20 Ways To Re-Energise Your Training Business – Part 16

Today’s Tip: Get Tweeting

Over the past 2 months I’ve become a huge fan of Twitter. If you’re not familiar with it here’s the official definition from www.twitter.com

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that allows you answer the question, “What are you doing?” by sending short text messages 140 characters in length, called “tweets”, to your friends, or “followers.”

So,it’s essentially another social networking site like Linked In or Facebook that allows you to build relationships online, a strategy all freelance trainers should be using. But what makes it different, and one of the reasons I love it so much is that limiting yourself to 140 characters means it’s so quick and easy to do. Tweeting can easily be slotted into your daily activities. I often tweet when I’m doing something else like watching tennis or football. You can even tweet from your mobile whilst you are on the move.

Why Else Should You Be Using Twitter?

1. It’s a great way of connecting with people and building a network fast. I have been amazed at the number of people I have managed to connect with in a short space of time – as of today I have 307 followers, that’s in 2 months of using Twitter.

2. You can make meaningful connections with people. Because people share things about their personal lives and you participate in discussions with them you start to get to know the real person – this helps build deeper and stronger relationships.

3. You can keep yourself updated by following leaders,authors and experts in the L and D world.

4. It helps drive traffic to your blog or website. If people start to follow you and like what you are saying they will naturally become interested in your business. And Twitter is no different to other forms of networking in that people will recommend and refer people they like to others.

5. You can get answers to your business problems. So, you might need some help with your Pc or want a website designer or maybe you’re just having a bad day, whatever it is just post a question and you will find that people are incredibly helpful with their suggestions.

6. It’s fun! Enough said!

If you choose to join Twitter there are a couple of rules you need to follow:

1. Be disciplined with the amount of time you spend on it. You could easily spend all day tweeting which wouldn’t be very good for your business, so limit yourself to 1 or 2 hours a day.

2. Participate consistently. You won’t get any of the benefits of using Twitter if you only tweet once a month. Like all networking activity you only get out what you put in.

So, follow me at wwww.twitter.com/sharongaskin and get tweeting today!