Conversations and Twitter

In a previous post I mentioned that I was trying to find out how people start conversations in Twitter. People will do this for various reasons, to find friends to find information and of course to try to sell their goods. All of these are valid but for many businesses, it is the latter reason that they are really on Twitter.

Of course the first thing that should be said is that the 'sell, sell, sell' approach is not likely to get you far on Twitter. No, you have to be more thoughtful and 'Engage' (that word again) with your potential customers.

The real reason that you want to start conversations is thus that you want to start the 'Engagement Process'. Again this is just fine and dandy, nothing wrong with it (as long as your motives are good of course). So how can you start a conversation?

I asked the Linkedin community this very question and got some very useful answers, including one that said that Twitter was not being used (much) for holding conversations.

The replies:-

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From Susan Applegate of Applegate Media Group.

My recent observation is that there aren't a lot of "conversations" going on. It's feeling less and less social and more and more like a one way street!

From Beatriz Alemar of Inktel Direct

I start conversations on Twitter one of 3 ways:-

1. I make an observation or ask a general question. People will usually respond.
2. Directly ask a person or group a question or comment.
3.. Answer a question or jump into a conversation.

Twitter is like a large cocktail party - sometimes you have to jump into a conversation. People don't mind. In fact, they might appreciate another person to bounce things off of.

and from

Cyrus Afzail of Astoria Communications

First off, start by asking what you want Twitter to accomplish for you or your business and what types of conversations can best make this happen. The specific types of conversations will differ, depending on the type of company you are and/or who you're trying to reach.

I think one of the best ways to use Twitter is to increase the awareness others have about content you're already producing. For example, when I write a new blog posting or do something similar in the course of marketing either my business or a client, I "push" the information out to followers on Twitter. Since most of the content I produce is informational in nature, even though it has a marketing context behind it, there's not that much resistance to receiving it.

Finally, if you're using Twitter in a business context, I would restrict your content to a business nature because, unlike Facebook and other platforms, you can establish multiple accounts for different purposes. If you want to use Twitter to maintain personal connection, that's fine, but I'd do it under a separate account.

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I do hope that these were informative, they have certainly got me thinking.

More on this topic (and others) over the next few days