Business on Twitter Because Twitter’s not just for twits ;)

This is a guest blog by Nick Parkin of Pimlico Flats

I always like to try out new things and so a few months ago I opened a Twitter Account. Twitter is well known as the new phenomenon in the Social Networking world having grown 782% last year, however in spite of it’s remarkable growth and mainstream status (being mentioned in the broadsheets and tabloids, and earning celebrity endorsement such as Stephen Fry & Jonathan Ross), it hasn’t yet been adopted in general business.

The leaders in technology adoption tend to be sellers of cutting edge products and services, and so for Twitter the “Buzz” has been that it presents a great new opportunity to Network, Present & Sell. I think that misses the point that Twitter is a “Pull” Technology. If you are uncertain what I mean now is the time to Google “Push Pull Advertising”

E-Mail (and Spam!) is a “Push” as are most forms of advertising, you present your product almost against the will of the consumer. Websites are Push too, even though the consumer has to go and visit, they don’t know what information will appear until it is on the screen. RSS and Twitter are definitely Pull activities, both require the prospect to have signed up to follow, and actively want to hear what is being generated. Frankly – that is the end of Twitter for the salesman, you can stop reading this blog now! Here is an example of a large company trying to use Twitter as Push advertising

One of the top thousand websites on the internet has 17 followers because following Gumtree is like signing up to have Spam delivered to your mailbox!

This is probably the right point to introduce myself, and my business & Twitter activities. I am Nick Parkin, owner of a Central London Flat Rental Business called Pimlico Flats, who rent flats in one of the premium locations in London, directly to the public. I market almost entirely by recommendation and internet advertising at http://www.pimlico-flats.co.uk . Additionally I offer advice on safe renting through my Blog  http://www.pimlico-flats.co.uk/blog . I am on Twitter as a businessman seeking information and entertainment. Whilst I would wish to promote my business, I would no more expect to rent a flat on Twitter than I would expect to rent a flat whilst having a pint in the local, or whilst out to dinner with friends. I use it as a way of interacting with people that I know and love, & discovering new people that I respect and admire.

Twitter is a fascinating product because most people who use it can’t explain why it works for them.  In my case I think that I can, and I will also detail how I use it to my own benefit. Twitter has been the success that it is because it strips communication down to the essence of a message. The 140 character Tweet conveys the full message, which you then act on. Of course often the 140 limit means that a link to a blog or website is needed for the full activity, nevertheless the message must carry enough information that the receiver knows if they want to hear more (Twitter is Pull technology). Because Twitter is so simple – it is very flexible, the product that you get is totally dependent upon how you use it.

There are reasons I don’t use Twitter’s mobile facilities at all. I’m not away from a computer that much, & when I am it’s good to cut the umbilical cord. I don’t read every Tweet.  It’s tempting to try to, but the fact that you have to face up to is that just as there are people who you aren’t following so you don’t know what they are saying, the world won’t end if you miss out on whatever someone you are following has said. Both those things are just me, mileage may vary.

So this is how I use it to get what I want:

My objective is to gain from other people, be that to gain contacts, information, solutions, or just entertainment & contact with friends. To be time efficient I need a good Signal/Noise ratio (you can’t take the Engineer out of me), and this is how I achieve that from Twitter:

Objective:

•    I want Original Informative Tweets.
•    I want links to original informative content on the Web.
•    I want the latest news.
•    I want to be entertained.
•    I want answers to quick questions that I have.
•    I don’t want repetition (people retweeting things I’ve already heard)
•    I don’t want to hear what you’ve had for breakfast.
•    My objective is to gain from other people

Followers & Tweeting

This means that I am not very interested in how many followers I have, but I do want those with expertise to be paying attention to my Tweets so that when I have questions they are answered. Consequently I try not to Tweet unless I have something interesting, useful, & relatively original to convey. I have syndicated my Tweets to my Facebook and eCademy Profiles, so I need to be extra vigilant in making my Tweets worthwhile, but equally I have become more active on those sites with no effort. An unexpected but much appreciated result of this has been that my website has picked up backlinks from my tweeting.

Following

•    I try to find interesting People using http://twitter.com/MrTweet
•    I follow everyone who follows me. Initially I used to try to evaluate whether they were worth following, but I have decided it’s better to assess them in the future rather than the past.
•    If I see an interesting Retweet, or a recommendation I follow the originator.
•    If I see a Blog or website that I like & there is a Follow on Twitter then I pick up people to follow.

The secret of Time Management is making sure that the things that you don’t get around to doing are the right ones. Similarly with Twitter the secret is who you don’t follow. Fundamental to my following strategy is a piece of software called Tweetdeck http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/ . It allows me to select what I see, and it allows me to free my internet browser from the task of following Twitter.

On Tweetdeck to have 4 Groups (which are subsets of the people that I am following) which are:

•    Quality. This is the list of people that I really spend time following. It is currently less than 30 people, and an interesting feature is that they do not tweet massively, but what they do tweet is worth reading.
•    Friends.
•    Newsfeeds. The main reason for having this group separate is so that I can identify duplication & only retain the best sources of news.
•    All. I do try to retain quality in this group, so I am ruthless at weeding out the time wasters and mindless retweeters. The key feature about this group is that I only read it for short periods of time and I only skim the content, but I do frequently promote from it into Quality.

Conclusions

•    Twitter can be whatever you want to try and make it.
•    I have made it into a valuable time efficient source of information, contacts, and entertainment.
•    If used cleverly it can be surprisingly effective at promoting the quality of your business.

Tags: Buzz, guest blog, Nick Parkin, Pimlico flats, Push Pull Advertising, twitter

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Guest Blogs, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.