Top Twitter Tips for Your Maui Business

What is Twitter and how does it work? This question may be intimidating, but you will be pleasantly surprised at how simple it really is. Twitter is a microblogging service where basically you answer the question "What are you doing?" in 140 characters or less, which makes it easy enough that posts can be sent as cell phone text messages.

Twitter is a gold mine of information -- you can "follow" and be followed by anyone from your customers and colleagues to people you most admire.

Tweeting for business is very different from just plain everyday tweeting.

When you tweet as yourself, you are "off duty" conversing with friends with common interests from politics and personal interests. When it comes down to posting a tweet for business, however, it's with a very different intention.

The focus of business tweeting is sharing information that matters and is most relevant to the person on the other side of the tweet. "Relevant" is the key. For business, you have to tweet the stuff that matters to your audience, including things that make a difference in their lives, work, mind set, or ultimately, wallets.

Tweeting for business only works if you give more than you take and are also patient. That can be hard for start-ups, because often, early-stage companies are limited in what they can openly communicate. It takes some creative thinking and a real commitment to engage in conversation, especially in a setting like Twitter.

Ready to dip your toes in the bird bath? Here are a few tips to get you started.

Practice first! Set up a personal Twitter account and learn your way around. Invite friends. Gather a few followers and get to know the basics with them. Be sure to know what you’re doing before you connect with customers. You would be doing your business a disservice to build a following and not have your act together when you start Tweeting them. Continue Tweeting as "you", even once your business Twitter plan is underway. You will learn so much. Master the tools, see how the conversation grows, and be Twitter-savvy before you start Tweeting for business.

How are other businesses doing it? Follow successful big business tweets to see how they do it. You’ll note different styles, but you’ll get a sense of what might work for you.

JetBlue Airways
Zappos
Starbucks
Home Depot

Competitors and Colleges
Search them out and see what they are tweeting. We've provided two searches here, but it is easy to do once you are part of twitter.

Real Estate Twitter Search or Vacation Twitter Search

COMMIT before you TWIT!
As you know, every action you take as a business affects how your customers and community see you. Like any other business decision, your outcome on Twitter can only be as good as the process behind it. Building community on Twitter requires an investment of content, frequency and time.

If you’re going to be on Twitter, use it to differentiate and to add value to your exchange with customers, partners, and the expanded community. With time, you’ll get the traction you’re looking for.

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