We get quite a lot of people tell us, and also from what I read online through various online websites, that they despise using certain social media tools.

The champion in this ring, by far, has got to be Twitter.

I was once in this battle, wondering why people thought it was so beneficial and fun to take a tool like your facebook status, limit yourself to saying what you need to in 140 characters or less and dribble on about your latest nothings, thinking people actually cared about what you had for breakfast or at what time your dog took his latest bowel movement in the backyard. Package all that up and you have Twitter.

Hardly, I was wrong. I was just using it ineffectively and didn’t understand the potential.

Like most things in life, there are better ways than others to use a certain tool, and Twitter definitely falls under that category. I would suspect that most people who have tried Twitter and decided it’s not for them, and there are probably a lot of people out there, didn’t truly grasp the potential it had for them and didn’t take the time to figure out how to best use it for their business and brand.

I believe that Twitter is a great social media tool that can excel your businesses online presence and of course we know what that means, more customers, but there are many people out there who constantly use it incorrectly. Here are a few helpful tips that I’ve come up with.

1. You need to understand that it takes time to build a solid list of credible followers. Not everyone is a gem. You won’t see instant success, but work at it. It will come.

2. Don’t always feel the need to follow someone just because they followed you. Most of us feel obligated when we see that email come in notifying us that “Bob the Sprocket Builder” is now following us and to reciprocate back. I believe that if you aren’t interested in what this follower has to say, there is no need to clutter up your Twitter messages from someone/company that doesn’t interest you. It’s just going to make it harder for you to filter through the worthwhile information on your screen. A quick way, but not always sure-fire way, is to look at how many followers this person has. If I get an email notification that Joe22385 is now following me and he has 4 followers and he’s following 23,567 people, then a red flag is thrown up and I’m pretty sure this account is a “spammy” type of account. Stay away. Keep in mind low numbers don’t mean bad. It could just be a new user, new account and they are currently trying to build their network up.

3. It’s not a contest as to who can get more followers. I’m sure most are well aware of the media coverage a few months back when Ashton Kutcher was on a rampage, battling against media mogul Ted Turner to see who could get to a million followers on Twitter. If you look at his account, he’s probably following less than 200 people. So while you are hearing him, he’s not hearing you, unless he decides to follow you, but we probably know the odds of that one. Now, that’s not to say you shouldn’t follow people that won’t follow you back, If what Mr. Kutcher Tweets about, then follow him, but follow people that truly interest you or you’ll start to feel Twitter is boring and useless. Constantly reading things that don’t enhance your Twitter experience leads you down the wrong path.

4. You need to Tweet consistently, but don’t over do it to the point people start to get annoyed with seeing your Tweets. A few times a day should be sufficient.

5. Try a healthy mix of good, solid, interesting Tweets to dish out to your followers. Give them some good links or information to good articles. There is nothing wrong with putting out personal stuff, this helps your readership to realize you aren’t some drone working at your company, but rather an individual, just like they are. Let them see the personal side of you. Where your favourite coffee shop is, your favourite place to eat.

6. Take the time to brand your Twitter homepage with an interesting background, your business logo and say what you offer. Brand your Twitter account to reflect your business. If you don’t have the ability to do this, other companies can, like us.

7. Use a program like TweetDeck to make using Twitter much more easier and enjoyable. It’s a great way to manage your account and Tweets coming in. You can also set up a column for a “keywords”, meaning that you can monitor tweets throughout the Twitterverse that when typed, show up so you can read them.

This has proven very beneficial for our @DiscoverSooke account, because we have set it up to locate any tweets with the word “Sooke” in it. When someone types the word “Sooke” we can see that tweet, even if we aren’t following this person. Maybe someone in China is asking if anyone knows anything about “Sooke, BC” because they are travelling to Vancouver Island next summer. We can then respond back to that person with a link to the DiscoverSooke website, assist them with local knowledge etc.

8. Like any marketing for your company, you need to get your Twitter ID out there. Put a link on your website so people can easily follow you. Put it in your email signatures. But you can’t wait for people to stumble upon you. You need to be proactive.

9. If you just updated your blog with an interesting article, added a new product, achieved a milestone, Tweet about it and link to the source. Push them to your website.

I don’t think many small business owners take the time to understand social media and how it can benefit you and your company. Let me explain some personal experience with Twitter and how we’ve helped other companies with it.

I’ve been building websites since 1996, that’s a LONG time in the Internet world. Back then, once we were done with a website and we made it “live”, we would have to constantly tweek the meta tags and keywords in hopes that we could manipulate the search engines, placing your website on the front page.

Now, with smarter search engines, it’s a time consuming, expensive and daunting task to get ranked well.

This is where I feel Twitter and other social media tools help and excel at.

Example:

Let’s say we have 300 people following us, and this certainly isn’t an unobtainable number for anyone. It’s actually quite low.

We design, build and launch your website to the Internet world.

Upon completion we want to tell our Twitterverse what we’ve just accomplished, showing them our latest portfolio piece, your company website. So we Tweet about this, with a link to your new site.

I’m not sure what the click through rate is, but let’s just say it’s 1/4. That’s 75 people instantly seeing your website, brand and company.

I think you see where I’m going with this.

How long would it take for a new website online, without the use of these tools, to get 75 people to see your website? A long time.

You would have to get a brochure or newspaper advertisement designed and put out. Just think about the financial cost for this compared to the cost it takes to put a Tweet out. Twitter is FREE. The only thing you need to do is to take the time to put in those 140 character, a couple of times a day. Point people to your brand, to your website. Tell them ways you can help them, offer them incentives or deals ONLY found through Twitter. Think of it as a mini-brochure or website, but on steroids.

I’ve read a local float plane company offer Twitter only deals to their followers. $99 flights to Vancouver for anyone who responds VIA Twitter to them, interested in a flight.

Most people don’t know, but our Twitter account @DiscoverSooke and our media company Twitter account, @InktvisCreative is done by the same person, me.

We own both of these businesses and brands. And before you look at how many people are following @InktvisCreative, please remember this is out first week actively using this account, so our number is much less than our DiscoverSooke account. We have quite a few people with the DiscoverSooke account following us.

And this take us to my personal account with Twitter and how it’s helped DiscoverSooke.

A couple of months ago a local kayak company, West Coast Outdoor Adventure Rentals, asked if we might be interested in putting together a YouTube video for their business. They would allow us to use their kayaks for the afternoon and we’d head out into the blue yonder around Sooke to film.

Well, we got more than we bargained for. We rounded Whiffen Spit and landed ourselves, unintentionally in the middle of a pod of orcas. These Orcas were all around us and were diving underneath the kayak, as seen on this video.

I immediately went to work, edited the video and put it up on YouTube. I instantaneously Tweeted about what just happened and offered a link to the video. It blew up. The video was amazing, people shared it, re-tweeted about it and the views went through the roof. Currently we are sitting around 21,500 views and that number goes up about 200 a day. Not too bad. and we aren’t actively marketing it at the moment.

Where did those Tweets end up? Well, Victoria’s local newspaper, the Times Colonist happened to stumble across it on Twitter. They ended up putting the video on the front page of their online version the next day. This shot the video through the roof. Even more exposure.

What next? The Zone radio station linked the video onto their website after finding it on Twitter. Spoke about it on air and the next week were were live with the morning show recounting our adventure. Even MORE exposure.

Sure, we landed ourselves an amazing video, of course that helps, but the power is huge. The potential is huge.

We also made sure that we linked to the kayak company, West Coast Outdoor Adventure Rentals, the Sooke Harbour Resort and Marina, where the kayaks are launched from and all these businesses saw increases in their viewership.

This is social media. It works.

Everyone has a Facebook account. When was the last time you posted a link to your personal website in your status bar, offering a special? If you are like most people and have hundreds of friends, you’ve just exposed your business to all those people.

Same thing, different tool.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below or send an email to me.

We can help you fully understand the potential of Social Media tools. We even offer packages that will see us doing all your Twitter posts if you don’t have the time.

Everyone starts somewhere and it’s never too late to get yourself involved with social media. It’s the cheapest form of advertising for your company and it works.

It takes time, like everything, but it works.