Can you be too thankful?

Picture credit: Wikimedia Commons

Like everyone, I was always taught to remember my p’s and q’s as a child and I when I started out using social media, I decided to make it part of my strategy to thank people for supporting me. So, where am going with this post you ask?! Well the other day I saw a conversation over on Facebook about people ‘over’ thanking and it losing its meaning, so it got me thinking can you ever be TOO thankful?

The main point of the conversation was that some people didn’t want to be thanked for re-tweeting /re-posting/sharing content as that was just what it was there for. Now, I can kind of take that on board; we’ve all seen those epic tweets that start as one person thanking someone and then it becomes war and peace ‘thank you, no thank you, no no thank you’ and it goes on, but at the end of the day is that such a bad thing? It is social media after all!

I’m a big fan of thanking people and very often do my shout out for my re-tweet superstars! I think not only is it a nice thing to do for the people that think my content is interesting enough to share with their followers, but it’s also a great way for people to find other supportive people to follow. 

So, for me the answer will always be no, you can’t ever be too thankful; I really do appreciate the amazing support I have encountered and continue to encounter on a daily basis! Without that support my business wouldn’t be growing and I wouldn’t be continuing to connect with so many incredible people and businesses.

So thank you for taking the time to read this – I hope you’re having a great day! :)

Social Media – a marathon not a sprint!

I love social media, that’s no secret but I really do believe in the ‘social’ aspect of it so I’m always amazed when people feel the need to buy ‘fans’!

I see it so much across Facebook and Twitter where you connect with someone just starting out and the next time you look, their numbers have grown dramatically, almost overnight!

Now of course growing your network is the name of the game, but it’s still networking just as would you in ‘real life’! You wouldn’t pay people to attend your network meeting so why buy ‘fans’ that will never interact with you or never pass on your ‘business card’ (via a share or a re-tweet)?

When I started using Twitter nearly 2 years ago, my goal wasn’t to reach x amount of followers but to interact and connect with as many people as possible and by taking the ‘marathon’ approach I’m now very close to 5K with 95% of my work coming from it! Plus the other important thing is that a high percentage of those people that I’ve connected with are using Twitter for exactly the same reason I am.

I think everyone can relate to that feeling when you first start out and you don’t know what to say or just the enormity of it all, but buying ‘fans’ really isn’t the answer! If you invest the time at the beginning setting the style of your accounts the rest will easily follow.

So if you want to make social media work for your business, grab your running shoes and don’t miss out on the amazing opportunities out there – just be prepared to go the distance there’s no quick fix and don’t get tempted to sprint ;) 

(Picture from http://bit.ly/X8UcVJ)

L is for Lists! Twitter lists......

Yes, I’m blogging about lists again, but this time on Twitter! It’s no secret I love lists but creating lists on Twitter is an absolute godsend and I’m always amazed when people say they don’t use them, especially when they’ve reached their follower limit.

So, why I do I love Twitter lists? Well, here are my top 3 reasons:

1. They let me organise people into groups – like my SAS Top Tweeps list which I use for people I regularly interact with or my Sussex/SE Business list for example, where I put everyone who’s in my area so I can see what’s going on
2. They let me put people like celebs, news companies or those accounts that are really unlikely to follow me back into nice neat groups so I can still see their tweets easily, but don’t have to follow
3. I can lock my lists or leave them public for everyone to see – I have a mixture depending on what the list is for

Twitter isn’t all about the numbers, but as you grow your account it can be hard to filter out the tweets of the people you really want to see when you look at your home feed – so that’s where lists are the solution!

And, if you’ve reached your follower limit really look at the accounts your following and ask the following questions:

1. Are they regularly tweeting and engaging or are they just all talk? 
2. Are they likely to follow you back; do have they have a low following/follower ratio?

If you find yourself pondering these questions why not just put them in a list, then you don’t have to follow them but you can still keep an eye on what they’re tweeting – a win win solution! If you’re following 300 celebrities, news companies or dormant accounts they will use up your valuable follows when they don’t need too. You can always go and follow those people at a later date one you’ve passed your follow limit. 

Some handy Twitter List limits info:

1000 lists permitted per user

5000 users permitted per list

List names cannot exceed 25 characters
List names cannot begin with a numerical character

So the moral of blog? It's never to late to start lists on Twitter but the sooner you start the easier it will be! 

S is for…….Strategy!

 

When people ask me why I love Twitter, I always say it’s because you should never underestimate its potential! 9 times out of 10 that’s usually met with ‘well I just don’t understand it and I don’t have that much time to make it worth my while’ Well that’s where I think they’re missing a trick, because they’ve got no strategy!

Now, I’m not talking Chess or Battleships strategy ;) I’m just talking about having a clear objective about what you want to achieve with Twitter, or any social media platform for that matter!  

When I first started on Twitter I have to admit I spent a LOT of time on it to start building relationships and just get to grips with it, but now I’ve pretty much got it down to about 1 hour in total across the day. By working smart and having auto tweets/posts going out through the day and using my Twitter lists to their full potential it really helps make the whole process a lot easier. I also find using Facebook & Twitter on my phone is a god send as it means if I have a spare 5 minutes in between meetings I can quickly pop on, see what’s happening , reply to people who may have mentioned me and do some re-tweets/posts.

Of course the real main reason any business starts using any social media is to generate leads, but it can be so much more than that! I’ve met some amazing people who I may never have met anywhere else and they’ve all given me ideas, motivation or support with moving my business forward. I think the key thing to remember with any social media platform is you get out what you put in, if you make it all about you, you’ll probably not see great result, but if you engage, interact and put a little bit of ‘you’ into it, you’re onto a winner!

So, here are some things to consider when thinking about your strategy:

1. Don’t become a slave to it – it shouldn’t take over your life! It doesn’t make sense to spend hours on it and not see any results. Keep a track of how much time you’re spending so you can see what the return is on the investment of your time; your most precious commodity!
2. Use apps like Hootsuite to schedule your ‘business card’ messages so you can spend the time you do have interacting and building relationships with people; it will make all the difference!
3. Use your lists on Twitter – they make it feel so much more manageable! When you’re following thousands of people they really help you filter out some of the ‘noise’
4. Don’t make everything about you! The hard sell approach doesn’t work on social media, the clues in the name ;)
5. Use hash tags – if your business is location based make sure you’re putting your location in! Nothing more frustrating than seeing a great tweet about a brilliant service/job opportunity or the like but no idea where! I suppose I’m lucky in that respect, my business is virtual but I still use applicable hash tags in my ‘business card’ messages to help spread the SAS message further ;)

Excuse me! That's my tweet!

I’m not trying to be controversial with this post - promise! I just wanted to put something out there for people to think about.

I am always VERY grateful to anybody that takes the time to re-tweet one of my tweets and help spread the SAS word! Re-tweets are an integral part of Twitter and they help you find new people to follow and are a great way to show support to people who you engage with on a regular basis.

The only little niggle I have, OK big niggle I have is when someone uses an app (I believe Hootsuite is the main culprit) and they re-tweet my tweet so it shows up as “RT @SAS_Stacey…(TWEET)…..” with their profile pic next to it.

Now, please don’t think it me being precious about my picture it’s more to do with the fact how it may be read by other tweeps, especially those new to Twitter.

Lots of the people I’ve introduced to Twitter have asked what it means and get confused by the layout as they think it’s a tweet from the person with their picture next to it – they don’t understand it’s an app and that tweet actually came from someone else.

It’s even harder to explain when the tweet gets cut off and the last part of the tweet or more importantly any links are lost. I write my auto tweets/tweets specifically to get the most out of the 140 characters so it’s a little disheartening when they get cropped.

The last thing to think about using this method of re-tweet, is how it will look on your account feed. Take a look a mine for example:

There is varied mix of my tweets and those that I’ve re-tweeted so you can see a variety of profile pics. When you use the RT@..... method your account feed will only show your picture and at first glance people may think you’re just all talk, so it may be losing you potential followers; especially if new users are looking at your account and don’t understand how to read the tweets in your feed.

I know no one is doing it intentionally, I expect the majority of people don’t even realise they’re doing it! It’s just something to think about when you hit that ‘re-tweet’ button. 

The only time I think this works is when you do a 'quote' to add a comment or something to the tweet; this is engagement and what Twitter is all about.

Regardless of what method of re-tweet you use though, I’ll always thank you as I’m always very appreciative :)

Oh, one last thing – please don’t think I don’t like Hootsuite, I LOVE it! I use it for setting all my auto tweets – but that’s it. I don’t use it for my interactions, the main Twitter desktop version is my usual tweeting perch! ;)

All Talk and NO Trousers!

 

All talk and no trousers “Someone who is all talk and no trousers, talks about doing big, important things, but doesn't take any action” ¹

If you’ve read any of my recent blogs it’s not going to take a rocket scientist to know what this post is going to be about!

I’m constantly amazed (still!) by the amount of people that just think Twitter is a one way street and show no interest is anyone but themselves.

The accounts I mean are those that have got a Twitter account because they’ve been told that they must have one! So, they set one up link it to their website, Facebook account, Pintrest, you name it, and just let that feed the information. They don’t really get WHY they’re doing it, they just think they should, which is completely the wrong approach.

If you’ve got Social Media links on your website to show your customers you're social media ‘savvy’ don’t disappoint them by just being all talk – they’ll be turned off straight away! Show them your most important USP - YOU!

Don’t just do Social Media because you think you should be doing it, do it because it can make a HUGE difference your business and you can bet your competitors will be!

1. Ref UsingEnglish

One size does not fit all!

I’ve touched on this before in previous blogs, but I’m continually baffled by the need to use auto DM’s for new followers. The same message to every new follower can never work, surely? Or is it just me that gets a little ‘upset’ with them?!

Today I’ve had a few and I just don’t get it – one of them was even offering me a service I provide my clients! Would they go a face to face network meeting and say that to me? I doubt it! So why on Twitter?

For me Twitter is and always will be a 24/7 networking meeting; every follow, every conversation, every auto tweet is me demonstrating my business and what I do - obviously with a little fun thrown in, I’m not a robot after all ;) But it’s absolutely no different to how I would behave at a network meeting.

The one size fits all responders are the equivalent of cold calling and I’m not a fan of that either! Every new follower has the potential either to directly or indirectly be a new client/customer/contact – don’t take that for granted and treat everyone the same; take a few minutes to read tweets and bio’s, just the way you hope people will do for you - it could be the making of your business!