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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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.

chez

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

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 6:22 pm Post subject:

Rob R wrote:

It's a great way to network, especially for my industry where we hardly ever see anyone.

Quite. I imagine the cows find a lack of opposable thumbs quite a barrier to using twitter etc..

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 6:39 pm Post subject:

sean wrote:

Edit: *Anyone* who tells you how to use 'social media' as an effective marketing tool is almost certainly talking out of an inappropriate orifice.

Possibly but as somne-one who used to hate the idea of social midia I have just taken my first booking for the gite via Facebook and with 3 Twitter bookings under my belt and 2 recent enquiries it's not a complete waste of time for me. It's free, I like "chatting" and it's a usually better that what's on the TV!

sean
Downsizer Moderator

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

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 6:42 pm Post subject:
It's the telling you how bit. Not the using it.

chez

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

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 14 7:11 pm Post subject:

The Rural Business people did a few free two-hour seminars on fb locally last year and some of my market colleagues were really impressed - they went from zero* to reasonably impressed in that time. But after two hours of 'your name goes here, don't click on people selling au-pair services' there's not much else to be said.

*'Facebook? Don't talk to me about facebook! Why do I need effing facebook, Chez?'

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15987

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 14 7:17 am Post subject:

May I make a plea for those of us who don't do these Facebook and Twitter things? Make sure you have a web page and that ideally it is linked or set up in such a way that people with these smart phones can get to it too.

We get a lot of our business through our web page although we also have a face book page. Have no idea what that is like though because son deals with that, but I am sure he has linked it to the web page.

Some people we deal with don't even have internet, so even the odd sign in a shop or if worth while, an advert in a local paper/free paper still works.

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