Downsizer twitter hour for businesses/marketing?

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Downsizer twitter hour for businesses/marketing?
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Downsizer Forum Index -> Small Business Questions, Ideas and Advice

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chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 2:34 pm Post subject: Downsizer twitter hour for businesses/marketing?

Do people still do these 'twitter hour' things? I know one or two people used to join in with ones relevant to their businesses. I wondered if we could do a ds one, with a view to chatting about our businesses with each other, and therefore swapping followers and raising our profiles, all that sort of stuff?

I have been revising my social media stuff - have been chatting with a couple of different people about it over the last day or two. It's made me think that a) I need to redesign my website - very envious of Lorraine's about-to-be-launched new one - and b) I could be doing more with twitter.

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 2:43 pm Post subject:
I do, but I usually forget about them until the final five minutes

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 2:43 pm Post subject:
Or the next day

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 2:51 pm Post subject:
I think they probably irritate your existing followers more than get you new ones. A couple of them turn up at work and I end up just ignoring twitter until they've gone away.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 2:52 pm Post subject:
That's just you, though - you are the antithesis of social media. I tend to think 'What would Sean do in this particular situation' and then choose the opposite.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 3:06 pm Post subject:

Yeah. But I've got 1300 followers and a shed load of mentions and retweets.

Edit: *Anyone* who tells you how to use 'social media' as an effective marketing tool is almost certainly talking out of an inappropriate orifice. As far as I can find out nobody has actually crunched any sensible numbers on any of this stuff. I'm fairly confident that talking to people you already know isn't a good way to get new customers though whatever medium you use.

Last edited by sean on Wed Mar 19, 14 3:13 pm; edited 1 time in total

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 3:12 pm Post subject:
Ah, you see, it's because you're selling culture. It's like taking yoghurt to Newcastle in your neck of the woods. Actually, perhaps you could facilitate a ds hour, because you are clearly so good at it?

SandraR

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 2346
Location: Devon

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 3:45 pm Post subject:

I've tried #DevonHour and #chickenhour on twitter .... I'm not sure I use it effectively. I'm not that fond of twitter.

I have had a fair amount of custom through my Facebook page however https://www.facebook.com/BellecrossHens and find it an easy way for customers ( especially for the fresh egg sales ) to contact me.

I have few followers, in comparison to other peoples pages but very good interaction.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 4:08 pm Post subject:

I think that's the point, really - and I am sure Sean will agree* - it's not about having millions of followers if they're not interested in what you're selling. Better to have a smaller number who are actually 'listening' to what you put out and even using it to contact you.

I do really well out of facebook for hatching eggs and pullets and to a lesser extent for courses and I sort of let twitter go on and do it's own thing - my facebook page automatically updates my twitter account, but I don't actually do much twitter-interacting with people, which is what's supposed to be it's strong point.

I was just having a moment thinking about it, really - I've been helping Arvo set up a blog/twitter/G+ for his book today and I know lots of people use twitter well.

*because I have listened to him rant about it on numerous occasions

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 4:13 pm Post subject:

Indeed. I think that the trick with twitter as a marketing tool (or what seems to work for us) is to try to think of it as like dealing with a tribe of chimpanzees. If you work out who are the alpha males and matriarchs and interact with them the rest of the tribe will come and see what's happening...

So for The Plough my generic stuff goes out via facebook but I also target tweets at specific individuals who influence our comedy/folk/whatever audience.

Last edited by sean on Wed Mar 19, 14 4:15 pm; edited 1 time in total

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 4:13 pm Post subject:
If you're chatting to other people your followers don't see it unless they follow both of you

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 4:20 pm Post subject:
Never heard of it.

NorthernMonkeyGirl

Joined: 10 Apr 2011
Posts: 4630
Location: Peeping over your shoulder

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 4:57 pm Post subject:

Chez wrote:

Twitter seems to be good for attention-grabbing headlines, or pictures; any kind of bait to get you on to a proper website / FB page.
I find it impossible to follow any kind of conversation on Twitter.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 6:12 pm Post subject:

Rob R wrote:

If you're chatting to other people your followers don't see it unless they follow both of you

Sure. If you feed twitter via fb it doesn't include Twitter names and hashtags though so for some things a separate tweet is better. I didn't mean targeted in the sense of starting the tweet with @NigelSmith, though it might include it.

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 6:17 pm Post subject:

sean wrote:

Rob R wrote:

If you're chatting to other people your followers don't see it unless they follow both of you

Sorry, my phone-delay in replying, that was in response to;

sean wrote:

I think they probably irritate your existing followers more than get you new ones.

I always seem to pick up followers whenever I'm involved in such things. It's a great way to network, especially for my industry where we hardly ever see anyone.

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