Author: Danny Bermant

When I’m notified that someone is following me on Twitter, the first thing I want to do is find out who they are and what they’re talking about. If the subject matter is relevant and of interest, I will follow them, but if their Twitter feed is nothing more than links to their own articles and products, I lose interest. Even worse are followers who tweet every five minutes.

Connecting with other people on Twitter is no different than connecting with people in real life. When someone has something interesting to say, you listen, and when someone engages with you and asks you about yourself, you want to respond. Conversely, when you’re stuck in a room with someone who does nothing but talk about themselves, you want to run a mile!

Early in the Summer, one of our pipes sprang a leak late at night. I tweeted about it and minutes later, got a reply from a local plumbing company offering to help me. When I flew to Israel a couple of months ago, I tweeted to my followers that the plane had landed. And later that day, I received a reply from a local car hire company suggesting I take a look at their online offers….I ended up booking a car with them. 

The beauty of Twitter is that it enables you to track the people who need your products and services whereas in the past you had to go out and find them either by advertising or by making sales calls. And it’s so easy. By using tools such as www.tweetdeck.com or www.hootsuite.com , you can create a list of keywords related to your business and be alerted when people mention those keywords in their Tweets.