February 25, 2015

Avoiding Twitter? Here are Three Easy Steps to Get Results

Lisa

Do you feel like Twitter just isn’t the right social platform for you and your business?

A lot of business owners avoid getting on social media because it feels overwhelming and it often feels like something that won’t produce the results they need. For those entrepreneurs who are using Twitter, especially for business, they understand the value that exists on the platform when you use it in a highly leveraged way to get results.

Here are three super simple ways to leverage Twitter to get more results for your business.

Step #1 – Learn How to Leverage Twitter’s Search Functionality

One of the best ways to find targeted people to follow in a specific demographic is through the use of Twitter’s Advanced Search function. The search function lets you choose specific keywords that people are talking about, along with a wide range of other demographic data, so that you can find the right people to engage with on the platform.

The reason this is important is because it allows you to talk to the people who live in your community and it allows you to be more intentional about the conversations you are having. Instead of following people for the sake of following them, you can now target the people you want to engage with and begin building a relevant following list.

Step #2 – Save Your Searches and Start to Listen

With saved searches, you can return back to the results often to listen to what people are saying. Listening more and talking less can open ourselves up for better relationship building, which we’ll look at in step three.

So, what types of things should you be listening for? The best searches to do are in a few key areas:

Community-based: this will allow you to connect with people who are local and engage in personal, offbeat and fun conversation.

Industry-specific: these keywords will produce searches that will allow you to engage with other people in your industry and who can “talk shop” with you.

Expertise-specific: searches around your expertise will allow you to jump in and help out or provide useful advice to other Twitter users. This is good to do for many reasons but establishing expertise and creating good karma are two great side effects from doing this.

Step #3 – Engage in Conversation

Once you’ve mastered the art of searching for relevant conversations and listening to what people have to say, you can move to step three: engage in conversations. This will allow you to build relationships with people in your community (and beyond!) and begin to have meaningful conversations that could eventually lead back to business.

If you are on the platform and you are primarily broadcasting out, you’ll want to adjust this. Instead of simply Tweeting out content and links, engage others and get to know the people that you share the platform with. When you get to know people on Twitter and you build rapport with them, that’s where the magic happens and you can turn relationships into business opportunities.

Twitter tip: don't just Tweet out links, engage others in conversation. Click To Tweet

Share content, share advice, answer questions and get to know people. If you approach the entire thing in a similar fashion to showing up at a networking event or a friend’s dinner party, you’ll have a much better time using the platform.

Questions About Twitter Or Other Social Media Networks?

If you have any questions about using Twitter for business, leave them in the comments below! Or, take things a step further – consider enrolling in the Pilot To Profit Program where we dive deeper into this topic.