Following Twitter While Twitter is a platform that seems perva-sive in our society, it is also the one that most people don’t understand how to use well, according to Atkins. You might not use Twitter to cultivate a following, but it is a great place to get direct feedback from your customers, he adds. Twitter is the place that you can “turn a raving lunatic into a raving fan,” according to Atkins. The way you do that is by responding to people who tweet you. For direct communication, Atkins sees Twitter as a better tool than Facebook, “it’s like texting,” he says. If someone finds you on Twitter and asks you a question, it is easy to grab your smart-phone or hop on your computer, and imme-diately respond back. “It’s a conversation more so than other so-cial media sites,” Sullivan says. “You need to expect to interact.” Twitter, more than Facebook, is about a two way communication between you and your audience, according to Russell. Russell said one way to effectively use Twitter is to find the important people with-in your community, and tweet them. Twitter is a conversation, so just like talk-ing to people, there’s etiquette, and things you can do to make people follow and un-follow you. Once you figure out how to have a con-versation on Twitter it can be a great tool. Even if you don’t want to utilize it for communicating to your audience, you should have an account so they can com-municate to you. Having Fun With It Facebook is still the most important tool you have at your disposal, but there are many other sites that offer their niche that can help improve your profits. If you need to connect with a local busi-ness, there’s LinkedIn. If you want more people to find you on Internet searches, use Google+. When you want to speak directly with your customers, tweet them on Twitter. Need somewhere to showcase all those great pictures from the charity even you did? Well, put them on Instagram. Social media doesn’t have to be hard work; in fact our experts recommend that you make it fun. Come up with a contest, and hype it up on Facebook, respond back to your customers on Twitter, and use Instagram to show pic-tures of the event. There continues to be those who don’t think social media is a viable resource. However, as Atkins joked, “If you can over-turn the government of Egypt [with social media], I think we can increase sales 10 per-cent.” Joe J. Napoli is the assistant editor of Professional Carwashing & Detailing magazine. He can be reached at [email protected]. www.CMMOnline.com 35
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