Whenever I go to Starbucks I get a Single Tall Americano (written as STA) for about three dollars.
When I engage in this transaction, not only do I get a fairly good cup of coffee; I also get the cultural “right” to sit in Starbucks for around 45 minutes, – sipping my cup of coffee and working on my iPad. Thats the deal you make to use Starbucks’ Third Place.
The coffee may not be the best in the world, but it’s consistently good. Similarly the Café environment may not be the best in the world, but it to is consistently good, or at least good enough.
Added to all of this value I get with my three dollars, when I go to a Starbucks in Downtown Seattle , Victoria, British Columbia or Paris France, my experience will be basically the same.
In a way, what I’m really purchasing from Starbucks is consistency.
With this transactional reference in mind, I would like to talk about the transactional quality of engaging on Twitter.
First, let’s discuss what I may get when I create a tweet on Twitter.
First and foremost I may get someone’s attention. In the digital realm, human attention is the coin of the realm. It maybe for a minute or it may be for less than the second (the latter being more likely in the Twitter-sphere), but either way, it has value.
Now, within the subset of people who give me this attention to read my tweet, I may receive other things.
- I may receive a click to my profile, which gives my name a face along with a small description of my interests.
- I may get a click on the link to my website, where that visitor my convert to a direct economic value.
- Perhaps my tweet gets retweeted. This is certainly has value, as it allows for possible exponential exposure for my original tweet.
- Or perhaps I actually get followed from the tweet reader, allowing me to establish a small digital connection
These are just a few of the things you can receive in a transaction from someone viewing your tweet.
This makes my next question, in the context of a transactional space, obvious: what should you, the tweeter, be giving (ie creating) for all of this great attention and engagement to occur?
Here we get into the nitty-gritty of what a successful Twitter presence is all about.
What you should be giving is value.
The value may be contained in simply the message of the words themselves. It could be something as simple as a small inspirational quote or words of encouragement. (Although inspirational quotes are dime a dozen on Twitter, there is a reason for this – they do contain some value).
Or perhaps your tweet contains a great photo. It may be a work of art, or it may just be an interesting photo of the beach your sitting on. Either way, there is a reason that tweets with photos get engaged with much more than ones without: People are visual and they enjoy seeing new things!
Maybe your tweet contains a shortened link to content which could improve, or even save, someone’s lives. A good rule of thumb on sharing links to content is you need read the content at the tail end of that link. Don’t blindly tweet links you haven’t read. Over time, it weaken value Twitter presence.
Maybe there is a twitter video you would like to post which contains fairly complex content? Most videos contain both visual and auditory content, and usually do take a moderate amount of time to create, edit, and post. This level of effort put into a tweet is appreciated and recognized by the Twitter community, and will be reflected by a higher level of engagement.
So that’s a brief summary of how to consider Twitter and tweets from a transactional viewpoint. However, keep in mind that just as Starbucks doesn’t have to make the greatest cup of coffee in the world, you don’t have to make each individual Tweet the greatest in the world.
Be consistent and create consistently good content. Your followers will engage with you in-kind.
Tweet on my friend.