Tweeting for Business?

Social networking sites such as My Space and Facebook are used by businesses as part of their marketing repertoire, but it is widely accepted that this type of media is not the same as traditional marketing communications. Broadly speaking, if you are going to Tweet, you have to ask yourself what it is you have to say.

Social networking is all about people keeping in contact with other people – rather than companies and organisations broadcasting en masse about internal achievements.

What To Tweet?

Ok, so we’ve established that you shouldn’t drone incessantly about how great your business is, or you’ll lose listeners very quickly. So what should you be Tweeting about? The most important thing to remember is that the people who follow you are multi-faceted rather than one-dimensional corporate beings. Tweets should cover a variety of topics, and Tweets about your business should be engaging, informative, and be relevant to their audience.

Of course, Twitter isn’t just about keeping your followers in touch with you. It’s also a great way to gauge public opinion on trends, brands and attitudes in your particular industry, community etc. In fact, this can be a good way to begin on Twitter: track what’s being said by and about your competitors before you post your own Tweets.

Entrepreneurs

Like other forms of internet marketing, Twitter can be a great way to increase your status and business reputation.

However, this is only the case if you take the time, prior to starting to use Twitter, to establish a definite strategy for your business on Twitter. It’s always advisable, once you’ve registered your account, to upload a picture and then take some time to listen before you embark on an active Twitter strategy. Of course, it can also be particularly effective to allow your employees to Tweet on behalf of your business.

Sounds risky? Yes, but it can be surprisingly effective. Positive, pro-active employee Tweets can be great PR for your business, but if you don’t let your staff Tweet, what would negative publicity on Twitter do for your reputation management strategy?

Please feel free to leave your views and questions below.

Facebook For Business

Most people know that Facebook was originally intended for college students in the US to be able to keep in contact with one another.

However, it is now widely used for business purposes. Each user can create an individual profile with pictures, information about their interests and details about their lives. As a result, it enables users to contact literally millions of people from all over the world, and who can easily be put into categories such as geographical location, educational establishment, political view, workplace etc.

Using Your Account Wisely

As users are only entitled to have one Facebook account, it is vital at the outset that you decide whether you will use Facebook primarily for business or for personal use (and therefore have your business or personal contacts on it.) It is possible to separate the two: you can keep your personal contacts as your friends, while setting up a fan page for your business.

Do Your Research

As with all marketing strategies it is vital that you take time to consider how you will use Facebook to promote your business.

Look at your competitors’ pages: who has the most successful Facebook page and what makes it so effective? You’ll notice that blatant promotion of their business is generally not the main focus. For example, if you put too many links back to your website this will quickly put other users off.

Facebook can be an effective way to announce important developments related to your business to a large number of people simultaneously. Invitees to your event can visibly RSVP, which can also be an effective way to reaffirm its importance.

Of course, you’re not limited to just using Facebook to enhance your business status online. Linkedin offers a professional, adult atmosphere; Twitter is arguably the ‘hot’ social networking site of the last 12 months; and of course there’s MySpace: these each have their own strengths and features and can work well for different types of businesses.

However, before you use a social networking site to promote your business it is imperative that you have a clear idea of your strategy and what it is you intend to achieve before embarking on any kind of social networking activity.

Any thoughts? Please feel free to leave a comment below.