Is Twitter on your menu?

Is Twitter on your menu?

By guest writer, Margaret Adams

You’ve probably noticed that some of the people on Twitter love to tell the rest of us what they’ve got in their sandwiches today or from which coffee shop they’re watching the world at the moment.

Then there are the people who are on Twitter all day and every day sending messages every few minutes.  Often their messages are undecipherable, filled with abbreviations, hashtags and text speak.

The tweets may make sense to them, but they’re a bit like a menu written in a foreign language.  Only the initiated understand what’s being said and quite a few of the message recipients are reluctant to admit their ignorance of the language for fear of being judged inferior in some way.

Create your Twitter restaurant

This can all be very confusing and bewildering for people using Twitter and wondering who to follow or who to connect with.  You might like to think of them as people who are looking for the right Twitter restaurant to try.

If you want your business to succeed on Twitter, give them some guidance.  That means you need to think about the kind of Twitter dishes you’re intending to prepare, the meals you’re aiming to create, and who you would like to consume your offer.  The things you tweet about won’t be to every one’s taste.  You won’t please every one on Twitter – as in the world of food.

However, if you create a menu – a statement about what your particular Twitter restaurant offers – then you’ll be likely to attract the right people to your Twitterstream.  Help those people standing in the street looking into your restaurant to decide whether to step inside by following the advice below.

Check you menu

1. Choose a username for your Twitter account that tells people what to expect if they follow you.  If that’s not possible, explain clearly in your profile message what they can expect from you.
2. Use Twitter a communications tool not a broadcast medium. Tweet for real people, for a defined audience.  Tweet for people you want to do business with or connect with or interact with.  Tweet about things they will be interested in knowing about.
3. Tell your followers what you are tweeting about.  Remind them once every couple of weeks what they can expect of you.  It’s a great way to shape people’s perceptions of you and it also brings in lots of new followers.
4. Adopt a proactive following strategy.  That is go and find people to follow.  Follow your customers.  Follow your competitors.  Follow the thought leaders in your industry.
5. Set out to be useful to your audience.  Keep thinking about how you can add value to the people you want to connect with.

In short, if you want to be successful on Twitter, create your menu.  Let people know what you will be serving when they sample your Twitterstream.  Get it right and you’ll become part of your followers’ staple diet.  Therefore, put Twitter on your communications menu.  It will help your business if you do.

Margaret Adams helps businesses to find the right things to say about their products and services online, via their blogs and using social media.  As a result more customers beat a path to their door.  Find out more about her work at:  Margaret Adams and on Twitter here