Business Tips - Why Twitter - Part 3

BUSINESS TIPS – Why Twitter – Part 3


By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting CC June 2010

Twitter for me, as you no doubt have seen in the last two posts, is about communicating with a much larger audience.  Most sites that you get onto today have a link onto twitter – especially the social networking sites.  This of course means that your ‘tweets’ are reaching a much larger audience and this of course also means that you are driving more and more traffic to your own website.

Most of the professional social networking type websites such as (but not limited to) Facebook, have Twitter groups.  These are individuals who are passionate about their tweets and who love to grow their following and who love to interact and share information, knowledge, experience and generally just have good fun.  Write a little something about yourself – remember to keep it short and to the point – find these groups and let them know what you are about.  Generally speaking, people who are interested in what you have to say, will be interested enough to follow you, thereby exposing your blog and/or website to a whole different group as well.

One of the quickest ways to get people interested in following you or driving traffic to your blog or website is to post a question with a poll.  Yep, people are curious as to what other people think and love to see statistics on ‘who thinks what’ (actually how many people agree with what they think is more like it!).  If you make the topic of the poll something to do with what it is that you do, not only will it drive people to your website, it will in all probability keep them there too and get them coming back, time and time again.

When I started my whole Networking experience, I started asking questions – lots and lots of questions.  You see, I had come from a Corporate Environment and being on the road for almost three weeks of the month, I was pretty isolated from the rest of the Company.  From there I went straight into my business and met the real world – in great abundance.  There was so much new stuff that was happening that I was completely clueless about and so much that I needed to know.  So I traded.  For every question that I asked, I tried to ensure that I also ‘gave’ some useful information in return.  As I used the new information that I was given I, in turn shared it with others and so the blog was born. One of the most important things I discovered though is that generally speaking, people love to share their experiences and their knowledge.  Actually if the truth be told, generally speaking, people love to help others.

So don’t be scared to ask for help, but remember the ‘give to get’ thing.  Don’t always just take – give as well!  You’ll be amazed at just how good it will make you feel.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za