First off I apologize for my absence I have been without internet access for a while, but I’m back now!
One of the most important things to realize about implanting a Social Media strategy into the marketing plan for your horticultural business is that there are many venues in which you can get your content out there. Last week I discussed how Facebook can be used successfully. Facebook, however, is not the only site out there. Millions of people use Twitter every day. Twitter can be a great way to get quick messages and links out to people that are interested in your business. Also because Twitter is such a public space (more public and searchable than Facebook) it is a great outlet to increase overall interest in your business.
Many businesses in the industry do a good job of creating an account to get their name out there, but then that’s it. One of the most important things to know about Twitter is that it moves fast – like lightning fast. This can often be very intimidating for those that are new to Social Media or used to Facebook. The key to remember here is that Twitter is a totally different game and usually depending on the way you operate requires less created content than a page like Facebook. Twitter puts a limit in how many characters that can be put in each post and therefore effectively limits how much you can say. Users are used to this and are only looking for bits and pieces of things on Twitter. It is simply important to stay relevant and post a couple times a day to maintain your presence on the site. One tactic could be to have a “Tip of the day” or a “Link of the day”. I would recommend setting up a schedule of three times daily (perhaps: 10 am, noon, and 3 pm), and putting one person in charge of posting a little bit of content. Twitter is great also in a sense that it is extremely mobile friendly. That way your business can easily post even at times when you might seem very busy.
The last recommendation for your business’ Twitter account is that you make sure whatever content you post on there is unique. Many times businesses shortcut themselves and simply post the same content on all their Social Media sites. The problem with this is that many people have many different Social Media profiles and will get bored with your business if they see the same thing from site to site. A good strategy is to set up different goals for each Social Media site you are on. Next time we will discuss some other venues that are gaining some web cred and could be useful to Horticultural/Agricultural businesses.
Mason, I tweet 5-10 tweets a day but I never really tweet directly as twitter is set to post all my Fb and Pinterest Pins. My thoughts are that the end garden consumer is largely not reading tweets. That may change so I am staying engaged. I will put you in my Google Reader, another amazing service that is barely touched by the garden consumer.
ReplyDeleteHey Rick, thanks for your great input. Sometimes with a business it's hard to see results on whether your strategy is working. Maybe next time I'll address a better way to analyze Twitter data. Also remember that after you have found a good way to measure goals on things like Twitter it isn't a bad idea to vary strategies to see what happens to work best for your specific business. I'll try to post soon. I'm on the road right now in Columbus helping set up for the big OFA show here. I hope this helps!
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