I am happy to welcome Guest Blogger Mike Stenger. We invite you to leave a comment!
Twitter is an interesting place. Who would have thought short exchanges of information, whether it’s about your latest blog post or even just saying hey to someone, could be such a wonderful and amazing concept. Many of us use Twitter and there are questions I hear all the time…How Do I Get More Followers?, How Do I Get People to ReTweet My Stuff? and How Do I Get Others To Reply To Me/Engage With Me?
Questions that are originally asked with the idea that the answer is complex or some elusive “secret” that only the greatest social media expert guru rockstars (yes, that’s all one word), know about. Surprisingly, it couldn’t be further from the truth. And once you realize that the answers mostly just rely on effective communication skills and human psychology, the answers aren’t far away at all.
Let’s look into the short and sweet yet highly effective version, or should I say answer, to the three questions above.
The first is to understand that in any part of life, online or offline, the quickest and best way to get to where you want to go is to build relationships.
With a lot of this social media shift, quite a few businesses and companies think that sites such as Twitter and Facebook are there just to pitch and sell your customers. Uh uh. The real money, the real connections, and the real dedication to your brand are found in building genuine relationships. When you build authentic relationships and actually care about that other person, hard telling how far it can go and how profitable that interaction can become.
You don’t sell, sell, sell…you communicate like you’re a friend, someone that they talk to on a daily basis. The majority of society responds best to informal conversation, not all this business mumbo jumbo or “Hey, click here to buy this!” We all want a friend, not a salesperson.
Second, getting others to share your content and what you have to say starts not in you just interacting with them and engaging them in meaningful and helpful conversations. It’s about sharing their content when you get the chance. We all love recognition. To deny that is to deny the very part that makes you human. So for you to get recognition, you must not only interact and engage, but take the extra step and give others recognition as often as possible.
Of course there are tools to gain new followers but you’ve got to start with the foundations. And honestly, 99.9% of true followers are not gained through automated systems, they’re gained through meaningful conversations.
Third, engagement and interaction are the keys to success on Twitter. I don’t care how great your posts are or how great you think your Tweets are. It will not grow your following like gangbusters by plugging in Twitterfeed or other technology. You’ve got to engage and have natural conversations. Be a friend and talk like a friend. People first, profits second. Start up conversations on a consistent basis. Encourage participation and participate back by interacting as well as sharing what others have to say.
That’s how you do social media and that’s how all of us should do it everyday.
About Mike Stenger: Mike Stenger is a social media consultant and crazy passionate about the Internet and business. Visit MikeStenger.com or follow him on Twitter via @mikestenger
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