I’m a huge fan of using Twitter and LinkedIn effectively for developing online business relations. And that’s why I believe it is very important to get the most out of your efforts on these two social networking platforms as well as on Facebook, your blog, and wherever else online you invest time and effort in optimizing your web presence.
Below are tips for more effectively using LinkedIn and Twitter:
LinkedIn:
I accept someone’s connection and then I get back a very LONG LinkedIn message about the person’s business, etc. I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO READ THIS LONG MESSAGE.
If you want to have any chance of me reading your LinkedIn message, make it very short and easy to read. If I’m interested I’ll click on your link.
Twitter:
Someone I respect asked me what I think of “buying” Twitter followers – you know, the email offers you get promising thousands of Twitter followers for the low price of [whatever]. Here’s my answer
I don’t believe in buying followers. I believe people should grow their Twitter account organically while creating relationships. In other words, I believe you have to be willing to put in the effort in order to reap the rewards.
There’s an additional answer that may be more relevant:
When I get a new follower email notification, I check out that person’s profile. If I see thousands of followers and, for example, 11 tweets, I know that the person has probably “bought” followers. Bottom line: I’m not following that person back because he/she is not a committed Twitter community participant.
And, yes, I’d much rather follow back someone who has 20 followers and 11 tweets because this person is growing his/her followers organically by spending time deciding who to follow.
While there are automatic functions I endorse, such as using an application to selectively send my tweets through to Facebook and LinkedIn by using #fb and #in, I will repeat what I have said before:
Twitter is not a popularity contest. It is about quality, not quantity. And I truly believe that on Twitter, as with many things in life, you get what you pay for.
FYI — If you want to check how effective your Twitter profile is, get the Miller Mosaic Power Marketing FREE report “Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business”
© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is an Internet business consultant. For more detailed information on effectively utilizing Twitter, see “What You Should Know About Using Twitter Effectively and Strategically”
