Blog

Flying Fish? Yep, Flying Fish.

OK, so now you are wondering what the hell THAT has to do with anything. First off, just bask in the awesomeness of nature, man!  Second off, this is what I think of when I think of the Twitter stream.

Twitter logs 50 million tweets a day. (The relative value of those tweets, and where they come from, is another matter entirely.)  There is no humanly possible way to keep up with all the info.  In fact, 71 percent of tweets never get read.

So what’s the point?  The point is that sometimes, from the raging torrent that is Twitter, something jumps out of the stream to catch your eye.  Kind of like the flying fish leaping from the water.  (See how I brought that back around?  Admit it, you liked it.  )

Why do particular tweets escape the stream?  They are relevant to you in some way.  They are from your friend, or the guy who always seem to have insight, or the topic, or… it could be any number of reasons.  That’s why, when you use Twitter for marketing, you need to gauge the time of day you tweet, gauge the day of the week, and repeat yourself.  Not everyone is going to see your tweet each time you send it, so yes, repeat yourself.

I am a proponent of scheduled tweets for this effect, but NOT automated tweets.  You want to build an organic community of people who read some of your postings and see value in what you right.  You may be trying to establish yourself as an expert in a field, a go-to person for the answer.  Paying someone to spew out automated information or just retweeting news sources – that’s not adding anything to the stream.

If you retweet without adding value to anything you send, followers will bypass you and go to the source.  Guess what – I get Mashable’s daily stream also… I don’t need you to tweet it – unless you add an opinion on the item.  Then you are communicating, not just regurgitating.  (Such a pleasant word, that one.)

To me Twitter is about communication; if you can leap from the stream a couple of times for your followers, they will pass it on and more people will listen.  So be yourself, communicate, build a repoire.  Spread your little fish wings and fly!

-Karl
@karlkoelle

With 10+ years in restaurants and 12 years in communications, I have learned a lot about how to successfully market a restaurant - yet I still learn something new every day and whenever I talk to a client.  Looking for help with your restaurant or small business, whether marketing or management?  Let me know, I am always happy to help.