In recent months I’ve noticed a big surge in the amount of office supplies dealers using Twitter. This is really encouraging for the independent industry. It shows dealers are getting in tune with modern technology to help drive their businesses.
Whilst I would never class myself as an expert, guru or any other nonsense that people today do class themselves as (I don’t know how someone can class themselves as an expert at something so young as social media) I have had a lot of success from using Twitter in particular. Evolution have generated leads from Twitter that have created a revenue of over £80k within the last 12 months.
The above said just being on Twitter isn’t enough to get you the full potential of Twitter. In fact when done wrong Twitter can be a complete waste of time.
What I’ve listed below are what I’d class as bad practices. You may disagree. After all with something as young and fresh as Social Media who can really say what is best.
1) Do Not purely tweet self promotional stuff. This has to be number 1 on anybodys list. If all you do is Tweet stuff for your own benefit then people won’t see any benefit for them in following you. The best Tweeters I know Tweet interesting content. Whether it be news, opinions, or anything interesting. They still will use Twitter to promote themselves, their product or service but aim to only account for 20% of your time doing so. The result of this is you will gain more followers AND most importantly the followers you gain will take much more interest in the promotional tweets you do send.
2) Don’t spam your timeline. Even if you think you have something REALLY interesting to say try and keep your Tweets spaced out through time. There is nothing more annoying then coming onto Twitter and seeing a wall of tweets from the same person. If you can’t fit a long message in 1 or 2 tweets then use a service like Tweetlonger to expand your message from the 140 characters limit. The only thing worse than a tweet spaced out over several tweets is when someone tweets several tweets of nonsense. Rubbish like ‘A big thanks to @TwitterName for following me’
3) Be a real person. Even if your Twitter account is the name of your business still be personal. People will warm to you a lot more if they can relate to what you’re saying.
4) Never ignore any messages sent to you on Twitter. The only exception to this is if it is someone spamming you. These Tweeters are very easy to spot. Check their timeline you’ll usually be one of hundreds of other people they’ve tweeted the same link or product to and they’ll have hardly any followers. All other messages you get you should always reply to. Remember a real person is behind the Tweet and it could be one of your customers, or a potential customer.
5) Get rid of auto messages. Nothing is more infuriating and seedy than a auto message. If you’re not sure what these are they are the messages that people automatically send if you start following them. They usually say such cringeworthy nonsense as ‘Hey @Name thanks for following me. I hope you enjoy my Tweets’ *PASS ME THE SICK BAG*. Any dealer who has this service setup is totally alienating themselves from the customer. Trust me if you haven’t got time to personally message a new follower then you shouldn’t bother on Twitter.
6) NEVER refer to your followers as your fans! Unless you’re the office supplies version of Justin Bieber never ever ever everrrrr refer to your followers as your fans. They are your customers, colleauges, friends. Nothing is more arrogant!
7) If you’re posting an opinion on politics, or religion make sure it is not likely to offend anyone. You’ll either lose a follower and subsequently a customer, or you’ll force someone into a confrontation. It won’t look good.
8 ) Follow people that will benefit your business. For some REALLY strange reason lots and lots of office supplies dealers seem to follow every single other dealer they can find. Would you get your telesales teams to call other dealers? or your account managers to drop off catalogues to other dealers premises? I’m guessing no, so I don’t understand why dealers follow other dealers. The only 1 reason I can think of is that you’re using Twitter to spy on eachother. If that is the case then you’re missing the true benefits of Twitter! – Your followers are likely to have a nose at who you follow and they’re sure to be totally confused if they see that you only follow other office supplies companies.
9) When tweeting offers make sure you Tweet the link so the follower can go and use the offer. Your followers on Twitter are from the digital age. The last thing they want to do is click on an offer and then have to ring up to order it from you. Today I saw a Tweeter tweet an offer and when I clicked on the offer it opened a PDF of a A5 flyer of that offer. Are you CRAZY!?
10) Get involved! This is a 3 parter and although it is last on my list it is probably one of the most important
a) Make sure you follow a good mix of people. Celebrities and people of interest to you are fine. But also follow some local people. There are local hashtags which will help you identify local people to you. For example #RDG is Readings hashtag. If you search for people tweeting with the #RDG hash tag you’ll find local people to Reading. Dominating your local area on Twitter is a great way to gain new customers. Especially if you can find local small and medium businesses to follow.
b) Similar to ‘a’ get involved with your local area. If people on the #RDG hashtag are talking about a local festival or something get involved in the chat. There will be hundreds of conversational points each day you can get involved with to raise awareness to your tweeterings.
c) The people you follow will tweet things about themselves, their circumstances and opinions. As long as it’s not likely to offend interact with them. This will open their minds to you to see you as more than just a company selling stationery. If they don’t already follow you they’ll be more likely to do so!
Most of all don’t take Twitter too seriously. Have fun and always be positive!
