Twittering for Business: Developing a Follow Strategy for Relevant Connections on your Twitter List

Many Social Media Experts, as well as successful Internet marketers and coaches have come the conclusion that  Twittering for Business can no longer be ignored. In fact, it is being touted as a social media revolution.

I absolutely love and hate Twitter.

I hate it for the amount of time using it has the potential to waste. It is so easy for me to lose focus and just tweet my day away. It’s bad enough to be an mental illness if I didn’t have a Twitter Strategy.

The Small Business Guru Twitter Strategy

Twitter is my give zone. My strategy is to be sure that every tweet some how gives something of value to my community of twitter following. Following is a list of how I give

• Inspiring quotes
• Retweets of helpful information, posts, articles and quotes from the amazing people in my circle of influence
• Connections. If someone that I follow has a need that I cannot fill I tweet it to those that follow me to see if they can help make a connection for someone in my community.
• Encouragement. When someone is having a bad day and the tweet about, I look for ways to help or encourage in 140 characters or less.
• Virtual Applause – When someone in my following has acheived something they’re proud of I help them to celebrate with a tweet  and share the news with my followers.

The Small Business Guru – Who Do I Follow Strategy

First of all I do not follow everybody that follows me. No offense, but I am seriously applying a thought out plan for who is a part of my Twitter Community.  And, I do block followers that hi-jack “celebrity” names and tweet spam.

Oh, and if you follow me but have protected tweets…I might block you unless your Twitter page and profile are intensly of interest to me. Twitter is not meant to be a private instant messaging system, but a public stream of conversation.

Okay, so who do I typically follow and why:

1. Masters: The group that I call masters are people that I consider to have something substantial about their message that I want to learn – They know much about their topic and have lots of experience. An example of would be @ProBlogger, @JoelComm, or @DuctTapeMarketing - there are too many more for me to put in this post. And my masters might be very different from your masters.
2. Peers: These are people that I perceive to be about where I am on the learning curve of using the Internet and social media. I learn a lot from this group in observing how they communicate to their followers. I also watch who they follow, I read the posts in their public stream not only to read what they are saying but who they are saying it to. I find some really wonderful connections this way.
3. Prospects: These are people that have a need for my services and are in the right kind of business that I believe I am suited to provide solutions. Really important, although I follow possible prospects I don’t use Twitter to initiate a conversation about what I have to offer. There are subtle approaches to providing them with my coaching message without a direct sales approach.
4. Providers: Just like what it sounds. These are people that I have evaluated as being a great provider of product, services or information that I need directly or might be needed by my Twitter Community. What I learn from the Providers helps me become more valuable my Twitter Community.

These four categories and my give strategy helps me to stay focused on why I am using Twitter for business. That and I do have to watch the clock just to make sure I don’t stay on Tweetdeck all day!

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