Fresh Brew Marketing is often asked for guidance and social media training to help people and businesses kickstart their social media activity. If you’re reading this, then you probably already understand the importance of using Twitter for your business, and if you’re reading this, then you’re probably also a little unsure as to where to start.
Here are 10 tips to help set your path for Twitter success.
1. It’s all about your Bio
Your Biography speaks for you long before you’ve composed your first tweet. And surprisingly, so many people overlook the importance of a good biography. In the training sessions we present, we usually run a little exercise whereby I ask individuals to introduce themselves to me in 10 seconds. Many go straight for the, “My name is Katy Roberts and I’m a Marketing Manager for XYZ Ltd”. That’s great – if people are specifically interested in your job title. But when people look at your biography, they are more than likely interested in knowing more about you, what you like, what you represent, what’s important to you. The introductions that stand out to me most are ones that form conversation pieces.
eg: My name is Katy Roberts. I’m a South African living in Dorset who loves to bake, geocache and help businesses grow.
That’s much more interesting – and may probably get a response from the person I’m talking to.
2. Understand your audience
There’s no point preaching to the converted, and definitely no point preaching to people who simply don’t want to hear. A large part of Twitter success is understanding your audience. Unfortunately, the measure of good Twitter activity is not always the increase of your follower numbers. Yes, that is great – but what good is it having someone follow you who may not be interested in what you have to say, never plans to talk to you and more importantly, never plans to buy from you.
If you already have an existing audience – great. Now is the time to start building on what you have. If you don’t already have a follower audience – great. Now is the time to start building one. Actively building an audience relies mainly on a sense of self-understanding:
Once you understand the above, then building an audience is simple. You want to find followers who answer to any of the above points. Be careful not to become imbalanced by only targeting potential customers – remember, credibility will soon speak for you and your followers will quickly pick up whether you’re just in it to sell it.
Once you have determined what your audience wants to hear, what they are talking about, what’s important to them – well then starting a conversation with them is easy, and structuring your Tweets around those conversations, even easier.
Remember, credibility is KING – and no, buying followers, and likes, is not the way to building your audience.
3. URL abbreviator
You are probably very aware that Twitter only provides 140 characters for you to say your say. But what do you do when you have a mighty-long URL that you want to include in your tweet, but simply don’t have enough space to do it?
You abbreviate it.
There are loads of great tools that can help you do that – and whether you’re using a tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck that give you that option, or whether you’re composing your tweets manually – abbreviating your tweets not only gives you space to say more, but it gives your followers a better user experience.
Some tools to use for URL abbreviation:
TinyURL – http://tinyurl.com/
Goo.gl – https://goo.gl/
Bitly – https://bitly.com/
4. Pictures don’t use character-space. Use them!
Until recently, adding an image to a tweet used your character allowance for that Tweet. Thankfull, Twitter came to their senses and removed that which means that you can now add images or GIFs to your tweets which don’t take up character space.
With that change in place – the point of a well thought-out tweet is to get someone to stop scrolling in order to read your tweet. An image instantly grabs attention and speaks more for you than the letters you’ve used in your tweet. Whether you’re looking to shock, encourage, question or challenge – an image is the perfect way to get noticed.
5. Polls, Questions and Challenges
Another one of Twitter’s latest features which work well, is the Poll. Social media is a 2-way conversation – and is done on your audience’s terms. Nobody likes a broadcaster who simply self-promotes in order to dominate conversations – and a poll is a great way to identify what your audience enjoys, how they feel about key issues and invite interaction and conversation.
People love to give their opinion, and when it’s anonymous and affects something they believe in, they are more than likely to give you their input. But you need to ask.
Compose your tweets with questions and challenges. Think about how you structure a tweet. Stimulate conversation and even edge on the controversial. Play with techniques and tactics until you find the one that works for you.
To create a poll, simply click on the Poll icon below your tweet window, and you will be presented with options. For example:
And then click “Tweet”. That’s all there is to it.
Like what you see? Why not sign up for a Social Media training course to learn the ins and outs of activating your business social media presence. Our training leaves you feeling confident and armed with the tools you need to smoothly ramp up your online presence – without feeling out of your depth.
Fresh Brew Marketing is proud to work alongside organisations who are truly making a difference in people’s lives. That is why I was so proud to be asked to provide Social Media training tot he NES Healthcare team at their offices in Aylesbury recently.
NES Healthcare is the UK’s largest provider of medical services through its Resident Medical Officers (RMOs) to patients in both the Independent Healthcare Sector and NHS hospitals. They currently work with over 100 hospitals and clinics to provide the highest level of patient care.
The team were looking to develop a basic understand of social media and how to use it within their recruitment and brand management functions and Fresh Brew Marketing was asked to spend a day with them showing them how it all works.
This is what Jo Bedford, from NES Healthcare, had to say about the Social Media Training:
“We spent a day with Katy looking at the basics of using FB, LinkedIn and Twitter and we found it invaluable in learning how to best to enhance our profile across these media platforms.
Fantastic presentation by Katy, easy to understand and it was great fun – thank you!”
The honour was ours, Jo! Thank you and the team for having me.
For more about NES Healthcare, visit their website here.
If you’d like to develop your own social media skills, why not give Katy a ring today.
You may have noticed a recent change in our look and feel – and it’s all thanks to the incredible designer Daniel Warburton, from World Wide Warb. An incredibly talented designer who has provided designs for a number of music industry greats, independent UK businesses and more, Daniel was hired to give Fresh Brew Marketing a new look and feel. And do that, he did, beautifully.
With our existing brand in tact, Daniel took our vision and clarified, simplified, perfected it even more. Introducing a different look and feel which represented us well, but still maintaining what we stood for, was what made Daniel’s design perfectly suited to our business.
And how chuffed are we to be able to sit within his profile, alongside other designs for Bonobo, Coffee Shop rebrands and more.
You’ve truly done us proud, Daniel. And what an honour it is to work with you.
Have a look at our feature on the World Wide Warb portfolio, here.
You cannot blame me for thinking I was on an episode of Rogue Traders or Candid Camera with the way that this company behaved last night, leaving me waiting for a team to jump out behind my sideboard and grandfather clock, yelling, “SURPRISE! WE GOT YOU!”.
Actually, between wanting to burst out laughing at the ludicrous sales technique, and the disdain I felt at the unproffessional behaviour of a consultant quoting us on insulation for our conservatory, I wasn’t quite sure how to interpret the situation.
Here’s what happened.
We have a conservatory built onto our house. This fine specimen is the classic ‘freeze-in-winter-melt-in-summer’ room that leaves us enjoying it’s ambience for a very limited time of the year. So, to solve the dilemma, I request a quote from a Manchester-based conservatory insulation company. They’re nationwide, and can have one of their representatives meet with us whenever it suited us. We agree on last night and so count the day to his arrival and a new living space.
At 7pm on the dot, the doorbell rings. I open it. Here’s the interchange:
Me: Hello.
James: Mrs Roberts?
Me: Yes. You must be from the insulation company.
James: Yes. (at which point he shakes my hand and walks into the house and into the living room).
Me: Sorry, what’s your name?
James: James. (and continues walking through the house and out to the conservatory).
I follow him into the conservatory and introduce him to Mr. Roberts. James promptly starts to look around, pulls out a chair, sits down, and starts to unpack an ipad, a folder and a notepad. He asks us a few questions (have we had anyone else out to quote etc. Pretty standard stuff, I thought).
He then starts his pitch.
He’s obviously done this quite a few times before. Its sounds like it. As if robotic, he instructs us to look through the file and pictures. While explaining how they solve all our problems he mentions competitor products and how expensive they are. He then puts an iPad in front of us and instructs us to watch the video, which we do – only because we don’t know how else to behave in this awkward situation. At this point, I start to expect Matt Allwright to pitch up at our house – something just doesn’t sit well. Torn between sympathy for James (yes, sympathy… “He’s probably struggling, done this so often, it’s nighttime, he’s away from his family etc) and the disgust at the automated presentation of the solution we’re after, I look to Mr Roberts for any sign of direction. He is being his usual patient self and watching the video calmly offering comments here and there. I do catch his eye and he offers a wink. We’re on the same page.
While we’re watching the video, James promptly gets up and starts to measure the conservatory space. Not really paying much attention to what he’s doing, he returns to the table and starts to scribble a few things down on his notebook. The video that we’re watching comes to a close, as a sweet old Northern lady tells of the wonderful service and workmanship she’s experienced by this company. James then does the unthinkable. He shoves his notebook in front of Mr Roberts and I with 2 figures scribbled on it:
£3,295
– 20% December discount
———–
£2,636
Not quite knowing how to react, I read the figures out aloud and try to fill the awkward silence thinking that James, at this point, will probably jump in and explain what this includes. He doesn’t .
So I do the unthinkable.
I thank him and tell him that we need to think about the figures. We’re not ready to commit to this purchase tonight.
It’s what happens next that leaves Mr Roberts and I dumbfounded.
James promptly starts to pack his bag, puts away the figures (Not leaving the quote with us) and stands up. Trailing behind him, he makes his own way back to the front door, opens it and walks out. I thank him for his time and say goodnight, to which his response, without turning around or shaking my hand, is, “Alright”.
And with that, Elvis left the building.
I don’t consider myself an unreasonable person, and I recognise the debilitating restriction that insecurity brings, but the behaviour I saw in James last night made me furious. He did not offer a business card, or a copy of the quote (scribbled), or enquire a little more about our time frame. He did not want to know our plans and when he should follow up. He simply got the hump, when we said that we weren’t going to commit to the price last night, and walked out.
Please tell me that we don’t STILL, in this day and age, have so-called professional sales people who still behave like this?
I think I need to track James down, and get him to read this blog. To us, he’s the brand. And the way he behaved doesn’t make us want to do business with this brand, at all. Unfortunately, the lasting impression he left us with was an expectation of seeing this company on the next BBC Watchdog episode and James, taking pride of place, armed with his folder, his iPad and his scribbled quotes.
I am a marketer. So, unlike many others, I actually take the time to read those auto-sent emails and spam messages that somehow land up in my inbox – looking for tips and turn-offs to user or avoid in my own email campaign marketing activities.
And every now and then there’s a gem that lands in my inbox which causes me to pause a little. Such is the case with a recent email I received from Bloom and Wild.
I love to send flowers. I always have. But the one frustrating thing about surprising someone else far away with a bunch of flowers is working out when they’re going to be available to receive them (should they not be office-based where there’s sure to be someone to sign for them). That was until I discovered Bloom and Wild. A wonderfully efficient way to send flowers straight through a letterbox – without the need for a signature.
So, as a result, I have used them on several occasions.
As most businesses with their presence online would know, getting a customer to review a service is gold-dust which determines improvement of processes and products, showcasing opportunity to other potential customers and just the all-round feel-good pat-on-the-back acknowledgement for a job well done. But sometimes asking for those reviews is a difficult knack that so many of us just don’t get right.
Not Bloom and Wild.
I recently ordered a bunch of flowers through them, and today, 4 days later, I receive the following email. It reads:
Hi Katy
I wanted to say a personal thank you for choosing Bloom & Wild. As a young company, we really do appreciate your support.
I hope you and your loved ones have enjoyed your flowers. We would love for more people to hear about us and enjoy our blooms, so I wanted to ask a favour. Would you mind reviewing us on Trustpilot? It only takes a minute, we’d be very grateful and it really would help us spread the word.
If you have any feedback you’d like to share, feel free to email me or call on [number removed by Katy for privacy reasons]. Thank you in advance – your review really helps us and other customers.
Yes – this email is probably automated, and yes, I’m probably not THAT special as the next person – but what I loved most about this was the personal approach to asking for an absolutely valid response from me as the customer. Lucy obviously understands customer experience and she knows how to be straight-forward about something but polite enough to make the customer (aka, Me) want to take action to help their cause.
Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m a fellow business-owner also trying to spread the word about my own business. Perhaps it’s the fact that she’s said, “would you mind” as opposed to the standard “we’d love you forever if you ….” or some other silly attempt at eliciting some sort of response.
Whatever it is – this was a nice touch.
And yes. It worked. I immediately logged into Trustpilot and left my review.
Thanks Lucy for sharing a great customer experience with me.