This post is part of a series titled 10 Ways to Use Social Media for Day-to-Day Business. Every day we will be expanding upon a new tip until the list is complete.
The biggest mistake businesses, particular local businesses, make is that they don’t take advantage of the goldmine that is Twitter Advanced Search. It’s really easy. Think of it as a metal detector. You set your detector to look for gold and start combing the beach. Think from your customers’ perspective. If you’re a realtor, you may want to search for people who are tweeting the words “buy a home”. Set your area, put in a radius, and let it fly.
Be sure to respect people’s privacy. You don’t want to look like a stalker. Saying something publicly does not necessarily mean they want the general public to be reading what they tweet. Engage with them but don’t necessarily do so aggressively. Be subtle. Empathize. Offer assistance or advice. Send them resources (REAL resources, not just a link to your website).
It may not work on the first try. It may not work on the tenth try. Keep going – eventually, you’ll get the hang of it and when it does work, you’ll realize that the 5 minutes a day you spent searching Twitter was worth it.
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Read more tips on this social media blog.
About JD Rucker
Honestly, at first I’m a bit confused with how Twitter works. Maybe that’s the same thing that most businesses are encountered also. However, as I read other blog posts and tips just like yours, JD, I learned and really makes me happy with the social relationships among my audience. This is helpful and I can say that with the eagerness to know and learn something truly will generate outright output. Thanks for sharing. I should watch out your next tips.
Agree, JD. Though twitter can be confusing to some with traditional marketing backgrounds, it can be an amazingly diverse tool that can adapt to most any business. I’ve connected to my local power company, keeping me abreast of potential outages to our company. Even my local shoe repair store now pings me through Twitter when they’re having a special. That’s diversity.
This article, (and the remaining articles in the series), represents an important contribution to the Social Media knowledge base. Thank you for what I’m sure will be a memorable and useful series. I have Tweeted this to my 42K followers, and I will come back daily in anticipation of the rest. Nice job.