What to Say on Twitter

Viz Witch Solution Center:

You can't visit a website now where a "follow me" invitation isn't prominently displayed on the home page. Even the Weather Channel and GMA is telling you to follow them on Twitter. So, you get online and open yourself a Twitter account. Now what?

Even very social people have told me that they can't imagine what they could say that would interest a dozen people, much less a few hundred. The problem here is that they misunderstand the whole point of media like Twitter. Networking is networking wherever you do it. If you are on an isle in the grocery store looking for pickled beets, you'd ask a stranger on the same isle for help. If you are in a bar and you overhear someone talking about sports, you invite yourself into the conversation. If you are standing in line at a concert and you hear someone talking about going to Chicago next week, you tell them about your fave Chicago handouts.

It's the same on Twitter. That's relationship building. And, to be clear...relationship building does NOT occur when you are selling; it happens when you are creating a sense of identification. When you set the stage for a mutually beneficial experience, you've produced an opportunity for yourself and for others.

An iPhone game developer I was twittering with recently asked for help in promoting his game. He was pretty specific in the connections he wanted. He was looking for publishers, marketers, and reviewers. I simply posted back the names of a few contacts on Twitter that I knew would be of help. Relationship established.

Not long ago, I noticed that a hotel resort was tweeting about a charity campaign they were conducting. I was following them from a Twitter account that I managed for a national window franchise. Apparently, the social media rep for the resort's corporate headquarters happened to notice that I was helping them spread the word and sent a direct message asking how they could return the favor. I e-mailed the client indicating that this was a good opportunity to open the door for a potential collaboration. This was the type of connection that they would have never been able to secure otherwise.

Relationship building is key to having a successful experience in social media, and it needn't take months. I've created a partnership with a computer technician I met via social media. He was literally across town. From initial connection to in-person meeting took maybe three or four "tweets" over the course of a few days.

On my site, I have a testimonial comment placed by Brad Rich, a freelance writer, whom I reconnected with via Facebook. His comments relate to how I introduced him to Brian Grenier, a US Olympic Cycling Coach in our area. After a couple of tweets, I learned that Brian lived nearby. He visited my office one day to share information about the Wounded Warrior Cycling Team. The whole subject of creating visibility for the team is what brought Brad Rich into the picture. Brad's now writing a book for the coach.

Are you getting the idea of how this works?

If you're still a little fuzzy on how you could utilize these social media sites to benefit your business, here's a little video to help you out. This shows real examples pulled right from my Twitter accounts. It's called, What To Say on Twitter You can double click the clip to the view the entire video (3:10) on YouTube.

For those of us who work social media professionally, sometimes it's not just the not knowing what to say excuse we hear...sometimes we get hit with questions around the value derived from the effort.

In a recent meeting with our county's economic development leader, I found myself trying to explain the value of social media. My response was this: don't be concerned about the value you will receive from social media...think about the value you can deliver. From that philosophy comes all good things.

And, I have a few "what ifs" to share here relating to value: What if there are potential customers or clients out there that you might otherwise never have the opportunity to meet? Is there value in that? What if there are other business owners that discover you as a potential collaborator? Could you see the value in lead-sharing with a companion business? What if a media outlet takes interest in you or your business? Would you realize value from a little extra "free" visibility?

If you are in business, the motivation is there. Find your words, because you cannot achieve more value for less.