How to Use Twitter to Build Business Relationships
ByThose who haven’t tried the micro-blogging tool Twitter – and even some who have – wonder how it can be useful. If you’re Tweeting 140 characters into the ether, how does that help you build relationships?
It took me a while to figure it out, but now that I know the secret, I’ve found Twitter to be an extremely powerful networking tool.
Think of Twitter a little like getting introduced at a cocktail party or networking event. The introduction is just the start. From there you have to put in some work to get to know a person and build a relationship.
Same goes for Twitter. When someone knew starts following me, I try to look at their Twitter profile. Since their profile is brief, I also click on their website link to learn more about them. Unless they are obviously not a fit for my personality, I usually start following them as well.
Next, send a direct message. This message is only seen by them and is not public, but starts a conversation. Most people send a generic “thanks for following”. However, I recently discovered a very powerful use of this follow-up message that I plan to start emulating immediately.
I recently started following DrCraigS,who offers a free gift to all new followers. His direct message includes a link to a sign-up page. Give up your email address and you get a page of free reports with some VERY valuable information. In fact, I plan to implement one of his ideas within the next week.
Occasionally, if I feel like we’ll be a good fit, I contact new followers outside of Twitter. When I visit their website, there’s usually an email address. I send a brief email stating we just “met” via Twitter and was hoping we could get to know each other better. This usually starts a conversation.
As you are going about your day and updating your Tweets, read what others are doing. When appropriate, send an @reply to someone’s Tweet with a comment about what they wrote or what they are doing, remembering that @replies are public. The idea is to make Twitter a conversation.
Like all networking tools, Twitter is not going to give you overnight income. But by using it as one step in a relationship building process, I think you’ll find Twitter to be extremely useful in building your network and ultimately your business.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Andrea,
Great post on using Twitter for relationship building. I’ve found that the most effective may to build relationships with any social media is to constantly have one thought in mind: “How can I create value for the people I’m connected to?”
Your readers might also be interested in checking out TweetLater.com, which allows you to automatically send direct messages each time someone starts following you.
Thanks again,
John Haydon
@johnhaydon
John,
Thanks for the tip about TweetLater.com! I’d heard of it but had no idea you could use it for automation. I’ll be checking it out!
Andrea
Andrea,
You are very welcome – and thanks for following me!
John
[...] lady. Looks like Andrea Stenberg could have done the job, too. She sent in an article about Twitter. I also found her entry on a new feature at LinkedIn quite useful – I actually didn’t know [...]
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