I Tweet Therefore I Am … Engaged?

Articles, Sales Tools,

Perhaps. That is a question only you can answer but, if you are like most people, you tweet therefore you tweet. Without engagement you are doing little more than sharing your thoughts and you can’t have engagement without conversation. The same rule holds true with all forms of communication regardless of whether they are via the social networks or with the more traditional methods. Certainly, there are cases to be made for the mindless spewing of information. Things like “get 10,000 followers in 10 minutes”. Cast a wide enough net and anybody is likely to snare a few fish. However, if your business model is to build quality relationships with others, this is probably not the recommended course of action. In order to develop relationships, you must we willing to engage. Directly.

Personally, I find social media to be a puzzling animal. Folks scurrying around and trying to find more followers, more friends, more connections, and then … nothing. All of this effort to connect with new people and then never actually really doing so. There have been countless times when I have been asked to friend or follow on one or more of the major networks and have then taken the time to send a personalized private reply of thank you and “please tell me something about you and how might I be able to help” and then … nothing. No response. Not even a courtesy “Go to Hell!”. LOL. Amazing.

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Engagement can be tough. It requires some work. Then again don’t most, if not all, good things require effort? Let’s examine just a few of the ways that you can engage with others on Twitter. We’ll start with the easy ones.

  • Re-tweeting – Re-tweeting always earns high marks from others. How about a re-tweet with a personalized note or an endorsement of the original author? Bigger marks.
  • Replies (Mentions) – Used appropriately, replies can be huge, These individual messages are thoughtful, demonstrate time and effort, identify your attempt to engage, and are publicly visible which lets others know that not only are you engaging, you are doing so with someone who you value. A win-win.
  • Direct messages – Very personal, very private,  and very direct. Just hope that it does not get up in the spam filter with automated direct messages (Auto DM) which I personally despise. Auto DM’s are the perfect way to tell somebody that you are too lazy and can’t be bothered to reply in person.
  • Share an article that they wrote and give it attribution. Something like “via @twittername” is always nice!
  • Hash (#) tags – Hash tags are searchable and they draw attention. Why not include their company name as a hashtag? #Companyname
  • Just mention their name in conversation. Be sure to do it in the @twittername format.
  • Be sure to thank people for their mentions and re-tweets. This is called good manners.
  • Follow Friday (#FF) –  How’s this for a great example? Here is somebody who not only engages but also somebody that I want to engage with. Frederic, who lives in Lyon, France, and I met on Twitter. He has interviewed me for his website, I am interviewing him right now for this site, we have shared via Twitter and email, we connect on FaceBook and LinkedIn, and we have met up on Skype. We are “engaged”. Mind you, not in the biblical sense. 🙂

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/netskyf/status/28465358692159488″]
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And, for a few more advanced methods ….

  • Lists – As long as the list is not titled “Dirt Bags”, people just love to be included on lists! 🙂
  • Tweetchats – This is a relatively new phenomena (at least for me) that I have only recently started participating in. Let’s say, for example,  that you have a group of people that share a common interest. Designate a time to meet up on Twitter and you also designate a hash tag that will allow you to filter tweets to only show those with this particular hash tag. What have now is a conversation. It’s wild and fun! I do one every other Thursday night with a group of “professional services” people under the hash tag #profserv.
  • Paper.li – This is a very cool digital paper that you can create that is based on your Twitter followers, lists, or hash tags. It is an excellent vehicle to promote others and, those you promote, love it and love you! I put out three daily papers. My favorite is called … you guessed it … “People Who Engage!” and it is based on one of my Twitter lists by the same name.
  • Tweetups – Honestly, I have never been to one of these (I do network extensively in person and own 3 local B2B networking groups) but, this is where Twitter friends actually meet at a watering hole or whatever. I have not been able to confirm the rumor that they stand around the room and tweet to each other using their smart phones 🙂

Well, that should get you started. Please remember that these are just the first steps in the engagement process. Please be sure to take the time to move these new relationships to the next level. You will be glad you did!

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

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Craig M. Jamieson

Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services
Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!
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