To Tweet To Wooooo!

 

Making Twitter My Friend

 

My Dislike of Twitter

I HATE TWITTER! That’s what was screaming round my head during the first year of my Social Media degree course. I had chosen to use it as a social media platform because it had the second highest following after Facebook. My research also showed that it was an excellent communication tool through which to grow a following and direct them to my web site – Chrissie Designs Jewellery.

I felt it was a platform I could not ignore, yet one year on I was still disliking using it. With statistics for 2013 showing it to be the fastest growing social media platform in the world I began to wonder what was wrong with me and why did I hate it?

The fact was I just did not ‘get it’. Firstly, being somewhat verbose with my writing, I greatly struggled with a limit of 140 characters. Next I felt overwhelmed by the streams of tweets that flowed to me. It stressed me out as I hated the thought of missing something that might be important. Then of course there were the abbreviations - #ff, #anything, TY, RT – what is all that about I would ask myself! Finally, with hindsight (a wonderful thing) I realise I was using Twitter in a traditional marketing context to just push content out to people.

A Twitter Novice

Falling into the trap of the Twitter novice I pushed out information sometimes in continuous streams that I now find so annoying in others. I had no idea how to tweet, reply, re-tweet or favourite. As for engaging with people I was a face to face girl and could not get my head round how online engagement worked. The truth is I did not want to, as I believed (at that time) that building relationships required and element of face to face communication. My whole approach to tweeting was also random, inconsistent and without focus or strategy.

The problem was I had no idea what I was doing, how it all worked, how to get the best out of the platform and most importantly, how to enjoy using it. After a year of tweeting and re-tweeting (my only level of engagement) I barely had a hundred followers and was totally demotivated by it all. At the time I did not realise that 60% of people give up on Twitter within the first week. I persevered for a year only because I felt I had to for the sake of my degree course.

The Penny Dropped!

Then last month I read ‘The Tao of Twitter’ by Mark Schaefer. When I met the author, at a conference in Cardiff, he warned me that his book could change my life, and it has. I am now a Twitter convert! So what has changed I hear you ask?

The penny has finally dropped, as they say. I now see Twitter as a 24 hour global networking event that I step in and out of every day. I love face to face networking so I decided to see Twitter from the same perspective. In face to face networking situations there are many conversations and communications that I am not privy to. That realisation stopped me worrying about what I may miss on Twitter.

Mirroring the face to face model I now stop and follow string of tweets I find engaging. Some of these spark my interest so I check out the person’s web site and Linked In profile to find out more about them. If they have a blog I also check this out. As with face to face meetings, when my interest is peeked enough I start to engage in conversation via twitter or their blog posts.

New Use of Twitter

Now that I have a new full time job supporting and mentoring graduate businesses, I scan my feed of tweets every hour or two for interesting information relating to business. These I re-tweet for the benefit of my followers. Likewise if I see a tweet from one of my Business Loft clients I either re-tweet it or engage in a dialogue with them. Only once or twice a day do I ‘push’ a message out about my Loft Blog or something going on at The Business Loft. I finally understand that it is all about developing new online friendships and providing information that others find useful, interesting and engaging. Content is King!

Managing this level of activity will soon become too time consuming and so I am about to explore the dashboard TweetDeck. This will help me schedule my tweets, stream my messages and look for relevant messages to re-tweet. Having previously used Houtsuite I am well aware of how useful and time saving dashboards such as this are. I have decided to give TweetDeck a try as it only focusses on Twitter feeds and is owned by Google so is more effective for SEO.

How has it Worked?

So what is the result of this change of heart and more skilful use of Twitter? Firstly, in only 4 weeks, and 350 tweets, my following is 199 and steadily rising. I now have 7 people with over 100,000 genuine followers (two of which have over 200,000 followers) who followed without me initiating the contact. These are the ‘influencers’ who are vital to my developing network of contacts because when they re-tweet my tweets, my following expands.

As for the development of The Loft Blog, since starting my Twitter campaign the opening rate has gone up from 32.8% to 45.9% where the industry average is 17.1%. Twitter is one of the main tools I use to publicise my blog, along with Facebook and email marketing.

The synergy that Mark Schaefer talks about in his book The Tao of Twitter is already at work. Having engaged in my first real twitter conversation about social media, with a young marketing assistant, it turns out that he lives in Liverpool. The uncanny coincidence is that it is a city I rarely visit and yet I have a meeting there next month. Needless to say we have arranged a get together to meet in person.

This is the beginning of an exciting journey, for me, into global networking using the power of Twitter. Check in next year to see just where it has taken me!

 

      

7 MUST READ, TIME SAVING TIPS

Oh no, not again! Another day without enough hours in it! These are days that happen to all of us and having just got back from a week off it is even worse! You know what I mean, right?

So I have decided to remind myself (and my blog readers) of the time saving things I often do when I am not racing round like a headless chicken. Those are the days that are busy but I still have time to think about and act on time saving activities.

So here are my 7 Time Saving Tips….

1.      STOP racing round and take time to think! Take a deep breath, clear your mind of the clutter and give yourself space to think.

2.      PLAN & PRIORITISE by carefully considering which work definitely has to be completed by the end of the day. This is ‘A’ Priority Work.

3.      CREATE A LIST that has all you’re ‘A’ Priority Work at the top. Work down the list without allowing yourself to skip an item because you don’t feel like doing it right now (oh, you do that to!).

4.      STOP PROCRASTINATING(putting of those difficult jobs until later)and work only on your ‘A’ Priorities. If you are anything like me (human), you will definitely err towards procrastination. Putting off those high priority jobs and replacing them with low priority ones, or worse still no priority jobs (e.g. socialising) definitely wastes time.

5.      COMPLETE ONE JOB AT A TIME and feel the buzz as you complete successive jobs on your list. The more you stick to your list, fully complete each job and cross them off the list the more you feel the buzz. By the end of the day you will be amazed how much you have accomplished.

6.      PRIORITISE YOUR ‘X FACTORS’ All work includes ‘X Factors’. These are the things that impact your time constantly -  emails, phone calls, ‘walk-ins’ (people who call in without an appointment or are there to socialise) and social media communications that tend to take priority over everything else. The key is to prioritise all your work including the ‘X Factors.’

This is something I always forget to do. By deciding which ‘X Factors’ need your immediate attention (‘A’ Priority - have to be attended to by the end of the day) you save loads of time. The rest are ‘B’ Priority – can be done tomorrow/another day or worse still ‘C’ Priority – these are not necessary to the job.

7.      TAKE A BREAK Now this is the one tip I have to admit I am really bad at sticking to. Let’s be honest none of us are perfect and that includes me! However, if you get to the end of the working day (which I nearly have right now) and you still have not had a break (like me) then make sure you do something to de-stress in the evening.
Stress is the biggest stealer of time. That’s because the more stressed we are the less able we are to think and plan and the more we are likely to procrastinate.

So what are your time saving tips? Share them with others now by commenting below.

6 Top Tips on starting a business: Top tips from The Prince’s Trust (by princestrust)

BUSINESS LESSONS FROM A CHILD

 

This week I am really lucky to be undertaking one of the most enjoyable tasks ever created – I am on ‘Nannie Duty’ looking after my four and a half year old granddaughter, Megan! As I watch, listen and play with her I realise how much we can learn about business management from these bundles of joy.

However, all too often, as we grow, we lose some of our childish ways. Many of the things we lose or forget are extremely valuable to us in business. Just watching her I identified a few of them and thought I would share some with you…….

Be Inquisitive

Firstly she is inquisitive about everything. Nothing is ever a problem.  As adults it is all too easy for us to see a business issue or difficulty in a negative way. We see the obstacles, battles or problems through filters that is tainted by our past negative life experiences. Young children do not have these filters, so what can we learn from them? Take off the negative filter and see the problem or issue with inquisitive eyes and a positive mind. Turn the problem into an opportunity to get inquisitive and find the positive outcome or learning in it.

Ask More Questions

Constant questions flow from Megan as she explores new things and new ideas. They can be the dumbest of questions but because she is a child and is learning, we think nothing of it. In fact we expect the silliest of questions from children, don’t we? The more we ask the more we learn. So how about giving yourself permission to always ask loads of questions even the dumb ones? Most of the time someone else is thinking about the same silly question but does not have the confidence to ask. Start to ask more questions and stop worrying whether others may think they are silly or dumb.

Get More Creative

My gorgeous little girl has the most wonderfully creative mind. Ever since she was first talking she has been making up words when she had no idea what to call something. Some are so creatively descriptive that they have become ‘family words’. My favourite describes the dust we see in the air through a shaft of sunlight, she calls it fuzzerings!

Sometimes we can get so bogged down in the mechanics of running a business and the stress that can come with it we forget to be creative. It is stress that reduce our ability to let our creative side out. Want to learn something really weird? Getting in touch with and letting our creative side out actually reduces stress! So get creative every day.

 

Share with Others More

OK, I accept this is something that children have to learn early on in their development. My little lady, like all children, has had her moments where she dug her heals in and refused to share. Mostly though she loves to share, especially with her cousin Evelyn who is two and a half years younger than her. As I watch Megan I can see in her face how much pleasure she gets out of sharing. It builds a strong bond and harmonious relationship between them.

Sharing of your time, thoughts and idea, giving support, collaborating with others in business can all too easily be dismissed because of lack of time or fear of them running with your ideas. Yet there is far more to be gained by giving of yourself and your time – increased knowledge, reduced risk, support and help in return, new friendships, new business contacts and even business growth through paid work. After all, lots of heads on an issue are far better than one. What you give out comes back to you in even more abundance so take the time to share yourself with others.

 

Spend some time watch children and see what else you can learn for your business. By clicking on the work ‘Comments’ at the bottom of the blog you can add your ideas or observations.

Share your thoughts and comments now!

5 SURE WAY TO BEAT YOUR COMPETITORS

 

The other day I was reading a blog by the acclaimed college educator, author, speaker and marketing consultant Mark Shaefer. It was all about how enthusiasm sells. It really was a ‘Wow Factor’ story about how one business person, Randy Gilson, is beating his competitors hands down. Find out more at http://www.businessesgrow.com/2013/08/01/the-hidden-business-skill-you-can-ignite-today/ . It’s well worth the read.

This got me thinking about other types of behaviour that has in the past given me the ‘Wow Factor’ and made me buy from or give more of my custom to a business.

Here is where my mind is heading with this one:

The ‘Wow Factor’ is usually rare and therefore a great competitor beater!

There are only a few that spring to mind because they are so rare (especially in the UK!). One occurred when I went shopping for an outfit for my daughter’s wedding, a few years ago. As a lady of the larger persuasion it can be hard to find something special that I feel a million dollars in. So I decided to go to one of our large department stores, Debenhams, as I knew they had a personal shopper. I eventually found the immaculate and manicured lady. When I told her what I was searching for she looked me up and down and told me “We have very little that would fit you” and walked away.

Close to tears with anger and embarrassment I headed back to where I had parked the car. The excitement and joy of shopping for a special outfit for my daughter’s wedding had been destroyed with one short sentence.

On the way I passed Monsoon, a shop I had never bought from because I thought their clothes would not fit me. To this day I do not know what made me walk in. Maybe it was because I thought of the scene in Pretty Woman where the snooty shop assistant would not serve Julia Roberts. Then how she bought clothes elsewhere and went back to show how much commission she had lost. I was beginning to feel defiant and my head was full of thoughts like “I’ll show her!”

This is when the magic of the “Wow Factor” started working………

‘Wow Factor’ 1 - Take a Genuine Interest in the Customer

As I walked into the changing rooms one of the assistants asked me if the dress I wanted to try on was for a special occasion. That had definitely never happened to me before. When I told her what it was for she wanted to know all about the wedding. Her genuine interest surprised and delighted me.

‘Wow Factor’ 2 - Make the Customer Feel Special

With each dress I tried on this lovely lady gave me her honest and open opinion about how it looked on me. She gave me lots of positive feedback, discussing like Gok Won what styles suited me best. Then she would scurry off and come back with another dress that she thought I may like. I had never before had anyone take such interest in me when shopping for clothes and it made me feel very special.

‘Wow Factor’ 3 - Be Enthusiastic

Her enthusiasm for fashion and making me feel special was refreshingly different from any clothes shopping experience I had ever had before. When I found a dress that made me feel a million dollars she enthusiastically discussed with me the type of jewellery, shoes and handbag that would go with it. Surprisingly she was not trying to sell them to me either! 

‘Wow Factor’ 4 - Take Responsibility

This lovely lady took full responsibility for my shopping experience. Her time and attention was purely on me the whole time.

‘Wow Factor’ 5 - Go the Extra Mile

I had chosen a light jacket to go with the dress. The assistant though, was not completely happy with the overall look. Then she remembered a new consignment of clothes that had been delivered that morning, but not unpacked. Off she went asking me to be patient as she would be away some time. She was convinced there was a jacket that would match more perfectly. Sure enough there was and I was even more delighted with the whole outfit.

 

Needless to say The “Wow Factor” worked as I am now a committed and loyal Monsoon customer. As for Debenhams I have never stepped inside the store since that day!

 

Tell me about your ‘Wow Factors’ by clicking on the “Comments” button at the end of the my online blog www.loftblog.tumblr.com I look forward to reading them.