Posted by Tara Robertson on Wed, Dec 30, 2009 @ 08:25 AM
I recently ran across an article by Anita Campbell highlighting 137 small business twitter tips. These tips were put together by the readers of Small Business Trends. Here are some of the highlights we pulled:
- Getting Started:
- From Grant Wickes "A good way to start is “lurk & learn” using TweetDeck application. Available for download at http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/"
- From Mark Decker "My
suggestion for getting started would be to find twitters’ in different
fields to follow. Everyone wants to talk to others in their field, but
part of the beauty of twitter is meeting new people. It’s like a mixer,
you don’t want to spend the whole night talking to the people you
always talk with. Meet someone new. Network!"
- From Linda Roeder
"When your company first gets started on Twitter, find other companies
that are similar to yours or offer something that your customers will
like, follow them. Their customers will start following you and you may
be able to get a whole new clientele from this practice."
- Smart Marketing:
- From Yiana "“Always
keep up with your business branding! This means creating a custom
Twitter background that shows your brand. You can get tips and a free
template in a recent blog article that I wrote “Brand
Recognition: Creating a Custom Twitter Background" - From Joel Libava "The
right way to promote your business is to post a link to a recent Press
Release OR blog post daily, mixed in with several links to some great
resource articles, and blog posts. I also suggest that a portion of
them have nothing to do with your type of business. Just link out to
some great and interesting content. Add some value, folks!"
- From Rena Reich "Don’t
only tweet about what’s new on your site. It’s important to interact
with the community of followers that you should become a part of.
Create relationships. Business is personal."
- Observing Etiquette:
- From Robert Brady "Automated DMs
aren’t worth sending. If you won’t invest a few seconds to compose a
140-character message I don’t want to invest 5 seconds reading it."
- From Wendy Piersall "Give
before you expect to receive. In fact, give MORE than you expect to
receive. People always need to know WIIFM = “What’s in it for me?”
Answer that question as often as possible and followers will flock to
you."
- From Anthony Ruiz "Twitter is a social media tool. Keep it social. Provide value. Don’t just sell yourself. Be human. Be useful."
- Spreading Your Message:
- From StalkerB "Best tip for getting retweeted
is to leave enough characters for people to just RT as is. If people
have to start editing your message to fit “RT @your name + message”
then they often don’t bother or miss out (what you thought was) an
important part. View RTs as 120-ish
character messages and really work on what you have to say and how to
say it. Also if it contains a link make sure it’s clear what people
will be clicking through to."
- From Nathan Egan "Don’t just regurgitate content that people have already seen or that you have tweeted in the past - people pick up on that."
- From Mark Dixon "Three words: Original, Relevant, Succinct."
- Time Management:
- From Chris "Don’t
feel like you need to see/read every tweet. You don’t. If you want to
find out what’s been going on with a particular topic while you were
not paying attention, do a search of twitter using hashtags or phrases relevant to the topic to bring up recent related tweets."
- From Amanda Stillwagon "Try minimizing your time on the actual Twitter site to about 30 minutes a day. The rest of the time, use a quick Twitter app like TwitterFox
to post anything interesting you find throughout your day. It’s fast
and easy and keeps you from getting sucked up in too much conversation."
- From Sher Graham "I
make it one of my regular bookmarks on my tool bar so I remember to
click it on daily. It is a part of my business protocol in the morning
as is reading and answering emails."
- Advanced Strategies:
- From TJ McCue "Mine is a tool — TwitterBar.
It allows you to tweet from the address bar in your browser. Type in
your 140 characters like you’re typing a website URL/address and then
click on the little “t” for Twitter and it goes to your account. No
need to open another application, or use your phone."
- From Mike Campbell "Post a link to your job postings on Twitter. That’s how I found my latest new hire."
- From Debbie Hemley "We’re
using Tweet Deck’s columns to break tweets into categories. Use the
three built-in columns-friends follow, @replies, and direct messages.
Create new columns for customized groups, work colleagues, client’s,
specific organizations to ensure we don’t miss their tweets. Takes a
little time to set-up for the first time in the way you like to view
it; but once you do it’s a great way to view, increases the
effectiveness and far less time-consuming."
To learn more about the top 137 small business tips to using Twitter, you can download the full article by clicking here.
Posted by Tara Robertson on Thu, Dec 24, 2009 @ 03:51 PM
Wishing you a safe, joyous, and wonderful holiday season from TSL!
Posted by Tara Robertson on Mon, Dec 07, 2009 @ 11:32 AM
As we move into 2010, selling effectively is a key aspect to overall business growth and success. This week we decided to use a cartoon everyone is familiar with to compare the simple use of selling an "O" to some of our proven effective sales techniques.
Now that you have watched the video, let's dive a little deeper into some of the techniques Lefty the Letter Salesman is using on Ernie and compare that to modern day selling:
Qualify your prospects - As simple as this is, one of the top reasons sales personnel do not have high close rates is due to bad data or incorrect prospects. In this video, Lefty knows that Ernie is his "ideal" customer, therefore he is headed right for the decision maker. However, if Lefty was selling to The Count, (who we all know is a "numbers" man) his prospect would not be a qualified fit. Here are some easy tips to help you qualify before you start selling:
- Have a profile of your ideal customer.
- Have a set of criteria that customer's must meet before you sell to them.
A Compelling Offer - Every product and/or service usually has something more to offer than the basic sale. For example, at TSL we don't offer just leads but also a database of business intelligence gathered, additional marketing services, and service level agreements. For hardware you may not just offer a server but also a secure system, backup capabilities, or lifespan guarantees. Here are some simple but effective offers Lefty used in his pitch:
- You can sing a pretty song with it like so...
- 2 sounds for the price of 1: Olive, Ostrich or Ocean, Old, Opening
- Looks just like a donut really good enough to eat
With all of the additional offers Lefty goes through, an O really does seem like more than just an "O."
Create a Sense of Urgency - In 2009 our economy created sense of "waiting" to make new purchases and therefore altered sales stages for companies across the board. While it looks like buying in 2010 will be more aggressive, decision makers are still hesitant by nature to buy. This is where a sense of urgency is needed in order to close the sale. Lefty simply says "It's not often that I offer," which then leads Ernie to believe that if he doesn't purchase, he may just loose the opportunity to buy.
The Proposal - The last technique used in this video is the proposal stage. While we don't actually see Ernie purchase his O, Lefty uses a couple proposal techniques that intrigue the buyer to buy. Here they are:
- It will cost you just a nickel - While a nickel certainly is a small number to us think of the audience Sesame Street caters towards. A nickel when you are a kid can actually be a shiny new coin that you may not want to part with. However, by creating a sense or urgency and discussing the compelling offers behind the many uses of an O, "just" a nickel makes this out to be a great sale. This is based on the theory "you get all of this for the price of just that."
- Buy the O and take it home tonight - In any sale you should be sure that you have a timeline planned out for service and/or product implementation. Be sure that whatever you are selling (whether it be an immediate purchase or longer term implementation) you properly outline the timeline for your prospect and walk them through this together.
We hope these small steps will help your sales techniques as you move into 2010.
Posted by Tara Robertson on Fri, Dec 04, 2009 @ 10:48 AM
Did you know that their are only 18 business days left until 2010 begins!! With 2009 almost behind us and what many are calling the "post recession" year right around the corner it is important to take a look at your plan and make sure you are prepared to make an impact.
Ramp up for 2010 using social media
The upcoming year will mark a new decade for selling better, faster, and more efficiently. There will be more opportunities for growth and everyone is going to want to take a chunk of the post recession spending. Most people are working on finalizing their marketing plans for next year and determining what will drive results fast. The answer is simple: Social Networking.
We spent a lot of posts in 2009 talking about social marketing. If you are new to the world of social media, here are some past posts that may be of interest to you:
- Social Networking in less than 1 hour per week
- Top 10 Social Media guidelines for company participation
- Jump on the social media bandwagon
- Twitter Best Practices
If you aren't new to social media but just haven't had the time to network effectively, now is the time to ramp up. 2010 marks a new decade and with it a new time to go to market and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry.