Most of us know the value of Twitter for building relationships with your customers. But lately I've noticed that business owners are missing out on huge opportunities.

When you are on Twitter, if someone Tweets to you or mentions you....do you:

Thank them for following

Thank them for retweeting (sharing your content on Twitter)

Thank them for mentions if they mention your brand

Retweet them when they say something nice about your brand

Offer them more great tips or content ....e.g. 'You might also like our e book/newest product/ competition ...go check it out.'

Follow them if they look normal - If you do all of the above this is great! If not...why aren't you doing these things? Are you not going to talk to your customers?

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Did you know that when you 'like' a Tweet ...it's nice yes. But to the person who has just mentioned your brand you should be all over them. People who are going around saying nice things about you or your brand should be nurtured and welcomed. how do you think that person feels when they mention you and you (the brand) says nothing?

This is happening time and time again. I see it all the time. I have mentioned a well known tea brand. Cos I love tea! And yet, they have never once engaged with me. They have 'liked' the tweet. That isn't good enough folks. Here you have someone with over 40k followers. If you engaged with me I would Retweet the tweet. Imagine that.

Brands can be human too! Just because you are a big brand doesn't mean you can't be human. It doesn't mean you can't engage. It would make me feel like I wasn't wasting my time saying how lovely the product was if I got some engagement. I won't be tweeting about them again now as I didn't feel like there is any point.

Today a person mentioned me on twitter, said they had listened to a podcast where I was interviewed and that she enjoyed it. She didn't have many followers but I responded and thanked her for the tweet. What did she do next? Well because I made her feel acknowledged, she then followed me, and then replied again to my tweet. Next thing she signed up for my newsletter.

Now.....what did I do that was different? I engaged with them and made them feel special. Twitter is ALL about how you make people feel. Will this person tweet me again? Yes. Will this person tell others about me? Yes. Will she use my services or join my Women's Inspire Network - maybe! But she will definitely tell others about me or share my content if I keep adding value or engaging with her. You need to put time into social media. Don't just throw tweets out. It's not an advertising platform. It's about finding your 'fans' or 'customers' and nurturing those relationships. Do you expect to put out a tweet and expect everyone to share it? That's great if they do, but eventually they will get bored of doing so if you never say thank you.

Same here on Linkedin. You can write an article like this but if people comment, comment back! Keep the conversation going. Start a relationship with your potential customers or potential new allies. Create your own army of marketeers. Show you are the expert in what you do. Keep an eye on the people who DO share your content and DO engage with you. These people are already fans.....turn them into raving fans by walking the walk. They took time to engage with you. Why would you ignore them? Why would you not thank them for mentioning your brand?

Ask yourself .....am I actually talking to my customers on social media?

If you want some help with all of this I can show you how to really ramp up your engagement on Twitter. Contact me for a one to one skype consultation or hire me to do your social media for you! Try it!