[Simon Gerrard]

Would any of you care to give an opinion on how to use Twitter to your commercial advantage and how best to go about it, so that someone like me, who can't get his head around it can begin to understand it? In other words and idiots guide to setting up and using Twitter

Simon

[SteveAllan]

Hi Simon

Theres a good book that i would recommend http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tweep-e-licious-Strategies-Entrepreneurs-Changemakers-ebook/dp/B00AHPHRC2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368368478&sr=1-1&keywords=lynn+serafinn

It will guide you in a no nonsense why to set up your campaigns.

[Craigp]

There are people on twitter who will run your twitter for you, tweeting everyday, for a fee.

Its a bit like a mary go round, imo, lots of businesses following each other hoping to get work.

Note, use your real name and a picture of you, no one wants to follow a faceless company with a logo for a picture that is trying to sell all the time.

I guess it's like you have real twitter users and you have businesses who are only on there for the benefit of their business. Real twitter users don't like to follow business.

Yeah it's crap.

[Mike Halliday]

Tritter is a mystery to me as well.

The only way I can see us using it is if we have 10000s of followers and if we get a cancelation, we can tweet ...." Had a cancelation... Anyone want a discount to fill the space?"

Then this tweet would be seen by all your followers who might take you up on the offer

[Richard Cole]

Hi Simon

Theres a good book that i would recommend http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tweep-e-licious-Strategies-Entrepreneurs-Changemakers-ebook/dp/B00AHPHRC2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368368478&sr=1-1&keywords=lynn+serafinn

It will guide you in a no nonsense why to set up your campaigns.

Steve, I'm assuming you use twitter for marketing or have done in the past, has it worked for you?

Richard

[Craigp]

The problem with that is only a few followers will see that tweet.

You see it works like news feed in facebook, each post moving further down the page.

If I go on my news feed I see all the poepl I follow, but there is tweets every few seconds so you can see how quick it would move down the page.

I have been on there about 8mths now and have 190 followers, all of whom are in my local area, the vast majourity are businesses who are following me for the same reason I am following them! lol

So far nowt.

I will just delete it when i get around to it.

Tweeter is quite good for news and stuff though. I recomend it for that.

[cannon]

I would have a word with someone who handles twitter campaigns or maybe attend a talk on it. I was at a local expo event and one of the hour long seminars was about twitter, though i must add im a novice and can't add much more than what im posting now.

For me Twitter is just another tool to raise awareness and reach people you otherwise wouldn't, a form of online networking.

I would say its a slow process you need to engage with it and people on there  regularly but there are tools to automate it for you a little. As an example I gained a job from an estate agent the other week, he had already been on my site during the day but then saw me on twitter on the evening and that's what gave him the push to phone me. 

Basically identify people who are of use to you and stalk them    just don't make it all about selling your wares.

[SteveAllan]

Hi Simon

Theres a good book that i would recommend http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tweep-e-licious-Strategies-Entrepreneurs-Changemakers-ebook/dp/B00AHPHRC2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368368478&sr=1-1&keywords=lynn+serafinn

It will guide you in a no nonsense why to set up your campaigns.

Steve, I'm assuming you use twitter for marketing or have done in the past, has it worked for you?

Richard

Hi Richard how's it going mate, only been doing it since Mikes course. I have never been into it or FB but have gone with twitter and got a few jobs off it. Downloaded tweet adder and that tweets for me every 30mins or so. So it's worth it IMHO as costs nothing

[david@zap-clean]

Twitter, facebook etc - are all social media.  The keyword is social.  Here's how it should work (IMHO):

If you were a well known, and liked member of a (any) club, with say 200 members, if you started a carpet cleaning business it's likely that the members (your friends) will use you if they needed their carpets cleaned.  If you did a good job they might spread the word to their friends and family.  That's exactly how 'social media' should work.

You need to engage your twitter/facebook audience, and be liked for your postings - one day one of them might need their carpets cleaned.

If I see any of my 'friends' on social media blatantly advertising their products or services they get unliked fairly rapidly.

[Mike Gwilliam]

This reminds me of the tv program ''Pensioners behaving Badly'' where the old man sits down next to a young guy on a bench with his phone and says this Twitter is an amazing thing. the young guy says yes....I'v 250 followers! whilst playing with his phone proudly.

The old man says.....thats amazing.....can i follow you? the young guy gets up (feeling uncomfortable, thinking I'm off) and says yes if you like.

The young guy walks off to get rid of the old bloke....but of course the old pensioner follows him

[wynne jones]

The problem with that is only a few followers will see that tweet.

You see it works like news feed in facebook, each post moving further down the page.

If I go on my news feed I see all the poepl I follow, but there is tweets every few seconds so you can see how quick it would move down the page.

I have been on there about 8mths now and have 190 followers, all of whom are in my local area, the vast majourity are businesses who are following me for the same reason I am following them! lol

So far nowt.

I will just delete it when i get around to it.

Tweeter is quite good for news and stuff though. I recomend it for that.

Craig I wouldn't delete it, with a bit of creativity there will be cross promotion opportunities for you and them surely?

[mark_roberts]

Sounds like a lot of time invested for little work back.

I cant get my head around facebook never mind twitter.

Mark

[*Hector*]

Sounds like a lot of time invested for little work back.

I cant get my head around facebook never mind twitter.

Mark

that is my thoughts on it too Mark 

only just got the hang of email and interweb 

[garry22]

The problem with that is only a few followers will see that tweet.

You see it works like news feed in facebook, each post moving further down the page.

If I go on my news feed I see all the poepl I follow, but there is tweets every few seconds so you can see how quick it would move down the page.

I have been on there about 8mths now and have 190 followers, all of whom are in my local area, the vast majourity are businesses who are following me for the same reason I am following them! lol

So far nowt.

I will just delete it when i get around to it.

Tweeter is quite good for news and stuff though. I recomend it for that.

Keep it going. An active Twitter account and following is a pretty important component of your website ranking. What's to be gained by deleting it?

[Chris Straker]

I have business page on FB and on Twitter, I have simply got work from 'signing in' on Four Square ....... just because one followers friend saw it and asked if I could clean at his west end restaurant ...... because I signed in at Chancery Lane on a Sunday 

The best medium that I have found, for automatic tweets, is http://paper.li/StrakerEco/1318339793  .........It publishes to my Twitter page https://twitter.com/StrakerEco .....  Twitter then sends it to https://www.facebook.com/StrakerEcoCarpetAndRugCare 

That is all done daily, at the time I specify, with topics I choose ....... it took 10 minutes to set it up 

[Chris Straker]

Just noticed that after today's Straker ECO Daily came out, one of the people I follow, retweeted  the Daily to their 1536 followers as they were mentioned ...... I only have 235 to date.
The biggest retweet of the Daily was by Harriet Scott (ex Heart FM) and that went to over 4.5k ......... I don't advertise as such, so these do show up as email & phone quote requests 

[Craigp]

Chris how much is that automated tweeting service? can't see and prices on their site.

[Chris Straker]

You can have the Daily for free but I pay the upgrade and it's about £7-8 a month ....... lets you edit a lot more content and have your own banner on the page etc.

[Chris Straker]

I follow the ones from Paul Pearce and Andi at Plymouth Rug Cleaning ....... they come to me as emails, like the front page of a newspaper 

[Craigp]

Cheers Chris, I have signed up see if that helps me get better results.