It’s no surprise that I love to see local Business on Twitter. Note: Twitter > Facebook in my life, though I certainly appreciate it as another form of marketing and community outreach.
But it takes more than just being “on” Twitter and Facebook to impress me.
It’s called a Social Network for a reason… and it’s simple really. Be Social, build your Network! What’s so hard about that? It’s even FREE! Yet time and time again I come across a Business just falling short of really hitting the mark.
I’m not suggesting you spend 24/7 online promoting your brand, what I’m looking for is Engagement.
Here’s the scenerio:
You’re a local Business. You’ve created a Twitter/Facebook account for your business. You/You’re staff is dedicating a percentage of time adding content to promoting you. You’ve even started “following” other similar Business, peers and users in your demographic. Yay! This is great!!
But what happens when a “Follower” comments or replies to your content? Let’s say they include a question or request additional information. Are you listening? Do you respond in a timely fashion?
If the answer is No – You’re Doing it WRONG!
It makes me sad when I try to engage with a local Business on Twitter or Facebook and all I get is <crickets>. It really disappoints me when I see that they are not engaging with ANYONE!
The cool thing about Social Networks is that they are built to make it easy for you to pay attention to your audience and potential new business. Yes, I know it can be a little confusing with all the fancy buttons and those developers who like to switch things up on us every so often. I by no means expecting you to respond to every message/@/comment, but you’re totally missing out if all you do is post, post, post. It’s like internet pollution no matter how great your content is … and it’s kinda rude not to say hello back!
A couple of months ago I moved to Morristown and naturally went to Twitter to seek out area business accounts to follow and potentially support whenever possible. I realize I am not the norm when it comes to Social Media, but more and more people are following my lead with the growing numbers of smart phones in our pockets.
We are all very busy people with increasingly shortened attention spans, so for me I built a list where I can quickly see “what’s happening” in town and then base my decisions on where to meet the girls for drinks, where to get my hair done, where to find a cute pair of sunglasses or a cup of coffee and a cupcake.
Obviously those accounts who make the extra effort to interact with me will get my business over those who don’t … and as an added bonus they will get my love an adoration because I am a total sucker for that Twitter stuff 
So get out there and Engage already … and if you need additional help I’d be more than happy to give you a hand!
