I am a massive advocate of the advantages of Twitter. I’m on it all the time and have probably spent too much time on it to be honest! In that time I have sent over 53,000 tweets, most of which are to other glazing industry accounts. I have also made a few mistakes in my time on Twitter. I have tweeted things I shouldn’t have, sworn a bit too much in the early days and not always understood the target audience I was tweeting to. I think I’m much better at it now, but I still see a lot of mistakes from a lot of accounts.
Twitter has become an excellent B2B platform, far better than Facebook. Yet I still see a lot of installers tweeting heavily about their business and the services they offer. This is fine and I guess by doing that they are covering all bases, just in case a potential customer sees it. But most of the industry community is just that, the industry. There are very few potential clients out there. Most are manufacturers or installers, so promotional heavy tweets to other industry companies are pretty much wasted. That sort of content would be better placed on Facebook where there is little industry involvement but more consumer participation.
A good example of this would be the company that posted an image of a door sold and fitted for £380. You can see a post I wrote about this by clicking here. That tweeted prompted quite a harsh response from both myself and a few others. The reason being many thought the price for the door was way under, to the point where it was damaging the credibility of the industry. There is nothing wrong with posting images of your work on Twitter, but posting it to somewhere like that leaves you open to criticism and commentary. Hence why that sort of information is better placed somewhere else. Otherwise, be prepared to defend yourself!
The point is simple, if you’re going to use Twitter, know your audience. If Twitter is full of industry manufacturers and other installers, save your promotion for somewhere else. But if you are a supplier, then make sure you take full advantage of the sizable and growing installer population on the social media platform.
I agree DGB, there is a very fine line between tweets that are worthwhile and tweets that are simply pointless. Through my Twitter (@SamuelShip) I have always stayed well clear of mentioning money. There is no need to let people know about this, if someone likes the work you’re doing that should be the end of it. The mention of money, like you experienced, can only lead to unrest. There is a big thing to say about interaction on Twitter. I have also stayed clear during my time on twitter of following thousands and thousands of people. The timeline can… Read more »
I’ve got to disagree with you there.
What’s the point of us installers being on twitter if we’re not promoting ourselves & our work, surely that’s the whole point of it?
We’ve had a good amount of work from it b2c. I suppose it depends how strong the twitter community is where you live?
What I don’t get is the people/biz who are tweeting for no end gain & I think a lot of retail installation co need to realise the power of it.
Any community anywhere in the world large or small is seeking to communicate in one form or another, twitter is one of the best communication functions, which enables all forms of information to flow. How much easier it is to get your words, feelings, and businesses in front of many, but the secret is how you get the return respnce back in a positive fashion, to move forward.
I dont get this twit thing at all , it seems to me that it is just full of people trying to sell you stuff or having a gripe , and if you follow people who tweet a lot you just have a massive list of comments that I dont have the time or inclination to read , most people dont read the stuff from what I gather , they just us use it to try to say something , but when most of it just goes past everyone else , whats the point ?
As a recent new member to twitter I’m finding it a massive help in my daily life. Reaching audiences I previously knew very little about. I get to hear what’s going on, how things are done or should be done, gripes and moans but also see examples of what you do and how well you do it. Twitter has allowed me to make many new friends, contact real people and learn more about the industry I work in. Twitter? I love it!