Don’t use Twitter for business!

But there are plenty of examples of companies making money using Twitter?

But therein lies the twist in the tale. The companies making money from Twitter are not using it as a business tool. Far from it; they are using it as a social tool.

Consider your life in the real world, outside of online networking sites like Twitter. How do you go about getting new business and gaining more business from your existing customers?

How do you go about getting more business out of existing clients?
Business has always been about relationships. You get more business from existing clients by connecting with them, sharing some of ‘you’ with them, and perhaps socialising with them.

How do you get new customers?
You take every opportunity to get to know them. Instead of filling their minds with “buy this” messages you sit down with them, chat to them, ask them questions about themselves. You are trying to get to know them to see where you could “fit”. Your encounters with potential clients are social, not “salesy”.

Indeed, if it were focused on sales, what happens? You’re probably accused, although not to your face, of being a “hard seller” using …tactics”. When the conversation is social, you stand to gain more business.

Fast forward to Twitter.

What happens when you see a tweet that is a business conversation, when it is sales focused? Almost certainly you ignore it; you might even get angry and stop following the individual.

You will, of course, find an endless array of “social networking gurus” forcing social networking guff at you on Twitter, which makes it seem that these “experts” know a thing or two and therefore if your business does the same thing you’ll be OK. Wrong. Come back in a year and see how many of the “gurus” are still in business….

The successful businesses on Twitter are not using their tweets to focus on business. Instead, they are simply being social; chatting, holding conversations, being friendly, even showing altruistic kindness. When you see Twitter merely as a system to hold conversations, as a social tool, your business will do well out of it. All the time you see it as a business tool it will fail you.

So, don’t “do business” on Twitter, simply socialise – just like you do in your ‘offline’ life.

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Contact me to find out more on why you should be using twitter as a social tool and how you can easily integrate twitter with your existing website.

Mike Georgeson
www.netdesk.co.uk
01244 311517
07779 503111
mike@netdesk.co.uk

Twitter: twitter.com/mgeorgeson
Facebook: facebook.com/mgeorgeson