So, if you’re reading this in the hope I have the ‘get rich quick answer’, walk away now ….

Imagine the scene, I walk into a bar I’ve not been to before, I find the nearest chair to stand on, clear my throat and shout:

“Excuse me everyone, the name’s Jan Minihane, I do awesome social media advisory, training & mentoring – oh and I think I rock at speaking events too – I’ll be over at the bar if you fancy a chat”

I then follow that up by shoving my business card in everyone’s hands…

The response: Tumbleweed, quite a few rolled eyeballs and I become a social pariah in one fail swoop.

Twitter isn’t really much different to being in a new pub.

In a pub you would meet new people, have some polite conversations (let’s be honest, if you never talked to anyone in the pub you’d be the slightly strange guy parked at the bar that people weren’t sure about). Maybe at some point overhear someone mentioning about social media, so you go talk to them too.

Maybe a few visits to the pub later and you’ve had a few conversations and someone asks what it is that you do, so you talk about your business. A few weeks/months later and you get a call from said person wondering if you can have a meeting as maybe you have the right fit for their business.

Welcome to Twitter….

I’m not saying you can’t put out very focused business tweets, you can intermittently, as long as there is a lot of person to person engagement going on in between – earn your stripes and tweeters won’t mind the odd blog post, event promotion or your latest photo gallery.

Being a human on twitter, interacting at a very basic human level, being generous – that is what will win you business in the long-term. Don’t expect miracles overnight – you don’t visit a new local pub and expect to become trusted by everyone in there straight away, it takes months, even years.

Most people will check out your twitter profile before following you – if all you do is shout your wares, likelihood is they’ll go running for the hills. Social media users are savvier now; they want engagement and value, not noise.

Twitter, like all social networks, is hard work; don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Full stop. It can also be very enjoyable but you have to be in it for the long haul, with a clear idea of what you’re trying to achieve.

What have been your experiences with different types of tweeters?

TTFN
Jan

Image courtesy of andrewhalcro.com

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