Rockin’ Women go Tweet, Tweet, Tweet

11.08.10

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

I’ve already covered how to Ping out tweets or FB status updates simultaneously and how to keep track of your LinkedIn network connections with a CRM. This is an article for the business women who STILL resist my rants to tweet.

I recently met a rock-star small business owner. As she was venting (on-and-on) about how she can’t think of value added content in the midst of client meetings, interviews and soccer practices– I opened up a word doc and handed her my laptop.

My directions to her were as follows:  Take 1.5 hours a month, open a word doc and write down 60-90 tweets.

Stumped on what to write about? Try these ideas:

  • Have a Calendar: Open your outlook calendar and discuss upcoming events in the next month
  • Have Favorites: View your favorite websites and link back to them in tweets
  • Have Inspiration: Link articles that have inspired you, share the content and mention mentors
  • Have a Pay-It-Forward Attitude: Plug past clients in a tweet with a link to THEIR website
  • Have Solutions: Mention past client solutions you’ve been able to offer with your website link
  • Have Personality: Write down a random thought here and there (stay P.C., of course!)
  • Have Fun!

 

The benefit of doing this yourself one day a month is now you have 60-90 tweets all ready to go. These 2 -3 tweets per day can be copied and pasted from your word doc before you start your day, on your coffee break, on lunch or while you’re running the treadmill. Try updating your account in-real-time, but when you’re extraordinarily busy, reference this handy cheat of what to write. Keep it saved on your blackberry or desktop and allow yourself to tweet value added content.

What I’m suggesting does not replace the SOCIAL in Social Media and I strongly encourage interaction and engagement; however, if you’re just getting the hang of things this can head you in the right direction. Writing down tweets ahead of time that mention articles you like, people you admire or calendar events coming up isn’t cheating as long as you remember to be yourself and keep it SOCIAL!

rss-buttonDid you enjoy this article? Subscribe to She Takes On The World and never miss a post!

Send email

Kristen Durkin

Kristen Durkin is currently a Masters candidate at New York University with an individually crafted degree in all things marketing/business. Prior to returning to graduate school Kristen had relocated from NYC to Quintana Roo, Mexico where she worked to build a women owned and operated start-up firm, IIPE. You can connect with Kristen on Twitter.

View all articles by author
  • http://twitter.com/smartwoman Vicki Flaugher

    Great suggestions, Kristen. I’d take it a step further and load up those 60-90 tweets into TweetDeck or Social Oomph using a link shortener like bit.ly to shorten any links and schedule them to fire off automatically, like twice or three times a day (not repeats, but rather the original 60-90 you created for the month). I would add creating a custom alltop.com page too and finding obscure and niche relevant from news and topic blogs and including those too. That way, you have an active stream that gives you exposure and relevance and when you do have time to sit down and be social and personal you can do it without the pressure on.

    Wonderful post – thanks for sharing. Got here through @NatalieMacneil – she wrote me up for Forbes once and I have fallen in love with her ever since her sweet kindness.

    Vicki Flaugher, CEO
    Smartwomanguides.com
    .-= Vicki Flaugher´s last blog ..SmartWoman- 5 Free Ways to Never Miss a @ reply on Twiter Again http-bitly-9d1G0v simplicity in business process thrills me =-.

  • Kristen Durkin

    Thanks for reading, Vicki! EXCELLENT suggestions! For those small business owners (or aspiring business owners) who are just getting into the groove of things – Tweetdeck is a great platform and it’s easily navigated.

    I absolutely loved the suggestion of using alltop.com (or if you have a digg account). There are endless possibilities – you just have to choose what you like best!

    I know we’ve also talked about Ping.fm and hootsuite.com (Thank you, Glenn http://twitter.com/gutmach ) which readers should also take a minute to check out. There are an array of ways to carry your message both efficiently and effectively while gaining presence in the online world.

    Vicki, your ideas are fabulous, just for reference some other sites beginners can check out are:

    For getting your message out effectively:
    ping.com
    hootsuite.com
    tweetdeck (which is a platform to be used on your mobile device or desktop)

    To shorten links:
    bit.ly
    tinyurl.com
    snipurl.com
    rurl.org (AWESOME when you’re using your phone)

    For bookmarking reference articles or to save links to use in status updates:
    alltop.com
    digg.com
    delicious.com

    The list can go on-and-on-and-on.
    Vicki, any other suggestions for our readers? This was an awesome exchange – we should repost this as an article!

    Always learning,
    Kristen

  • http://twitter.com/smartwoman Vicki Flaugher, CEO SmartWoman Guides

    Kristen,
    You gave a really nice (and complete) list of choices. I definitely have a process I use with my Twitter stream. If I were to condense it down into the easiest steps it would be the following:

    1. Identify keywords (using https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal – you have to have a google account). Specifically, shoot for a list of 25-50 of words that your client uses to search for you. For instance, mine include marketing, business strategy, online, women, entrepreneur, social media, consulting, wordpress, website, information products, blog. You get the idea.

    2. Have resource links (like the alltop suggestion above) that provide value. Make them specific to your niche, relevant, obscure, interesting, and full of your keywords – do NOT just tweet out Mashable or Tech Crunch hot stories. You’re better off retweeting that link from someone else where you gain some relationship traction b/c you passed on someone else’s tweet than just automate their feeds.

    3. I answer all my @ replies (when someone talks to me in the public forum) and I answer back w/enough keywords & enough of the topic that other people seeing the tweet might click through and get into the convo – for example if someone compliments my blog post then I say “thanks for sharing my blog post with your social media family – I enjoy sharing my marketing expertise with friends” – notice the keywords?

    4. Give the same ole same ole quotes a rest, PLEASE. I went through a period of zero participation with quotes b/c I was so sick of them but people like them, so I gave in. I use a book I bought for 25 cents from the 70′s called the Quotable Woman. It has super obscure quotes from 1000 famous women inventors, writers, actresses, civil rights activists, etc from the 1800′s. GREAT stuff for my women entrepreneur audience. Sassy, unusual, insightful, perfect for the purpose. Find something creative like that for your audience.

    5. Lastly (ok, I could go on forever), mix it up and show your personality. Tweet out your values (mine are philanthropy, responsible marketing, food, shelter, clean water, literacy, etc – see my bio), make funny comments or jokes, show your emotions even if they are controversial, compliment others, engage, engage, engage! People want to know you – let them. Don’t promote yourself all the time. It’s a cocktail party at someone else’s house. Act accordingly.

    There’s so much more, but that’s a good start. I heart social media *heavy sigh* Love your blog. Thanks for encouraging me to visit.

    Vicki

    p.s. Make your tweets 120 characters or less so it’s easy to retweet them w/o editing. And, cut n paste things to retweet so you can add your own comment. And, and, and,….I said I could go on forever! LOl!
    .-= Vicki Flaugher, CEO SmartWoman Guides´s last blog ..SmartWoman- 5 Free Ways to Never Miss a @ reply on Twiter Again http-bitly-9d1G0v simplicity in business process thrills me =-.