What do you do now? With the busy season coming up for many
people in the horticultural and agricultural industries, businesses are finding
themselves scurrying around trying to make sure that everything is going
according to plan. Everybody is trying to stay in line with the big picture. Where
does that leave social media? Often social media strategies can fall by the
wayside this time of year. It’s often a last minute thing, or the kind of thing
that people don’t put much thought into. Is that a good idea? What do you
think? My obvious answer would be “NO!”, but we can agree to disagree if you
want to be stubborn about it.
You have a Facebook account; it’s got quite a good
following. Your customers see it as a valuable resource for pictures and a good
way to let you know how they feel. You
aren’t so concerned about Facebook. You want your business to expand its social
media horizons, so you turn to the next biggest thing: Twitter. You might even have
a Twitter account. There are probably a few random tweets here and there. You
might even have a decent number of followers. You sit down and look to post something
new, but you find yourself staring blankly. You have no idea what to do with
Twitter.
Take a deep breath. It’s going to be ok. I’m going to help
you with that.
When looking to post on Twitter, you first have to ask a few
questions. Who am I talking to? Is it customers? Industry leaders? Suppliers? Or is it some
twisted combination of all of those? No matter what the case may be there are a
few things you have to remember about this social media monster.
- Twitter is one giant conversation. Think of it as a constant ongoing networking event. Everybody has a name tag and it’s really ok to talk to anyone. It’s ok to ask questions. You might not get an answer from some people, but generally if people are active on Twitter they are looking to be a part of an active conversation.
- Think of it as show and tell. You only get 140 characters per tweet. That’s really not a lot of room to say something. That’s why you will see links all over Twitter. If you want to talk about a topic, state your brief opinion and link to a webpage that goes into further detail. Use Twitter as the bait to your own hosted content. Because you are limited in what you say. You have to make it count.
- It’s ok to share. Twitter was built for sharing. See that “Retweet” button? Use it. People LOVE it when you retweet their content. It lets people know that you’re interested in what they have to say, and it gives them exposure to your followers.
- Be personal. Nobody wants to follow a robot (well normal people anyway). Don’t post useless drivel. If you have something to say then say it. If you don’t, then go out and find something cool that you think your followers would be interested in and share it. Unless you’re a celebrity nobody wants to hear all about you all the time. Sales pitches get boring, and boring gets un-followed.
- Thank people. If somebody follows you actually take a look at their profile. If they are someone who might interest you follow them back! I don’t suggest following everyone who follows you but at least look into them as a candidate. If someone retweets you acknowledge them for it.
By following those five tips tweeting can actually become
pretty simple. It lets you “show off” to a lot of people. It can help you
become a business that is known as an industry leader. Twitter has the ability
to give your followers the feeling that sometimes they are getting a chance to
interact with you on a one on one basis. That’s the biggest thing to learn
here.
Twitter is all about give and take. You really get what you
give, and it can be a lot of fun. Maybe it’s just because I’m a social media
FREAK, but Twitter is where I go to hang out. It allows me to be myself and I
get to chat with some really interesting people that maybe otherwise wouldn't know that I existed.
Find me here:
Email: mday55@gmail.com
Facebook: www.fb.com/nextgenhorticulture
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mday55
