Creating Twitter Content for Social Media – What do I Tweet?

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One of the reasons for using Twitter might be to promote your business. But it should be inviting not invasive. I recommend that you limit direct advertisement tweets to 10-15%. People are using Twitter to communicate, gather information and interact with others. Spamming your followers with ads about you business can drive your customers away.

Creating Twitter Content Worth Sharing

Creating valuable content needs to be at the top of your priority list. But where do you get the content? I suggest you begin with setting up “Google Alerts” to provide a steady stream of fresh ideas. For instance, let’s say you run a Yoga business. Create a Google Alert to receive news or blog posts about yoga. You can then share this information with your followers.

Even better… take that article, write a thought piece about the subject, and then post it to your own blog, usually referencing the article you read, and then tweet about your post. It’s extremely valuable to not only curate but also create your own voice in the community.

Getting Attention With Your Tweets

Make sure that you follow some sort of consistency in posting to Twitter. You should be posting at least once a day and as often as you have something worthwhile or interesting to share. I advise my clients to tweet at least 3 times a day, so they hit various time zones. You don’t always have to use the original title of the article either. After you’ve read it, put your own spin on it. Create a catchy title.

10 Ways to Create Valuable Content

Valuable is the keyword here, and creating content should be thoughtful. Below is just a short list of ideas for creating content, posting it on your site, and then sharing it via social media channels.

1.   Video tutorial shared on your YouTube or Vimeo channel
2.   Slide presentations shared on Slideshare
3.   Booklist – your favs recommended with a brief review
4.   Success stories with your customers – video testimonials included
5.   Webinar
6.   Podcast – reach out to experts in your industry and have a discussion
7.   Games
8.   eBooks or Whitepapers
9.   Infographics
10. Tools You Use – share your favorites

I recommend creating a content calendar, mapping out the next 3-6 months, and make sure you have a plan in place for promoting your content when it’s done.

 

Start with a Social Media Strategy

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When working with new clients, they often think you need to spend a substantial part of your day tweeting or posting on social sites. What you do need to do is start with a social media strategy.

 A Strategic Approach to Twitter

Three common questions are who do I follow, what type of content should I create, and how do I engage with people. In this post I’ll cover the WHO DO I FOLLOW question.

Searching for Probable Customers

Your goal is to connect with, or enhance your relationship with customers, so you should begin by following the customers you have now and build to follow potential customers. See who is talking about you already. Start following those people.

I happen to have a bottle of Aquafina water here on my desk, so while I’m not promoting the product, I will use it as an example. Here’s how to search in 4 steps.

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Twitter – Where does a business start?

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I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times I’ve heard business people say “What’s the point of Twitter?” Usually I’ll hear that followed up with things like “why do I care what you had to eat or when you took a shower“. Right then and there, I know I’m probably talking to someone who has done absolutely no research on their own and is more than likely repeating some silly response they heard from someone else.

I love Twitter. I think it has wonderful potential for connecting like-minded individuals. And, I honestly believe that it can help your business, regardless of size. But Twitter isn’t easy. On the contrary, it requires skill and dedication, coupled with a strategy for implementing it into your mix of communication tools.

Recently, I sat down with a new client who thought they would like to explore Twitter but they didn’t know where to begin. I’d like to share some of the tips and tricks I showed them to help get them started.

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RIP Steve Jobs

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The world mourns the loss of a visionary. There are so many of us that have stories to share of how Apple changed our lives. Here’s mine.

My father introduced me to Apple products back in the mid-70′s. He knew this was something remarkable and wanted us to be a part of it. Computers were pretty expensive back then, for a middle class working family. In fact, the Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66 (Steve Jobs sense of humor?). That’s about $2,572 in 2011 dollars.

When Apple went public Dad said we needed to buy shares. At $29.00 per share, the best I could do was 10 shares. Dad said to hang on to them, they would increase in value.

In 1986 we got a new computer. This time the Apple II GS. For it’s day, it totally rocked.

Apple II GS

Gathering Dust But Just Can't Part With It

Unfortunately, this would be the last Apple computer I owned for a long time. The times were changing, Apple wasn’t really developing the business applications like Microsoft was. And in those days, business was my focus.

Still that is when computers changed my life forever, and it was all because of Steve Jobs, Apple, and my dad of course. A visionary in his own right.