SBX 22: Twitter Success In Under 15 Minutes a Day

small-business-podcast

So much social media, so little time!  Many business owners believe that if they can’t do EVERYTHING, they shouldn’t even try to do SOMETHING.  Which is why we hunted down small business owner and Twitter expert, Mr. Josh King.  As a small business consultant, Josh recognizes the need to keep the social media workload light.  If Twitter is one of the places your target customers hang out?  Then the 15-minutes-a-day Twitter strategy is something you’ll want to have started *yesterday*.

Some background on Josh King (outside of what you can learn about him on his blog).  He is known as “the Tinderbox Consultant,” a brand of endearment whose goal it is to leave every owner smarter, better, and more successful.  His consultant practice (and his Twitter following) is a local one and his strategies contrarian to the oft-held mentality of “build you following, more more more, bigger is better.”  For Josh, Twitter is like a virtual telephone, NOT a virtual megaphone.

A couple caveats about this interview: (1) Gary and Josh engage in exactly ZERO foreplay.  Be prepared to dive right in once the interview starts.  (2) We tried using a new method of guest-recording.  While it came out perfectly in tests, it came out less-than-flawless in the final recording.  You can still hear Josh just fine, but be forewarned. And finally?  (3) This is NOT a podcast about “here’s how to setup your account!  Make your profile look nice!  Make sure you retweet people (duh)!”  This is a strategic right-hook from a guy who knows how to build responsive audiences.

Facebook is the living room of social media, Twitter is the front-yard.  The connections you make on Twitter are unconditional. (Click to Tweet)

Listen and Learn…

  • Josh’s ‘help people first’ strategy and how that’s led to massive word-of-mouth for his business.
  • Twitter strategy in a nutshell: three times per day is the champions way.  Listen for details.
  • How to put a consistent brand out there across multiple channels by creating a master social document.
  • The importance of an editorial calendar for brainstorming and systemization.  Boom.
  • The power of notifications and how to “clean up” at the end of the day.
  • The ambiguity of small business ROI – is my social marketing moving people forward?
  • How starting a business blog has kept Josh sane.

Action Steps from this episode:

  1. Define Success.  Know what the purpose of your time on Twitter is.  In most cases, it’ll be to drive people to your hub (your website) or get them into your store (brick-and-mortar folk).  The surest way to fail is to not know what you’re aiming for. Duh. With the objective clearly defined, you’ll then be able to comparatively measure how one 15 minute strategy compares to another 15 minute strategy.  What interactions / tweets are getting the most response?  To use Josh’s analogy from above: by playing in the front yard, people will want to enter the house.  You don’t need to stand out front begging people to come in.  Twitter (and all social media) is ineffective as a self-promotional megaphone.

  2. Make a Plan.  When you first start out, you’re probably not going to hit it out of the park right away.  But given enough time and patience, water can erode the hardest rock.  15 minutes a day is 60-90 minutes per week, 50-100 hours per year. What is the overall cohesive plan in those 50-100 hours?  Fill in the blanks:

    • The times I will consistently show up on Twitter are _____.

    • 3 ideas I have about what to share are _____, _____, and _____.

    • 3 groups of people I can talk to are _____, _____, and _____.

  3. Build Relationships.  It’s easy to have micro relationships on Twitter.  After all, this is what potential customers WANT: a brand that is interested in them.  Sometimes it’s as simple as following your customers, interacting with those people who retweet you, and tweeting back and forth with influencers.  Listen to the show to hear more about cuddling up to your target market and putting yourself in the forefront of their feed.

Links and Resources:

  1. Josh’s personal blog, his business blog, and his twitter account (again – don’t be fooled by the following).

  2. Some breakout statistics for Twitter users that will make you go “hmm!”

  3. Twitter followers are more likely to buy from you?  Yup, it’s true.

  4. One of Josh’s favorite Twitter tools to keep tabs on your 3x per day Twitter influence.

  5. Find out the best times to Tweet, based on your followers.  This is seriously awesome.

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3 replies
  1. Rebecca Gibbs
    Rebecca Gibbs says:

    Great episode guys! Josh was a huge help and full of information too!

    I’m new to twitter and am playing around with it a bit on my personal account just to get a feel for it before I try to launch an account for the bakery.

    This really helped me feel like it is manageable rather than overwhelming.

    Reply

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  1. […] topic for the particular podcast is how to have success on Twitter in 15 minutes a day. My favorite part is Mike’s disclaimer when introducing me, “..he is a very fast […]

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