Twitter and the Value of Your Content

Social media is a priceless tool for small businesses, but only if used correctly. There is an overwhelming amount of content on social media applications. Small businesses need to find a way to differentiate themselves from millions of other users on these sites and provide meaningful content. The key here is meaningful content. Put yourselves in the shoes of your customers. Before you post to Twitter, ask yourself what value the post will provide to your followers. If you post meaningless content just for the sake of posting, you are just creating noise and you will have trouble getting people to follow you. I recommend that you post everyday, but that you post no more than 3 posts. Any more then this and nobody will read them and you will have trouble coming up with valuable content. Time is precious, as a small business owner I am sure you can understand this. Twitter is great because your posts can be no more than 140 characters therefore they are brief and won't take up a lot of your follower's time. When I say no more than 3 posts, this does not mean that you can't respond and engage in conversation with your followers. It is extremely important to develop a two way relationship with your followers by answering questions and responding directly to their comments. The 3 post maximum is for new content. For example, if you are a landscaping business you could post a Tweet about how to minimize the growth of weeds in a garden. When your followers then respond with questions and comments, answer them and engage your followers in conversation. These follow-up Tweets do not count towards the daily max of 3. These guidelines are not set in stone, but I feel that any less than one Tweet a day runs the risk of being forgotten, and any more than 3 simply creates noise.