This month in my blog we’ve been looking at the issue of how to grow your coaching, consulting or training business. At the start of the month we discussed some of the issues that could be stopping you from growing your business. Click here if you need to read that blog again. Then we considered some of the solutions you can use, to help you get over those challenges and to reach a wider audience, in this post.

This time I want to share with you a really good tool to help you reach that wider audience – Twitter. Now before you run away and hide in corner, shaking at the thought of having to spend endless hours in front of your computer, coming up with thousands of tweets and then tapping away at your keyboard, to send something out every couple of minutes …!

When you run a service business, the best marketing that you can do to promote it focuses on sharing your knowledge and expertise. This allows your prospects to learn to trust you and when they trust you, they will buy from you.

My Twitter Tips

Here are some tips on how using Twitter works for promoting Appletree, which you can use too.

• Compile a book of tweets. I take a notebook with me, wherever I go. When I hear something useful at a networking meeting, presentation, webinar or even in a meeting with a client, that I’d like to share, I write it down. I then turn my notes into tweets and save them in a Word file. I’ve been doing this for a few years now and currently have 57 pages of tweets that I can use! They are all about marketing and they are all tips and advice – no sales pitch. Once a week, I pick some of those tweets to share @TopMarketingTip. Short, simple snippets of free advice about marketing. When you generously share useful content, you will attract more followers and a wider audience.

• Look for a connection. Recently I joined a business group on Facebook. All the members have a connection through the types of businesses we run. One of the members suggested that we share our Twitter accounts on the group and follow each other. I’ve done that and now have a number of lovely new followers who can help me spread the word about what we do.

• Have conversations. It’s not just about putting out information, although sharing your advice is a great way to use Twitter. Get involved in conversations, answer questions and look for problems that you can help to solve. Share other people’s useful information through retweets and they will retweet you, helping to reach that wider audience.

If you need any more advice about how to use Twitter to promote a service business, then get in touch for a chat. If you actually want someone to compile a book of tweets for you and send them out on a regular basis, then call us on 01635 578 500 or email me at Chantal@Appletreeuk.com and we can talk about how we can do this for you.