Recently in an article on B2Bbloggers.com, I stated that the rate of adoption of Twitter for B2B marketing is being slowed because, frankly, at first Twitter can be difficult to understand and hard to use. This hurdle is quickly turning people off to the benefits Twitter can have for their business. In the article, we announced that Twitter had been added to the B2Bbloggers.com editorial calendar. As our goal is to help you understand Twitter and how to better utilize it for your marketing.
In this article, Barbra and the team here at Genius, asked that I share my thoughts on building a following, really a community on Twitter. The five Do’s and the associated Don’ts of building a B2B community on Twitter are a perfect primer if you are just getting started with Twitter.
These must Do’s are focused on Tweeting. By following these simple rules, you will begin attracting people with whom you can start conversations and build real life relationships. I personally follow these rules, and yes, at times I may even break them. As they are designed to be guidelines, not laws. Ultimately, you should allow the circumstance to be your guide, keeping these rules in mind for sound decision making before posting your 140 characters.
DO – Provide value and be selective in your tweeting.
Only tweet about things that the community of people whom you are working to attract will find interesting or valuable. A great place to start is to share links to industry news or new product announcements.
- Don’t: Tweet for tweeting’s sake — it’s better to wait for something interesting (even if it means waiting a day or more) than to post something boring.
- Don’t: Flood your audience with self- or company-promotional tweets. A balance is critical.
- Don’t: Post negatively about a competitor, don’t post negatively about anything for that matter.
Limit: Tweets about trivial matters (e.g. “Need to get more sleep.”). This is really a matter of choice, but one your company has to make. Though Twitter is generally informal and more casual in tone; a brand is a brand. The scope of what you will Tweet about is a decision that should be taken lightly.
DO – Tweet responsibly.
Remember, it is a corporate activity — your tweets can and will have a direct impact on your brand and company.
- Don’t: Post offensive, demeaning, inflammatory, emotional, political, or mean tweets.
- Don’t: Tweet confidential or proprietary information.
- Don’t: Forget your manners and customer service skills.
DO – Vary the subject and content of your tweets.
If you have buyer personas, use them to guide the topics you cover. Additionally, tweet about your experiences in the industry — trade show and conference experiences, calls with industry experts, visits to customers, new regulations etc.
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Don’t: Tweet articles that you haven’t read, looked at, or are otherwise familar with. Every tweet is a representation of you and your brand. Every tweeted link is considered an endorsement. If you haven’t read it, don’t take the risk, just don’t tweet it.- Don’t: Be repetitive, tweeting too often about the same topic / theme, etc. can cause unfollowing.
Sidenote: I often get asked, “Is it ok to repeat tweets?” There are many schools of thought on this topic. I do repeat tweets. (And Guy Kawasaki does too.)
What’s my thinking? There are over 30,000 tweets a minute. I make the assumption that my followers aren’t just sitting there waiting for my tweets. So since I send about 20-30 tweets a day, when we have a new blog post, I will tweet it three times at eight hour intervals. Most of the time when I do this, I alter the text of the tweet and send the same link. I started this when we reached about 1,000 followers. There really isn’t a right or wrong answer. My guidance is that the right answer for your Twitter account lies in a combination of the size of your community, the frequency and amount of your tweets you send per day and the number of tweets that you send that link to your site versus others.
DO – Tweet often enough to consistently keep your followers interested.
Twitter for many has become an important source of news, real-time information, and communication. To stay top of mind with your community, you need to strike the delicate balance of being helpful vs. annoying. Too many tweets, too frequently (irregardless of the topic) = annoying. Be mindful of the amount of tweets and time between each tweet.
- Don’t: Tweet so often that you’re either annoying your community or diluting your messages.
- Don’t: Send bursts of Tweets.
DO – Be present.
Think of Twitter as a two-way communication vehicle (not a broadcast platform). It is a place to start and build relationships.
If you have plans to Tweet, you must be present to converse. It is as important to send your own messages as it is to respond to and interact with the messages sent by others.
- Don’t: Tweet one-way broadcast messages all the time and wonder why people are unfollowing you.
- Don’t: Schedule all your tweets and forget to check back in and see if you have any mentions, direct messages, or retweets.
These five Do’s are by no means an exhaustive list. There is much more to cover on the topic of Twitter and building a B2B community. We will be doing just that on B2Bbloggers.com in the coming weeks. For now, following these guidelines will be plenty to get you started Tweeting responsibly and building a B2B community on Twitter.
