Prompt Proofing Blog Post: Using Social Media to Promote Your Business, Part 1

VANCOUVER, BC, September 16, 2011 (Press-News.org) Part 1: Twitter

If you think Twitter is just for teenagers and celebrities, think again. Sometimes we are asked to help people with their social media; many think that, for business, LinkedIn may be relevant but Twitter and Facebook are not going to attract clients and therefore not worthy of their attention. They couldn't be more wrong.

Before going any further, I would like to share a couple of experiences that I recently had connecting with businesses on Twitter. Having endured hours of frustration being kept on hold on their help line, all to no avail, I tweeted directly to one major communications provider. Results were almost instant; I received service I had been told was 'impossible' by the help line staff. Inspired by this success, I then tried a similar tactic with a major computer manufacturer, in an attempt to solve a problem with my laptop. The response was - admittedly - fairly fast but I was told to 'try our help line' - hmmm, not quite the reaction I had hoped for. So - two major companies, both household names, two very different responses. Guess which one I'll more readily do business with again?

But not all businesses are huge conglomerates or household names. Prompt Proofing maintains a social media presence on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and we are a small company. Below are some 'dos' and 'don'ts' for networking on Twitter:

Do:

- Have a photo and a short, preferably catchy comment on your profile. Your profile should make it clear what you do but also give a quick snapshot of you, the person. The saying, "you do business with a person, not a company" is very true. You want people to know you're human.

- Tweet regularly. I have to hold my hand up and admit to failing somewhat on this one; of the people I follow, the memorable ones likely tweet once or twice a day. This is frequent enough to keep them in the front of my mind but not so frequent that they become irritating.

- Communicate! Seems obvious but many people don't. Respond to others, retweet ("RT"), join in conversations, welcome new followers, establish a dialogue.

- Follow people in similar fields to yours; you are likely to learn something and even to get involved in conversations to which you can contribute.

- Look at what's trending, and/or at major events going on in your community. Tweet about them and use hashtags, especially for trending tweets. This ensures that everyone contributing to these conversations gets to see your tweets also; do this frequently and your profile will begin to register in people's minds, perhaps engendering curiosity. If your local sports team is involved in competition, be sure to tweet about exciting or disappointing parts of a game.

- Promote things happening in your home town or neighbourhood.

- Ask people's opinions - Twitter is a great way to get feedback.

- Ask for advice - people love to feel helpful.

- Tweet links to your blog posts, special offers, events, promotions, etc.

- Use humour; Twitter's 140 character limit lends itself to short, punchy, humorous comments. Make people laugh and they like you already.

- Tweet about personal triumphs and disasters - sharing life's little moments, good and bad, makes you appear human.

Don't:

- Constantly promote your wares. This will turn off your followers faster than anything and is not what promoting business on Twitter is all about. By all means mention any special deals you are offering but keep this minimal.

- Tweet incessantly. No one wants their page filled with endless tweets from the same source. The 'ideal' amount to tweet per day is considered to be four tweets per day.

- Write only about yourself - be aware of other people and react and respond.

- Be offensive or tweet off-colour jokes - ever.

- Put out any information that you wouldn't want the whole world to know about.

A final note, many are put off social media because they think it is time-consuming. You should be able to manage all of your social media in half an hour a day or less. Respond to tweets that interest you immediately, if you can; the 'Twitterverse' has a very short memory.

Check back next Friday for another Prompt Proofing blog post!

About Prompt Proofing

Prompt Proofing is based in Vancouver, BC, Canada and was officially launched in 2010 by a team of editing and writing professionals who have over 40 years of experience in the education, news media, public relations and recruitment fields. Prompt Proofing prides itself on affordable services delivered with fast turnaround times, without sacrificing quality or accuracy.

Offering content writing, editing and proofreading services, Prompt Proofing takes care of your individual or business content needs. Visit our website for more information at http://www.PromptProofing.com.

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