This post is about how to use Twitter networking groups to promote your business and website. To receive a monthly summary of my free marketing ideas please subscribe to my monthly e-newsletter.
How To Use Twitter Networking Groups
Firstly, a definition. Networking is the process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop your professional or social contacts. It can be a superb way of developing your business by finding new customers, suppliers or parties that can help you with different aspects of your business.
Traditional Networking Groups
Traditionally, networking groups operated face-to-face, often locally, bringing together business people that were geographically close to each other. More recently, with the advent of the pandemic more and more of that interaction has moved online, enabled by technology.
Twitter Network Groups
Twitter, the social media platform, is one medium where you can network with local businesses. I have used a few groups on the platform that typically set a regular hour each week to interact, and use a hashtag to pull together all the tweets (a tweet is a post on the platform).
Setting Up An Account
Initially, to participate you will need to set up an account on the platform, and ensure that you have tweets at the top of your profile that will optimise your chances of converting customers. That is a subject of its own that I will address separately. By the way, if you need a free logo for your site, see my other post.
Finding Networking Groups
Once you have set up an account, the next task is to find some relevant networking groups. How you search depends upon the nature of your business. If you only deal with local businesses you might target groups in your local area. If you are national, or geography doesn’t matter, you might look for sector or topic specific groups.
There is something to be said for local groups, as just being located near others can build trust.
Interacting With The Group
The principle of groups is that you tweet using a hashtag that groups the posts together. A hashtag is a unique word preceded by the # symbol. For example, the hashtag #FreeMarketingIdeas is one that I use for posts regarding this site. Including that tag in my tweets means that people can search social media platforms for posts that have that particular hashtag. Network groups will have their own hashtags. One that I have been involved with is #1066Hour (for businesses in Hastings and the surrounding area) but there are many more from all over the country.
In the context of a group discussion, it makes it easy to track the conversation and see related tweets as they are posted.
Tracking The Group Conversation
Firstly, when participating in a group, I tend to have two tabs open on my PC, or I use the app on my phone. On the PC, the first tab is open on the Twitter search screen, and I search for the hashtag for the networking group. Thereafter, I click on the “latest” option at the top that shows me the latest tweets, with that hashtag, as they appear. This allows you to read the conversation and interact where you wish.
Secondly, I open another tab where I can view Twitter notifications. This shows me when someone likes or retweets my posts. It also shows if anyone follows me (followers are shown your tweets in their feed).
What To Tweet
With regard to what you say, again that would be a whole other subject to cover. I would mention that there is a general aversion to those that drop their “advert” in these groups and then run. Networking is about developing relationships, and that type of approach is nothing more than poorly targeted advertising.
By interacting with other people, you can develop some level of mutually beneficial relationship that could lead to other things. Perhaps they won’t become customers, but they might introduce you to someone that does buy. Good networking is a subtle art.
Often the conversations may include catching up on what everyone has been up to. That may give you the opportunity to share details of, or even a link to your latest material. This can be an opportunity to increase your online footprint. Sharing a link may also drive traffic to your website or blog.
The Benefits Of Twitter Networking
Networking groups can be a great way to gain some additional followers, and to get some likes and retweets for your posts. All of this activity are signals that search engines can pick up on, and it can help your website to rank well in those search engines.
If someone retweets one of your posts, it can help you reach their audience, which may or may not be relevant. Either way, it increases exposure for your material.
In conclusion, the benefits of networking with Twitter groups can include:
- The possiblity of new business, new suppliers or other forms of collaboration
- Increased traffic to your site or blog
- Likes and retweets of your tweets, allowing you to reach a wider audience
- Connecting you with other people and potential new followers
- Social signals to support how the search engines view your site or blog
- Demonstrating that you are part of a local community, which can build trust and your reputation
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