Microblogging – Establishing Authority in 140 Characters… or Not
There’s this blogging platform. Normally, blogging platforms can build up thousands of readers, but it could take years to do it. With this blogging platform, however, you could have over 1,000 readers in less than a month.
It’s crazy. The viral possibilities of this blogging platform are unreal. You may have 1,000 readers, but you can guarantee that many of these readers will pass your blog onto tons of people. Not only that, but the more informational your blogs are, the more helpful they are, the more they’ll be passed around.
If you haven’t guessed yet, then you have either been living under a rock, or are a closet user… this blogging platform is called Twitter.
A Much-Ignored Twitter Bonus
Twitter is gossiped about as a social networking platform. It’s a place for businesses to provide customer service (or, at least, build customer relations). It’s a place for friends to chatter, businesses to meet customers, service industries to meet clients; it’s the end and all be all…
You know, though… Twitter started out as a microblogging platform. That oh so tempting “what are you doing now” question was put there for people to answer it. When you look at blogs in the past (or if you remember the golden days of blogging), blogs were simply journals – ways to share your life with the masses.
Twitter was a journaling platform!
This is a much-ignored part of Twitter, however. Although occasionally you might see an enterprising Tweeter sending out bits of information, it’s generally broken up with a whole bunch of other tweets. Snagging information is an exercise in gold mining:
@copyingtwitter – #copywriting isn’t just writing… add a little buyer psychology into the mix! 1 hour ago
@copyingtwitter – I know, right? I’m all, same same… 58 minutes ago
@copyingtwitter – So I said, I’m not going 2 take that crap no more – I kicked him to the curb 45 minutes ago
@copyingtwitter – Starbucks makes great cappuccino.. SO tasty… thanks to that cute guy behind the counter 32 minutes ago
@copyingtwitter – buyer psychology tells you to fill a need or share a pain 29 minutes ago
@copyingtwitter – I hate waiting at a red light. It’s like the light knows I’m waiting. It’s teasing me. 15 minutes ago
Of course, this is just an example, but I’m sure you can think a few times you’ve seen feeds like this as well. While the individual did put in some information, there’s so much stuff in between… there’s information and then… there isn’t.
This type of feed doesn’t give me the idea the person knows copywriting. Instead, it gives me the idea the person is a spastic individual, sucking down too much coffee, texting in a car and fighting with someone. Not the best kind of impression for a business individual.
Where’s the authority?
Keep Your Eye on the Birdie
When you have a business account – in other words, you’re the social media face of the company – you have to restrain yourself. Quite simply, talking about your personal life on your business account is, or should be, a no go.
Keep your eye on the original goal. If you used your company name for your Twitter account, the goal was to help your business. Talking about the cute guy at Starbucks doesn’t help your business… unless you’re in the business of gossip, or… I don’t know, a dating service… “Hey ladies, the cute guy at Starbucks is 25 and single… and you know he has a job!”
Before you get on Twitter again, try this exercise:
- Pull out one of your favorite articles from your blog.
- Turn the blog into a series of informational bullets.
- Check each bullet for character count, with spaces (140 chars).
- Add hashtags (#) to key words.
If you need to, use HootSuite and schedule each bullet within 15 minutes of each other. If you don’t use HootSuite, pull up your bullet points. Tweet each bullet point at a reasonable time (anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes apart). Another great tool that a lot of people has asked me for the link time and time again is http://tweetreach.com/ – Especially when using a #hashtag.
As you go through the day, keep your eye on the birdie. When using Twitter for business, be a business professional. Sure, you can be personable – you don’t want to give the impression you’re an automaton-, but “personable” and “friendly”, aren’t the same things as “personal”. It’s a fine line, but if you walk it right, you’ll gain more authority than you ever thought possible – in 140 characters or less.
For the past twenty years Gabriella has held positions as a consultant, web developer and creative director until she decided it was time to open Level 343, an SEO and copywriting company. She fancies herself an Italian rocker, rebel and SEO geek. She loves singing in the shower and keeps a notepad next to her bed.
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It's sometimes a tough balance to maintain. There are relatively few that I see on Twitter that manage to keep on-track, without becoming automatons.
.-= Doc Sheldon recently posted: Are More BIG Changes Coming Possibly =-.