Entries Tagged 'social media' ↓

Once you get to grips with Twitter, it seems to be the easiest thing in the world to use.

All you have to do is squeeze your message into 140 characters and away you go.

You can tweet to thousands of people instantly which is why you need to make sure you are not making the 5 classic Twitter bloopers.

Social media has transformed the art of communication. Now customers have a very loud voice so you must make sure you convey yourself with dignity at all times—because if you don’t, that’s when you can get into trouble.

5 Classic Twitter Bloopers

1. You talking to me?

There is one thing you must accept—not everyone is going to like your company.

Twitter is a powerful outlet through which dissatisfied customers can rant. But don’t get drawn into an online slanging-match.

Arguing the toss through Twitter may be entertaining to some, but it will do untold damage to your reputation.

Your other followers will watch to see how you deal with the situation (and that will tell them a lot about the type of company you are).

Diffuse the situation quickly, resolve their issue and apologise.

2. Autofollow

Some people on Twitter are obsessed about amassing huge numbers of followers.

Why?

For example if you 40,000 followers and yet only follow 600 people, unless you are a huge brand  name or a celebrity, you’re going to look like a spammer.

My advice is to follow only those people you want to follow. Don’t use the autofollow feature. By all means when you get an email telling you someone new is following you take a look at their profile. If they look interesting and tweet great stuff, follow them. But if they don’t, don’t follow—it’s as simple as that.

Also the more people you follow the harder it gets to keep up with what’s happening. That’s when it’s a good idea to create Twitter lists – you can set one up for best friends, business contacts, celebrities etc., to help you keep track of what’s going on.

3. Tweet carefully

There are plenty of users out there who only tweet about their business, constantly linking back to their website.

If you just do that, you’ll be viewed as a spammer.

Twitter is all about conversations and sharing. If you read a great article, see a funny video or hear something in the news that’s interesting, share it with your followers. Be seen as someone who adds value to the Twitterverse.

4. Have a personality

Many corporate tweeters make this particular blooper.

If your tweets are boring, mundane and lifeless, people aren’t going to follow you.

Twitter is something you can have fun with—use it to show your company has personality. When engaging with other tweeters it’s important to make sure you show your human side. It will make you appear more approachable, a company that cares and that is prepared to listen.

5. Listen

Using Twitter isn’t all about what you can cram into 140 characters. You also have to listen to what people are saying.

Monitor it and track any mentions of your company. If someone has experienced a problem engage with them, find out what went wrong, apologise and sort it out.

If you’re on Twitter and you don’t do this, people will see you as a company that doesn’t care—and news like that will spread fast.

Twitter is a great tool for your business. It will help you engage with your customers, attract new ones and solve problems should they arise.

Just make sure you use it wisely.

This post is brought to you by Sally Ormond, freelance copywriter and social media queen.

Not everyone finds participating in social media easy.

The thought of communicating to an unknown crowd can be quite daunting; it can seem completely unnatural mainly because of the way we behaved as children.

Cast your mind back to your school days. At that time (for most of us) the thought of standing out and being different was abhorrent.

The last thing we wanted was to be singled out. We wanted to conform, be mainstream, blend into the crowd—no body wanted to be known as the ‘odd kid’.

But with social media being ‘odd’ helps.

Stand up and be noticed in social media

When using social media it is good to be different, to stand out from the crowd with a personality that shouts “Hey! Look at me”.

Social media is about being noticed, being something different from the norm – if you act ‘low key’ on line you’ll fade into the background like a beige cardigan. But if you become a character with real personality, people will stop and take notice of you.

But of course there is a big difference between being a personality and being completely fake. Remember there is a good chance that you may meet some of your online network at some point. If and when that happens they will expect to meet the person they know online. You’re going to look pretty stupid if you’ve been faking it.

As far as they’re concerned, if you lie about who you are why should they trust you in business?—so be careful.

Companies on social media

It’s all too common for businesses, when they dip their toe in the social media waters, to get it all wrong.

They believe that they must portray a very corporate image; everything must be very starched and business-like.

Why?

You are trying to convince people you are a great company to deal with so don’t be afraid to show a bit of personality.

Show you can be fun, chatty and approachable and people will engage with you, like you and do business with you.

At the end of the day, social media is a platform to show people who you are and what you do. By becoming a personality you bring a human voice to your business and that’s something people want. They don’t want to deal with a faceless corporation; they want to deal with people.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

Social media is the new black—everyone’s doing it (apparently), even the Queen’s now on Facebook.

But just because you’ve set up a Facebook fan page or a Twitter account doesn’t mean you’ll automatically attract followers and fans.

How you use social media tools will determine how effective they are. As a freelance copywriter I use social media a lot (especially Twitter – @sallyormond) which also means I come across a lot of people who are ‘using’ the tools albeit not very effectively.

In this post I want to run through 5 elements that may be causing you to repel more people than you attract.

1. Social Media

Social media is about conversations—2 way conversations. You are supposed to be communicating with people rather than broadcasting to them.

Remember, Twitter isn’t radio. You haven’t booked an air slot for your advertisements. If you constantly tweet about your products, services and offers people won’t want to follow you. Why should they?

2. Self promotion

On all forms of social media you have the option to put together a short biography. The purpose of this is so that potential fans or followers can find out who you are and whether they think you’ll be an interest person to engage with.

If your profile is blatant promotion and quite robotic it won’t inspire them to want to get to know you better. Write it from the heart and inject your personality—be human.

3. ‘Social’

It is called ‘social media’ for a reason—because it’s meant to be social. If you use Twitter for pure business how will people get to know you? They certainly won’t want to start a conversation with you.

By all means tweet about your business but intersperse them with chatty updates and engage others in conversation.

4. Follow me!

On Twitter don’t try and grow too quickly. If you suddenly amass 1000 people you’re following and you only have 46 followers, you’re just playing the numbers game.

Follow people you want to follow.  Don’t be seduced into believing you have to have thousands of followers. It’s more important to have quality followers who are actually interested in you.

5. Don’t be a wallflower

Once you’ve set up your Twitter account, don’t just sit back and wait for someone to say hello.

Find people you want to follow and then engage them in conversation. Gradually you’ll gather more followers, have more conversations, gather more followers, have more conversations….

If you want to be part of the party you have to participate.

Social media is a great tool for business but it can also be fun. In fact it should be fun. It gives you the opportunity to chat and interact with people you would never normally meet. So give it a go.

There are umpteen posts out there about Twitter and getting the most out of it.

People are full of advice about how you should or should not use it for business. They tell you catagorically what you can and can’t tweet – but what happened to freedom of speech (or tweet)? Why can’t you use it how you want to use it?

Well I’m not about to jump on the band wagon and dictate to you. But what I am going to do is introduce you to a post I recently read on socialmediaexaminer.com which as a great list of 26 Twitter tips to enhance your tweets. It is a great post to help you make the most of thise 140 characters.

A short but sweet post today – hope you find the tips useful.

Social media is something we all know we should be doing, but actually getting started seems rather daunting.

With blogging, Twitter, Facebook and all  the other forums and channels out there, where on earth do you start? How do you tweet? What’s a poke?

These are questions that act like a barrier to people dipping their toe into the warm waters of social media for the first time.

But fear not as help is at hand.

I came across a post the other day on dailybloggr.com about a Beginner’s Guide to Social Media by Creative Concepts LLC. It is a guide that takes you through the basic terms used in social media.

It’s well worth a look and you can download it for free here.