December 2, 2009

10 Tips to get High Quality Twitter Followers

What’s a high quality Twitter Follower? It’s typically an individual (although it could in some instances be an organization) who you want to attract because they represent some potential value to you as opposed to a vagrant Follower who really can’t help you reach your goals at all.

Attracting High Quality Followers requires a proactive approach which you control; you are not in control when Vagrants come your way. You need control over the process.

We all know what the vagrant suspects look like. They follow many people and have a minimal followership themselves. They tend to Tweet on personal matters which to me are often offensive and offer little redeeming value. I block the vagrants. I have neither the time nor energy to indulge them on my Twitter page. Some of my fellow Twitterers, however, leave the vagrants on their Follower list, apparently more interested in having a high Follower number than a relevant group of Followers that can be helpful in achieving their strategic goals.

Here is the 10-step process I learned (I certainly didn’t start out knowing this) to create strategic High Value Followers:

1. Set your Twitter plan to attract as large Follower group possible that will enable you to collaborate with them and pursue your overall strategic goals. Don’t focus on only the number of Followers; concentrate on getting as many of the right Followers as you can. If you are only worried about the number of Followers you get, STOP reading and go have a beer or something that has the same temporal value as your Twitter approach.

2. List 3 or 4 key phrases that describe the essence of what you are trying to achieve through Twitter. As a business Author covering topics like Strategy Creation, Marketing, Sales and Serving Customers, I chose phrases that were consistent with these topics. I chose phrases such as Strategy and Planning, Business books, Marketing and Sales , Customer Service, Business Start-ups and Conferences (keynote speaking is a critical element of my marketing strategy for the book).

3. Use the phrases in #2 above as search targets. You want to see as many of the current Tweets as you can that contain your search phrases to get an understanding of who in Twitterland is talking about your stuff. Perform a search on each of your Key Phrases.

4. Assess each person with a Key Phrase in their Tweet. Decide if the Tweet represents potential to you by going to the persons home page and looking at what they do and the type of Followership they have garnered.

5. Decide if you want them as a Follower that can help you reach your goals.

6. If NO, move on to the next Tweet with one of your key phrases, and continue the assessment.

7. If YES, go to their Home page and reply to their latest Tweet. Tell them you enjoy their Tweets and that you will follow them. Invite them to follow you in return. Continue to the next Tweet with a key phrase until you are too tired to continue!

8. For the YES group in #7, look at each of them on your Following list in a few days to see if they have returned the favor. If they have, you have just created a Follower you wanted. If they have not, you can either dump them or give them a bit more time, or send them another Tweet. Your call.

9. Evaluate every New Follower Notification you receive on e-mail. Block the Vagrant Followers; reciprocate and Follow the High Quality ones.

10. ALWAYS thank people for following you. Avoid the temptation of pitching them on your stuff at least for this one contact (I must admit I need to improve in this area). After all the objective is to build meaningful relationships with Tweetland folks and you can’t do it when you are flogging your wares at them.

Remember, it’s NOT about the numbers; it’s about the QUALITY of the numbers.
Post script: keep providing your High Value Followers with meaningful content or risk them leaving you.

Cheers, and productive Tweeting, Roy

Remember to follow me on Twitter
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Related Blogs
Twitter Value
Twitter - Customer Learning Tool

Posted 12.2.09 at 10:16 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 2, 2009

BE DiFFERENT Planning Process

I am convinced that the reason many organizations don’t develop a strategy to move them forward is due to the complicated and expensive process touted by most strategy development practitioners.

Numerous people gather in a room for a Strategic Planning Session, subject matter experts descend of the group and try to impress everyone with their detailed knowledge of the many governing factors that need consideration in the strategy building process, and many days are consumed (yes, I’ll say it: wasted) to get the essence of the strategy ‘perfect’. Notwithstanding the fact that a Plan will never be perfect no matter how much analysis and time is put into it, the all-consuming plan takes so much time and energyof the planning participants there is insufficient tme left to develop how the plan (fallacious perfection) will be executed in the trenches by real people.

Normally the services of a third party firm are used to both facilitate the session and provide expert content to the plan direction and efficacy. This is a clever way of avoiding having the people responsible for the Strategy’s success taking ownership of the direction taken by applying heir own opinions and good judgement. They are presented with material, ask questions about various aspects of it and in the end most of the time agree with it.

Given that eventually any strategy or plan must result in action, the BE DiFFERENT planning process is predicated on the premise: keep it simple, get to the gut issues quickly and ACT. Minimize the strategic essence planning time; maximize the implementation action planning time.

Here’s the process I have used both as an executive for TELUS where I was responsible for leading many different types of businesses of various sizes and competitive maturity. Answer 3 questions and you have your strategy:
    - HOW BIG do you want to be? Define your growth goals first.
    - WHO do you want to SERVE? Select the customer group that has the potential to deliver your growth goals.
    - HOW will you compete and WIN? Declare how will you BE DiFFERENT from you competition.

Cheers, Roy Osing
Remember to follow me on Twitter
Do the BE DiFFERENT Quiz

Related blogs:
Change Leadership
Roy’s Rule of Three
Strategy Hawk
Plan on the Run
Cut the Crap
The Only Statement
Role of Your Strategy Document 
Line of Sight Execution
Avoid Aspirational Intent

Posted 12.2.09 at 09:06 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 1, 2009

Ten BE DiFFERENT Practices to Renew your Organization

The airwaves these days are filled with commentary on the current global economic challenges faced by many countries and the highly volatile market conditions threatening business success. Even as we seem to moving out of the doldrums, nearly every aspect of the situation is being portrayed in a very negative way - the sky is falling, the sky is falling!

The descriprtions used—business failure, government bail-out, plummeting consumer demand, record levels of consumer debt, unemployment, fear, loss of economic confidence and uncertainty—paint a dismal picture of a presumed and inevitable cataclysmic outcome.

There is no question that the potential impacts of a declining economy and volatile markets are severe indeed. Businesses HAVE failed and unemployment continues to be a concern.

That said, any economic/market dilemma presents an opportunity to organizations willing to renew themselves: to implement real change based on BE DiFFERENT Practices.

Since the beginning of the industrial age, businesses and organizations have had difficulty changing their established direction or charting a new course. Inertia is a force that most have a tough time overcoming. It is much more comfortable managing the momentum of a business - led by change managers - than making the difficult decisions necessary to put the organization on a different course - a role assumed by Change Leaders.

To change the fundamental course of an organization requires that business risk be endured and that discontinuity be imposed on how the organization operates. 

Major change in an organization happens when significant events force leadership to take a different direction, indeed to often intervene upon itself. Events such as the appointment of a new CEO, a merger or acquisition or, in the case of the telecommunications industry, the introduction of competition into traditional monopoly markets are all key drivers of change. 

Why are economic slow-downs and extreme market fluctuations not generally regarded as one of these BIG events that could be considered by organizational leaders to be the stimulus of major change? Is the glass half full or half empty?

Considering change as a threat reflects the former perspective. An economic challenge as a driver of renewal speaks to the latter. This is NOT the time to hunker down; it is the time to set a BE DiFFERENT course for your organization and get on with it.

The sky isn’t falling; it offers the potential for an organization to equip itself with the road-map and competencies to not only survive economic and market threats but also to thrive and prosper in them and to position them for prosperity when the bull returns - and it is. 

The truth is this:  you really have no choice. Staying the course of an unsatisfactory strategy will not get you to where you need to go. You will continue to float downward and suffer with the end result. To do nothing is NOT an option.

Organizations must act, they must look for ways to renew themselves and navigate these troublesome times. Economic and market threats are your friends; let them lead you to your renewed future -  a better world for your customers, employees and owners.

What does the BE DiFFERENT Renewal Process look like? What are the steps that can be followed to take the negative energy imposed on an organization and turn it into a positive force for change?

Here are the ten BE DiFFERENT Practices that will position you as a long term winner.

Practice #1 - Renew your Strategy
Practices #2, #3 and #4 - Focus, Modify Business Processes and Cut the Crap
Practices #5 and #6 - Be Anal about Execution and Set Cost Objectives
Practices #7 and #8 - Plan on the Run and Customerize your Marketing
Practices #9 and #10 - Dazzle your Customers and Sell Intimate Relationships

Cheers, Roy Osing

Remember to Follow me on Twitter

Posted 12.1.09 at 04:52 pm by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)