We’ve heard the expression: “All Politics is Local.”
And so it goes on Twitter.
[source: ProNetworkBuild] If we want to have a rewarding experience on Twitter, we have to learn to follow locally, and/or teach our staff to do the same. We can continue to do the same goofball tactics that didn’t work last week, or the week before, and we can continue to get the same results. Or we can adapt, change what we are doing, and have success.
Twitter is littered with the carcasses of burned out washed up small business ideas that didn’t work. I see literally thousands of small accounts who’s last tweet was 6 months ago, a year ago. They came, saw, tried it Twitter’s way, and abandoned the effort. These are the folks who determined that Twitter is useless, odd, and just couldn’t get the hang of it. Then there are others: They are small businesses with a worldwide audience. I have to wonder what a Gas Station in Reston, VA is doing with followers from California, Maine and London, UK.
Any small business can use Twitter to locate, target, find and connect with thousands of local followers. They can convert them to clients and customers.
Twitter allows us to follow 1,000 local people daily. Twitter doesn’t teach this. Instead it has focused on “Celebrity” Following. When we create an account, it compels us to choose 5 celebs to follow before proceeding to the first tweet. Is it little wonder so many millions have tried and failed?
Facebook doesn’t allow us to target and follow a thousand local people daily. We can’t make a thousand phone calls per day to new clients from our office, that would be impossible. We can’t send out a flier to that many people per day, that would be too expensive, and mail response is less than 1 percent. Twitter is by far the fastest and most efficient growth tool we possess, and we need not become a statistic.
A few quick tips:
Follow Local People Daily: Always be following new local people. Following new local people is more important than what you tweet. Locals follow back slowly. Build a pipeline. Soon they will come. Follow at least 100 per day. More is better.
There is a Delayed Reaction: The people who are noticing you this week, you might have followed a week or two ago. Get used to the fact that the local game is a delayed reaction game. Settle in for the long haul.
Your Tweets are not important: What you have to say is not going to sell one thing, or get you anywhere. You might as well be Tweeting to yourself. Stop your nonsensical spamming to an audience that tuned you out long ago. Nobody’s listening.
ReTweet Others, Often and Constantly: When you respect others they will notice you. A ReTweet is the ultimate engagement tool.
Plant and Sow: Find a way, no matter how foreign a concept that it is for you, to be kind, to help someone else, and to give. Be generous.