Military Life SmallBiz: Twitter Changes and Using Tech Effectively
As I build my businesses around my military life, I rely on technology to help make up for the fact that I don’t have a brick and mortar location. Whether it’s for the blog, suicide prevention programs or my jewelry obsession creating conversations and building relationships is key to my long-term success in small business. And social media makes it so much easier.
While Facebook is the perfect place to keep in touch with people, I find that for my businesses Twitter and Pinterest are much more effective. Why? Because both offer me the ability to put out a message quickly and drive traffic to a particular website based on the needs of the people. I can utilize marketing services like TailWind (a FANTASTIC service for Pinterest/Instagram) or Hootesuite to help me so I can share information regularly and with a little practice and a “What would make me click on a link” attitude I can connect in a fun way.
The challenge comes in with all the changes to tech and social.
For example according to the Twitter blog (see full post here) over the coming months there will be changes to simplify your military life Tweets including what counts toward your 140 characters!
In summary here’s what will change on Twitter:
Replies: @names will no longer count toward the 140-character count.
Media attachments: When you add attachments like photos, GIFs, videos, polls, or Quote Tweets, that media will no longer count as characters within your Tweet. More room for words!
Soon you will be able to Retweet and Quote Tweet yourself. Great way to keep a conversation moving forward!
Goodbye, .@: (A feature I didn’t even know about until I began writing this post) New Tweets that begin with a username will reach all your followers. (That means you’ll no longer have to use the ”.@” convention, which people currently use to broadcast Tweets broadly.)
All of these changes have one thing in common. Making things easier and more valuable to your peeps right? But what makes it easier for me? Technology plain and simple.
As a military spouse entrepreneur, without technology I’d be sunk. I’d have to start over with each PCS move, I’d be less productive and shoot I’d have thousands of pounds of household goods that would have to move with me. So yes every day I do a little happy dance when I pick up my phone, tablet or laptop and connect to my prospects, clients and tribe. But the place it helps me most is in my marketing efforts.
When I’m working on marketing or trying to be more efficient lots of different apps help me out. I appreciate how my smartphone makes me and my team more productive, and I love a tablet for its ease of use and portability. Here’s a link (from Verizon*) containing a video that talks about what tablets can do for your business. Having a device that can follow me around from installation to installation keeps my business moving forward.
I wonder how other military small biz owners would answer the following questions? (share yours in the comments below)!
What devices do you use on the go with your business?
How does social media help you?
What technology makes your business thrive?
What apps are your consistent go to’s?
How do you start conversations online?
~Judy Davis, the Direction Diva is a motivational speaker, author and lifestyle blogger as well as a military life and teen suicide prevention expert. Co-founder of DASIUM, Judy’s books Right Side Up and Warning Signs: Is Your Teen at Riskare go to resources for families and her websites are filled with tips, inspiration and resources for those looking for direction. Connect with Judy at TheDirectionDiva.com
Disclosure: As a member of the Verizon Lifestyle bloggers I receive various devices and accessories to try and share how I use them in my military life. As always all opinions are my own and you get the real scoop not something someone asks me to write
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