Tweet Like No One's Listening

   I have had one success in using Twitter for business, so that makes me an expert. Next on my bucket list is giving advice, so here goes. To use Twitter for marketing, you must be real, join the conversation, and don't market. If you follow these three special steps, you will earn your Twitter marketing digi-medal.

Special Agent Oso, Earner of Digi-medals

   But wait, you ask, are you really such a Twitter success, Bo? And if you are, why don't you have a million followers and your own show on Fox News? To this I answer: am so. The client I found by searching for Livelink has been good for hundreds of thousands of dollars; and not only that, but I have enhanced awareness of my company in many ways, some of them good. I may not have a million followers, but what I got are prime. There are a few where we chose each other just because of the last name, I admit, but Warburton is a cool name. A good Lancashire name.

   Oh, also, the thing about Fox News, in case you haven't noticed I'm not a blond woman. And anyway most of the people in my business, well, I doubt they watch Fox News. Unfortunately, IT is mostly a well-to-do, limousine-liberal crowd. I tried to unfollow people who made blatant errors in their liberal Tweets, but I couldn't stand it, I missed them and refollowed. So now I have to practice patience and understanding, which is very difficult for me. But that's the downside of being a Christian But enough about me, and more about those three special steps.

Tweet Like No One's Listening

Be yourself. Try not to hold back. Use a photograph as your avatar, not a logo or a joke. Especially not a logo. Write a meaningful, personal biography. Post about details of your life, hobbies, and family. You are trying to make connections. You can write about what you had for dinner if it contains two or more of the following: beef, bacon, ice cream, or donuts.

3 out of 4 ain't bad

Walk Up and Say Hello

Find and join the conversation. That means your are dialoging, not monologing. Search for people who are talking about things that matter to your target clients. For me, it is "Livelink" or "Open Text" or "Open Text Content Server" or "ECM". Find their blogs. Follow them, @ them, DM them. Talk about your life and their life. Threaten, cajole, plead; chastise, observe, report.

Don't Market

Which brings me to the last point: don't sell. People have this idea that Twitter is a way to force people to listen. Wrong. I hate to state the obvious, but nobody has to follow you. You know what? I don't hate to state the obvious. You want to force-feed, go live in the 60s and hire Mad Man Don Draper. (Bring me back a hat.) In 2010, or even in 2070 if you are my great-great-great-great grandson Edward Z. (ask me about that story) ingesting this post via edible ink, you can't trick anybody into buying. You have to trick them into wanting to buy. You do that by being yourself, being interested and interesting, someone great with a wonderful service to sell. Then one day, you too will have hundreds of angry followers carrying pitchforks and torches, eager to criticize your every uncareful word. Just like me.