Dawn Brewer

A Few Twitter Tips

Twitter is so easy to use and such good fun that’s easy to overlook how it can be used in business too.

If you agree that the relationships you build are key to more business, then using Twitter could bring benefits to you. Even if you’re not convinced, then Twitter could form part of your marketing touches anyway.

Try out these Twitter tips and let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Five Twitter Tips

1. Set up your profile. It surprises me just how many people don’t set up their profile. Why does it matter? Well, if I bet I’m not the only person on Twitter who only follows people who look interesting – and how do I decide who’s interesting? Like this:
   • I already know you (or want to know you)
   • You’ve followed me so I’ll look at your profile and decide whether to follow you back
   • One of my followers recommended you or retweeted, so I’ll look at your profile and decide whether to follow you back
   • A topic you tweet about is trending and your tweets and profile looked interesting

   See the common theme? Take some time to set up your profile.

2. Keep it personal. There are plenty of ways to keep posting to Twitter but do make it personal too – that’s where the interest lies and that’s how to build the relationship. People build relationships with people not tweets. So make sure you include personal tweets – even if you’re a company Twitter account, keep it human.
3. Automate it too! I know I just said keep it personal, but use the technology of the web to automate it too and make sure it works for your business. You can set up automatic feeds to Twitter – so whenever you blog a tweet is sent automatically, or whenever you write a new article  a tweet is sent automatically. You can also schedule a list of  tweets to be sent.
4. Give information away. Don’t just tell people what you do, help them do it too. The basis of building relationships is giving as well as receiving.
5. Help others. If one of your followers sends out interesting information then pass it on (retweet it) – but please, don’t retweet everything you’re sent, just what you think your followers would like to see too.

And finally, make sure you enjoy it. Tell your friends about Twitter and ask them to follow you. Follow me on Twitter.

Yesterday I met Dee Blick author of Powerful Marketing On A Shoestring Budget: For Small Businesses for a quick coffee and a chat.

Wow – that woman’s amazing – within 30 minutes she’d passed on more tips on how I could do better at my own marketing than anyone else has passed on this year so far! Well OK, yes Dee can talk a lot – so can I, but I also know when to shut up and listen.

Apart from the gratitude that someone took the time to pass on some knowledge I’m also now swamped with ideas that sparked from that one short conversation (plus 2 cups of tea) and it made me realise just how much knowledge and help is available if we’d only look for it.

What were some of those tips? Well, many were all about raising my own profile and included the importance of commenting on blogs and building relationships. We also talked about being a speaker – now there’s a whole topic to be explored – as well as networking, Yorkshire and of course, technology (yes I did open my mouth too and passed on a couple of my own tips on Twitter and auto-responders – more on those in future blog posts).

So, for true marketing on a shoestring budget – apart from reading Dee’s book of course – meet up with people and don’t forget to share – share your problem and also share your own expertise.

You never know who might help – and who might inspire you to come up with new ideas!

I was a a little surprised today, talking to a couple of business colleagues, at their lack of understanding about why to add a comment to a blog post – and how to do it too.

 

I’ve just written a short article explaining how to add a comment to a blog post. I’ve also given a few reasons why I think it’s worth taking  the time to do it – especially if you’re a small business and want more visitors to your own blog or website.

 

Adding a comment doesn’t take very long and helps build relationships and connections – always a good thing on the web. So, please, take the time now to let me know what you think of my articles or add a comment below.

Last month (December 2009) I gave a short talk to TWBC Horsham about websites,  specifically 5 Tips to Avoid a Woeful Website and I promised to write an article about it, summing up my talk.

 

Well – I am a bit wordy! – and that article has turned into a series. The first How Can Small Business Optimize Websites? is finished and there are more on the way… who knows maybe when they’re all finished and I’ve had some feedback I could turn them into a short ebook – now there’s an interesting thought!

 

The main point I make in this first article is to make sure that you know the purpose of your website and the purpose of each page on your site too. That will help keep the focus.

 

Imagine you have a shop in a huge shopping mall… or you have a website on the Internet… some visitors will know exactly what they’ve come in for and want to complete their business as fast as possible – imagine ‘popping into Boots’ and not being able to find what you’re looking for? SuperDrug here I come! Other visitors will be happy to browse – but even those people browsing will need some directions especially if your website has lots of pages – ever consulted a store directory in a department store (or been irritated when you couldn’t find one?). Thinking about your visitors and their journey through your website will help you design the best website for you and your business, by putting your visitors first… and that comes down to defining the purpose.

 

Three things I find woeful about websites:

• Website that take too long to load – Yes I have got broadband, but I’m impatient!
• Websites that have spelling mistakes and bad grammar – well, I like words you see – and as a consumer, I’m hard to please
• The ‘it must be there somewhere’ websites where it’s just very difficult to find out what I want to know. Thank goodness for online forums and blogs and all the experts who are better at giving me the information I need than the actual companies – this seems to apply especially to big technical companies, but also applies to small business too (WOEFUL!)

 

The rest of the series on avoiding woeful websites is ‘in production’. What would you like to see added? Tell me below.

I’ve just written an article explaining the DAGMAR Advertising Model.

 

I can’t be the only person who regularly hears “advertising doesn’t work” or “advertising is really expensive – it’s only for big companies” and I always wonder just how much planning has gone into previous advertising campaigns. It’s more likely that a sales agent for a newspaper or magazine has offered advertising space and the offer was taken up without planning how to make the most of it – and very importantly, without thinking about how to measure the effectiveness of the advert.

 

DAGMAR helps us understand what we need to do to get the best from advertising (at a business level not at a creative level).

 

Do tell me what you think about the DAGMAR Advertising Model?   and do comment below and tell me what other articles you’d like to read…

Just written an article explaining the AIDA Marketing Model.

 

AIDA is

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire 
• Action

- and remembering AIDA when planning an email marketing campaign could improve the likelihood of emails being opened and read by customers.

 

The element I see missing most often when working with small business, usually in their email marketing and autoresponder campaigns, is the A – Action. Always include a call to action in marketing materials to help improve response rates.

 

Do tell me what you think of my article on AIDA - leave a comment below.

Business networking can be really good fun as well as helping to build those relationships. Went to Mannings Heath last night for the Horsham Women in Business Christmas do (has Mannings Heath Golf Club become the only place in Horsham to support local business networking?) and it turns out it was a joint event with the Business Builder Club. Interesting as there were a few people there I haven’t seen for a few years and it was good to catch up with them.

 

Find out more about effective business networking.

I was the 4Sight speaker for 4N in Chessington on Thursday (3^rd December) – what a great time I had

 

I talked about marketing touches, my fantastic Auntie and how technology can help to automate marketing touches and so make the sales cycle more efficient.

 

This time I asked everyone to take out a business card and write down a word to describe either what was good about my 4sight, or how I should improve it – and I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped me with this. Your comments were lovely and the feedback was great (my ego is now as big as a house).

 

I’ll definitely be going back to 4N Chessington – see you all soon, when I’ll be touching you again…

 

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oh dear!  I’m often asked to ‘have a quick look‘ at websites for people – which I’m happy to do, but more and more I’m finding that I have to then give bad news… yes it looks great, but in terms of marketing (SEO – Search Engine Optimisation)  and standards… oh dear!

 

What’s even more difficult is when I’m asked to make amendments to a site (which I’m also happy to do) but then when I look at the code behind the site it’s very tricky to change it as it hasn’t been designed properly in the first place.

 

I think there are three skills required when making the most of websites - and because any one of these skills can be applied reasonably easily, many people underestimate the complexity of combining them into a successful website.

• A good website incorporates good design in terms of the look and feel, graphics, visual impact etc. No-one will stay on a boring website that doesn’t give the information needed. 
• A good website also incorporates good programming practice and will meet standards, both coding standards and meeting requirements for visitors using different devices to browse the web eg. laptop screen, desktop screen of a different size, mobile phone, screen readers (used by many people with impaired vision – not everyone can actually SEE the design).
• A good website fulfils its purpose – and that’s usually for marketing. So if a website looks pretty but doesn’t appear in Google and the other search engines then it’s probably not a marketing success.

It’s not often that I’m asked to look at a website which meets all three of these criteria well – so more often than not I see woeful websites!

 

What is interesting, is that when I explain my thoughts on a website, very often the website owner’s not that happy with the site either and didn’t realise what is really involved when a website is built.

 

It’s easy to make mistakes with websites.

 

So, to avoid a woeful website, consider all three elements above and ask your website professional how they will meet the requirements of each of them.

 

If you’d like more information on avoiding woeful websites then contact me and I’ll get back to you.

Networking amazes me – you just never know who knows someone you might want to know!

 

Here’s a classic example of how a marketing touch can come about through networking – for people who don’t even know each other.
 

Just swapped emails with a friend who met Dee Blick (The Marketing Gym) this week and recognised her name because he’d seen one of my Twitter links to her – and my Tweet was about the weather in Yorkshire (hardly business but just goes to show that you never know when a marketing touch might happen).

 

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