I’ve been working with a client of to build their presence of twitter. They had a brand new twitter account set up and had a few strategies that really worked out well for them. In two weeks time we’ve build up a small interest of people who are currently following them and their blog. So I want to share with you the strategies that worked.
There a lot of people sharing how to build a presence on twitter and I disagree with a lot of people that building a presence is about your twitter background, your username etc. Imagine you own an offline company. What is important is getting out there. You can get the best company name or the best company design or business card, but if you’re not getting out there, then you’re not getting any customers. Don’t spend so much time on how you look like.
So what are the strategies like i mentioned earlier? Its really simple I call it
C.B.S
What is CBS? No its not the TV network.
Connect:
Since nobody know that you are on twitter, first thing you need to make sure is that you’re following the right people on twitter. I don’t really recommend auto following tools for this because they usually follow a lot of spammers. So if you’re planning to use auto follow based on keywords, don’t. The reason why I say that is because a lot of spammers will be using the same keywords as you. Lets say you’re following the key-term “money” you’ll be following many people who are sending out tweets like “learn to make easy money and make $200 in one day”
Take your time to build your followers if your account is new, you want a good foundation of targeted followers. You can start by listening on twitter what people are talking about you and your brand. If your company is NEW then you can listen to keywords that people might be talking.
I use hootsuite for that. One thing I like about hootsuite is that I can have a lot of tabs opened so that I can monitor a lot of keywords. You can use keyterms like “money -http” what this does is they search key words with money without the http links. These are all conversations of people on twitter. However listening is only a small part.
Build
Building a community is important. Don’t spam your followers with links to your blog. It doesn’t work. We talked about connecting where you listen what people are talking about your brand or in your niche. The next part is about building a community. One method you can do this is HELPING people. Help them out for free if you can.
I am going to use my COFFEE example again. I really like coffee and I enjoy a cup of coffee everyday. Anyway let’s say you own a coffee business. Sure you can listen and ask people to drop by your place to have a cup of coffee but there are people like me who enjoy a cup of coffee at home.
So I’ll show you two examples 
For this example, you can actually help by teaching how to make a good cup of coffee. You can respond by asking them how they are currently doing it and teach them the proper methods of making a good cup of coffee. I’m sure they’ll be glad that you help out and later on you can even invite them to your place.
If you own your own coffee place and you do sell coffee accessories, you can ask them to stop by your place for a cup of coffee and look at your coffee pots if you want. These are all things in my head currently. Do brain storm if you have ideas now, you can comment below.
Share
If you own a blog share them, but don’t spam people. There are lots of things that you can share, for example
- share articles on coffee eg: drinking coffee is good for health
- share what people are saying about your coffee
- share daily specials
- tutorials on making a great cup of coffee
- simple at home coffee recipes
- anything beneficial to your readers.
The more you give, the more you get. Try to help out as many people possible.
This is for the coffee niche, if you have other businesses then the examples might be different but don’t sell yourself too much because people might find it irritating to them. The thing is, people won’t buy from you IF they don’t know you. If you own a physical offline business then it might be different because they can “see” you first. If you own an online business, selling services or product online then they won’t trust you and might be annoyed if you “sell” to them before knowing them. If you own an online business then the best way is helping them. Don’t just say “hey I saw you talking about this problem, i can help you “link” and tell everyone the same thing. Instead help them.
This are just a small part of it. Of course they are more to this but this will get your ball rolling for you.
What tips would you add how to grow your business Presence on twitter?
Love the CBS method for Twitter success. Great examples. And to think, I was simply looking for a good cup of coffee this morning. What a bonus:-)
Thanks Mike, this is just the basics though but it helps to get started,
If I was there I'll buy you a cup of coffee 🙂
Hi Aaron,
Great article as always! Just curious to see if you'll continue using Hootsuite when they start charging for their service? If not, what other free or low cost tool is comparable to Hootsuite?
Thanks!
I guess it depends on how much they are charging it. Currently I'm using hootsuite and cotweet. Really love both os this tools.
HI Aaron Lee. Article is HOT! Can i translate you article to russian languange and post to my blog with link on you? Tweet to @twtt_ru plz like “YES” or “NO”. Thx.
Tweet sent 🙂
I really liked your post, the information was very useful. THANKS!
Thanks, glad you like it.
Hey Aaron, I was sent this article by a friend. And i got to say, it's really helpful. I was looking for some guidance on how to grow my twitter presence. With a new business and current climates One just cannot ignore social media. Thank you so much.
I was wondering would have any books to recommend on the topic of utilizing Twitter effectively.
Nityanand
http://www.twofold.com.sg
Singapore
Good day,
If you want books is more on twitter I recommend reaching Twitter an hour a day. It is a superb guide.
However there are more books out there on social media and a few that I recommend are Social media 101 by chris brogan, engage by brian solis and recently unmarketing by scott.
Aaron
Great Post Aaron – I love it's simplicity and the -http tip.
Jeremy
Thanks Jeremy, glad you like it.
1. Throw a sweepstake with votes on niche surveys.
2. Don’t enable “protect your updates”. This option will block people from seeing your updates/tweetFeed unless you give them permission.
3. get targeted followers with twitterdose.com and watch your list grows and your ratio grows in health.
4. Sticking to your immediate/nearest network/niche. The more you expand your network the more you'll reach quality people/listeners/retweeters.
Got a whole bunch more you could go check out the steps to revenue at:
http://twitterdose.com/step.php
I'm only talking personnal here…It worked for me, probably for you if you follow the steps…
cause this is what i did and i already got myself ~2500 followers!!!!
yeahhhhh!
Geneviève & Aaron,
Tweetdeck works just fine too… i got a little secret technique using 4 twitter widgets/sites…
i'll be posting it trew my twitter soon…
I'll keep you posted!
Nice blog, btw
I must say, you have this down to a science my friend.
These are great tips and hope everyone on Twitter would practice them! I would add the following advise: have some fun within professional boundaries off course, it will show a human aspect of the business.
Nice information, many thanks to the author. It is incomprehensible to me now, but in general, the usefulness and significance is overwhelming. Thanks again and good luck!
A great post indeed. I just caught this on twitter a few minutes ago. You bring up some valid points. I am constantly telling my clients that you need to let the seed blossom by nature. Let your Twitter audience grow because people enjoy your tweets and find value in them. Auto-follows have always result in less than desirable results for me too. Engage your audience and tweet about what you are an expert in-people will soon follow your lead and seek you out.
Great tips Aaron. I agree with not worrying about the background at the start, it’s more important just to get started, create a good bio, upload a photo and just do it. Listen to others, retweet good content, but stay focused on your niche. I’m a fan of hootsuite too.
yup twitter is the best for enhancing you business.
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twitter is really doing an awesome job. it’s really helpful for all of us.
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I use hootsuite because I prefer it over tweetdeck. Going to check cotweet. Thanks
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I have been using SocialOomph almost exclusively, and I do send auto DM’s to all new followers. I feel they at least deserve an immediate acknowledgement from me.
But lately I’ve ran into massive problems with SocialOomph rejecting my tweets, and saying they were duplicates. When I asked support, they stonewalled me – said that they had no control over this, that I should take the query to Twitter. And what a pity that I should be disappointed with their service because of something they can’t control.
If it’s twitter, and not them, why can I copy the EXACT same tweet, go to tweetdeck (or any other platform) and the tweet goes through, no prob.
So, SocialOomph may have a nice dashboard, but their customer service folks have their head up their . . . Use at your own risk.