There - I've said it out loud - Some folk on Twitter totally miss the point

This week I've had a whole slew of new people follow me on Twitter, and something became clear straight away.

Around 7 or 8 out of 10 of these folks don't communicate at all.

They post on Twitter - sure, but they don't TALK to their audience.

Imagine if you had a friend who :

• never replied to you when you emailed them
• constantly emailed you with statements starting with: Read this; Click here; Buy this; Download this etc etc

How long do you think you'd last before you got tired of that one-way friendship, that one-way communication?

Pretty fast, I'm thinking :-)

It's the same with "social media" - the first word here is "social" - and that means participating, sharing, communicating.

I've been on Twitter for about a year and a half now, I've gone through the 7 Stages Of Twitter from not knowing what it was about or how to tweet, all the way through to the addiction and desperation waiting for tweet replies to come in :-)

Luckily I came out the other side of that without any scars, and I read as much as I could about Twitter and followed people who seemed to know what they were talking about.

In this millennia, most of us have an online life, some of us are trying to build our businesses, some others are just trying to make friends or feel part of some kind of community.

As business folk, we're trying to tell people about our products and services without shoving it down their throats, so - Don't constantly tweet the same message about your product or your website.

The way to a consumer's heart is communication, so many studies show that people want to belong, to get to know someone before they buy from them online, so -

Talk with your followers, don't just share your products or services, share a little bit about who YOU are. People respond to folk who are interesting, warm, friendly online.

Share little snippets about yourself so your followers see you are human, not some big corporation just after "the SALE".

• If you start to communicate with your Twitter followers, they will respond.
• They will judge you and find that they either like you or don't, and that's ok.
• If they like you, they'll communicate back.
• And then THEIR followers will see them having conversations with you on Twitter and want to know what's going on, so will start to follow you too.

I've talked about this with friends and business associates, and everyone has a different way of measuring whether or not to follow a person (whether or not that person has "followed" them first).

The main point that came out of these discussions is that when there is communication and conversation with other tweeps on Twitter, it forms a bond, and many of those other tweeps turn into clients or customers. Out of that comes the added bonus that THEIR followers like reading the tweets, and then they will follow you too.

Welcome to the new world! This is business in 2010!

There may be a new exciting way to communicate with followers online just around the corner, but for now Twitter and Facebook rank pretty much at the top of the list.

If you'd like to get to know YOUR potential clients and customers, start COMMUNICATING over Twitter, and see if that starts to bring rewards for you.

Easy ways to start a conversation over Twitter with a new follower:

• when someone follows you, check out their last 10-20 tweets (messages) they've posted; find one you like, check out the link if there is one, then RT (retweet) their message. But before you send that tweet, click at the start of it and say something like, "Hey Teena, thx for following! Enjoyed this :-)" - this will show your new follower that (1) you noticed that they're following you, and (2) you read and like one of their tweets and you're retweeting it. The actual tweet will look something like this:

Hey Teena, thx for following! Enjoyed this :-) RT @Build_website: My 12 Must-Back-Up Computer tips: done YOUR backup today? http://ht.ly/30I7g

• when someone follows you, check out their Bio, notice what they're interested in, which city they live in. Follow the retweet steps above and make an extra comment, for example:

Teena, thx4 following! How's San Diego today? RT @Build_website: 12 Must-Back-Up Computer tips: done YOUR backup today? http://ht.ly/30I7g

or

Teena, thx4 the follow! What's your top tip today? RT @Build_website: My 12 Must-Back-Up Computer tips  http://ht.ly/30I7g

Often you will need to shorten the original message while still retaining the core message - remember you have a total of 140 characters to get your full message across.

• when someone follows you, you can simply reply with their name, the thanks for following, and then a simple message like:

1. Enjoyed your comments :-)
2. I love internet marketing too!
3. Really like your products
4. Look forward to chatting
5. Looking fwd to reading your tweets
6. or anything along these lines to show the person that you have read their bio and know what they're about.

That's my two cents' worth - it's what I do and what I've found to be the easiest ways to communicate with my Twitter followers. I wish you success with yours, and I look forward to seeing the conversations - tweet me on @build_website - look forward to chatting soon!

Adios amigos,

Teena!