How I Use Twitter – Tips from @MissSuccess

Sakita Holley was featured on our list of Top 100 Branding Experts to follow on Twitter – we asked her a few questions about Twitter, here is what she said:

How does your business benefit from using Twitter?

I’ve received a number of referrals, new business leads and speaking opportunities on Twitter for House of Success, the NY-based lifestyle branding firm that I founded.

So I would say that the biggest way that Twitter has helped my business is by providing a platform where I can share my perspective and expertise and gain credibility within the industry.

What do you tweet and how often do you do it?

I tweet about a wide variety of topics. Most people have separate twitter accounts for business and their personal life, but mine is all rolled up into one account (@MissSuccess). So at any moment, I can be talking about ways the luxury brand Balmain (who just joined Twitter) can best leverage the network, my favorite song lyrics, a recent PR gaffe that made the morning news, etc. It really runs the gamut and seamlessly transitions from business to personal all the time.

I’ve been twitter for more than three years and have almost 75k tweets. So, I guess you could say that I tweet a lot.

How has your Twitter strategy evolved?

As my audience on Twitter has grown, in both size and diversity of background, I find that I’ve been filtering more. I’m a bit more conscious of how and what I tweet.

For instance, I have friends, colleagues, clients and complete strangers in my audience and when I didn’t have as many followers, I could talk to my closest friends without using the @ symbol. But as you can imagine, that would become really confusing to the majority of the people that follow me, so I had to stop doing that.

Besides that, my strategy has pretty much remained the same: value your audience, be yourself and share relevant information.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs who are trying to find the ROI in Twitter?

The first thing that I would say, is not to approach it as an ‘ROI’ situation. If they approach twitter, or any social network as if it’s a chore or a transaction, that’s all it will ever be and they probably won’t find much value in that.

With any new endeavor or platform, business owners should think about what their goals are and whether or not this platform is the right fit for those goals. They should also find a way to seamlessly make it a part of their daily routine, even if it’s just to send out a few tweets or updates per day, they need to jump right in and get active because that’s the only way to really learn how to best leverage the platform.

Another really important thing is to make sure you’re not in it for the instant gratification, because often there is none. Instead, focus on building your twitter or social networking strategies around your long-term goals.

I could talk about this all day, so if you’d like to learn more about how to best leverage Twitter for your business, feel free to email me at info@hos-pr.com.

About Sakita:

The HOS team is led by Sakita Holley. Sakita has amassed an impressive array of consumer, lifestyle, fashion, beauty and corporate communications experience over the years. Her inquisitive nature led to a fascination with the mechanics of brand building and the art of persuasion. This curiosity fueled her desire to one day be the chief architect or engineer of big name brands and innovative upstarts that test the status quo.

Sakita is passionate about revealing/activating a person’s hidden talents and strengths so that they can reach their dreams. Through her public relations work she has…

…helped individuals increase their visibility, reshape their personal brands and start/grow their own companies.

…equipped small business owners with the foundational tools and resources necessary to manage PR campaigns for their organizations.

…helped Fortune 100 companies sustain and grow market share, boost their thought leadership activity and increase media exposure for flagship research reports through the combined use of print, broadcast and social media.

…assisted students that are interested in PR get industry internships and jobs while also serving as a mentor.

Prior to launching House of Success, Sakita held various roles on account teams at Prudential Financial, Ogilvy PR Worldwide, Jade Dressler Communications, The Britto Agency and national non-profit Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. She graduated with honors and distinctions from Howard University.

To view Sakita’s website click here: http://hos-pr.com/