Tweeting Potential Clients

Tweeting Potential Clients – The challenge of engaging with potential clients in less than 140 characters:

Initially Twitter can be extremely complex, confusing and sometimes misleading. Many people question the purpose of the format and fail to engage tweeting potential clients who have already shown an interest by following your account. Wondering whether it is genuinely possible to engage and connect with others in less than 140 characters. From this stem misinformed questions as to the validity of a format for socialising where users are unable to engage and connect with one another. Rest assured that these previous comments are myths, anyone who dismisses Twitter as a tool in the social commerce arsenal is missing a valuable opportunity to gain further clients.

Tweeting clients as a way of gaining work is both possible and achievable. However like all interactions with clients, building and maintaining a relationship is essential. Building relationships is not an overnight affair in real life or social media. It takes time, commitment and also maintaining a sustained level of thought into the content you post in the limited 140 characters. Here are some tips to tweeting potential clients and utilising Twitter as a web tool for bolstering your clientele.

Tweeting Potential Clients – Maintain a Presence:

One common myth of Twitter success is that in order to obtain it users need to dedicate hours of their life each day to the social media platform. This just strictly isn’t true. When tweeting potential clients, consistency is essential. Simply put logging in and catching up with contacts once a month or week just simply won’t have the necessary effect. This is because people will have most likely moved on or forgotten about you by the time you respond to them. Potential clients are unlikely to notice your random and sporadic presence. If they do not notice you it is highly unlikely that they will engage with you. Maintaining a presence is not a full time job, all that is required is between five and ten minutes each day, to post fresh content and respond to others.

Tweeting Potential Clients – Prioritise conversation over promotion:

Due to the format of Twitter it is essential that you respond directly to other peoples tweets. Bear in mind that the @reply option which the platform provides is your greatest asset. This is because it allows direct interaction with potential clients enabling you to build a rapport with them. When it comes to Twitter marketing direct self promotion is often a fruitless task when it comes to engaging with potential clients. What proves far more fruitful is taking the time to engage directly and build one on one relationships with other users. To begin with, start with people who interest you. Results may be slow initially, but in time individual relationships are worth far more than any amount of self promotion.

Tweeting Potential Clients – Remain open to new contacts:

Over time, as you become more established on the platform, you will develop a core inner contact group. These will be your closest contacts, most likely you will have added them to your favourites tab, and will engage in frequent interaction with them. However never make this group closed or restrictive. Always be on the lookout for new people to engage with. The benefits of expanding your Twitter social circle are manifold. It will bring in new ideas, concepts and ways of looking at what you do. As ever with new ideas comes the potential for growth and development. Also through engaging with others you will begin other time to build trust with these individuals. When tweeting potential clients, building trust is an excellent foundation for a successful business relationship. Also trust has far more lasting effects than any amount of self promotion could ever have!

Tweeting Potential Clients – Always, Always, Always retweet others:

In terms of features unique to Twitter the re-tweet option or RT, is by far the most valuable. Just as you are hoping to improve your presence by engaging with others, others are in exactly the same position. By helping others out through promoting their tweets and posts, and more importantly telling people why you are interested in that person. You are building yourself an image as an informative source of interesting and exciting informative. Adversely this will also garner trust for your brand.