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BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

It's part sales, part marketing, part branding, part market research and development.

But most of all, it's an art whose masters have made millions.

Join me as we explore this conversation

Expanding Into the Twitterverse

I recently spoke at the Increase Sales with Social Media conference in  San  Diego with David Carleton  (@DavidCarleton)  Denise Wakeman (@blogsquad) of the Blog Squad, Mari Smith  (@MariSmith) of Facebook fame, Paul Colligan (@colligan) - Social Media Strategist, and Warren Whitlock (@warrenwhitlock) of Twitter fame.  I'll write more about what I learned in a future post.

But the thing that sticks in my mind was that the place was "tweeting" like mad.

Now, I had been on Twitter.com for some time.  But I had no idea about the power of the platform.

For those of you new to Twitter, it is a micro-blogging platform (you have 140 characters to get your message out) which allows you to follow key people in your networks and to build a following of friends, fans, customers, and partners.

Imagine this - as each speaker was presenting, people from the audience were taking the gems and sending them out to the people in their Twitter network.  And a buzz got created out in the real world about what was happening in a conference center in San Diego.

Think about that.  People built a following on Twitter, and then fed them with valuable information that they were getting at a conference which their followers couldn't or didn't attend.  Talk about delivering value & building customer and partner intimacy.

This is something that savvy business development people have been doing for years offline - and now they can do it online - and deliver incredible value to the stakeholders in their success.

I also learned about a few cool management tools to keep up on what was happening in the Twitterverse.

  1. Tweetdeck - this platform allows me to search for exact terms out in the Twitterverse and respond personally to people who have an interest or ask questions in my area of expertise.  I have been steadily building a following by doing just that.  One of my students, Anita Leafty, introduced me to it.
  2. Twitter Search - Search allows you to do much the same as above, but doesn't update automatically like Tweetdeck.  Very powerful, however, to find people who are interested in areas in which you have interest.
  3. Hash Marks - If you want to be able to easily aggregate information or a flow of information, us the "#" followed by a short moniker.  For example, the ISSM conference was #ISSM (go ahead, Twitter-Search it).  I've started #LinkedInTips, #BizDevTips (go ahead, check them out too)
  4. Direct Messaging - While some people dislike it, DM, as it is referred to, allows you to send a special message directly to someone on Twitter, much like an email.  This helps when you have something private to say and don't have their email address.  Very Useful
  5. Socialtoo.com - This service allows me to follow the people who follow me and to send them a special thank you message.  As my following grows, it can be time consuming to do all the followup.  This program automates the process.  Now I just go and change the message every few days.
  6. Mr Tweet - A very cool service that tells me who I should be following given my "tweet" content and the people I follow & who they follow.  Very good for network building and visibility.

Results, you ask?

I've been booked to speak at several more conferences (I'll keep you in the loop); I had more sales come through for our LinkedIn Training Webinars from people who have followed me; Jack Canfield is now following me (wow - what an honor!); And with some generous help from Mari Smith and folks in the Twitterverse, I now have close to 300 people following me - in less than a week.

And I'm just starting to get the hang of this.

I HIGHLY recommend that you start to learn about Twitter.  It can revolutionize the way you interact with, build, and leverage your network.

Find me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/chiplambert73

Raymond Chip Lambert
Network2Networth
Your Outsourced Business Development Training Partner

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8 comments:

  1. ChuckD said...
     

    Chip makes some very important and valid points from the ISSM conference
    in addition to his own powerful presentation.

    I'm glad I became aware of the conference from being a member of the North County Chamber of Commerce, which was one of the sponsors. Of the many conferences I have attended in the past 40 years, this, by far was the best.

  2. Anonymous said...
     

    My favorite part of twitter search is that results can be saved as RSS feeds, such that you get regular updates.

    Not real time, but that could be overwhelming depending on what you track.

  3. Anonymous said...
     

    Thanks for the great post here. I am in business development for a digital agency and have been on Twitter now for about a year. Not sure if it works, but then I slip in and out of using it effectively.

    Time is a huge factor - as I have to be using my old marketing techniques along with using my blogging and twittering and linked and everything else. I have to set aside time to pick up the phone, and to also send old-fashioned (who ever thought they would say that!) emails.

    We are seeing now the importance of twittering with the first pictures of the plane crash in NYC being published onto twitterpic by someone on a closeby ferry who had an iphone and twitter account.

    However, utilising it for our business development needs is a more complicated matter and requires an integrated strategy over all mediums.

    Great post though - you have lots of ideas for me to implement now!

  4. Anonymous said...
     

    At first I thought there was no way to manage the multitude of responses Twitter offer, but after spending some time in there, I'm settling in. (@michaelflint)

    Twitter alone is too difficult to stay on top of more than a few friends. I use TweetDeck and find it really helpful. When I'm attending an upcoming event, I create a search for that event. Then I can see who's going and start to engage them before the event.

    In the past couple of weeks, I've made a couple of really good contacts - one leading to an RFP request, and another to an interview request.

    Tweeting takes a bit of a time commitment, and you have to like to do it. Otherwise, find another marketing vehicle to focus on.

    But like any social networks - join now so your network will start growing today. Then when you start really using it, you'll already be established.

    I blog regularly about online marketing and social media.

  5. Anonymous said...
     

    Another great tool is tweetlater.com. Tweetlater allows you to set up your 'tweets' ahead of time so you are still creating a twitter presence even when you are unable to tweet!
    @MelDePaoli

  6. Anonymous said...
     

    You think Jack Canfield is an honor? Follow Barack Obama, and I bet he follows you.

    Pat O'Malley

  7. Anonymous said...
     

    This post has a lot of value. Thanks for sharing your Twitter knowledge.

  8. PWS Kumar said...
     

    Thanks for sharing the twitter tools. Twitter is a great source for any business, however please note that twitter is not about increasing followers its about sharing and interacting with your potential customers. I started the import export business blog few years back and I used to share my posts over twitter, it brought me regular traffic to the blog.

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