21 Ways to Leverage the Power of Twitter
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform on which you can share 140 character messages in a public environment. Messages shared on Twitter are called “tweets” and can be viewed by (i) people who are following you on Twitter and (ii) people who are searching Twitter for keyword phrases that you have used in your Tweets. Your “tweets” can even show-up in Google searches for keyword phrases that appear in your tweets.
Here are 21 ways you can start using Twitter to expand the influence of your personal brand and increase the impact of your personal marketing strategy, starting right now.
- Customize your Twitter profile (http://Twitter.com) by completing your bio, uploading a photo, include your location and uploading a customized background that supports your brand.
- Use URL shorteners (like www.bit.ly.com) when sharing links to articles, blog posts, videos and other content to both save space and track the number of people who click your link. This helps to determine how valuable your Tweeple are finding your content.
- Use Tweets to answer FAQs in 140 characters or less. Try to limit your Tweets to 110 characters as this leaves plenty of space for “retweeting” your “tweet” in its entirety.
- Use photos in your Tweets to add personality and sharability of your messages.
- Find, track and use popular hash-tags to find new people to follow and attract new followers to your account.
- Find, track and use hash-tags for industry conferences to monitor industry events + trends, meet new people who are associated with your industry and discover opportunities for business development or client acquisition.
- Use hash-tags in your tweets to increase your visibility and attract new followers to your brand.
- Follow your clients on Twitter. Consider creating a private list of your clients for organization and privacy.
- Follow prospective clients on Twitter. Consider creating a private list of your prospective clients for organization and privacy.
- Follow industry leaders on Twitter.
- Follow colleagues on Twitter.
- Follow journalists on Twitter.
- Use Twitter to find speaking opportunities.
- Use a tool like Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com) or Kurrently (http://www.Kurrently.com) to find people who are actively looking for the business solutions that you provide clients.
- Find people to follow at WeFollow (http://www.WeFollow.com).
- Find lawyers and legal industry folks on LexTweet (http://LexTweet.com).
- Use HootSuite (http://www.HootSuite.com) to schedule your Tweets.
- Use HootSuite to manage your social media team.
- Use HootSuite analytics to determine the impact of your tweets.
- Use TweetDeck to manage your Twitter account.
- Use Timely.Is to determine the best times of the day to send tweets so that you reach your intended audience. This tool will even schedule and post the Tweets for you!
Now that you know what to do, it’s time for your UpwardAction. Let me know how it goes.
Play to Win!
~Tasha Cooper Coleman
Read More21 Ways to Leverage the Power of Personal Marketing
Personal marketing involves the consistent sharing of valuable information that consistently (i) attracts your ideal clients; positions you as a expert and leading authority; and (iii) keeps you on the minds of influencers and decision makers in your industry. The combination of these three elements leads to systemically attracting new business opportunities and closing deals faster.
Ready to create a powerful and profitable personal marketing program? Here are my favorite 21 ways to get started:
- Get clear about what you want to accomplish with your personal marketing actions. Write it down.
- Create a list of the types of people you want to reach though your personal marketing outreach. Use this list to create and write down your target audience profile.
- Get clear about what types of conversations you can have with your target audience to make your goals a reality.
- Select a standard photo and use it on all of your social networks. This helps to build visual brand recognition. Create a fully optimized personal LinkedIn profile at http://LinkedIn.com
- Create a fully optimized Google profile at http://Google.com/profile.
- Create a “public profile” Facebook page at http://Facebook.com/page to share your original content and valuable content shared by others.
- Create a YouTube channel at http://YouTube.com and use it to let your target audience know about interesting and valuable content. You can create a valuable YouTube channel by clicking the “favorite” link for great videos you want others to see.
- Create a Twitter account at http://Twitter.com and use it to share information about industry events, your business events and to “retweet” great information shared by members of your online community.
- Create a Flick account at http://Flickr.com and use it to share pictures of you with industry thought-leaders, networking at industry conferences and volunteering for nonprofits and charities.
- Create a custom URL for your Flickr account. This makes it easy to share this page with your network. You can see an example of this at http://Flickr.com/upwardaction.
- Optimize your Flickr account by adding your name, geographic location and using the “describe yourself” section write about your business and services. Your business description should contain keywords and share benefits, not features, of engaging your business.
- Optimize your Flickr account by uploading an engaging “buddy icon.” This can be a personal photo or your logo.
- When using Flickr, tag your photo with keywords to make it easy for people and search engines to find your photos during a search.
- When uploading photos on Flickr, create keyword rich titles to help people and search engines find you. Confused about the appropriate title for your photo? Chose a combination of the following: your name; business name; thought-leaders featured in the photo; location where the photo was taken; event where the photo was taken; and/or services featured in the photo.
- When actively using Flickr to power-up your personal marketing, organize your photos into groups. This makes it easy for your target audience to learn a lot from your photos in a very short amount of time.
- Use Google Plus to build relationships and drive traffic to your website or blog.
- Use an email management software to build and management an online database of your friends, family, colleagues, clients and other interested persons.
- Create lists in your email management system for similar groups of people who are on your list and send a monthly email to each group with an article or business update that is likely to be of interest to each group.
- Join Meetup.com at http://meetup.com and search for local groups related to your business services areas or profession.
- Use Meetup.com to publicize your upcoming workshops and seminars.
- Increase your visibility by “sponsoring” a local meetup that is popular with people who fit your ideal client profile. Sponsorship can range from paying the monthly site fee to providing refreshments at meetings.
Cool Twitter Tools
Twitter is one of my all time favorite social media tools. Thanks to this micro-blogging platform I’ve met amazing people like @BrianMoran, @TrustBranding, @ZaraGreen, @NancyMyrland, @DonnaSeyle, @lawyercoach, @AdvertisingLaw and @BizinSpirit. I’ve gotten to know fabulous folks like @Tim_Baran and @SmallBizLady better, PLUS I’ve reconnected with amazing mentors like @AlfredEdmondJr.
Twitter has also directly led to amazing clients and speaking opportunities with The Competitive Edge Conference, New Jersey Small Business Development Centers and the Council on Foreign Relations, just to name a few.
My success on Twitter is the result of time invested building relationships, sharing what I hope is valuable content AND using fabulous Twitter tools. Following are a few Twitter tools that I’ve used during the past couple of years. While some of these tools are still in my toolbox and others are not, I’ve found every tool listed below useful for accomplishing a specific business objective.
11 Very Cool Twitter Tools
WeFollow – This tool will help you find new followers by industry, profession and keyword searches. (http://wefollow.com/).
Just Tweet It - This took make it easy to find people who are interested in things that are also of interest to you. (http://justtweetit.com/)
Cherrp – This tool makes it easy to find local businesses and give reviews on Twitter. (http://cherrp.com)
Nearby Tweets – This is a geography–centric Twitter tool that makes it easy to to find people near your georgraphic location who are using Twitter. This is a great tool for location-based businesses. (http://nearbytweets.com/)
UseQwitter – This nifty tool sends an email when someone stops following you on Twitter. (http://useqwitter.com/)
Twitblocker – This tool helps identify and block spam Twitter account from following you It’s pretty helpful. (http://twitblock.org/)
SocialToo – This tool helps manage your Twitter account by (i) automating the process of following people who are following you, (ii) blocking automated direct messages and (iii) create Twitter polls. (http://socialtoo.com)
TwitterCounter – This is a WordPress plugin that includes useful stats. It also provides a useful widget that you can add to your blog or website to display recent Twitter visitors. (http://twittercounter.com)
Listorious – Use this tool to find great lists of people and organizations to follow and monitor. (http://www.listorious.com).
Timely.Is - Timely analyzes your Twitter activity and suggests times when your Tweets will most likely be seen and shared. (http://www.timely.is)
Twilert - This superfantastic tool sends email updates of Twitter search results based on specific keywords. (http://www.twilert.com)
BONUS: LexTweet – Use this tool to find fabulous lawyers and legal industry people on Twitter. (http://lextweet.com)
Are you using any of these Twitter tools? What has been your experience with them? How are you using twitter to grow your business or practice? I’d love to know!
Play to Win!
~Tasha Cooper Coleman (aka “Coach TC”)
Read MoreICONC Personal Branding for Professionals
An ICON is a object or symbol of uncritical devotion. It is loved, respected and in some cases revered.
A personal brand is your unique promise of value. It is what a person expects when she hears your name or a person encounters anything that reminds him of you.
Your personal brand (aka “promise of value”) can become ICONIC when it is: Identifiable, Creative, On Top of Mind, Number One, Intentional, and Client Focused.
Let’s explore each of these traits in greater detail:
Trait 1: Identifiable
An ICONIC personal brand is identifiable by a particular type of client as “the solution” for specific types of issues. ICONIC personal brands are not general. They must contain an (i) identified “promise of value” for a (ii) specific type of solution that is relevant to a (iii) clearly identified target market and ideal client.
Trait 2: Creative
A personal brand becomes ICONIC when a specific type of client considers it to be creative when finding solutions to specific types of problems.
Trait 3: On Top of Mind
A personal brand becomes ICONIC when it is “on the top of the minds” of people when thinking about a particular type of issue, problem or concern.
Trait 4: Number One
An ICONIC personal brand is not only ‘on the top mind’ for your ideal clients and target market, it is also considered to be the “number one” solution for specific types of situations, problems and concerns.
Trait 5: Intentional
ICONIC personal brands are intentional about providing impeccable service. Quality and high-value is of the utmost importance at all times and in all circumstances.
Trait 6: Client-Focused
Clients first want to know if you can resolve their specific issues before they are interested in learning anything else about you. ICONIC personal brands are client-focused brands for which every “promise of value” is directly related to solving an identified need or solution that an ideal client is likely to encounter.
A personal brand is built on your gifts, talents, skills and reputation.
Now that you know what makes a personal brand ICONIC, take an assessment of how your personal brand measures up. Then, start taking the UpwardAction™ necessary to make your personal brand ICONIC. Let me know if we can help.
~Tasha
Tasha Cooper Coleman, Esq.
Read More5 Steps to Growing Your Book of Business with Social Media
Social networks make it easier than ever to identify, attract, engage and influence the decisions of your target market and ideal clients. Social media provides amazing and often free tools that make it possible for lawyers and other professional service providers to systemize and automate huge portions of their personal marketing and business development activities.
Far too often, I find that lawyers are not using social media and social networks to increase their books of business because they are simply to overwhelmed about exactly what to do and how to get started. I’ve developed a basic system to help lawyers get out of “social media overwhelm” and into upward action.
If you are ready to stop procrastinating and start getting results from social media, keep reading …
1) Listen to Learn
Social media and web technology make it easier than ever to monitor the conversations and activities of your clients, prospective clients, people in your competitive space and colleagues. Using social marketing for “listening to learn” about the needs of your target market and ideal clients makes you privy to key information that can be used to expand, eliminate, refine or otherwise adjust your services. Start using social marketing tools for “listening and learning” with three of my favorite resources: Google Alerts – http://google.com/alerts; Twilert – http://twilert.com; and Kurrently: http://kurrently.com
2) Attract to Position
Social media makes it easy to convert what you’ve learned by “listening and learning” into compelling content that will attract your ideal clients and position you as a thought-leader in your industry. This happens when you are able to connect your solutions to your ideal client’s exact needs. When you are ready to attract your ideal clients and position yourself as a leader, get started by fully optimizing your LinkedIn profile (www.LinkedIn.com) and Google profile (www.Google.com/profiles).
3) Engage to Influence
Use social networks to engage in online conversations that influence how your prospective clients, current clients and colleagues view your expertise and ultimately value your services. You can become more engaging by sharing information in a way that encourages your online community to let you know what they are thinking about things that matter to their businesses and lives. Questions, polls and surveys are a few ideas to help you get people talking. Your response to what your online community shares will influence how you are perceived and valued in your target market.
4) Measure Results
After you have worked through the process of listening, learning, attracting, positioning, engaging and working to influence your target market, it’s time measure your impact and results. Here’s how to do it … return to the goals that you set in step one of this framework and measure the results. Now, you have a record of your wins and losses.
5) Adjust and Start Again
After taking a look at your wins and loses, determine what changes need to be made to get better results. Make the necessary adjustments and start from the top.
Now that you know what to do, it’s time for your Upward Action. Once you’ve gotten started, come back to this post and let me know your results. I’d love to hear how you are applying this content to growing your book of business.
Play to Win!
Tasha Cooper Coleman (aka “Coach TC”)