twitter account @jb140. It is also by far my fastest growing group. In comparison, our Facebook Page, has only 1,390 fans. Missing twitter in an online advertisement where you are including social media platforms is a major failure in my opinion. Whoever designed this advertisement at AT&T either doesn’t understand social media fully, had a major brain fart, or just didn’t want to take the time to incorporate it into the advertisement for cyber Monday thinking it wasn’t worth the time or money to implement. The same holds true for the entire editorial staff that missed this oversight. Maybe AT&T thinks that twitter isn’t that important, but my guess is more likely one of the first three options.

So when you are setting up your next online marketing campaign to send out to thousands of people, make sure if you are including social media, to include all the major connections. For me, I would have loved to share this special on Twitter. Unfortunately this option wasn’t available easy, so I didn’t.

Do You REALLY Think You’re THAT Important?

How to Use Twitter

I am going to give everyone a fair warning that today’s post is a rant. With that out of the way, let me get into the subject I wanted to cover. One of the things that I am always trying to do is connect with new people on various social networks. As I’ve stated before, I am somewhat of a Twitter addict.

Once in a while I will focus on growing my sphere. To do this, I will visit friends I am already connected to and like and see who they are talking to regularly. I figure if I like this person already, and they seem to like these other people, I will get along too, so I will then follow them. What bothers me more than the automatic DM’s that some people send spamming an automatic link to some MLM product for following them are the people who are set up a program called TrueTwit.

Whenever you follow someone using TrueTwit, you get an automatic DM like the one to the right. How annoying!! I see this service being an Anti-Social Media tool. Why? Well first off, it makes people have to do more work to connect with you. Normally I can hit “follow”, add to a list and move on. With TrueTwit, it makes me go back, click on the link to validate myself.

Validate Myself? Yes, I have to validate to the person I’m attempting to follow that I am a real person. I find this to be a major turn off when I receive these messages. It makes me feel as if the person is too good to connect with me. Why? Because I spent the time researching and trying to connect with a person, but their time is obviously too important to do the same in return. Instead, I have to invest more time jumping through hoops.

I understand the reason someone would think this is a good idea is because of all the spam on Twitter. I get that, there is a ton of it and I hate being spammed too. However if someone takes just 30 seconds to do a little research on me they will find out quickly that I am an actual human being. All you need to do is look at my Twitter stream and you’ll see that I am not someone babbling on about getting rich quick, or posting the same link 3,385 times a day. The other thing you could do is look at my Tweet Stats.

As you can see there, 70.44% of the tweets I send out are directly replying to others. Also, 6.45% of my tweets are Re-Tweets. That means that almost 77% of the almost 20,000 tweets I have sent are conversational in nature. That leaves only 23% for posting links and stuff about my business. If it weren’t for me connecting my FourSquare account to Twitter, this number would be even lower. Obviously, it is easy to tell that I am an actual human and not a cyborg.

What’s the big deal?

As I already said, services like this are the anti-social media. The first part of the term “social media” is social. We don’t make people who come to our neighborhood barbecue pull out a utility bill to prove they are part of the neighborhood. We simply welcome them in and enjoy the delicious potato salad they brought with them. Why then do we feel we need to put up barriers like TrueTwit on social media platforms? Doing this turns people off and makes them not want to connect with you. The fewer people connect with you, the slower your sphere will grow and the less effective the platform can be for your business.

So if you are using a service like TrueTwit, please shut it off, disconnect it, and delete your account immediately. There are other ways. Personally, here is how I handle my Twitter stream: I openly follow anyone & everyone who follows me. If you don’t believe me, follow me on Twitter, and you will get notification almost instantly that we are now connected. Instead of setting up barriers that might offend a new connection, I simply set up lists and filters to engage specific groups of friends and followers. My main funnel of friends stays off to the side and only gets viewed when I have the available time. It doesn’t bother me if a spammer is in that column as I rarely use it. I WANT to connect to as many people as possible. It can help to expand my brand and business even further than it is today. I try to set aside time each week to spend connecting with my new followers. It may only be 30 minutes sometimes, but at least I am reaching out to them and letting them know I appreciate being connected to them.

So do you have barriers affecting your social media marketing? If so, you may want to take a few walls down.

Using Social Media to Enhance Face-to-Face Meetings

How to Use Twitter, Social Media Advisors, Social Media Training

For the past couple of years, I’ve been helping others to market effectively online, having done this for my own businesses since 1996. One of the interesting trends I’ve noted is the fact that some people (and companies) spend a lot of time and effort working on their online presence, at the expense of “real world” interaction.

Social media (or “new media”, if you prefer) tools and platforms aren’t intended to supplant face-to-face interaction and networking, but to ENHANCE them.

There are exceptions to this rule, of course. Perhaps you really don’t want to meet and engage in a personal manner. The only valid example I can think of is if you are a full-time eBay seller and you never meet customers or you happen to provide a product that doesn’t require much trust or a relationship to sell (not sure what that might be – perhaps paper clips or straws?).

However, for the rest of us, those of us who want to make an impact, or to have a wide network of friends and resources, you need to get out and press the flesh when you can. Sorry – I guess “press the flesh” sounds a little vulgar or old-fashioned these days. It’s best to make an effort to meet and speak with real, live people. Better?

I’ve been guilty of this myself in the past, especially since we have a large family and it’s not always easy to make time for travel and/or events. That being said, I thrive on working a crowd at an event, especially when I know a good number of people already. It energizes me.

My son thinks I’m already pretty famous. Of course, I don’t want to dispel this notion too much, but I am clearly not Ashton Kutcher or even Clint Howard (Google that one if you like). I once saw Chris Brogan speak to a crowd of about 300 people, and it put things in perspective for me when he asked, “How many people here know me personally?” There were a few hands that went up. Then he asked, “How many people here FEEL like you know me?” Almost every hand in the room went up. To me, this is a good way to gauge if you’re doing things right with your online efforts. It’s one thing to build a tremendous number of followers, but it’s quite another for them to actually care about you as a human being or about your company.

I joked a few days ago on Twitter that I think there should be an award given for “Most Followers with the Least Engaged Audience”. There are many hundreds of accounts vying for this title. I like to equate this type of “blind broadcast” to having the chance to speak at halftime during the Super Bowl while the entire audience puts on blindfolds and those fancy noise-cancellation headphones. What a waste! If you want to actually grow a business, or make valuable connections, or basically build any real influence at all, face-to-face goes a long way, especially when combined with an engaging online presence.

Can you build a solid audience without meeting everyone in person? Of course you can, but it will grow faster and bond more quickly when you’re out and about, shaking real hands and giving real hugs. Even politicians do that. You want to be more trusted than a politician, right?

Just some food for thought…

Image credit: Jerry (found on Flickr.com)