Creating a Community on Twitter- One Follower at a Time
Twitter is a great tool for companies seeking to connect with key audiences, build their brands and much more.
Once you get the swing of Twitter, you're ready to get fully immersed and start growing.
The goal is to attract followers, and eventually build your own community.
Twitter communities are generally loosely organized at best; that's the beauty of it but it's also the challenge.
Connecting with so many different people is like herding cats.
My approach is this: rather than thinking about hundreds (or in some people's case, thousands) of followers, I'll choose two or three representative followers to focus on at a time; that's my "audience.
" This is based on techniques I use in public speaking.
Rather than scanning a big audience, I'll find 2 or 3 audience members in the front row and focus eye contact on them, providing me a chance to focus my energy and thoughts.
When I'm answering a question or corresponding with someone on Twitter, they have my full attention.
I'm trying to build a community one contact at a time--slow, yes, but steady and (I'm hoping) enduring.
I'm really focused on quality of community vs pure quantity, so Guy Kawasaki (100k plus followers) has nothing to worry about with me, with 730 followers.
Below are a few tips to get you started.
1.
Determine who your audience is: Don't try to appeal to everyone.
Specialize.
If you're a communications manager at a computer maker like Dell, it might be consumers interested in buying a computer,tech media and other trying to keep up with PC trends and developments.
2.
Become a subject expert: Related to #1.
Specialize in one or two areas.
I focus on social media and marketing, and, to a much lesser degree, top business news.
Set up multiple topics searches.
Example: if your company makes off-road bikes, you can search for "bicycles', "off-road", "cycle sports" and other related topics.
3.
Find good models to mimic: Seek out top bloggers and topic experts you want to attract, and go outside your area-you might find the best examples in other fields.
See what they're tweeting about and how they're covering it.
You can find big names to follow on directories like Twellow or WeFollow.
4.
Be generous: Pick out strong posts and retweet them, share you followers' tweets with the rest of your network and give them full credit.
Also, answer other people's tweets; every time you reply to someone and they reply back, your @name shows up before their entire network, exposing you to thousands of people.
5.
Add value: Twitter is competitive, a Darwinian system where people compete for mindshare based on perceived value of their contributions.
Simply put, you're going to attract more followers with strong content.
One tip: always be linking to good online content (it's OK to post it several times over a week or so).
6.
Be engaging: chat with people about issues that matter; what keeps them up at night, the burning issues, etc.
Think of your audience first.
7.
Get creative: Make a list of all the ways you can use Twitter, and think out of box.
An obvious one is you can use Twitter to cover industry conferences.
At Cisco's Velocity 09 partner conference, I tweeted for two days about the events, partners, reactions to our Web 2.
0 material and so on.
But Twitter has been used for fund raising, finding human (donated) organs, locating missing children and much more.
8.
Tie into a hot subject and start tweeting.
Your tweet will go into the public timeline and can be seen by others searching for a topic; recently, for examples, people have been blogging constantly about the "SXSW" conference in Austin.
Add a hashtag # in the front of your phrase to make it easier to find.
You can use a tool like Twitscoop to stay on top of the Twitter buzz and raging topics.
9.
Tweet regularly-but not too much.
You need to tweet consistently to feed your network but don't go overboard.
Some people tweet dozens of times, and multiple times at once; this can actually annoy your followers, so find a balance.
10.
Mind your manners (etiquette): * Follow those who follow you (except spammers).
This is a commonly accepted practice.
At least follow those with a common interest.
* Send a complimentary note to new followers (a DM, not a public @) message).
* Avoid turning Twitter into a two-way, prolonged conversation.
You're tying up the lines after a couple of Tweets so take it private.
* Don't gloat, don't talk about yourself too much.
Keep tweets about your company to 1:10 ratio or less (1/10 of Tweets about you or your company).
Most of these rules are not set in stone, and Twitter is still evolving so there's room for improvising.
For instance, there's nothing wrong for you to ask people outright to follow you.
You can follow me here.
Asking questions is actually a good technique.
Rather than talk about your latest company blog post, tempt the crowd with a question.
Here's how we solved XYZ problem.
What would you do?" And don't sweat if you don't get a quick response.
People are busy or they may not know, whatever; just move on.
Try asking it on different days, and different times.
Above all, strive to be interesting and authentic.
Engage as you would with a new contact at a networking event or dinner party; be real.
Corporate bloggers and tweeters can often be stiff-avoid this.
Better to take a calculated risk and offer some real opinions than talk in corporate speak.
Last, have fun and use some humor.
Humor goes a long way on Twitter, where the "Twits' often indulge in self-deprecation.
Once you get the swing of Twitter, you're ready to get fully immersed and start growing.
The goal is to attract followers, and eventually build your own community.
Twitter communities are generally loosely organized at best; that's the beauty of it but it's also the challenge.
Connecting with so many different people is like herding cats.
My approach is this: rather than thinking about hundreds (or in some people's case, thousands) of followers, I'll choose two or three representative followers to focus on at a time; that's my "audience.
" This is based on techniques I use in public speaking.
Rather than scanning a big audience, I'll find 2 or 3 audience members in the front row and focus eye contact on them, providing me a chance to focus my energy and thoughts.
When I'm answering a question or corresponding with someone on Twitter, they have my full attention.
I'm trying to build a community one contact at a time--slow, yes, but steady and (I'm hoping) enduring.
I'm really focused on quality of community vs pure quantity, so Guy Kawasaki (100k plus followers) has nothing to worry about with me, with 730 followers.
Below are a few tips to get you started.
1.
Determine who your audience is: Don't try to appeal to everyone.
Specialize.
If you're a communications manager at a computer maker like Dell, it might be consumers interested in buying a computer,tech media and other trying to keep up with PC trends and developments.
2.
Become a subject expert: Related to #1.
Specialize in one or two areas.
I focus on social media and marketing, and, to a much lesser degree, top business news.
Set up multiple topics searches.
Example: if your company makes off-road bikes, you can search for "bicycles', "off-road", "cycle sports" and other related topics.
3.
Find good models to mimic: Seek out top bloggers and topic experts you want to attract, and go outside your area-you might find the best examples in other fields.
See what they're tweeting about and how they're covering it.
You can find big names to follow on directories like Twellow or WeFollow.
4.
Be generous: Pick out strong posts and retweet them, share you followers' tweets with the rest of your network and give them full credit.
Also, answer other people's tweets; every time you reply to someone and they reply back, your @name shows up before their entire network, exposing you to thousands of people.
5.
Add value: Twitter is competitive, a Darwinian system where people compete for mindshare based on perceived value of their contributions.
Simply put, you're going to attract more followers with strong content.
One tip: always be linking to good online content (it's OK to post it several times over a week or so).
6.
Be engaging: chat with people about issues that matter; what keeps them up at night, the burning issues, etc.
Think of your audience first.
7.
Get creative: Make a list of all the ways you can use Twitter, and think out of box.
An obvious one is you can use Twitter to cover industry conferences.
At Cisco's Velocity 09 partner conference, I tweeted for two days about the events, partners, reactions to our Web 2.
0 material and so on.
But Twitter has been used for fund raising, finding human (donated) organs, locating missing children and much more.
8.
Tie into a hot subject and start tweeting.
Your tweet will go into the public timeline and can be seen by others searching for a topic; recently, for examples, people have been blogging constantly about the "SXSW" conference in Austin.
Add a hashtag # in the front of your phrase to make it easier to find.
You can use a tool like Twitscoop to stay on top of the Twitter buzz and raging topics.
9.
Tweet regularly-but not too much.
You need to tweet consistently to feed your network but don't go overboard.
Some people tweet dozens of times, and multiple times at once; this can actually annoy your followers, so find a balance.
10.
Mind your manners (etiquette): * Follow those who follow you (except spammers).
This is a commonly accepted practice.
At least follow those with a common interest.
* Send a complimentary note to new followers (a DM, not a public @) message).
* Avoid turning Twitter into a two-way, prolonged conversation.
You're tying up the lines after a couple of Tweets so take it private.
* Don't gloat, don't talk about yourself too much.
Keep tweets about your company to 1:10 ratio or less (1/10 of Tweets about you or your company).
Most of these rules are not set in stone, and Twitter is still evolving so there's room for improvising.
For instance, there's nothing wrong for you to ask people outright to follow you.
You can follow me here.
Asking questions is actually a good technique.
Rather than talk about your latest company blog post, tempt the crowd with a question.
Here's how we solved XYZ problem.
What would you do?" And don't sweat if you don't get a quick response.
People are busy or they may not know, whatever; just move on.
Try asking it on different days, and different times.
Above all, strive to be interesting and authentic.
Engage as you would with a new contact at a networking event or dinner party; be real.
Corporate bloggers and tweeters can often be stiff-avoid this.
Better to take a calculated risk and offer some real opinions than talk in corporate speak.
Last, have fun and use some humor.
Humor goes a long way on Twitter, where the "Twits' often indulge in self-deprecation.
