Twenty tips to help you get the most out of Twitter

Here at Sage Pay we are avid users of social media, and we know that many of you lot are too.  But once you’ve got your account up and running, what happens next?  We’ve been in contact with the team at MarketingDonut.co.uk for their top tips on how to make the most of Twitter.  Sonja Jefferson is owner of Valuable Content Ltd and an expert contributor to Marketing Donut, the marketing advice website for small businesses and she’s given us some invaluable advice below on how to get started:

Twitter is a remarkable social media platform for businesses. We love it as a way to connect with new people, keep in touch with those we know, find out what’s going on in our world and get our message out there. And all in 140 characters too!

But if you’re new to Twitter it can be more than a little confusing. You’ve set up your account but just exactly what do you say? What sort of information should you share? What rules do you have to play by?

Here’s a quick guide to the type of Twitter activity that works best:

1. Fill in your Twitter profile properly. You’d be amazed at the amount of people who don’t put any effort into their profile information. You have about three seconds when people check you out so make sure you write it well.

2. Have a good icon or image. Photos work best for a personal feed. Professional shots are best of all.

3. Include a link to your website or blog. This is VITAL if you want to be trusted on Twitter.

4. Find people to follow. Connect with others who you find interesting, people you know, clients, organisations you rate, authors, commentators in your field or journalists you admire. What type of Tweets do you respond to best?

5. Follow back. If people follow you and they look interesting, follow them back and see what they’ve got to say.

6. Be polite. Thank your new followers, acknowledge those who mention you or ‘retweet’ your posts.

7. RT, @, #, DM? Get up to speed with Twitter lingo. Learn from Twitter’s glossary here – http://business.twitter.com/basics/glossary.

8. Stay on message, most of the time. What do you want to be known for? Put thought into what you want to talk about. What’s the “red line” that runs through all that you do? Have an opinion. A strong theme to your Tweets really helps.

9. Write for your particular clients and customers. What do they want to know? What do they ask you? Educate, inform and entertain them. That’s the point.

10. Share valuable content. Post information you think they’d find useful or interesting – links to articles or video, share quotes, relevant news, books you’ve read, opinions, tips.

11. Make sure it’s not all about you. Me, me, me is seriously off-putting.

12. Use shortened links rather than full blown URLs. Bit.ly is good for this.

13. Don’t sell. This is not the place for a stream of high-pressure sales messages. Think of it as an online networking event, if you like that sort of thing. Promote your services occasionally but this should not be the main event. Far too many people get this wrong.

14. “Curate” good content. Share posts and articles by others that you think your readers will find valuable or back up your approach.

15. Engage. Talk to people directly by using @theirname. You’ll be surprised by the depth of relationships you can create here.

16. Ask questions. You can learn a lot from your followers (we’ve learned loads!). It’s incredible how supportive and useful this platform can be.

17. Tell them a bit about you. What are you up to? What’s news? Your choice about how much personal information you feel comfortable to share. You’ve got to find a voice that feels right for you.

18. Recommend others you rate and say why. Twitter is a trusted referral engine. Recommend suppliers, clients, commentators, friends, other Tweeters.

19. Organise your connections into lists. This will make it much easier for you as your Twitter connections build, and enables you to check into conversation on a particular subject.

20. Show up regularly. It doesn’t have to be every day (although that helps). Consistency is all. Check what people are saying about you often and reply promptly.

Whether you’re new to Twitter or you’re a Twitter pro, we’d love to hear from you about how and why you’re using this channel, so drop us a note below or send us a tweet!

You can find our accounts at:

Amy_Sagepay – Industry news and updates, events, press and PR, general chit-chat

Kay_Sagepay – Partner queries, new products and bolt-ons

Adam_Sagepay – Technical/Sales queries

System_Sagepay – Sage Pay’s live system feed

Game On…

This year our company resolution is to take the pressure out of getting set up online and to really champion those start-up businesses. So we recently announced an overhaul of our Merchant Services package for new e-tailers.

From speaking to hundreds of new businesses every month, we’re all too aware of the high set-up costs and lengthy approval processes which can make acquiring a merchant account, one of the most painful parts of setting up an online business.

David and Ben, co-founders of Pucket

We found in our 2011 e-business benchmark report, that the average time for a merchant account set up through external providers is seven weeks with one-in-ten internet business owners saying they pay over £500 in initial set-up costs.  And we think that’s too much!

The new and improved offering from Sage Pay and leading merchant account supplier Elavon, aims to provide merchant accounts in an average of four weeks, with no set-up costs, no monthly fees and no long-term contracts.  We now have thousands of business using our Merchant Services package and Pucket Enterprises is just one of them.

Pucket Enterprises is a company created by David Harvey and Ben Lewis.  After seeing two old men playing the traditional game Passe Trappe in a southern French town, David and Ben headed straight to a local DIY shop to buy the materials to make their own updated version of the game.  Pucket was born.  Several years and many, many games of Pucket later, the two-man-team decided that it was just too good to keep to themselves- they had to bring the game to the UK- and were inspired to start up their own online business.

Sage Pay modelling the Pucket Board

The Pucket game involves catapulting wooden ‘pucks’ across a handcrafted wooden board and on to your competitor’s side through a small hole. Any ‘pucks’ that arrive on your side must be sent back before you win.  Right, got it?

No longer making the games by hand, Pucket’s founders sourced skilled woodworking craftsmen based in India to handcraft the games out of Sheesham or Haldu wood and as part of their working ethos, they are proud to support Indian Handicrafts and ensure their workers receive a fair wage.

Originally using just PayPal to accept payments on their site, David and Ben struggled with the amount of queries that it raised.  “When we used PayPal to handle payments, my personal phone number was on the website, and I would receive countless calls from people who had forgotten their PayPal password, or couldn’t change the delivery address, etc.” says David.

Deciding to move their gateway to Sage Pay, The Pucket team chose to take advantage of Sage Pay’s Merchant Services package too.  Although taking them awhile to build and test the checkout functionality on their website, Pucket Enterprises are really happy with the solution.  David told us “The business has grown more than we dared hope. Most of our business is direct-to-consumer, through our website. Sage Pay was recommended to us by our web developers as being good to work with, and they worked out significantly cheaper than PayPal. They were very helpful at getting things transferred smoothly, and now we can take payments by phone too.’

Pucket Enterprises have stuck to selling just their core product-the game of Pucket- but it’s now sold in Selfridges and the Conran Shop, as well as two dozen independent shops.

We’re all huge fans here at Sage Pay HQ and can often be found holding Pucket competitions during our lunch hours!

We’re proud to announce Pucket as our February Business of the Month for their entrepreneurial spirit by having a vision and taking a chance, which is well and truly paying off!

For further information on Sage Pay’s Merchant Service package, please visit: http://www.sagepay.com/merchant-services

Are you experienced….Part 2

I thought I’d follow up Simon’s blog about customer experience to let you know how we’re putting these ideas into practice.  Afterall, it’s all very well to talk about these things, but are we putting our money where our mouth is?

We’ve been looking at our current levels of support (which many of you already tell us is very good) to see how we can improve it further. If you’ve visited our website in the last few days, you will have found our brand new knowledge base is up and running providing you with another option to resolve a query. But sometimes you just want to speak to a person, a human that understands the issues you’re facing and wants to help you get a resolution…I know I get totally frustrated when I need support and have to go through the dreaded multiple menu systems before eventually speaking to someone who’s not really that interested in speaking to me (I can occasionally be a little sarcastic – I need to work on not doing that!).

Joking aside, we put alot of focus on quality and recruit people that really want to assist our customers.  In fact,  we have doubled our support operation in the last 2 years and also opened up our telephone lines so that we are there for our 30,000 customers 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Last month we had a stand at Internet World at Earls Court where many of you came to see us.  As part of a number of e-commerce support initiatives, we were running all kinds of clinics from ‘Getting Started Online’ to ‘Benchmark Your Business’ using our soon to be released E-Business Benchmark Report.  Here are  a few pictures of what we got up to…including our now infamous Super Human Support mobile!

Personally, I love to listen to any feedback you want to give me (good or bad) as it’s the best way to improve what we currently do – so please drop me a line directly if you have any comments at Colin@sagepay.com.

Twitter down to a ‘tea’

This month I feel as though I’ve spent most of it on social media of some sort.  From manning Sage Pay’s Twitter account along with my dedicated social media team, to spending my free time uploading pictures of the last night out with friends on Facebook and keeping up with the gossip.  It’s gotten to the point where I know pretty much everything that’s been going on without actually being told by anyone.

The transition of these types of media from a social ‘fad’ to a strategic business channel has gone from strength to strength.  Research by New Media Age has recently shown that 87 of the top 100 brands in the Superbrands list have a Facebook page.  72 of the brands have a Twitter page and 68 have a YouTube account.

We are just about to release our E-Business Benchmark Report, a survey completed by 2000 online businesses.  An interesting point that came up was that the perceived influence of social media amongst respondents was really low-less than 5%-however when you look at the impact on actual sales, the jump is a whopping 71%.  So although social media did not prove to be an effective way to draw shoppers to your website, it was a successful way of boosting conversion rates and improving customer loyalty, encouraging shoppers to return to your site.  Social media is giving brands a chance to interact with their customers, get their feedback on future products, enhance their reputation and upsell their products.

Since launching our own Twitter account and following many of our own customers, we’ve noticed a few that stand out in terms of their social media strategy.

Our customer teapigs use their Twitter account not only for customer service, but to advertise offers and promotions.  What sets them apart is that unlike many other businesses I have come across, they don’t strip away their personalities.  They use them as a way to connect with and relate to their customers and build rapport.  Working on customer loyalty means that these same customers are coming back again and again and conversion rates are high.  So team the friendly customer service with the gorgeous range of teas from Chocolate Flake tea to Liquorice and Mint and you have a winning combination.

As the official tweeter for teapigs, Hannah told us “Social media is very important to teapigs and helps us reach our fans and customers worldwide.  We use it to keep everyone up to date with news from within the company, events we’re going to be at, competitions, promotions and also general chit-chat.  The communication network of Twitter, Facebook and the teapigs blog has allowed us to spread the word and share the passion for what we do, all from the comfort of our little office in Brentford!”

We are proud to announce teapigs as our May Business of the Month!  And whilst they spend hours slaving away over a hot social platform, I’ll be relaxing with a cup of Organic Honey Bush and Rooibos!

To celebrate and to help you enjoy some real tea in the office, teapigs are offering a 15% discount off all teas (excluding cheeky deals) when you enter the promotional code ‘office‘ when buying online! Just click here to see their extensive range of teas.

Are you experienced?

I’ve gone through a bit of a ‘personal journey’ (as the self-help gurus like to say) over the past few months. At Sage we’ve been putting increased focus in our business planning on the customer experience. How can we make a good experience better? Consistently better. So much so, that it becomes something out of the ordinary in fact. Well isn’t that an obvious thing to do you might say? Exactly what I thought…

What’s become clear to me is that there is a big difference between being customer focused or delivering a strong customer proposition, and deciding to differentiate on customer experience. First of all, what is the customer experience? Often we think simply about customer service or support, but the experience is everything, every interaction between a customer and a company, its product and its service. So take coffee as an example. Coffee beans are a commodity. Nescafe is a product, nicely adding value to the basic commodity by packaging it up and saving the customer the bother of roasting and grinding. Add more value to a product and you end up with an experience. So Starbucks have taken coffee further and provided the customer with even more convenience, a plethora of choice and a comfortable place to drink their coffee. In this scenario what makes for a good or bad experience goes well beyond the quality of the coffee beans or how the staff treat you. For example, Starbucks introduced as part of its proposition, an offer to remake your coffee if you’re not happy with it. The music is carefully selected as with all other aspects of the environment to appeal to a specific customer segment. [If you’re interested further on the general topic, check out books by Joe Pine.]

So how does all that relate to Sage Pay? Well we’re busy looking at every aspect of our customers’ experience and figuring out how to make it better. Some changes have already been introduced, such as our 24/7 telephone support and new website, making it easier and quicker for a potential customer, existing customer, partner or developer to navigate and find the information they need.  We are also about to launch our E-Business Benchmark Report which will allow you to plot where you are within your sector in terms of conversion rates, fraud prevention and bank chargebacks from a study undertaken by over 2000 online businesses.

As an infamous TV character says….”Simples.” There will be many other developments too over the course of 2010 so stay tuned!