Jeffrey Gitomer April 10, 2013

What’s in a tweet? For most people it’s a post and a prayer.

For me, it’s value, information others can use, followers, reputation,image, re-tweets, customers, referrals, sales, and money. Is thatenough?
 
Twitter has the power to generate awareness, create value attraction,keep you or your brand at top-of-mind status, and build relationships.Is that enough to get you to participate?

I want to share some advice about twitter: I am NOT passing myself offas an “expert,” and there is nothing to buy, and no free webinar toattend. These are just my observations and successes based on the pastfouryears of my participation.

Here are my stats as of this writing:

My twitter handle is my name: @gitomer
Followers – 60,580
Following – 17,109
Tweets – 3,127
Average tweets per day – 4
Average links to view a video or an offer – 1 per day
Average number of re-tweets/favorites per day – 25-75 per tweet
New followers per day – 30-50

Here are 3.5 things I recommend you do in order to really benefit from Twitter:

1. Have an objective and a strategy. Twitter isintended for you to inform with value, influence, brand, and (onoccasion) to converse or respond, not chit-chat. The value of yourtweets will determine who stays with you and re-tweets you. When I seesomeone with 14,500 tweets and 285 followers, two words come to mind: NO VALUE. I often use the direct message feature to respond, rather thanan open tweet – that’s meaningless to everyone else.

2. Create a list of value-based tweets and subjects you intend to tweet about. Be prepared at least a week in advance. Keep a Twitter file thatdocuments ideas and possible tweets. Itweet quotes from my books, andthoughts that come to me during the day (ornight). You can also re-tweet others if you believe it helps your followers.

NOTE: I try to leave at least 10 characters open, so that others can easily re-tweet me.

NOTE: If you re-tweet me or favor me, I’ll follow you as a courtesy.

3. Approach followers of strategic value. You have anemail list. INVITE each person to follow you PERSONALLY. In an email,tell each person about your twitter participation, LIST A FEW OF YOURTWEETS, and ask them to follow you by clicking a link and the followbutton. If you have 1,000 people on your list, and 250 follow you, it’s a GREAT start. Continue to send your tweets out weekly to the rest of the list, and re-ask them to follow you. This will take time, but theearning potential exceeds the stupid TV show you’re watching.

3.5 Be consistent. Tweet every day, at least once a day.

Don’t DM (direct message) me saying “Thanks for the follow.” It’s anannoying waste of my time and yours. Instead, how about sending me thesame kind of message I sent you – ONE OF VALUE. A message to make methink, make me smile, or make me money. Insincere politeness and phonythanks makes you sound like a bad flight attendant, reading from ascript, into a bad microphone, behind a wall.

Don’t re-tweet the news. You are not the source. Originality counts –especially if it’s valuable or thought provoking to your customers.

Your twitter outreach is not going anywhere if:

• You talk with other people in superficial chatter more than 10% of your tweets.
• You re-tweet others more than 50% of the time.
• You fail to tweet your own thoughts.
• You have nothing but sales messages with a link to buy something.
• You’re only trying to get people to “go here” to “read this” and “see my blog post” or “watch this video.”
• Your tweet to follower ratio is out of proportion. You should have a MAXIMUM of one tweet for every 10 followers. 100 tweets = 1,000followers. The lower the ratio, the better.

Here are the MAJORS:

MAJOR CLUE: Being re-tweeted is the key. My goal is 100 re-tweets a day
MAJOR OPPORTUNITY: Photo and video is becoming commonplace. Do not abuse it. Show value, not your backyard BBQ.
MAJOR FAUX PAS: Your links better work – especially if they’re to your website, your blog, or other social media like LinkedIn.
MAJOR IDIOCY: Please don’t offer advice for sale, or call yourself an expert, if you don’t have AT LEAST 50,000 followers.

I am amazed at how few sales professionals and sales leaders are nottaking advantage of Twitter. It’s a resource, it’s a broadcast medium,it’s a vital recognition tool, it’s a reputation builder, and it’s free.

Tweet that. I just did. At 7:30am. In less than two hours I had 9 newfollowers, and 43 re-tweets or favorites that reached (influenced) MOREthan 75,000 people. For free.

How’s your morning going?

© 2013 All Rights Reserved. Don’t even think about reproducing thisdocument without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and BuyGitomer. 704/333-1112