Mar 23, 2011
Posted by Mike in New Media,Small Biz,Twitter
0 Comments
How’s That Salesy-Twittery Thing Working Out For Ya?
I spend a lot of time on Twitter. I follow a lot of local, small businesses on Twitter. I see a lot of tweets from nameless, faceless logos. I see A LOT of 140 character sales pitches. I haven’t fallen for one of them yet.
There has to be some book, or social media “guru” that’s telling these business owners that Twitter is a great place to hawk your wares… non-stop. It isn’t.
What it is, is a great place to connect to your clients, customers, and prospects; a medium for interaction. The cliché for explaining Twitter to folks who haven’t experienced it, is that Twitter is like a cocktail party: you can move from conversation to conversation with people from around the corner or around the world. While this analogy does hold true for individuals, it’s much harder for brands (either national brands or local shops) to just pop into a conversation without seeming too “salesy”.
Think about it, You’re at a cocktail party, and a walking, talking bottle of carbonated sugar water, or anthropomorphic pizza shop butts into your conversation:
- …then the teacher said that little Jared was…
- Hey!!! The 2011 Higglepips are in! Act Now! Buy, buy, buy!!!!” (There are lots of exclamation points on Twitter)
- As I was saying…
- Super Crazy Wednesday Sale on all 2011 Higglepips!!! Buy them NOW!!!! Your Grandmother wants you to buy these Higglepips!!
Unless you’re in a Roddy Doyle story (pdf link), it just isn’t going to happen.
A Modest Proposal
So here’s a different way for small businesses to think about their Twitter (and other social media) tactics: You’re standing in front of your business (or on the sales floor, or dining room, or behind the counter) and a customer (or potential customer) walks by. How do you handle it? Immediately start shouting the daily specials? Shove a coupon in their face? Ignore direct questions and just keep talking about your store? Hopefully you don’t do any of that in real life, so why would you do it on Twitter or Facebook?
One of the buzzwords social media folks throw around is “engagement,” which is just a fancy way of saying “have a conversation.” Engaging your customers and potential customers is really nothing more than having a conversation. If you’re a small business owner, particularly a retail business or service provider that deals directly with consumers, you should already understand the value of talking with your clients. You understand that there are regulars, and how to treat them. You understand that there are walk-ins, and how you should try to convert them into regulars. Same goes for social media. If a regular customer comes into your shop (or calls) do you just shout sales messages at them? Come on, this shouldn’t be a tough one to answer.
For all the mystery and consternation that social media has caused over the last few years, it really is as simple as this. Sure the technology is new, but the underlying activity that the technology is built on is just talking to customers. If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you should already know how to talk to your customers; now you just need to learn the technical details and particular social media mores, and you’ve got the basics of a social media program to work into your promotional efforts.
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