Okay, so this is for all of you social marketing gurus who have actually gained clients through social networking. I’m just curious as to what do you tweet about or what is the inspiration of your tweets. I can tweet for fun without a problem. You know the typical, “I’m going to the mall”, “Josh has a soccer game this Saturday”, “Sarah’s baby is so cute”, and “Mani and pedis today”. Yes, I’m one of those people that actually do that! LOL. However, when it comes to business I get stuck and feel like my tweets are lackluster. I’m mean really how exciting is “Ctrl C for copying”, “CTRL V for pasting”, “Visualize success”, “organize your desk” Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating those are not my actually tweets, (well maybe), but you get the point. Typically, I result to inspirational quotes and re-tweets. In addition, I have seen when people tweet or status advertisements of their website religiously and that can be annoying too. I don’t unfriend, but I must admitted several times I’m tempted to do so. Just because I am so tired of seeing that 12 times during the course of an hour. So I was wondering from others, what are your inspirations for tweeting?

Hi! I tweet on behalf of two of my clients, plus for myself. One client is a dancer, one is a life coach.

For the dancer, I mix links to her site (pages, articles, blogs, products) with quotes that I have compiled via internet research. They are quotes on dance, fitness and overall health and positive thinking.

For the life coach, she prefers motivational quotes, quotes about fulfilling dreams, as well as links to her many blogs & offers.

I hope this helps!

Yes, actually this helps a lot. Thanks!

Hi there!

Not a guru - I'm new to Twitter for my business - but here's something that I've seen (and that I've started doing)...Whenever I think of a new way to help my clients, or if a concern a client may have pops into my mind, I'll tweet it and stick my web address at the end. For example, "E-mail overflowing? A VA can help get you organized! bit.ly/shortURL" or something like that.

I know I find those helpful from the businesses I follow!

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Thyreast M. Pinckney
Your Virtual Ace

@VirtualAce thanks, thats a wonderful idea! I'm going to try that. I was doing something similar, but I stoped so I think consistency is important.

On another note, I see that you are in Charleston, SC. I grew up there! I'm heading there next weekend for my sister's wedding. Its alway nice to see people from someplace you know. )

I tweet for my customers and there are always things to tweet. I mostly deal with authors so I tweet book quotes, related activities that their audience might like. I tweet things that maybe helpful to the people that follow them. I also retweet anything that I think is related to my bosses target market.

Angela Samuels

Don't just tweet... engage with people, that's key to social media. Retweet great info that others have shared, answer people when they need help - even if it takes a bit of fiddling about to get them an answer - and just generally chat to people.

You can also use twitter to share blog posts, articles etc. and things like #vatips (as Thyreast suggested but try and make it 10% self-promotion, 90% engagement.

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Bridie's Typing Services - specialising in transcription services
The professional's choice

Hi....I agree with Bridie. Don't just tweet...engage with people. Social media is really about building relationships and sharing information (in my opinion anyway!). Here's what I do (whether it's right or wrong I don't know, and my strategy will probably keep changing until I find the right one!):

I am selective in whom I follow (I don't follow everybody). I always review their profile and bio and check who their connections are. You want to watch those who are following a lot of people, but who have very few followers. I also evaluate their tweets to see if they are someone who I want to align myself with. I typically only follow people who are in my target market or that I am interested in their business or tweet information or that have services that are complimentary to mine or align with my mission, vision, and brand, etc. It's nothing personal against them, I just feel that it's good business practice and part of my strategy for using social media for business.

I always send a direct message back to those who follow me to thank them for the follow. I try to find something to send them as a "thank you for following me" gift, i.e., a link to a copy of one of my free reports, or something that I think would be of value to them specifically. I only follow them back if they are somebody who fits my criteria listed above though.

I try to tweet 3 or 4 times a day, and vary my tweets. I always try to relate my tweets to my business brand. And I am in the process of creating a "tweet task schedule"...Monday's - ask a question to address/solve a problem; Tuesday's -- present a solution -Business or VA tips; Wednesdays - interesting articles - benefits, how to's, or links to my blog posts, etc.; Thursday's -- resource links to useful business tools, services; Friday's - technology tips (MS Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.); Saturday -- fun links, aha moments, non-business related - light-hearted, nonbusiness related to build rapport and share my personality; Sunday's - motivational or inspirational quotes. Something like that....I'm still working on this.

The key is to be consistent. And make sure you are interactive and not ego-centered. You are building relationships and not selling anything. People like to do business with people they know, like and trust. The more you give, the more will come back to you.

I make an effort to retweet, send direct message replies to comment on a tweet or to people who are making comments about your brand.

I also use Hootsuite, which shares my posts with all the social media platforms I use: Twitter, LinkedIN, Facebook, Merchant Circle. This saves time.

I'm sure there's more. but I'm still learning too! It's timeconsuming, but I'm hoping will pay off in the long run!

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Make it a great day!

Lisa Salem
Monarch Virtual Assistance, LLC

"10% self-promotion, 90% engagement." Thanks, @bridiej I think my twitter skills are getting better already. I did this last night with a twitter chat and I noticed I gained followers. More importantly I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun

Great thread! I recently opened a Twitter account but have been battling to come up with things to Tweet about!! Thanks for the help!

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Ann du Plessis
www.virtuallythere.co.za