One of my goals for 2013, along with developing The Sales Pro Blog, was being more involved and active on Twitter.
If you’re not familiar with Twitter it’s a social network service that allows users to send, receive and read text based messages of 140 characters or less. Each message is known as a tweet.
According to an article in Forbes, Twitter generates leads 9 times more than LinkedIn and Facebook. In fact 82% of B2B social media leads originate from Twitter.
Although initially I wasn’t interested in Twitter, this was simply too large of a number to ignore. This is why I recommend Twitter as a top resource for any sales pro.
More Is Less With Twitter
What makes Twitter unique is it”s ability to literally force users to get their point across quickly and concisely. Because of the 140 character limit, there is no room for fluff.
Using the same principles you should with your article or blog tiles, you need to make your point quickly while trying to entice viewers to read further.
And because of this principle of short and sweet Twitter has become one of my main sources of industry news. I’m forced to make a decision quickly about whether I want to read a tweet or not.
And when I find something I like, I share it with my own followers.
As I’ve mentioned, sharing valuable information and news about your industry is a great way to be known as an expert in your field.
What Does A Sales Pro Tweet About?
It’s not as hard as you think to come up with ideas to tweet during the day. If you need a few ideas you might consider:
- Sales quotes
- Random quotes
- Inspirational quotes
- Interesting articles
- Blog posts if you have a blog - new and old
- Events you’re going to
- Industry news
- Random things (“It’s 80 in LA and here I am here in Ohio at 14 degrees. Poor life choice?“)
- Major events in your life - I’m having a baby (yes people want to know you’re human)
- Anything that is industry related, value added, or just plain funny
That’s it. There’s nothing fancy about what you share.
Just be sure to add a little into the mix. Yes you want to mostly share valuable content that will help establish your expertise but at the same time you want your followers to know you’re human.
Major life events, funny things that happen to you, meetings with friends in the industry. Prove that your followers can relate to you.
How Often To Tweet
When I first started my journey in the Twitter-sphere from a sales pro point of view I did as much research as I could. Still do.
Mainly around how to best use it and get the most out of it. And from the various articles, posts, studies, and theories I’ve read, there is no perfect cadence to posting on Twitter.
Some say you’re good with once a day, others say twice a day is optimal, and still some say you should shoot for every hour.
I personally do something a little different then all those experts. I tweet as much as I want.
Because I am on twitter multiple times a day this seems to serve me well since I always find something worth sharing.
But please don’t take that as you should tweet “a lot”. You should tweet as much as you like. Once a day, every other day, 24 times a day. It’s up to you.
But a word of warning, mix up your tweets. The quickest way to get unfollowed is to only post sales offers for affiliate products. Unfortunately I’ve been fooled by a catchy profile headline only to find that it’s probably a fake twitter account meant to push affiliate products.
But I’m not worried about you doing that because if you’re reading this I’m sure you already have a LOT of ideas of things to tweet about.
Be sure to let me know in the comments below and tell me what you’re favorite things to tweet about are.
Don’t Forget To “Tweet This!”
A great site I LOVE to use, and try to use as much as possible in my blog posts is Click To Tweet.
Using Click to Tweet you can create an hyperlink that allows your readers to tweet something from your blog with a single click.
If you don’t already, use Click To Tweet in all your post! ~ Tweet This!
How awesome is that! Talk about an awesome referral program. Make it as easy as you can and you’ll have readers sharing your content in no time.
Pay With A Tweet
Another great site which I only recently found is Pay With A Tweet.com.
This site allows you to “sell” things for the price of a tweet. This can help you use Twitter to spread your message and get some social media love.
Be Part Of The Community
An important topic to cover about Twitter and social media in general is that it is yet one more avenue for you to make connections.
Connections with your readers, connections with other industry experts, connections with your prospects, and of course connections with your customers.
Twitter is a great way to build those connections.
Not only do you want to share valuable stories you find around the web. But be sure to retweet tweets you come across that your network would appreciate.
Thank people for retweeting you.
Introduce yourself personally when someone follows you.
Tweet to others and start a conversation about a topic you are passionate about.
The possibilities are endless.
If you’ve got something to say, and you can do it quickly, Twitter is the place to be. Since you only have 140 characters to work with, do it well and do it quickly.
Your Next Steps…
Now that you know how to use Twitter a little better as a sales pro be sure to follow me to see how I’ve been using this great sales tool.
Just remember that it is a system based on sharing ideas. So do your part and share!
~Johnny Bravo
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post! Twitter in a nutshell 😉 I agree with everything you say… i am surprised you forgot to mention one key type of tweets - cross-promote your other social media profiles. Encourage people to network on FB, Pinterest, LI, StumbleUpon or whatever else platform you might be on. It’s a quick and easy way to connect on multiple levels. As for the how-often-should-i-tweet - I think 5 times per day pre-scheduled updates to cover different time zones is best - and then, manual interactions (replies, retweets, mentions, etc. - as many as we want and have time to do.
Hi Diana, you’re right I didn’t mention that and it is definitely something you should do with Twitter and the other social media networks. Thank you for pointing that out!
Interesting suggestion about catering your tweets to different time zones. I honestly haven’t ever thought about that but it makes good sense. Thanks!
I am probably the worst at twitter. I almost never go to the site.
I have my twitter account attached to my facebook postings so I automatically tweet what I put on facebook. This means I tweet quite a bit but without actually visiting the site.
I use to be the same way Jon. I’m much better now but when I first started using Twitter purposefully for my brand development I had to really work at it. Not the case today though.
I use Twitter and I have seen a great response in RT about my posts. I also have used Hootsuite to manage my tweeting. Great tips for novice and expert tweeters.
Thanks Susan. I have used Hootsuite before and like it too. It’s great if you know you won’t be able to be on very much and need to schedule some posts. Or if you want a single dashboard to see what’s going on in the twitter-verse.
I push out tweets automatically through various outlets, but I’m forever seeking to up the community aspect of what I do. Nobody wants to interact with someone who doesn’t ever strike up a conversation. There’s a lot of that on Twitter.
Very true Jeri. I am working on that as well. Tweeting is easy, but interacting is something I am conscious about doing better.
Great tips! Twitter is definitely becoming one of the main social media sites to utilize to market your business or yourself as a personality. Its definitely important to not only tweet everyday, but to interact on twitter with other people in your industry and to thank those that tweet articles of yours. Good advice here.
Well said Kelly. Thanking them is very important. Show’s you care and that you’re a real person.
It’s kind of crazy how twitter has changed everything so much. I remember when there was no twitter, facebook, linkedin, you name it! Things were a whole lot simpler back then!