How to Increase Your Focus & Target Twitter Followers (Part 1)

As I’ve continued to grow my media marketing options, it has become evident that ‘following’ everyone is not the best tactic to use when using Twitter as a business marketing tool. While it will require a bit of patience and a well thought-out strategy, it can be easily accomplished. Twitter is popular for businesses because of the no-cost, no-frills way it’s designed.

The path to increasing your targeted Twitter following has several parts:

Finding and following the right people
Posting relevant information and news to keep them engaged
Making sure you never spam followers with auto-tweets or posting the same information and URL over and over
Follow only smart online marketers who are leaders in their industry.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these tactics:

Find the Right Way to Follow People on Twitter:

Before you start following people, make sure you have a few interesting posts. Most people on Twitter will not follow you back if your Twitter feed is blank.

After you’ve created a Twitter presence, start following your target audience. The easiest way I’ve found to locate my target audience is to go to Search.Twitter.com and type in keywords related to your target audience.

For example, if you are selling an iPhone application, type in keywords like “iPhone,” “bought an iPhone,” “iPhone app,” and other related keywords that people may have used to discuss their iPhone needs. Follow these people. If you post interesting, relevant things, there is a good chance they will follow you back.

You can also find your target Twitter following by clicking on the “Find People” option on your Twitter page; type in keywords and relevant industries and locations to find your followers. Start following these people.

Post Relevant Information & Keep Them Engaged:

Post interesting news and reviews about your product, but don’t forget to also post related industry news. For instance, if you sell a particular gadget, also post news about other gadgets.

An important tool in gaining focused and targeted followers is to use retweets. If you see a relevant post by another Twitterer, retweet them. Not only are these Twitterers more likely to follow you, but you also gain access to their followers. Just click on the “Followers” tab on their Twitter page, and start following.

Be generous with your retweets—it’s one of the few tried-and-true ways of gaining a following.

You can also utilize search.Twitter.com to search for your brand name. This is a key research element to find out if your customers are happy. Be sure to follow them and thank them. If you find angry, disgruntled customers, follow them, retweet them, and ask them how you can remedy the situation.

This could lead to people reaching customer service reps on Twitter, and then telling the Internet all about the great service that came from a company they had just recently been bad-mouthing.

Never Spam Your Followers:

If you spam your followers, they will unfollow you quickly. Spammy posts could be: Posting the same URLs over and over again; only posting about your own products; having a Twitter handle like: MyAwesomeProduct100 instead of: NameofMyProduct; and asking insincere questions.

If you sell cars, it would be insincere to post a question like: What is the best car on the road? Twitter users are very savvy and jaded consumers. They know when a brand is being disingenuous.

Next week – Part 2

Jeannine Clontz, owner of Accurate Business Services, a VA practice, is an author, writer, speaker and VA Business Coach specializing in providing professional business coaching to established and start-up virtual assistants (VA’s). For her FREE audio CD “What’s Holding Back my Business Success?” or a 2-month trial in her group coaching program visit: http://www.VAbizcoach.com; or contact her at: coach@VAbizcoach.com.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 11:39 am and is filed under Business Coach, Business Coaching, Business Start up, Business Tips, Goals, Marketing Tips, Marketing Your Business, Social Networking, VA, VA Classes, VA Coach, VA Training, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistant Classes, Virtual Assistant Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “How to Increase Your Focus & Target Twitter Followers (Part 1)”

Dianna Lambert Says:
September 24th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Hi my name is Dianna and I am fairly new to the VA world, I have one semester until I recieved my B.S in Forensic Psychology. When I originally started school I had a goal, but my children have changed that so my direction has rather changed. I have worked in an office enviroment for 15 years in upper management, human resources, transportation safety, driver recruiting, oilfield, Accounting payables/recievables. As well as a restaraunt manager and bar manager while working in an office. I have never had the capapbility to spend the much needed time I needed with my twins who are now 8 and I am going to take this oppurtunity to spend it with my 2 year old. I have always broadened my horizons in my experience that way no matter where I lived I was experienced in a variety. I figured that trying to support my kids I would do what I needed to do, now its time to be able to do what I enjoy but would like to do it from the comfort of my home and not worry too much about the high cost of daycare and be able to go to the activities that I have never before. I figured I would give you bit of history which may give you some information on which avenue I need to take in starting up my business. Thank you for your time it is very much appreciated. Dianna Lambert
Jeannine Clontz Says:
September 25th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Hi, Dianna -

Thanks for all the background. Running your own business is not easy. It will take a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice. While wanting to stay home with your children will be a good motivator, you will still need to devote a lot of time (initially) to building the business. It could take up to 2-3 years before you are in a position to take a good salary from your investment in the business. I usually suggest that you have a minimum of 2-years of your current corporate salary in savings to tide you over while you’re building your practice.

You also have to wear all the hats – sales, marketing, accounts payable and receivable, managing your business, etc., that’s one of the main reasons I started my coaching programs. People with incredible skills are just not surviving in this business. Sometimes your skills take a back seat, the business skills can make or break you.

I would suggest that you do a lot of research to be sure this is what you want to do, and that you’re cut out for it. If you go to my website: http://www.VAbizcoach.com – you can sign up to receive my FREE CD, “What’s Holding Back my Business Success?” – I go into a lot of things that may help you discern if this is right for you. I also just started a new group coaching program for start-up and newer VAs, go here: http://vabizcoach.com/vacoachingclub.html

Also, on our book website: http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com you will find a free download of the first Chapter, “Do You Have What it Takes?” which also discusses whether or not being a business owner is right for you.

Based on the information you’ve given me here, you should also consider training or certifications to make sure this reinvention (as far as going from forensic science to admin support at this level) is right for you and prospective clients. Anyone considering you as their service provider will be much more comfortable if they see that you’ve invested in yourself to get these trainings and certifications. Here are several places you might check out:

http://www.ivaa.org
http://www.VAbizcoach.com/starters.html (this is my 10-week teleclass – next session starts in February)
http://www.AssistU.com
http://www.virtualbusinesstraining.com
http://www.vatrainer.com/

And finally, there are two industry specific conferences coming up in the next 30-45-days. Next week is the Online International Virtual Assistant Convention (OIVAC.com) and in early November, the IVAA Online Summit (online.vasummit.org) – I highly recommend that you invest in one or both of them to get an idea of what it takes to dive into this type of business and industry.

Hope this helps.