> Nobody will be eating my lunch

Some people’s lunch is more appetizing that others.

VOUCHER PLEASE!

I fear that looking at the Twitter client and not knowing what next to write, or wondering why my number of followers isn’t increasing fast enough all point to inevitable death for my business. I read the blogs and follow the media, and know that my constant Twittering will have more to do with my success than anything I could do with my software, or the irrelevant marketing and communications activities of yesteryear.

I know the importance of measuring and metrics for success, and I know how important choosing the right metrics are. Twitter followers and updates are the metrics I must follow and optimize to be a successful and savvy entrepreneur in 2009; those who follow outdates measures I know will be left behind in my dust.

I find myself sometimes drifting back towards improving my software, answering email (email! can you believe it?) from customers, or other arcane activities, but I know these are just procrastination techniques, dragging me away from the truly important work of Twittering. Oh, if only it came to me as naturally as for some people, life would be so much simpler! But I know if I work at it hard enough, my business success is assured.

Nobody will be eating my lunch

It helps me to eat their lunch.

I have the same dilemma. I tried using twitter for the company I work for. We sell products to consumers (~$35). I tried tweeting only tips related to the problems that cause people to buy our products. For clarity, let’s say I sell GMAT Prep material. Everyday I would post a tip about the GMAT. I would link to useful GMAT sites, give math tricks and common grammar errors.

It didn’t work. Occasionally I would post a tip with a link to my site, NO ONE followed the link. I think most of my followers were marketers in the same field or marketers of a band.

We stopped tweeting, it was a waste of time to sell our type of products. (Our target audience is 45+ women, so we didn’t expect much.) We tried it because we were starting a social media plan and one person in the company was a huge twitter fan and wanted to test it.

We kept our brand name twitter account, b/c we don’t want someone else tweeting from it. I did get a direct message from a potential business partnership (affiliate like). I could see potential in twitter to drum up affiliate business. I could even see it as being an effective way to communicate with current affiliates.

After the failure of the company twitter, I began using my personal account. I only follow SEM/SEO/PPC or personal friends. If people start writing too much personal stuff I quit following them. I don’t care if you are in Germany, and I don’t care what you are eating for lunch. I understand some personal tweet will happen, but a majority of them must be business related or it is a waste of my time.

I might follow a company that tweets special & coupons, but not if they are tweeting multiple times a day. I want useful information. If you can tweet PPC tips in 140 characters that aren’t the same ‘split-test’, ‘use negatives’, and ‘targeted landing pages’ dribble then I would follow you and I would follow your links. If I decided that I wanted someone else to manage my campaigns, you would be the first person I would think of. Since it is my job, I doubt that would happen. BUT after I get my MBA and I am in charge of a company’s marketing plan I might decide to use your company for SEM rather than hiring in-house.

I guess using twitter is a long-term plan. It is branding. It is networking.

I have been following the tweets of a few successful bloggers. These are smart people who write well, but their tweets are a stream of inane drivel.

I find it hard to believe that twitter is the best use of your time from a business point of view. Only a stalker needs to know what you are doing in real time.

But what does an old git like me know about social websites?

HTH
Steve

I’m not an expert but I thought I would give this a crack and see if its of any help. I’m quite keen on social media and its possibilities. Simply you could use twitter to create a personality for your business.

Tweeting about ad words is ok but I think a lot of twitter addicts would tend to ignore those updates (personally I do). By having a single person post updates (this is key as it help with consistency and style and building the personality) about what your working on, troubles your facing with it, good stuff and silly stuff, twitterers respond to that a lot more. You’ll tend to find you’ll be able to garner a bit of buzz about your business and people will often reply with help and suggestions and they’ll become involved in what you are doing.

Anyway I don’t know if this has helped but thought I’d give it a go.

Thanks

Jamie (@grunt121)

2. I use twitter to search for my product name. Look for people who are complaining about it. Find out why do they complain, and then try to fix it in the next release.