Hot to: Get noticed!

When you post an item on your nursery’s website or social network, what’s your next step? Do you leave it there and hope someone finds it? Or do you seek out readers by promoting your post through social media?

Digital communications consultant Jonathan Rick wrote a post explaining how Twitter can help you get your message out to more people.

Many growers who are using social media are doing so without a strategy, and most do not have a dedicated social media employee. Rick’s tips can help whoever is handling social media marketing at your nursery make the most of each post and get back to their other tasks.

When eyeballs count, Twitter is your best friend. The social network lets you repackage and repurpose your content. This is crucial: You can’t just tweet once. You must tweet and tweet again, baiting your tweet with various angles and hooks, casting it to various audiences.

Equally crucial: Instead of publishing your tweets all at once, you need to unloose them over the next few days. Since the first 24 hours are the most important, it’s best to frontload your tweets for the day of publication, then dribble the rest out over the next day or two.
 

Tweet summaries, excerpts and teasers

Every digital native knows how to tweet the obvious: “Check out my new post.” But when the half-life of a tweet is less than three hours, you must keep pushing. Like a politico on the campaign trail, you must say the same thing over and over, drawing on different words for different audiences.

To this end, go beyond the headline and review your text line by line. Identify the juiciest parts; carve each one into 140 characters of catnip. If your post is meaty, you can extract a plethora of summaries, excerpts and teasers (facts and stats are invariably appetite-whetting).
 

Send shout-outs (a.k.a. kiss-ups)

No doubt, you quoted, mentioned or linked to others in your post. Be sure to recognize them. Play on their vanity—flattery will get you everywhere. Your unspoken goal: Get them to share your post with their network.
 

Send thank yous

If anyone helped you along the way, remember what your mother taught you: Thank that person.
 

Send FYIs

Certainly, you can think of people whom your post will interest. Instead of guessing their email address, find their Twitter handle, which is publicly available even if their tweets are private, and tweet them your link.

The caveat: Be careful not to be seen as self-serving. Instead, ask for feedback, or tie your tweet to a subject near and dear to your acquaintance’s heart. Feel free to adapt the headline of your post as needed.
 

Drop “In Case You Missed It” tweets

In your regular use of Twitter, you’ll likely come across people discussing a subject that pertains to your post. If so, chime in and contribute to the conversation.

Tailor your tweet so that it flows into the dialogue, rather than intrudes on it.

Of course, these tweets and tactics constitute an aggressive thrust. Isn’t this all just a cover for shameless self-promotion?

On one hand, it is. Consider warning your followers that over the next day or so, a spammer will be hijacking your Twitter feed, so to speak.

On the other hand, in a digiverse that grows more crowded by the second, you owe it to yourself to wring every tweet, “like,” plus, pin, Digg, comment, view and email out of everything you create.

For good or ill, self-promotion is an inescapable part of today’s creative process. The more opportunities you can create and maximize to connect with potential or existing customers, the more your hard work will receive the recognition it deserves.

Jonathan Rick is a digital communications consultant who helps brands use social media to tell their story. Follow him on Twitter at @jrick or visit www.jonathanrick.com.