The tweets are paved with gold Popular, mobile-friendly Twitter is
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a powerful way to bring used truck buyers and sellers together. So who is using it, and who is getting it right?
Words: James Clark Athird of all UK internet users are now active on Twitter, making it the country's second most popular social network. It's no surprise, then, that an increasing number of used truck dealers are using it to engage with current and potential customers.
Beside the high number of users, Twitter offers a number of advantages. It's quick and easy to sign up for a profile, and the fact that messages — or tweets — are limited to 140 characters means that it is also quick and easy to communicate. About 80% of Twitter users access it via a mobile device, which means you can reach your customers whether they are on site or on the road.
Truck dealers and manufacturers on Twitter tend to adopt one of two strategies. Some, such as Britcom (twitter.com/BritcomTrucks) or CM's Used Trucks (twitter.com/CMusedtrucks), use their account to broadcast; they automatically tweet any new items of stock or company news. Others, such as Mercedes-Benz Trucks (twitter.com/MercedesTruckUK), use their account to engage; they answer questions and join conversations.
There is no right or wrong approach. An automatic, broadcast-only account takes a little setting up using free tools such as Twitterfeed (twitterfeed.com), but is easy to manage in the long run; fully engaging with your followers is more time-consuming, but can yield spectacular results if done well. You can mix the two approaches — as CM's Laurie Dealer does at twitter.com/laurie-dealer.
Unlike LinkedIn and Facebook, Twitter does not have any restrictions regarding accounts being set up in the name of a company rather than an individual. Even the most official corporate account benefits from the human touch, though. Dennison Trailers (twitter.com/ DennisonTrailer), for example, encourages its followers to 'spot a Denny' and tweet photos from their travels.
Making a hash of it If you are active on Twitter you may soon find that you are following, and being followed by, hundreds or even thousands of users. Fortunately, there are a few simple tools available to help you find the people and content you are looking for. The first of these is the hash tag.
A hash tag is simply a word prefixed with a # symbol. This is used on Twitter as a way of grouping tweets with a common theme or topic. For example, many users tweeting from the CV Show included #cvshow in their tweets. Anyone interested in what was happening at the show could search for #cvshow and see all the related tweets in one place. Also useful are Twitter lists, which let you group your followers together in any way you see fit. For example, if you follow 300 people and only 10 of these are van dealers, you could create a 'van dealers' list and refer to this when you are next in the market for a used van. Lists can be private — for your own use only — or public.
If your company has multiple accounts, you might want to group them together in a list for others to follow. This is something that CM's publisher Road Transport Media has done, and you can find the list at: http://bitly/rtmlist.
There are also plenty of free third-party applications and programs to help you make the most of Twitter. Twuffer.com, for example, lets you schedule tweets in advance; Untweeps.com makes it easy to find inactive Twitter users so you can stop following them and keep your account more manageable. Holistic approach Of course, success on Twitter is not just about what you do on Twitter itself.
Make sure your own website links prominently to your Twitter profile, and include a Tweet button on all your online content to help other Twitter users share your content. Northside Truck & Van (northside.co.uk) does this on both its news articles and used truck listings.
Next, consider building a Twitter landing page for your website — you can do this for free using Twlah.com (as CM's sister publication Motor Transport has at http://tweets.motortransport.co.uk).
You can even feed your tweets to your Facebook page (as Scania dealer Keltruck does) or to your LinkedIn profile if you like.
Finally, ensure your Twitter username is included in all your communication, including your email signature and business card. • JARGON-BUSTER Bamboozled by buzzwords? Terrified by terminology? Let our Twitter jargonbuster help you out.
• Tweet: a single message sent on Twitter, limited to 140 characters. All of your followers will be able to see it in their tweet stream.
• Followers: these are the Twitter equivalent of Facebook friends or Linkedln connections. However, the relationship does not have to be reciprocal, so you can follow someone without them following you back (or vice versa).
• DM: stands for direct message and is a private message that only the recipient can read. A word of warning — many of these are spam and contain malicious links.
• Retweet: you can retweet another user's tweet, which will then be shared with all your followers too. You can also quote another person's tweet and add more on to it.
• Mention: you can mention or refer to another user in your tweet by including the @ sign followed directly by their username.
TWITTER DOS AND DON'Ts Do • Be patient— it will take time to build up followers.
• Decide on a Twitter strategy.
• Download a Twitter app so you can tweet from your smartphone or tablet.
• Shorten links (using a website such as bit.ly) to save on characters.
• Acknowledge other users when they mention you or retweet you. Don't • Send too many tweets in quick succession —other users may find this irritating...
• ... but don't forget to tweet either — it only takes a minute.
• Be too serious — remember that real people are reading your tweets.
• Be aggressively promotional all the time.