The Straight Talk on Twitter

 
John Sparks, an author, social media coach and educator was the speaker at The Rotary Club of The Woodlands recently.  John brought his experience in social media, specifically Twitter, to our lunch time program and provided everyone with a great deal to think about when it comes to their marketing strategies. 
 
John started off shaking things up with the group, the intent to get people thinking about the fact that we all need to take risks and meet new people.  That is specifically what we need to do in our businesses as well – get out of our comfort zone. 
Following his own advice, John has grown his following on Twitter from only 800 to more than 200,000.  How did he do it?  Consistency seems to be key, keeping at the forefront of your followers minds.  The goal of all this work is to build your following within the Twitter community and take some of the on-line communication off-line and to turn it into a result for you or your company, usually sales. 
A majority of our time together focused on an open question and answer:
  • Why use Twitter?
    • Twitter has a different relationship with Google.Social media is at the core of SEO (search engine optimization).Twitter has a different relationship with Google, than say Facebook, which allows it to drive improved SEO.
    • Both LinkedIn and Facebook require that two individuals be “connected” to have a conversation.Not so with Twitter.So, you can reach an audience that you may otherwise not be able to reach.
    • Twitter has an impressive conversion rate.They recently released statistics stating that 70% of followers will reTweet content and 43% of followers plan to make purchases from companies they follow.
  • How do you get started on Twitter?
    • Text start to 40404 and you will receive a message to get started.
  • Where can you learn about how to use it?
    • Can go to a social media coach (nice plug John).Third party tools are available to help you use it.
  • Which social media platforms are good for international?
    • It all depends.Twitter is good since you don’t need to have a 1:1 connection where you do with many other platforms.
  • What are up and coming platforms for social media?
    • Meercat and Periscope are two new media platforms.Both are live streaming apps that show a stream over Twitter.
  • Can you target a small area?
    • Googlemaps can allow you to see who is sending out Tweets.You can also search on Twitter for names including The Woodlands, for example, and target them for Tweets.
  • What are examples of his best tweets?
    • “Retweet if God has blessed you today” tends to have great results for him.
    • Pixlar.com is basically a free version of Photoshop that allows you to merge text and images.Does this 3-4 times today.
    • It does well as you ask for someone to do something (lie reTweet).
  • What are some good methods to grow your following with those that you need to have follow you?
    • “Strategic stalking with excellence” – find out who (twello.com) your competition is and find out who is following them.Start following those people and start building relationships.
  • Any other hints?
    • Make sure that you are using a consistent brand.John is “IAmJohnSparks” on every social media platform.
    • If you focus on helping others as opposed to helping yourself you can grow your following.
    • 140 characters… the smaller it is the more engaging it will be.
Many thanks to John for sharing his valuable insights.