The Twitter Phenomenon

Posted by Heidi on March 3rd, 2009

Yesterday I had the privilege to speak to the National Association of Women Business Owners about Using Social Networking to Grow Your Business. What was interesting was how excited everyone was about the topic and in particular TWITTER.

So I thought I’d post My Twitter Story Here:

Everyone is all atwitter about Twitter now. It’s the THING. Twitter and other social networking tools are changing the way companies and individuals do business, get information, and communicate.
What I’m trying to say is that if you’re not currently on Twitter, now is the perfect time to check it out.
In February 2008 my good friend Roy Montero (known as the Twitter Guy) said, run, don’t walk to Twitter and get your name. I did and then pretty much did nothing. That was at the same time as Twitter hit the Tipping point with 1 million users. I got my name, posted a few resources and continued to do so about once or twice a month until January of this year. And then something Amazing happened. I had just completed my latest book ~ Quirky Marketing, 365 Ways to Promote Your Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays and was busy promoting it.

I asked of few of my online friends if they would put in a good word to their own networks. Some sent emails, some posted a review to their blogs and others Tweeted about it. On February 5th just under a month ago, I had a little over 400 followers and when the book launched on February 6th my followers started taking off. Today I have more than 1,800 followers. When I noticed that my follower list was growing I decided to give each of them a gift and gave away Chapter 1 of Quirky Marketing (grab your copy here).

Followers started Tweeting about Quirky Marketing. And buying it! In fact, I can directly link 60% of my sales to Twitter. Another thing I did was almost every day I post a “Today is” and tell what’s historically special about the date on my blog Redhead Marketing listing the zany holiday and a marketing strategy to go along with it. The post auto-magically appears in my timeline on twitter and my followers read about it. That has really helped to drive traffic to the sales page and to the blog. For instance, Friday March 7th is National Be Heard Day! – Shannon Cherry, a Media expert and Co-author of GET MEDIA SAVVY! has created a special day to help YOU get the word out about your business, your products and services. It is National Be Heard Day. And it is being celebrated on Friday, March 7th. Here’s what Shannon has to say about it: “What is it that makes you remember one business and not another? Regardless of what they did, they somehow created excitement.”

They somehow got to your emotions and created a buzz inside of you. They got heard! How can you create excitement for your business? Well, for one, you must avoid herd (as opposed to heard) mentality. Just because something works for one, does not mean it will necessarily work for another. … National Be Heard Day is one of the holidays that appears in Chase’s Calendar of Events, has been recognized in New York State, and has gotten amazing media coverage including being featured by the Associated Press.” In 2008 in celebration of National Be Heard Day, Shannon gave away more than $3,500 worth of marketing tips and tactics for free. That’s right! FREE! Check out her site on March 7th (Startup Spark) to learn more, and to bookmark her blog.

Yesterday, just as I was finalizing my notes for today’s presentation, a TWEET came through from Buzz Marketing Daily – it was a list of 25 Innovative Ways Companies are Using Twitter (That You May NOT Have Heard of Yet). Here are a couple of examples from that list: @MarquetteTurner is a realtor in Australia who uses Twitter for listings AND to rebroadcast local news. @ScienceChannel solicits content for its weekly segment, “Geek Out,” on its traditional TV show, Brink and @NWWeddingPlace includes a “Daily Love Tweet” to promote its wedding planning business.

If you own a business of any size and you’re still not Twittering, you’re missing out on what amounts to a global virtual chamber of commerce networking event you can access anytime, day or night. Only on Twitter, you don’t shake hands or swap business cards — you exchange links to your Web site, blog, e-books and other digital products and more.

As a business tool, Twitter can help you: Find new clients, Make new contacts with other business and thought leaders like Tim Ferris or Only2Clicks or Peter Shankman of Help a Reporter Out, stay on top of breaking news events and other news in your industry.

And if you have a question about something all you have to do it post it and someone will answer. With Twitter you can generate story ideas if you need fodder to write about. With Twitter you can definitely build your brand. Companies like Intuit, Wachovia, Southwest Airlines and Comcast all have a huge presence on Twitter. Twitter helps Drive traffic to your Web site, Improve your writing and my personal favorite, learn about new tools such as Utterli (share text, posts, video from your mobile phone), roboform and Twitter Feed.

With Twitter you develop relationships 140 characters at a time. So, if you are on Twitter (and I hope you are) feel free to follow me – http://twitter.com/heidirichards and http://twitter.com/WECAI.

Happy Tweetin’!

Heidi

ps. Just last week Only2clicks added me to their list of Women on Twitter to Follow! AMAZING women and I am among them. Whoohoo!

Heidi Caswell said,

March 4, 2009 @ 12:03 am

And you know it is my fault I’m on twitter. You told me to save my name, so I did. Maybe I should have left out the _ . No matter, as I saved my name I saw the profile took just a couple minutes to fill out, so I did, then I started clicking on links to see how it work and got sucked in.

Great post, lots of great information. I love your Quirky Marketing book, great ideas along with the dates.

NAWBO and Social Networking ~ a Perfect Combination | Success and Then Some said,

March 4, 2009 @ 2:28 pm

[...] My topic this time was “How to Leverage Social Networking to Promote Business” which is not only a very timely topic, apparently was interesting to the 87 women in attendance! You can read an excerpt of the talk at: http://speakingwithspirit.com/the-twitter-phenomenon/. [...]

Time management tips for Twitter 'Holics | Speaking with Spirit said,

May 1, 2009 @ 12:35 pm

[...] Step 1 ~ Know what you can and cannot change on Twitter. You can change your posts (before you post) and even trash them when you don’t like them. But you cannot change what others say about you. You can, however CONTROL what they say, by being considerate, kind and brief. That’s why 140 characters work so well. People have to be really succinct in their posts and replies. I think Twitter has made me a better writer. You can read My Twitter Story here: http://speakingwithspirit.com/the-twitter-phenomenon/ [...]

The business of social networking to drive traffic to your sites, gain market share and develop lasting relationships | Speaking with Spirit said,

June 30, 2009 @ 6:30 pm

[...] I joined Twitter a year+ ago and in January of 2009 became an active Twitter user. Read my story: The Twitter Phenomenon and see why I am a Twitter fanatic. BTW, If you are not on Twitter, or you are confused about what [...]

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