It seems the world has been abuzz over Twitter lately. This makes me a little sad, because I love Twitter just the way it is, and I really hate to see it taken over by people only trying to sell things or point me to their blog postings over and over. It seems every "Social Media Expert" is tossing off their opinion to whomever will listen. You know what I find curious about these so-called experts? Very few of them have any actual content on the Internet. This makes me curious as to how they came about this "expert" status.
I do not profess to be a Social Media Expert (truth is, the term kind of makes me gag). In fact, I probably fail at Twitter. One of the biggest complaints you hear about Twitter users is that "no one cares what you're eating for lunch." I actually do care what you're eating for lunch. And being a foodblogger, I also feel a wee bit responsible to tell my followers what I am eating for lunch if it's a great find. This might also help restaurants, because if I tweet "I think I'll go to Sage for brunch," then lots of people start saying "ooh!! Sage! I need to go there!" etc.
So, now that I have debunked any sort of Expert status, why should you listen to me? Well, because I am highly susceptible to suggestion, so if you Tweet something like "come to Banana Bean to try Elaine's famous chicken and waffles on Sunday," chances are you are going to see me in the restaurant soon. Until that tweet, I didn't even know Banana Bean had chicken and waffles! You might send a personal tweet to remind me that you haven't seen my lovely face in awhile, you might let me know that your store has a sale on Ohio ground beef this week, or that you got Roman Cauliflower in. (Yes, these things have all happened.)
So, let's talk about how you, as a business which might interest me and others like me (we are legion, after all), can use Twitter effectively. I'll also highlight some businesses which use Twitter extremely well. I'll talk about what I don't like on Twitter, but I won't highlight those people, because I don't want to be mean.
The experts will tell you to tweet your message morning, noon, and night. I say if you are tweeting the same thing morning, noon, and night, you are a spammer in my book and will be unfollowed. That isn't to say you shouldn't reinforce your message morning, noon, and night, but if you don't change the details of your message, then you're just phoning it in and not really thinking about how to connect. Let's make up an example:
6:30 am "Come on down to Joe's and try our great food!"12 pm "Come on down to Joe's and try our great food!"4pm "Come on down to Joe's and try our great food!"8pm "Come on down to Joe's and try our great food!"
Didn't that bore you just looking at it? This message is a failure in my book. It doesn't tell me anything about why I might want to come and try your great food. What's great about it? Consider, however:
5 am "I'm just pulling the fresh cinnamon buns out of the oven! You wouldn't believe the aroma around here! Come and get them quick because you know they always go fast!"11 pm "Thinking about lunch? How about a nice refreshing salad of all local vegetables with Marge's amazing buttermilk herb dressing? or maybe a juicy, made-to-order burger on a toasted homemade bun with handcut fries and basil aioli?"2pm "need an afternoon pick me up? Joe's steaming milk and making those beautiful lattes everyone loves. Say twitter and we'll throw in one of our mini double chocolate cupcakes!"4pm "did someone say Happy Hour? It's margarita day! The sun is shining and we're serving up 3 flavors of your favorite margaritas for $12 a pitcher! Get some friends together and have a mini vacation on our patio! We have free wifi so if you have to bring your work with you, at least you can sit in the sunshine and get it done!"
This set of examples has told me what the place has to offer - they have hit on a few different senses to get me thinking about eating there - the aroma of the cinnamon buns, the juicy burger or veggie salad, a latte made with care and my very own cupcake, and then the image of relaxing on the patio in the sun with friends or my laptop. They've told me about their happy hour special; they're reminding me to get out of the office, perhaps.
The best part about all of this is that it is free. You might pay for an ad in a local paper listing your daily happy hour specials, and that's all well and good, but you can also get on Twitter and let people know about them for free. If you're lucky, people who love you, follow you, and think your message is great will RT (that's re-Tweet) your message to all of their followers. Oh, the connectiveness of it all is thrilling!
Because tweets are limited to 140 characters, it only takes a few seconds to get your message out.
Just as a sidenote for you bloggers out there - here's another thing which will get you unfollowed in a heartbeat: "Read my blog! read my new blog post! comment on my blog post! come on, read my blog! read my blog people!" That makes me stabby. I pretty much assume that anyone who follows me on
Twitter is aware that I have a website; it's right there in my profile, after all. If they like to follow me on Twitter and don't read my website, well, that's their right. I'm not going to shove it down their throats every half hour. You might, however, hear about how cute my cats are, that I'm enjoying a latte, or a gin, or a bourbon, or who my favorite bartender is, or about the amazing sandwich I'm eating - see? you never know! (I'll remind you here that I am not an Expert.)
Another great thing to do on Twitter is let people know about sales in your store - the Hills Market is really good at this, letting us know they just got in watermelon radishes, or that their chef has just made the most amazing lasagna for take home, or they have a sale on milk. If your store just received an particularly great item - for example, Baying Hound knew that I might fancy one of those super cute reusable Earthlust water bottles, so when they got them in, they tweeted me with a link. I bought one that day, and then I Tweeted that I bought one and told everyone they should check them out, too.
Zettler Hardware keeps everyone updated on the new seeds and plants that have arrived, knowing this is the time to strike because everyone is itching to get outside and get some gardening or yard work done.
If you do decide to use Twitter for your business, keep up with it. I get irritated when I discover a business on Twitter and then find they haven't updated in forever. Why bother, really. Decide the message you want to deliver, and then assign updating as someone's job.
Use Twitter to search to see what people are saying about you. Although I almost always try to use Twitter for good, all of my followers now know that I am fed up with a certain bank in town (for charging me endlessly and needlessly for an honest mistake and then being horrid about it). And the Food Network (for canceling their only interesting show of late). And Hell's Kitchen (for throwing half of a beef tenderloin on the floor-that was like a knife to the chest; I hate to see food wasted, especially when an animal died to provide it for you). On the other hand, there are TV shows who follow me and know how much I love them (Intervention) or their network (Investigation Discovery).
Okay, enough of a side note. Let's talk about some businesses who use Twitter very effectively and why.
Hands down, the Liz Lessner group of restaurants are probably the most effective users of Twitter in Columbus. Why? All of the restaurants update frequently, letting you know about specials that day, particularly delicious cocktails you might enjoy, the flavor of cupcake they're baking that day, and the fact that they serve food until 2am. The tweets are informative and frequently very funny. Examples:
"Bottom's Up is always $3, Whiskey & RC Cola. Enjoy with our poor man's filet mignon known as our Blue Ribbon Pot Roast. (tiptop, follow here)"our meatloaf, mashers and gravy cure dreary days" (tiptop)"the weekend starts right now, we got your poison, your cupcakes and frito pie at the ready". (Surly Girl, follow here"ready, set, happy hour! we're ready for you." (betty's, follow here)"focaccia bread is rising and about to go in the oven. it comes with our large salads and pastas. little slice of herbed love." (betty's)
I've also talked a little bit about Banana Bean. Here are some of their tweets (follow here):
"BBQ'd Fresh Atlantic Salmon, Sweet Corn Risotto and Bourbon Molasses Redeye Gravy.....who rang the dinner bell?!""Chocolate-Chile Bread Pudding or Red Dirt Road Chocolate Chip Walnut Pie....oh my!!""Fresh Peel'n Eat Gulf Shrimp (Texas Browns), Ravigote Iceburg Salad, and Horseradish Ketchup...u don't have 2 leave C-bus for a food vaca!!"
Here are a few good tweets from the Hills Market (follow them here) - notice how the message of the personal grocery store experience is reiterated - you actually feel as though someone there might care what you want:
"Three new Spring Salads in the Chef's Case. Jen's got a case of the "Springs" and we love it!""Do you have a product that you want us to carry? Let us know! We will do everything we (legally) can to bring it in for you!"
Other great Tweeters are -
If I have left out your business and you think you're great Twitterers, don't think it's personally - leave a comment and let everyone know where they can follow you!
If you aren't on Twitter, you might want to investigate it if you think you are up to the task. Explaining Twitter to you is someone else's job. There are some things you just have to learn on your own - I mean, if I told you what a Fail Whale is, what would the fun be?
I hope this has helped some of you understand how you can better use Twitter to get the word out about your business!
