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Today's tip is an excerpt from Equestrian Professional's Guide to Twitter. It explains 10 things about Twitter that can make it a good fit for horse professionals.
1. While few horse trainers and stable owners use Twitter, many business professionals, college students and equine enthusiasts do! Being one of the few barns on Twitter could prove to be a significant advantage for your horse business.
2. Twitter is very popular amongst equine industry journalists, bloggers, publications and most equestrian associations have Twitter profiles. Equine product manufacturers like Horsewares, Cowboy Magic, and hundreds more also use Twitter to connect with their customers and get the word out about their products.
3. Twitter's user base and live search make it a very good platform for staying up to date on equine industry news, interacting with potential sponsors, meeting new customers* and becoming more visible to media people: i.e. journalists and bloggers who may find you and/or your posts interesting enough to promote.
4. Twitter is more business focused than many of the other social networking sites. While still social in nature, it is well suited for sharing business news, information, blog updates, promoting events, providing customer support and building customer-brand relations - check out how Taco Bell uses Twitter. http://twitter.com/TACObelltruck - Their posts are fun and interactive, but still do a great job of promoting their business.
5. Tweets can include links to blog posts, articles, videos, photos or your Facebook page. If you build a following and consistently post content that has value to your followers, your posts that link to content on your website or blog can provide valuable sources of traffic to your website.
6. Twitter is "live search" and posts are indexed on Google. This means that if you consistently post about a specific topics and keyword, your posts as well your Tweets may well show up in Google search results when someone is searching for equine related information.
7. Google Buzz and Google Social Search both rely heavily on Twitter for the information they include. In other words, Twitter posts have a way of permeating a wide variety of online searches and social connections. See our last chapter - "The Journey of a Tweet".
8. Twitter can also be used as a customer service tool. Twitter is highly mobile phone friendly - anyone who can text can Tweet. Horse professionals can Tweet quick messages to clients: i.e. lesson times, arena schedules, horseshow results, training progress reports, photos and of course links to videos and articles etc..
9. Twitter can be used to make your website more interactive and current. You can post your Twitter feed on your website. Use it to provide updates to your clients and enable them to interact with you and your business.
* Twitter is most popular in the U.S. and more likely to be used by urban dwellers than country folk.
If you think Twitter might be a good fit for your horse business, or you are already using Twitter and want to learn how to use it more effectively, be sure to check out Equestrian Professional's Guide to Twitter. You'll learn how to use Twitter to attract new customers, provide customer service to your current customer, get lists of who to follow plus you'll get tons of time saving tips. NOTE: Members have instant access to all our social media guides.
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