5 Awesome Twitter Tips

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Hi it’s me Mateo How’s it going? Are you on twitter? If you are let’s connect @mateomedia, if not here are a few tips that can help you get started. Let’s get to it. 

This one is simple that I’m not even including in my 5 Tips. Take time and complete your twitter profile. Be sure to include complete bio information, profile, cover photo and if you are a business indicate what you do and how you can help. Take a look at a few other twitter profiles for inspiration. Don’t worry about getting fancy or over thinking it, but it does have to be complete.  If you are a business you can make the profile picture your logo, but in my opinion make it a personal picture this way twitter followers can put a face with the twitter handle. Twitter also has an option to upload a cover photo go ahead and do this as well.  This information can always be changed and updated later, even your twitter user name.  Be concerned with being complete, not perfect. 

1) Compose a few tweets. 

Twitter has a “This is my first tweet” that can be sent when your account is first set up. Go ahead and send this. Compose 2-3 tweets of your own like “Just setting up my twitter” or “How does all of this work?”. Don’t be afraid, especially if it’s a new twitter account only your followers will see your tweets. If you don’t have any followers nobody will see the tweets anyway except you. Having a few tweets on your timeline will show other twitter users that you are trying to be active and want to be on twitter. 

2) Start following some Twitter Peeps. 

Identify what your goal is for twitter, Fun?, Business? Both? If you are on twitter to grow your business and connect with others start following some twitter accounts of people you want to do business with and connect with.  Take my business for example, Social Media Management and Marketing. I look to follow and network with small businesses, start ups, and crowd funding campaigns. The reason? These are people I want to network with and these are the businesses that need social media and marketing help. If there is a need in the future to use our services or if they might know someone that may need our services we are connected and interact on twitter. I’m always sure to check in with these connections on twitter and offer any marketing and social media advice. Twitter does not have to be all about business. I follow celebrity accounts, local news accounts and sport accounts, my guilty is pleasure account is @TMZ for all of my celebrity news and gossip. ; ) 

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3) Tweet often

It’s up to you on how often to tweet but twitter is not like Facebook.  People on twitter will not always see your tweets in their timeline. Your tweets happen live so if your followers are not scrolling through their timeline when you tweet they will not see it. A follower can go to your twitter account and see what you have been tweeting today, but they will have to search for your account.  It’s a good idea to spread out your tweets throughout the day to reach your followers. There is a lot of back and forth on how much is too many tweets and how often you should tweet. I typically send at least 10 tweets a day that show up in my followers timeline. I will also RT (Re-Tweet) content I find interesting, entertaining, educational or informative that I believe my followers might like as well. Additionally I’m sending direct tweets to new followers to thank them and tweets to followers that I’m interacting with. These tweets do not show up in anyone else’s twitter timeline. If you start a tweet with the @ (twitter name) that tweet will just go to the person you are tweeting to. If you start a tweet with a sentence like “ Hey @ (twitter handle) how are you today?”  this tweet will show up in your timeline as a tweet. Your followers will see this tweet, the twitter user that you mentioned will see this tweet and the twitter followers of the person you @ mentioned will also see this tweet. In some cases you want to do this if you want others to see your tweet and conversation. If you compose 8-10 tweets throughout the day that is providing value to your twitter followers in my opinion that is not too much. Others may disagree, but that is up to your followers to decide. If a follower does not like your tweets they can simply un-follow you. To summarize, if you tweet often and are active you will gain more twitter followers compared to sending a tweet one or twice a week.

4) Twitter Lists

Twitter can get overwhelming quickly once you start following others and others begin to follow you. One easy way to keep track of your twitter followers and who you are following is to create lists. When you follow someone or they follow you can add them to a list. You can create lists on twitter and name the list whatever you want. I have a few lists that identify who the twitter profiles are; such as Arizona Peeps, Potential Leads, Friends/Family, Influencers etc. This is an easy way to keep up with what is happening with your twitter community. Your twitter timeline shows all the tweets of who you are following. This can get overwhelming if you are following a few hundred people or more. Simply add your twitter followers and who you are following to a list to help keep track of who you are following into categories. Once you go to this list on twitter you will see the tweets of that list only. This is a great way to stay up to date with your important connections on twitter, stay in touch with your friends and family or even localize a list to your favorite restaurants on twitter.  Lists can be named whatever you want. These lists can be private or public. 

 5) Thank, RT, and Mention.

When someone follower you on twitter you can send them a tweet thanking them for the connection. ” @______ thank you for following me, looking forward to connecting more” is an example. Re-Tweeting information from your followers or people you are following or tweets you believe your audience will like will gain you more followers. If you come across a tweet you enjoy RT it to your followers. The person that you RT will get a notification that you Re-tweeted them. This is a great way to get an influencer or potential lead to notice you. Mention or include others in your tweets as well. If you send a tweet that you want someone else to notice or possibly see, you can mention them in the tweet by adding  @ (their twitter name) in your tweet. When this happens they will get a notification that you mentioned them on Twitter. Here is an example;   “Hey @mateomedia I think you would like this story on benicemedia.com

There are so many cool things that you can do via twitter to network and grow your business. The above examples are just a few things. What do you do on twitter to network and grow your business?  I would love to know some of your tips. I hope you have an awesome day, and as always feel free to ask me a question or let’s connect online.

Mateo on Twitter

Content for Social Media

We all struggle with what content to post. Remember to post content that others may find interesting. We all love our business, but we need to give others a reason to love our business also. #engage #create #content #like #follow #comment. 

Twitter is for Real

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Hi there. How’s it going? As I have been speaking with businesses and sales professionals about social media and all the different platforms, I’ve come to find out that Twitter is one of the most misunderstood and avoided social media avenues out there.  I’ve heard things such as “people on Twitter are fake, there are not any real people on Twitter, my business works with adults not kids.” There have been others who do not even take me seriously anytime Twitter is mentioned for business and have told me to leave. I get it, I understand. Anything that is different is avoided and doing what you have always done is easier. It’s just hard to ignore the facts regarding Twitter as a Social Media Platform. With 271 million monthly active users, 500 million Tweets are sent per day, and 78% of Twitter active users are on mobile. You personally may not be on Twitter, or your business, but your customers are. They are using Twitter daily with the device we all carry around every day, our mobile phones. As a business we are looking for a way to get more business, build lifelong relationships, and find the best way to be noticed. Believe it or not Twitter can do this for your business on a local level, and identify customers who may be looking for your product or service.  Here are 5 tips that you can begin using immediately to start building your Twitter Account and stop ignoring this as a real way to connect with potential clients and build your business.

1)     First of all if you don’t have an account, sign up. Spend some time completing your profile, add information about your business, and include your picture. No one follows an Egg on Twitter.

2)     Follow others. Twitter requires you to follow a few accounts to begin. Do this, once you do you will start getting a few followers as well.

3)     Twitter has a search option just like Google, Bing or Yahoo.  Search some keywords related to your business. If you are here in Arizona, like I am, try Arizona, Tempe, Phoenix or whatever your local market may be.  Once you do this you will see Tweets, and people who have mentioned the search item either in their profile or a tweet they sent. Check out the tweets, look at their profile, is this someone you may want to follow? If so, go for it. Most likely they will check out your profile and follow back. 

4)     Send some Tweets. Twitter limits each tweet to 140 characters. It’s not like Facebook, LinkedIN, or Google + where you can write a novel and the entire post shows up on your page. You can include images or links that can be clicked where the user can see your entire message or more information about your business. If your business is focusing on a particular area, product or service be sure to include a keyword relating to that product or service in your Tweet. When you do this, other Twitter users can find you and know your tweets relate to something they may be interested in as well. They may even follow you back.

5)     Invest some time. Even if it’s a few minutes a day on Twitter, this is a great way to learn how it works and see what other businesses are doing with their Twitter Account. Follow these businesses. Duplicate what they are doing.  Every major brand and business you can think of is on Twitter. Follow what they are doing, you can use Twitter to build your brand and audience on a local level with real people.

This is just a brief start to using Twitter, but if you are on other social media platforms, Twitter needs to be included. There are endless opportunities to grow your network on Twitter. ReTweet others, respond directly via @ a follower, or with a direct message. Create a #hashtag related to your business. Twitter lets you create lists of your favorite accounts you are following, or even better a list of leads just like your e-mail list or database. Find local customers in your area already tweeting and discussing the product or service you offer. Making relationships with other professionals across the country and build a referral network. Twitter has millions of users that may be your next client or buyer of your product. Why ignore these people? 

If you are interested in learning more and adding Twitter as a real avenue to build relationships, engage with your clients and grow your business. Contact me or better yet send me a Tweet @mateomedia  

Social Media is about being Social, Engaging and Responding

If you don’t have the time to really be engaged and interact with your fans, followers and subscribers, let’s connect and work together.

benicemedia1@gmail.com 480-386-2122

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WHERE’S THE PROFILE?

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Hey everyone how’s it going today? Today’s social media tip is about including your social media badges or logos on your marketing. You know what I’m talking about right? Those icons you have on your website e-mail and print advertising. The cool Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube logo that you want proudly displayed. Since I’m all about social media every time I see a social media icon of a company I may have the opportunity to do business with I go visit their social pages. I want to see what they are all about and who their audience is. When these logos are included on your marketing material, you are telling your customers “hey check us out, cool stuff on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube”. When including these badges in advertising material be sure the profile is complete on the social media platforms. It surprises me how often a business, product or service includes a social media logo in their advertising and when you go to the social media page it’s either nonexistent or partially complete.

Let’s say you decide to mail out a post card in your area promoting a sale or special Event. If the post card includes a small image of a YouTube logo your business better have a YouTube channel. If you do not have a YouTube channel with a complete profile and a couple videos do not put the YouTube logo on your advertising. The same goes for all of your social media platforms. Facebook, Twitter whatever social site it may be. Only use the badge or logo if you are actually active on the social media platform. If you have a link in your e-mail or website with a Facebook logo and someone clicks on that logo they expect to see a complete professional looking business page. This does not mean your page needs to have a bunch of likes or followers. Your page profile needs to be complete, include information about yourself, product and business. Also be sure your page has some recent content posts. The same rule applies for all of your social media profiles and pages. It’s very important to include the social media logos in your marketing; just take the extra step to have the profile page complete that corresponds to the social media icon or logo.

Why is this important?
Do you have a phone number? Would you give someone your phone number if you did not have either yourself or a member of your staff available to answer? At the very least your voicemail would pick up. Do you have a website? The same applies. You would only include the web address in your marketing if it is functional and provides information about your product, business or service. When you give your e-mail address you know that you will be able to respond, and that your e-mail is working to receive e-mails. This may sound simple, but your social media pages need to be treated the same way. Your business, product, or service has to respond to your fans, followers, and subscribers.

The first step before beginning to include social media logos in your advertising is to be sure that you are social. Take the time to complete each social media profile. Start one at a time with Facebook for example, schedule the time out of your day and complete the entire profile, review 2-3 times if you have to. Take a peek at some other Facebook profiles that are in a similar industry for some guidance. Don’t worry about being a Facebook pro just complete all profile sections, upload a picture and google a few industry related articles to post for content. Tell the story of yourself and your business. Once you have a complete Facebook Profile, then go ahead and include in your marketing material, e-mail, website, etc. Then block out some time and move on to Twitter and so on. Before you know it all your social profiles will be complete. The next time a future, current, or past client clicks on your social badges, they will know that you are social with social media.

Contact us today for all your social media needs.
Create+Engage+Respond=Sales
Benicemedia.com
480-386-2122
Benicemedia1@gmail.com

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Simple Tip to Add New Contacts

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Do you have some great marketing content or a great product but know one to market too? Do you have CRM and campaigns ready to go but no e-mail addresses? Before you spend money on buying a list or start e-mailing random strangers that don’t know you look in your existing e-mail inbox and contacts. This can be gmail, outlook, hotmail, or track down that password for your AOL account. There are many friends, family, previous clients or former co-workers that have already e-mailed you, know you, and most importantly you already have their e-mail address. If you are starting a new business or selling a great product you can begin building your database with these contacts. You may be thinking I don’t want to start spamming these people or send them unsolicited e-mails. I’m not asking you to do that. If these are contacts that you already know, and you have received an e-mail from them or they have sent an e-mail to you then there is at least some minimal or basic trust with the sender of the e-mail, you.
I would recommend sending an introductory e-mail to these contacts first to ask for permission to include in your database and e-mail campaign. I would start the e-mail with something simple like the example below.

“Hi there how are you doing? I hope things are going well. I want to let you know that I recently started a career ____selling homeowners insurance___would you mind if I occasionally e-mailed you some tips on ways to save on your energy bill, or some great recipes we found on Pinterest? Thanks again for taking the time to read this e-mail. If I can help you or anyone you know now or in the future it would be my pleasure. Have a wonderful day.”

If you send just an introductory e-mail before you start including these contacts on an e-mail campaign, and just be straight and to the point most of the contacts will not reply. If they didn’t reply then they didn’t say no. If you get any responses no, then at least they should be nice about it, because you asked permission. They will still see you as a professional and at the very least they know what you do now even if they did not want to receive your e-mails.
Adding existing contacts that are already in your e-mail address book, or inbox is a great first step to building a database and e-mail campaign for your business. Be sure to do what you promised do not send sales pitch material each month. It’s perfectly fine to include your business contact information, but be sure you e-mail content that is interesting, and helpful.
If you have any questions about building your database or how to get started with Social Media and Database Marketing e-mail us at benicemedia1@gmail.com or please leave a comment below.