Best Approach To Better Twitter Marketing Strategy

Twitter is a social site used today by thousands of businesses for micro-blogging.

For any business, Twitter is an incredible marketing and PR tool.

Here is the best approach to successful micro-blogging.

1. Choose carefully who to follow on Twitter

 On Twitter, what you will come across in terms of updates and knowledge is going to directly depend on the people you follow. Always remember that your incoming stream should stay relevant.

2.      Organize the Twitter accounts you follow

It might be a good idea to actually organize your incoming stream into lists using Twitter tools including Tweetdeck and Hootsuite . This helps you keep tract of those topics that you particularly care about.

 3.      Don’t think twice about blocking irrelevant accounts

Like on the social media giant Facebook, Twitter offers its registered users the possibility to block other Twitter accounts. So if you have spammy accounts following you, don’t think twice. Block them.

4.      Don’t make retweeting people a point of pride

On Twitter, businesses often make it a point not to retweet other people’s updates. This is not the right approach. As a matter of fact, you should be retweeting people you wish to build a rapport with.  If you come across something useful or interesting, share the good stuff. What’s the harm in that?

5.      Always find new people to follow

Always make it a point to find new and relevant Twitter accounts to follow. One of the best ways to do this is to find the time and research the Twitter streams of the people you follow. The site’s Advanced Search function might also be helpful.

6.      Streamline the things you share on Twitter

To most businesses, social media marketing is a joke but it’s not. You see, having a Facebook account with hundreds of fans or a Twitter account with hundreds of followers is not really the goal you want to set for your marketing strategy. What you should be doing is engaging your audience and finding the triggers that will convert potential customers into buyers. So don’t share just about anything you find on the web because you can’t be bothered to come up with good stuff. Invest in the content you share.

7.      Use the weapons in your arsenal, for example ‘Favorite’

Did you know that each time you favorite someone’s content or Twitter update they get notified about it? Use this to your advantage. That right there is an incredible tool you have to dangle your name in front of people you respect and wish to connect with.

8.      Learn the semantics of the micro-blogging site

If you’ve been on Facebook or Twitter for long enough, you would know that people on a social site tend to speak a language characteristic to that particular social network. Learn the secret language of Twitter. Of course you can refer to the Twitter Glossary but more importantly you want to pay attention to how other people are using the social site.

 

SIMPLE TIPS FOR HAVING GREAT MEETINGS FROM SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST PRODUCTIVE PEOPLE

A recent U.K. study showed that the average office worker spends around 16 hours in meetings each week. That’s over 800 hours a year. For a grand total over an entire career of–are you sitting down?–37,440 hours of meetings. That’s more than 4 years of your precious time. Shocking.. Isn’t it?

Here are the strategies to get your office meeting off life support.

1. Pretend you’ve already failed.

Guy Kawasaki, a business guru and best-selling author, advises business leaders to gather their team before making critical decisions such as launching a product or service. He suggests seizing these moments to say, “Let us pretend that our product, our company failed. Now, what are all the possible reasons?” The reasons may include lack of distribution, an unsophisticated sales force, buggy software, or unreliable cloud services. According to Kawasaki, the point is to get people imagining everything that could go wrong, so they can take steps to remedy problems before they happen. In other words, he says, “Conduct a pre-mortem so that you never have to conduct a post-mortem.”

2. Keep it Novel.

Richard Branson, Virgin founder, writes about adding novelty to freshen up meetings. He invites thought-provoking speakers in diverse fields from astronomy to nanotechnology to get groups thinking in “new, exploratory ways.” And he holds discussions in innovative spaces.

3. Pause.

Clay Shirky, an author who covers the social, economic, and cultural effects of the Internet, has a bit of advice for those who charge off to meetings in a frenzied, preoccupied state. Shirky learned an important lesson when he was a student in London. To get into a receptive frame of mind for his studies he would pause during his walk over the river Thames on his way to the lecture hall.

4. Don’t squander youth.

Sean Higby, COO of Newsala, a real-time media app, believes that there is great value in the opinions of junior colleagues. He regularly invites them to meetings and solicits their feedback. Higby says, “Their ears are often closer to the street so they instinctually know what your customers want. Often they’re working for you because they’re a fan of the industry and are up on the latest, yet-to-be-reported trends, and their opinions are not clouded by what other people think is not possible.”

5. Say it in 5 words.

Christopher Frank, an author and vice president at American Express, has some words of wisdom for those trying to answer the question: “What exactly are we meeting about?” He suggests a Twitter-like hack–start your meeting by asking each person to articulate in five words or less the problem to be solved. If the answers are inconsistent or too long, your attendees are probably not focused on the same problem. “By clearly articulating the issue,” Frank wrote in an article for Forbes, “you will get a good idea of the information you need, the people you should talk to and will ensure everyone is working towards the same goal.”

6. Think like a director.

Patrick Lencioni president of The Table Group, a management consulting firm, and the author of Death by Meeting, believes that the cure for boring and unproductive meetings is to think of them as if you were a movie director. He suggests replacing “agendas and decorum with passion and conflict.” This will engage people and give them something to care about. “The good news,” he says, is that “there are plenty of issues at every meeting that have the potential for productive, relevant conflict.”

7. Get them laughing.

Suzanne Bates, founder of Bates Communications, who coaches executives says, “Humor actually increases your stature as a leader.” She goes on to explain that, “If you can warm up the room and make people smile, you stand out. You gain the respect of your colleagues, you appear confident and in control.” As a colleague of hers added, “Who looks like a leader–the person who is stiff and formal, or the one who can help the whole group loosen up?”

8. Bring something to the table or don’t come at all.

Al Pittampalli, author of Read This Before Our Next Meeting, believes in requiring those who come to your meetings to “turn up in mind and spirit and contribute something.” This could include “asking questions, sharing insight or offering to take on tasks.” Pittampalli suggests making this message stick by letting everyone know that if they aren’t bringing added value they won’t be invited to future meetings.

9. Be like a talk show host.

For two years, Ian Fisher, an assistant managing editor at The New York Times, ran the newsroom’s morning meeting in which editors from different sections battle vigorously for best play of their stories. Fisher had to allow enough time for complicated information to be communicated as well as leave time for discussion to deepen coverage. “But a half an hour is about a normal human’s attention span,” he says. He had to know when to bore in, and when to move on. “I called myself Regis,” he told us. “Say what you want, but he knew when it was time to go to the commercial.”

10. Use meetings to beget meetings.

For those of you just getting started and trying to network your way to success, here’s a tip from Valentina Rice, a champion networker and founder of Many Kitchens, an online artisanal food marketplace. Rice’s father, a prominent English businessman, often told her, “Never leave a meeting without getting the names of two more people to meet.”