Zenologue

At the risk of giving away my age, I wonder how many readers here remember the famous song by Genesis called “Follow You, Follow Me” from their 1978 album “Then There Were Three”. Of course, Twitter was something birds did in those days, but the title could easily be the theme tune for what we know today as one of the largest social media networking sites on the web.

If you aren’t already using Twitter, or have tried it and wondered what all the fuss is about, you might want to think again. When I first ventured into this strange new world of tweets and followers my first reaction was bewilderment. I simply couldn’t understand why everyone now wanted to text online, as if mobile texting wasn’t enough (blimey, I just realized the word “texting” is now a verb, and wasn’t in my spellchecker). Why, I thought, do all these people need to know that Bob’s cat has fur balls? It seemed like everyone was spreading the totally mundane 140 characters at a time.

But then something good happened – businesses started to get online with Twitter and were actually using it to leverage the market and make money. Best Buy, the major US electronics retailer, used it to spread news of special offers and incentives to major success. Other companies started using it to join in the conversation with their clients.

One of the first things that most people new to Twitter notice is that it’s apparently important to get as many followers as possible, no matter who or where they are. However, having a huge follower list might make someone feel famous in some odd way, but it isn’t necessarily the best thing if you’re trying to promote your business.

By the way, you should probably have a separate Twitter account for your business that is different to your personal stuff – it helps to keep these things apart from each other and prevents your personal tweets from diluting your business message.

So the question you should be asking yourself is “Who should I be following?” and “Who should be following me?” Okay, that’s two questions. Let’s take the second one first.

Who Should Follow Me?

The answer to this one is your target market. It seems so obvious, yet so many people are missing this one completely and not trying to attract the right followers. We are in the photography business, and we ought to have a reasonably good idea of who our target market is. For example, it could be middle-aged moms with good taste and an appreciation for finer things, such as photographic wall décor. It probably isn’t some dude 3000 miles away who likes to paint his toenails purple on a Friday.

But how do we get the right people to follow us?

Firstly, we can’t rely on them simply finding us first and then following us. That would be too easy! Instead, we need to look in the places where they go, specifically for the people and businesses that our target market might follow on Twitter. There’s a good chance, for example, that your local large art gallery has a good following, and that a number of those people will fit your desired market. So, follow the art gallery and then follow the people that are following them. Hopefully, they will reciprocate and follow you back. You can do the same thing for any other organization or people that your target market is naturally drawn to, such as fancy restaurants, upscale beauty salons etc 

Who Should I Follow?

A lot of Twitterers (is that even a word? Maybe it’s “Tweeters”) will simply follow anyone who follows them or just anyone they can find. That’s probably not the best strategy. Instead, start out by following the professional organizations related to your business, such as the PPA, RPS, pro printing labs etc. Follow other professional photographers, marketers and other experts. Follow your local organizations and charities too. Avoid following anyone who could be considered a spammer, especially the ones who only know how to say things like, “Get a million followers in five minutes with no work while you’re asleep.”

Finally, don’t neglect your local market! If you live in a huge city, this next step might not be as easy as for those in smaller towns, but it’s still probably worth a try.

You can use the advanced Twitter search to find people within a specific radius of your zip code (enter it into the “Near this place” field in the form):

You can then take the results and follow the people who interest you as potential clients or links to other potential clients.

Or, you can use TwellowHood, a new directory calling itself the Twitter Yellow Pages. Click on the TwellowHood tab and it brings up an interactive map so that you can click down to your actual town or city:

You will need to log in first with your Twitter username and password, but then you can follow people in your locality with one click each. Very easy and it means you will be following your local community, some of whom will hopefully return the favor 

Conclusion:

I hope that this gives you an idea of what can really be done with Twitter in terms of connecting with the people who matter to you and your business. I’m sure there are many other ways to use Twitter in this fashion, so please feel free to send in any useful comments you might have on this ever-changing and interesting subject.

Marketing Marketing, professional photography, social media networking, twellowhood, twitter