JOANNE BURGESS – VIRTUALLY YOURS, JOANNE BURGESS

Your Social Media Specialist Knows Best

TWITTER is the little rock star of the Social Media world. Who would have thought that 140 characters could be so powerful? Millions are using Twitter as a means of driving traffic to their own sites, to others’ sites and for communicating with the masses in real time. Yet for many, Twitter still seems a mystery.  As a Social Media Specialist VA, I coach clients on Social Media usage.  Here are my top 5 No-Nos when it comes to Twitter!

1.   Not Filling in your profile completely.

A completed profile is a must.  This includes your bio and a picture.  I advise against pictures of your favorite pet, cartoon character or using a logo unless you are an association.  People generally want to see who you are and what you are about before they will follow you in a meaningful way.  As a VA, I research potential prospects for my clients and I won’t follow you on behalf of my client unless I have some background on you.

Helpful Tip: Be selective in your keywords when composing your bio.  These are important for search engine optimization.

2. Blocking your updates.

Do not block your updates. The whole purpose of getting involved in Twitter is so that people can see what you have to say!

Helpful Tip: If you are new to Twitter, before you start following anyone,  post about 15 tweets with relevant information so when potential followers visit your site, there will be an archive and people can see what you are about.

3. No personalized Twitter background.

Borrriiiing! Showcase your personality and your business! Spend a few dollars and have someone create a personalized Twitter-back for you if you don’t have the skills to do one yourself.  Some Social Media Specialist VAs like myself can create one for you.  While people don’t always visit your site to communicate with you on a regular basis, they will generally visit it once or twice to get some background on you.

Helpful Tip: Make sure your background ties in with your brand for consistency.

4. Not tweeting enough.

Some people think it’s ok to tweet once a week. Wrong!  You need to be tweeting 3-4 times a day.  What to tweet about?  Tweet important industry related information, news-worthy items, links to articles etc. and only occasionally to your own sites. Avoid shameless self-promotion. Social Media is about relationship building. I can’t stress this enough.  Social Media is an ideal place to become known as a thought leader, problem solver or go-to person in your industry. As far as tweeting what you had for dinner?  Unless you are a caterer,  chef or a food critic, these tweets are best left out of your stream.

Helpful Tip:  If you can’t be at your computer every day at the pertinent time to send out your tweet, there are tools to help you.  Your VA can work with you to ensure your message is getting out there.  You will need to schedule some time each day to review any direct messages or responses to your tweets to build those relationships. Communicating in your authentic voice is very important.  In my opinion, you should not delegate this to your VA.

5. Ignoring the ‘ Re-tweet’

Re-tweeting is a very important part of Twitter.   A compliment goes a long way in the social media world. By re-tweeting someone else’s tweet, you are endorsing the person and their message.

Helpful Tip: When you send out a tweet,  try to leave about 12 characters free (so tweet about 128 chars).  When a message gets re-tweeted, the original author of the tweet gets published again (more publicity for you!)  thus adding the additional characters.  You can’t exceed the 140 character limit and people will not take the time to rework/reword your tweets if they are too long.

Finally there is the debate in the social media world about quality over quantity. Personally I believe quality will win out.   It’s difficult to build quality relationships with 5000 followers!  Seek to find really good prospects and then work at building relationships with them.  If you are unsure how to do this research, your VA can help.

Those are my top 5.  What would you add to the list?

While physically located in Newmarket Ontario where Joanne lives with her family, as a VA, she is virtually yours anywhere….

Tags: Advertizing, Business, Joanne Burgess, Marketing, Marketing Administration, outsource, Relationship Building, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, VA, Virtually Yours