Are you one who doubts the business value of Twitter? I, myself was a doubting Twitterer until one cold December evening in the frozen tundra of Minnesota. My wife and I were totally caught off-guard by a surprise request to babysit our grandchildren. Since we had nothing in the house to feed them, we decided to take them out for pizza. When I referred to the frozen tundra of Minnesota, I did not exaggerate. With the wind chill factor, the temperature was 20 degrees below zero. So, we decided not to venture too far and pulled into the first pizza parlor we saw, which looked deserted. No wonder the pizzeria was empty. It was really too cold to be out.
We ordered our pizza and while we waited my wife entertained the grandchildren with coloring books and crayons. Not too big on coloring, I listened to the proprietors discuss whether or not to send the employees home because business was so slow. The man who appeared to be the manager said, “I am going to try tweeting a special before we send anyone home.” I watched with some interest as they started to tweet several discounted offers. In less than a minute, the phone started to ring off the hook. Of course, the calls were for delivery, as only fools like us would be out and about. Yet, it was still amazing to see this in action.
Afterward, when I reflected on this experience, I wondered why it worked so well. My Twitter followers are from all over the world and my tweets reach a global audience. So, I reasoned, the pizza shop’s followers must be local – within delivery range. But, with all the other people that those calling in to order pizza are probably following, how did they even see the pizza shop’s message? Didn’t they have to be looking at their Twitter account at the exact moment it was sent in order to see it?
As it turns out, the pizzeria Twitter mystery is actually no mystery at all. The pizza shop probably uses their own special #hashtag which allows their follows to view the pizzeria tweets anytime they want by viewing all tweets with that specific #hashtag. So, how did the phone start ringing in seconds? I suppose it is not unreasonable to suspect that on a freezing cold night in Minnesota, many people were probably sitting at their computer or iPhone exchanging tweets when the pizzeria’s messages came through.
The reason I resisted signing up for a Twitter account for so long was because I had no desire to learn about what someone had for lunch or what they are doing at any given moment. However, after all the fan fare and explosive growth, I figured there must be more to it than a bunch of idle chatter. So, last July I signed up for Twitter as an experiment so I could give my readers sound advice based upon my experience.
My challenge in setting up the experiment was that I really don’t have anything to sell. Therefore, I couldn’t use traditional business indicators like revenue or profits. So, what measures or outcomes could I use in my experiment? Well, I have four basic objectives for everything I am doing right now and they are all connected. In meeting one objective, it helps me meet the other three. Here are my objectives:
1. To build enough credibility and trust (a strong personal brand) within the right communities to have a positive impact on the creation, development, and growth of small businesses across America.
2. To increase the number of first time and repeat visitors to my blog so my message can reach a larger audience (more readers).
3. To increase the number of people in my Social Network communities such as LinkedIn and Twitter.
4. To increase the number of SCORE volunteers with the skills and knowledge new and existing small businesses need to succeed.
I became a SCORE volunteer to do my part in supporting the business community. In this role, it is incumbent on each member to recruit other volunteers and clients. By using Twitter, I wondered if it would increase my effectiveness in these activities.
Since I am already measuring the effectiveness of my blogging and LinkedIn efforts against these four objectives, I wondered how much of an impact Twitter could have on my results. So, after my experience at the pizzeria I decided to give Twitter more effort to see if it would help me strengthen my brand, grow my blog readership, increase the size of my social network, and recruit SCORE volunteers and clients.
It is important to note that the target market for each of my objectives as stated above are small business owners and stakeholders. Therefore, the results of my experiment must be viewed within the context of that target market as is the case with any marketing activity. Your target market could be much smaller or larger than mine. For example, the pizzeria’s target market is probably limited by a certain radius around their location.
At first I was unimpressed with my results from Twitter. There wasn’t even a blip on my radar screen. Of course, I only had a handful of followers. Then I learned about #hashtags. Hashtags are words or phrases with a # in front. I decided to search “#smallbiz” to find people with similar interests that I could follow. As I followed them, they followed me back. I began using #hashtags in my tweets and as a result, others with the same interest started following me. In turn, I would follow them. Soon I found other #hashtags for my target market and did the same. In relatively short order my twitter twirling was beginning to whirl.
Writing compelling articles for my blog with any sort of frequency is extremely time consuming, so I can only devote 10-15 minutes per day to Twitter. I have been told that I could grow my followers by up to 10,000 in just a month by using software like TweetAdder and TweetWhistle. Maybe it is silly to not use these so called “bots” (my readers may try to show me the errors of my ways), but I am big on relationships and what kind of relationship do you develop when your bot is talking to my bot?
Spending just a very few minutes a day I have built about 1,800 followers. I probably would have far more except that I locked down my Twitter account by using TrueTwit. This free service sends each new follower a direct message (DM) asking them to click a link and enter a code to ensure they are human and not a bot. The purpose of this service is to avoid following spammers using software like that mentioned above. I only follow those who can validate that they are human. Automatic following software as mentioned above “unfollows” me when it sees I have not followed back.
My followers seem to like my tweets because they often “retweet” them to their followers. Of course, I try to make my tweets relevant to small business owners (my target market), those interested in marketing and social media, and my followers (and probably their followers as well). So, when I share the results of my Twitter experiment, remember the results only have meaning within the context of those audiences.
Even though I was a bit discouraged in the beginning, I must admit that my experience with the pizzeria was a bit of a revelation. Initially I may have been skeptical but I don’t think I am stupid. I immediately added the TweetMeme button to my blog, making it easy for readers to tweet my articles to their followers. I then added the “WordPress to Twitter” plug-in to my blog so that each time I posted a new article it would automatically be tweeted to my followers. Almost immediately there was a small blip on my radar screen – an almost instant increase in the number of views to my articles. It was small but as a percent of my total views the blip increased in size as my followers on Twitter and connections on LinkedIn continued to grow.
By adding my Twitter address to my LinkedIn profile and my blog, my blog address to my LinkedIn and Twitter profile, and by LinkedIn address to my Twitter profile and blog, my social networks on all platforms have doubled (see “Network Your Social Networks for Better Traffic and Visibility”). For the amount of time I invest in Twitter, the ROI (in terms of my objectives) has been well worth it. Yet, the return does not end there.
As I mentioned, I am a volunteer for SCORE. I use Twitter to recruit additional volunteers and clients. Through the use of Social Media tools like Twitter I have recruited many volunteers and clients for various SCORE Chapters nationwide (there are 364 Chapters nationally). Locally, out of more than 100 members in my Chapter, I have personally recruited about 20% of our annual goal and it is only April. Personally, I think these results are notable. Perhaps my success is a result of my belief in developing a relationship before trying to recruit someone. Maybe it is because my followers are real people rather than bots. Regardless, these results are impressive and have helped sell me on the value of Twitter.
Through SCORE and on my own, I am always counseling and advising small business owners and entrepreneurs. When the conversation turns to social media and/or social networking as part of an overall marketing strategy, I sometimes hear things like “I tried it and it didn’t work” or “My friend tried it and it didn’t work.” Frankly it doesn’t surprise me.
With marketing of all types, if it is not done correctly, it will not work. Using social media is no different. When I have been able to investigate situations where “it didn’t work,” in every case, it was not done correctly. They never really built a following (see “LinkedIn: The New Business Card Exchange?”). All they ever did was spew mini-ads in social networking groups or tweets (see “Using Social Networks for Marketing”). Or they used the wrong tools for the job (see “Using the Right Social Media Tools”).
For those who know me, they would tell you that I am an evangelist for social media. Until recently, the jury was still out on Twitter. However, as a result of my experiment, I am convinced that Twitter, if used correctly, will give small business owners and entrepreneurs a higher than average ROI for the amount of time and effort invested. If used, incorrectly, it is a total waste of time.
Did you enjoy this article? Then feel free to follow me on Twitter and retweet to those following you.
If you would like to contact me, you can do so by visiting my LinkedIn page or emailing me at mike.clough@bestbizpractices.org.
Posted by: Mike Clough
