20 Aug 2009 – Is Twitter for Trades?

August 19, 2009 at 11:53 pm | Posted in Twitter, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Stats: Following 184, Followers 65, Tweets=8, Mentions 12, Reach 672, Blog hits 20.

I am ashamed to say that we were a bit too busy to tweet today. Tim was shaking his head whilst tweeting today as he still does not get it at all!

It reminds me a bit of when rubik’s cubes came out. Everyone understood the principle that you had to go the long way round to get all the colours on the right sides but very few persevered with it. I was one of those people who had a go but could only get three sides done, Tim couldn’t do one side, and then there were the smart arses who not only did it, but did it in record time or one handed, and then wrote a book about it 🙂

But we have had 20 hits on our blog! That is less than yesterday but still more than we ever had in one day BT(Before Twitter).

Yesterday we tweeted 19 times and got 30 hits whereas today we tweeted 8 only times and got 20 hits so perhaps that is better use of time?

The fact remains that we are still getting known in the community which is our aim. It is a bonus that 4 people viewed our garage conversion pages as we just want to get people locally remembering that we do them if an opportunity for that sort of project comes up so they will either contact us or suggest us when otherwise it may have been an opportunity lost.

So Tim and I are having split views on twitter for trades at the moment. He thinks I could be spending my time more effectively and I have told him to get lost 🙂 (typical married-couple-business-discussion for us). I think we still have a way to go but are on the right track. However, we are probably at a stage at the moment where we need to find quicker ways of doing things so that is my aim for tomorrow. I know that I personally am not responding very well to all the scheduled/automated blurb with promotional links that are repeatedly churned out so I don’t want to go down that route. Maybe just automating a “Thanks for following and this is us” type message that I have seen others use would be OK along with an acceptable tweet about current offers just in case I forget to do either or don’t have the time when I could be spending that time having conversations instead.

I had a conversation with another plumber today who had a negative view on twitter and he shares Tim’s view that twitter is an advertising tool and compared with other methods such as putting an ad in the paper or doing a leaflet drop it has a low return on effort. I wonder if that is how a lot of tradespeople view this?

As always, comments and advice greatly appreciated 🙂

3 Comments »

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  1. Bold comments & sweeping generalisation warning…..

    From my experience, those that usually have a negative view of Twitter simply don’t (or won’t) get it, either because they can’t be bothered putting effort in learning, testing, following or because they just expect too much. As for it being too much effort – well that’s the sign of a mentally lazy person I’d suggest…

    Remember the old maxim, you only get out of it what you put into it. Twitter CAN be hard understanding at first, and can seem overwhelming, or just not worth the effort – I believe it is, as our results (as yours do) prove it does.

    To use Twitter effectively, it takes an investment of time, research and planning. Without these, any Twitter campaign – as with any marketing or sales campaign – is bound to fail. However, once one learns Twitter, and has done the ‘grunt work’, it’s simple and easy to keep on top of – work smart, not hard.

    With regard to automating DMs, have been trialling tweetlater but it’s been a bit erratic (as all the 3rd party tools/sites have been) with the DoS and security issues Twitter’s faced of late. Sadly, the best way to keep on top of DMs is do them individually it seems – but at least you can make them look special, as opposed to the ‘snake oil salesmen’ spammy ones we all get!

    Comment by Templar Modern Chauffeurs— August 20, 2009 #

  2. Hi Tim & Max, I have to say that Twitter is for trades. I have been proactive this morning whilst doing some designing as I run two companies, a design agency and a plastering company and have had two leads for plastering just from twitter. If I had more time I could really market both companies a lot better and more effectively.

    Comment by Chris Phillips— August 20, 2009 #

  3. Thanks so much for comments, tips and encouragement 🙂 Here I am at almost midnight still finding followers, looking at applications that might help us get a bit smarter as you suggest Templar Modern Chauffeurs so I haven’t given up just yet. Am a bit hooked on Hootsuite at the moment as seems a bit easier to keep track of reply posts and also to schedule tweets.

    Excellent to hear you had two plastering leads today from twitter Chris.

    Thanks again for comments and appreciate advice and tips.

    Comment by Maxxy— August 20, 2009 #


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