“Twitter is you and your friends sitting down around a table, hanging out.”
A friend says this to me, and a light bulb practically goes off above my head. This was the metaphor I’ve been looking for to describe what it is that I love about Twitter! We’re all just hanging out, chatting!
Twitter is a place where you can talk and share information with friends, and your other friends can see it as well. Sure the guy at the next table over may be able to hear what you’re saying, but the conversation as a whole is fairly private. Because of the way that @replies work between users, you can have a fairly private conversation that only people who know you both can see – your friends.
Where Are You at This Table?
Where brands come into this picture, and I take this metaphor a bit farther, is that brands on Twitter are happening all around this “table”. Even if you go out, there are TVs, which is the millions of people all tweeting about the same TV show with the hashtag #americanidol. Then there’s all the smartphones, nearly everyone has Internet access, so sitting at this “Twitter table” people are sharing with friends new videos, restaurants, places to visit, favorite shoes, you name it. Friends are sharing with friends both in real life and on Twitter, and they’re sharing brands. You share a link, video, in an instant with friends because Twitter is personable.
What makes the Twitter “table” great is that you can get into this conversation. Brands, or businesses, can get in by just talking to users. When you open up your Twitter channel to create a table-like dialogue, that’s when you see results.
There are lots of ways to engage on Twitter:
- Ask open ended questions and imagine what sort of responses you might get to your questions. Don’t ask questions that need a lengthy response, people only have 140 characters.
- Be relaxed and informal. When you’re not afraid to make light of your brand, your product, and yourself, you open yourself up to a world of new conversations.
- Develop your brand’s personality through Twitter. The personality is there, it’s how you approach your customers at any time.
- Look for conversation opportunities. No one’s going to just walk up to your table and start a conversation, especially if it looks like you’re just talking to yourself. Replies, re-tweets and DM’s should all be used often.
- Post often! Twitter isn’t Facebook. It’s centered on the newsfeed and people will only see what’s most current on their feed. It’s very fast paced, so just like a conversation you have to speak up now!
Start a conversation on Twitter today. Who knows what you might find out from your customers!
