With social media, first impressions count!
Aug 14th
I first connected to this talented U.K. out-sourcing professional through a Linked-In forum, where he professed befuddlement about Twitter. I encouraged him to give it a try and provided a little coaching. So, I became his follower number one!Most of my very first followers were … nubile young ladies in bikinis. Or less. I blocked them and watched my number of followers sink back into single figures. My vanity almost made me stop as it only reinforced that in cyberspace, if you aren’t connected to anyone, no one can hear you Tweet.Something I’ve learned is that on Twitter and social networks, first impressions count. This is doubly important with something like Twitter, given the hard work that people put into trying to build their network of business contacts. While “reciprocal following” is pretty normal, within a business context, it’s fair to say that professionals will be more selective. They are following and being followed for a reason.
What are the implications for people seeking to make that first good impression on Twitter?
Since then, Chris has continued to grow and experiment with Twitter and I asked him if he would provide his unique view on how a smart guy figures out an apparently dumb communication channel. One conclusion: first impressions count! Here’s Chris:
It has been rather intimidating settling into the Twitter world as a newbie with apparently nothing to say, offer, or a tweet track record that warrants any meaningful place in somebody’s Twitter life.
You might want to spend a period of time tweeting to nobody, simply to build some “profile collateral” that gives people an understanding of who you are, what your interest or industry is and how your being in their network adds value to their Twitter experience.
Equip your profile with the means to make the right first impression, including a nice photo and an interesting and accurate short bio. Otherwise, potential connections will have no reason to stay with you beyond that initial contact that you have worked so hard to establish. The short bio plays an important role when people are trying to find like-minded people to follow.
Chris Hughes has worked in the contact center and business process outsourcing industry for about 16 years. He would really, really love for you to connect with him on Twitter at @chrishughesuk.
The biggest obstacle to social media business success
Aug 5th
To turn online connections into serious business relationships, you need to surround your cyber-self with useful, interesting content. Difficulty in providing consistent, meaningful content is the NUMBER ONE reason people give up and never achieve social media business benefits. So you just have to find a way to do it! First, let’s get those excuses out of the way:
- If you’re interesting, entertaining and funny, people will be drawn to you. But if you’re shy and have difficulty being entertaining, you just can’t provide content, so why try?
- Takes too much time. No person with a full-time job can possibly have time for the incremental effort needed for social media. Who has time to write a blog???
- Social media is just a stupid fad any way.
We are not going to accept these excuses, right? RIGHT! So, I’ve worked up a strategy for you to efficiently deliver meaningful content even if you’re not a natural writer. All you have to do is be yourself and tenaciously ENGAGE. Ideas to create content for the non-writer, in just a few minutes a day:
- In the last post, I emphasized the importance of joining Linked-In Groups. Now become INVOLVED. Twice a week, respond to a question or comment in the group. You can answer questions can’t you? Of course you can! Time commitment: 20 min/week.
- Once a week, peruse online magazines related to your industry. Find an interesting article. Leave an opinion or your appreciation in the comment section then tweet the article out to your followers on Twitter. You’ve created meaningful content twice. Time = 15 min
- Find five or more blogs related to your industry and put them in an aggregator like Google Reader. Once you have this set up, review blog content at least once a week and comment + tweet out your favorite articles. 15 min
- Find interesting and useful content that has already been created by your company. Are there ways you can reference this content to help others, solve problems, and answer questions?
- In the last post we talked about finding connections through Facebook. Now visit them. Share, engage, comment, react, ask more questions. 20 min
- Tweet AT LEAST three times a day (at different times), AT LEAST three days a week. (45 min/week)
At first, I know it can be difficult to figure out what to tweet, but you have to keep at it! When you get stuck, here are some subject matter ideas to get you going again.
- An entertaining observation you made – it could be a funny bumper sticker, a movie or a commercial you saw on TV.
- Something interesting related to your business or industry. But DO NOT SELL. Here’s an example of something appropriate: “Finally landed a great contract – business has been tough.” Or, “Went to a great training program on social media today – I recommend it”
- Re-tweet a particularly good article or post provided by somebody you follow.
- Comment on an observation made by one of your followers.
- Take a picture from a place you’re visiting and comment on it.
- Express an opinion on a national news story.
- Ask a question and authentically seek help from the community.
- Thank followers who do something nice for you, like mentioning you on a Follow Friday.
To provide meaningful content, you don’t have to write a lot, but you MUST COMMIT. You know that old saying: You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him tweet. I can’t make you engage, but I promise that you can’t be successful without it.
If you were to help a friend get started in social media, what other ideas do you have?
Tomorrow, the final part of the success formula: Authentic Helpfulness.
Other articles in this series:
Part 1: A formula for social media business success
Part 2: Building meaningful business connections
Part 4: Social Media’s Economy of Giving
How do you handle a crowd of followers?
Jun 25th
“Before I follow, I read somebody’s blog carefully to see if I can connect with their knowledge and their perspective. I started out primarily following marketing bloggers, but have expanded to following all manner of folks who interest me.”
“I’m not sure what the magic number is as far as how many followers you should have, or how many people you can actually keep up with following … I have a friend who’s tweeting on behalf of his business, and his approach is to follow as many people he can and grow his community through follow backs. OK, so he has close to 2,000 followers, I have just around 300. Is his group more valuable than mine? Larger yes, but maybe not better, as I’m not so sure how relevant some of his followers are. I’ve chosen not to follow his approach; I feel like the right thing for me anyway is to keep on posting clever, interesting tweets, and let the community grow at its own pace.”
Why do I need 10,000 followers?
Jun 23rd
Photo credit: I don’t know. Probably some porn site. This is an actual Twitter follower of the guy mentioned in the article. If this is a picture of you and you’re not in the porn industry, I apologize. I was just trying to make a point. Now go put on a tee shirt.
Mark – why so few followers when it seems you have great content? Is that part of your strategy? Just looked-thought it would be more …
At first I felt defensive. Well — I LIKE my 400 followers. I’ve only been doing this a few weeks. That seems pretty good. Right??
So I decided to check out the guy who sent me the message. He has over 12,000 followers and 700 connections on Linked-in. I felt Twitter Envy swelling in my chest. Is it possible to exhibit alpha male behavior on Twitter?
I looked over his list of followers and what I found astounded me. Many of them had names like “HelpYouMakeCash” or “Psychic123.” Tons of them had names like “pS5bo1g6″ with no photos. And a very high number featured icon photos with women baring their chest, or nearly so. Who would brag about a community filled with this stuff?
When I get followers bearing (baring?) those attributes I knock ‘em out. First, I’m not in the same game that they are. Second, I would not want any one in my Twitter community I would not proudly introduce to my kids.
What’s the point of all of this social media stuff anyway? I’m writing this blog and Twittering on a regular basis to contribute to the dialogue with a group of insanely cool people. I have learned SO MUCH from you guys out there. I like my new online peeps. I get excited when you respond to a blog post or RT one of my Tweets.
I genuinely want to CONNECT with my growing community but already have some concerns as the followers grow each week. At some point I think it will become too much and I haven’t thought of a next step. I want to be a good community member. Is that possible with a thousand followers? How do we build a sustainable, manageable community with a meaningful dialogue?
Welcome to {grow}
You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow.
Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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