Fire Up Your Crowd on Twitter

Branding on Twitter has become easier than ever! Capture the mood, publish great content, and rock'em all!

Hi boys and girls! I hope that you have been social and engaging this week. As you already know, interactivity has become one of the building blocks of business, so you’d better be social. Indeed, just to paraphrase one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media, Brian Solis, lack of engagement signals imminent demise. In that context, I would like to direct your attention to our topic. Today I am going to give you some tips on how to rally the crowd on the social media to successfully build and promote your brand. If this subject sparkles your interest, simply read on.

So far, we have managed to cover the issues of branding and branding and the new media. Nonetheless, I discussed those topics assuming that you already have some fans, followers, endorsers, or some kind of audience online. Yet, unfortunately, the latter is a variable, rather than a constant and in order to do well in business, you need to build an audience and assert your virtual presence. Indeed, it is a no brainer that to promote your brand on the social media, first and foremost, you need to have somebody to promote it to. Hence, you have to build an audience that is genuinely or at least, remotely interested in the things you have to say or offer to them.

Where do you start: the Social Media Value Proposition

It may just be that your business is not “social”, yet. If this is the case, please, correct this mistake immediately. I cannot emphasize enough on the importance of having a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account, a Youtube channel if applicable, etc. In fact, in addition to all the hubbub and hype, social media presence affects your online ranking. Indeed, Google introduced its Realtime search and this type of search thrives on mentions and activity in the social media. It captures and it indexes those social signals and they impact both your ranking and the way your brand or company appears in the search results. More activity in the social media and more mentions are essential for a better ranking. In addition, social media networks, like Facebook and Twitter have their own searches. What is more, people often resort to using those searches. Consequently, you are missing out if you are inactive there.

Hopefully, my argument is convincing enough and those of you who still do not have business accounts will quickly create them. For those of you who have accounts, pages, streams, channels, etc.: congratulations! Just make sure you use them wisely and you are consistent in publishing engaging content.

Before I go any further, I should issue a word of warning: whereas Facebook (with its 800 Million, Twitter (with its over 500 Million users), and YouTube (with its daily stream of more than 1.2 Billion videos) are among the most popular new media, do not limit yourselves to those channels of interaction only! Take a look at this long list of social vehicles and pick some more! It is highly likely that another social network, besides the already mentioned, is big in your country.

It should also be pointed out that different social media have a different degree of interactivity and they all offer a myriad of engagement models. Check them out, find the ones that fit your business purposes, (say whatever, but if you are a musician and you have not been using the almost dead MySpace, you are out of this world!), start publishing interesting stuff, and get engaged!

I am in. Then what?

If you have a social network account, it’s time you rolled up your sleeves and got the house rocking. How? First and foremost, bear in mind that each social channel has its own very specific quirks that make interaction there unique. Hence, building a solid audience for each one of them requires different approaches. Let’s see how this goes in the case of Twitter.

The great thing about Twitter is that it allows you to find and follow like-minded individuals relatively easy. Do a Twitter search, using a term that roughly describes your business. For example, if you are in the used cars business, all you need to do is to search for “used cars” or let’s say “used Mercedes-Benz” or use whatever keywords you consider appropriate. Then, wade through your search and add the users who are of relevance. Initially, go local! Proximity does matter! Later on, feel free to spread your messages around the world and promote your brand far and wide.

Once you have added some followers, check if any of them find you interesting enough to follow back. Keep in mind that for this to happen, you have to make yourself interesting in the first place. But how? Well, you can start by publishing value-added and useful information that might capture the imagination of other users. Make sure you do not turn your Twitter account into an advertising machine! You are there to interact and engage, not to spam and scream your messages through a digital loudspeaker. Make sure you check what people say about you on Twitter. This is your opportunity to shine through and to actually show that you are there and you care. Respond to queries, pay attention to people’s concerns, resolve customer problems, and be as amicable as possible. Sure, there will be some negative feedback, but you do not need to panic. Some of it is a genuine form of constructive criticism, some of it is… errh, pure nonsense that you should not pay attention to. The bottom line is that as long as you post interesting content, you are interactive and engaging, and you are genuinely concerned about your followers, you will build a great audience that can re-tweet your messages and increase your brand exposure on Twitter.

So, while we are still on it, let’s make some simple rules that can facilitate your social media branding mission on Twitter:

• First and foremost, social networks are places for interaction and engagement. They are not advertising channels. Bear that in mind every time you publish a message;
• Listen, listen, and listen! Listen carefully (well, this is just a figure of speech, you actually have to read carefully)! Listen to what people have to say about your brand or your company on Twitter and figure out what the general predisposition of your audience is;
• Be responsive, reply to people who mention you or your brand, and exhibit genuine interest in them. Pay special attention to customers who are experiencing a problem your products or services and do your best to help them;
• Be interactive and engaging;
• Publish value-added, relevant content that people find interesting and amusing;
• Encourage re-tweets by making your messages short, catchy, and pithy;
• Be amicable;
• Accept constructive criticism;
• Do not engage in pointless bickering with people who are not worthy of your time and efforts. Some people simply have nothing else to do but troll around;
• Check your followers constantly and remove bots and spammers;
• Focus on the quality, not on numbers. Ten followers who communicate with you and re-tweet your messages are more valuable than twenty followers who essentially do not contribute to the dialogue. Hence, it should be repeated over and over again that building an audience is not an easy thing to do. It takes time, efforts, and overall, it takes interaction and engagement;
• Publish content on a daily basis and give people a reason to follow you. Feed their curiosity with delectable contributions that matter. Funny videos or amusing materials would also do the trick. They do not have a real value, but they make our lives and the lives of our followers a bit brighter. Consequently, there is nothing wrong with publishing those once in a while;
• Be smart and try not to repeat yourself. Feel free to publish relevant content that is not your own, but try to strike a fair balance between your own publications and content that others have published;

• Re-tweet related information! Social dialogue is a process of give and take! You can not expect others to re-tweet your messages, if you are not into re-tweeting yourself! Lacking reciprocity can cause you some problems;
• Humanize your brand. People like to talk to other people, not to abstract entities. Social networks give you the chance to be as interactive, as human, and as engaging as you can be;
• Have fun!

So, is it that complicated? If you think this is too complex, you can always hire somebody who can do it for you. If you are up to the task, dive in, get engaged and enjoy making your brand human and social! Meanwhile, stay tuned to our rock stady frequency, follow us on Twitter or join us on Facebook as next time, I am going to give you a Facebook business lesson! In the mean time, work hard and do not forget to rock harder!