Whether you are promoting a product, selling an idea or highlighting a particular cause or belief, the communication of these things has changed. I used “has” on purpose, because it has already changed.
There was a time when handing out leaflets on the street corner might have worked, but it simply doesn’t now. You are just littering. Your leaflets will either be thrown on the ground or dropped into a bin or at best, used as a bookmark. Believe me, I have your bookmark!
There was a time when the preacher stood on a soap box or milk crate in the city square, again – I’ve seen it. But that age has passed and people are no longer in that space.
- So where are people now?
- What ‘space’ do they occupy?
The space in which our audience, community and customers are inhabiting is the social media space. People are no longer listening as they walk through the city square or across the village green as you shout about the benefits of your cause, beliefs or products. People are in a different space.
‘Social Media’ is proving itself as an excellent way to stay in touch with your community, audience or following. Twitter, Blogs and Facebook are the new flag market, village green and city plaza. Your audience can be found in this space. This social space. I am finding that our audience are not in that space for a short time frame or just passing through, as they were in the city centre, but they are constantly plugged in, they inhabit this space.
Let’s take a look at just one of the social media engines that you have at your fingertips.
Here are 4 ways to move your tweets up the pecking order
1. Keep it regular
It might sound obvious at first but it is often ignored. Your audience have other tweeps that they follow, so if you are not talking someone else is. Ensure that your voice is the one that people are listening to. Maintaining a plump twitter feed can be time consuming so here are a few tools that I have used to aid the process: –
Buffer – Allows you to create a ‘pool’ of tweets and updates that are fed through to your twitter profile at times and days that you specify. Great for keeping your message consistent and authentic.
Hootsuite & Socialoomph – These two are more involved twitter management tools with which you can schedule tweets, monitor account activity and provides reports on your account interactions.
2. Keep it Informative
Your audience, following or congregation are looking for the most up to date news and events. So if you have a new product being launched or there is a change to the scheduled event or maybe your church community has outgrown your building again and you need to inform everyone of a temporary meeting place – keep your tweets informative and importantly, interesting.
If your organisation has a Blog or a website that promotes similar themes and topics to your twitter profile then it is a good idea to push out tweets and updates that have snippets of your new post.
If your blog doesn’t have this feature built in then dlvr.it can be easily configured to do that for you.
3. Keep it Encouraging & Positive
Your tweeps that follow your updates are probably from all walks of life with a range of backgrounds and lifestyles. Providing positive information and updates can often make someone’s day. Ensure that your message can be easily received without being processed through people’s personal filters first. Be wise with the audience that hang onto your 140 characters.
4. Keep it Interactive
It’s always better when there is a two way conversation. It is ok to ask for feedback or retweets, as it gives you an idea on how well your message is being received and how involved your audience, consumers and community. Generating that team spirit with your following will encourage the spread of your message. If you’ve got a great message and your community are active, they will want to pass it on.
- Have you used any of these tools already?
- How successful have your twitter campaigns been?
- Can you suggest any other management tools?
dean hogarth 