Hone Your Hook and Draw People Into It and You

What are your defining characteristics and features? When people describe you, what words do they use in their description? Is it your hair, voice, style, personality or a color, a bow tie, a slogan, an idea, a communication style?

I think of this as the combination of my genetic DNA and my vision of the person I want you to see.

What’s your hook value, and how do you draw people into you?

Assistant Professor of Communication at Florida State College of Jacksonville, Bakari Akil, said in his Psychology Today article “What’s Your Hook Value:”

To attract, gain access or to be invited again into the business or social circles you are interested in, you have to discover and develop the character traits or qualities that other members will consider valuable to their group.

He describes hook value as making people crave the “insert your name” experience. A clever way to tie the hook to our personal brand as an experience.

Toastmasters, a national public speaking organization, outlines several kinds of hooks to draw people into you and their benefits. They are:

• Personal stories
• Props
• Surprise tactics

These are effectively used to grab attention, make you and your message more memorable, persuasive and clear.

In today’s content, connectivity and engagement world, your hook, premise and promise in that blog post, interview, social media message, video, podcast, keynote, that you want people to remember and become known for - is required. You really can’t stand out for the right reasons unless you have a memorable hook.

In movies, music, business, sports and political worlds we remember ET, King Kong, Smile by Charlie Chaplin, Help by The Beatles, People by Streisand, Bill Clinton, Lebron and Richard Branson because of  their unique, memorable and likeable hooks.

Express Yourself

Find opportunities to express your unique personality traits, gifts and intangibles anytime, in anyway and anywhere you can. Being kind, generous, helping people, having a sense of humor, cultivating integrity and fostering team work will make you memorable.

Interact

Have regular interactions and contact with people of differing personalities, points of view and stages in life. Regular communication with a wide range of people brings out the best in all of us and helps us define each other. Cross generational, cultural and demographic engagement is vital to our overall survival.

Cultivate

Cultivate inspiring environments and communities. We all have to live in the world as it is and sometimes that world is hard, cruel and unjust. But, we have the power and choice to create the environments and communities of people and their energy that best serves us and most inspires us - and eliminate any that don’t.

Participate

Participate daily in things that you enjoy most that enhances your spirit. Whatever moves you, be it music, art, volunteering, reading or accomplishing a hard task. Do it every day and keep that a prominent daily priority.

Speak Publicly

Go one on one or speak in front of groups of people more. Getting more personal with people one on one breaks barriers and builds intimacy in relationships. Who do you want to get to know more and who do you want to get to know you? If you are reserved or shy, practice speaking in front of groups of people where you feel familiar and safe.

Your hook is all about:

• Memorability
• Likeability
• Legacy
• Uniqueness

What’s your hook and how do you draw people into it and you?

Rock your day whatever you do, XO.

Business Hook Photo via Shutterstock

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Zoho Introduces a Small Business CRM With “Pay What You Want” Pricing

Call it a new take on a “freemium” pricing model.  Today Zoho introduced a new CRM product for small businesses called Zoho ContactManager.  After a 30-day trial, you can pay as little as $1.00 per month, or whatever you decide you want to pay. The company says the pricing model is an industry first.

Zoho already offers a full CRM or customer relationship management product.  The new ContactManager is a more streamlined product, specifically for small businesses. You can organize and manage your business contacts.  You can see a unified view of activity related to a given contact, in one place (see image below).  It also has native app capabilities with the iPhone and Android phones, so you can use it on those devices (pictured above).

According to Brent Leary, CRM industry analyst and partner at CRM Essentials, “It’s an entry-level product that makes for an easy transition between using a solution like Excel, to using a full-featured CRM product. It’s a cloud-based contact manager made for small businesses who need to share contacts, not do more complex things like manage the entire sales process.  So small businesses will not be overwhelmed by all that comes with some CRM applications.”

Leary says the pricing model may sound crazy but makes sense for a vendor like Zoho â€" and makes sense for small businesses to try.

“The pricing model is totally a customer acquisition experiment” to take away the barriers for small businesses to try it, Leary says. He adds that this new small business CRM product from Zoho makes the decision process easy for small business customers.  ” Zoho has created something that makes it almost a no-brainer to try if you are a small company just starting to get up to speed with the cloud â€" both from the product perspective, and also from a pricing model perspective.  There’s almost no reason not to try it,”  he adds.

Leary says ContactManager integrates with other Zoho services. That is a smart move, because it will build customer loyalty among small businesses while they are young, and gives Zoho additional opportunities to upsell to paid products, including the full-featured Zoho CRM, as those small businesses grow, he notes.

The product allows small businesses to easily pull information from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  Then the information is placed in a central location where team members can have access.  The new product also integrates with Zoho Mail and Zoho Creator.

Zoho ContactManager requires no contract. As is the trend these days, it requires no credit card to start the 30-day trial.

Zoho Corp is based in Pleasanton, California and also has offices in Chennai, India. According to the company, it has more than 100,000 customers worldwide. It also has an extensive developer community that creates add-ons to extend the usefulness of Zoho products and integrate with third party applications.

For additional background, see Leary’s 2012 interview with Raju Vegesna of Zoho, about the company’s philosophy toward small business CRM.

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Three Solutions That Let You Control Your Video Conference From Your Keyboard

Video conferencing systems are opening up communication between small businesses and their clients, preventing the need to travel in order to have a face-to-face conversation. As technology has evolved, however, businesses are still struggling to launch and manage phone calls, whether they’re video-chatting from their cubicles or launching a video call in a conference room full of executives.

Cisco Jabber Keyboard

Logitech has created a solution with the launch of its UC keyboard. The K-725C incorporates buttons that allow users to answer calls, adjust the volume of calls, mute audio or video, and headset control directly on the keyboard. This is the first enterprise-grade keyboard that incorporates phone and video call controls, designed specifically to work with Cisco Jabber.

Currently, the Logitech K-725C only works with Cisco Jabber 9.2 and higher, which is great for businesses who use the popular video service. Cisco Jabber is a collaboration tool that allows businesses to make video calls and share presentations using a variety of devices. However, Cisco can be a pricier solution than some of its competitors, some of which are free.

Skype Keyboard Shortcuts

Skype is a free video conferencing service service acquired by Microsoft in 2011. It was once popular primarily with home users, but small businesses have begun to realize the benefits of the service, especially since the software is now built into the Windows operating system.

Skype users don’t have to buy a specialized keyboard to quickly access the service. Microsoft has created hotkeys to allow users to launch the service directly from the keyboard. Those hotkeys include:

• Control + S to take a snapshot during calls
• Control + M to mute the microphone
• Alt + Page Up to answer a call
• Control + Alt + Page Up to answer a call with video

But first you’ll need to activate hotkeys in Skype. Skype provides step-by-step instructions for doing that here.

Adobe Connect

While Adobe Connect isn’t free, it’s popular with many small businesses due to its compatibility with a variety of platforms. Like Adobe Reader, Adobe Connect presentations and conferences can be viewed by someone who doesn’t own the full version of the software. Adobe Connect has a list of keyboard shortcuts, both for attendee management and presentation control purposes.

Like Cisco Jabber, Adobe Connect can be pricey for smaller enterprises, with plans starting at $45 per month per host. While Adobe Connect has more robust features than Skype, its price may be out of reach for many small businesses.

Cisco and Adobe both have extensive, professional platforms for video conferencing, but small businesses who are struggling to build their brands while saving as much money as possible may find the price too high. For businesses interested in merely conducting video conferences, Skype’s free platform will likely suffice. However, the presentation capabilities of both Adobe Connect and Cisco Jabber may be worth investigating for most businesses. Whichever choice your business makes, be aware that you don’t have to pay extra for a paid platform simply to have easy keyboard access. All three options have keyboard shortcuts that can implement basic video chat commands without touching a mouse.

5 Task Management Solutions For Improved Team Collaboration

Task management software is an incredibly powerful tool that can help you assign tasks, track progress, share new information and drive collaboration within the team, all without having to track individual emails or hold frequent project review meetings. In a recent post, Ramon Ray briefly touched upon the benefits of task management software. 

In fact whether you run a publishing firm, home-delivery service, business consultancy or a manufacturing unit, task management software can deliver many benefits such as:

• Improved employee productivity: Fewer business meetings to discuss progress on assigned tasks means that employees will be able to utilize their time more productively.
• Improved service delivery: Get things done faster than competition.
• Lower project costs: With everyone in loop on relevant information, there are fewer chances of errors / delays
• Supports ‘work from anywhere’ culture: Most task management solutions can be accessed through a web browser and therefore can be updated remotely.

Worried that everyone in your team isn’t working in the same direction or that your are wasting too many productive hours collecting information from individual members? Perhaps one of these five web-based task management applications can help.

• DropTask :  The first thing that strikes you about this application is the beautiful visual display. Each task is set up as a colorful circle, which can be prioritized, grouped and shared with others in the team. Tasks which require greater effort for completion are displayed as bigger circles and can be filtered for view as per priority flags or progress status. For those in your team that prefer things the old fashioned way, tasks can also be viewed as a list. Designed for both individual and business use, this application is currently available free of cost.
• Trello: Another visual task management application it has a free and paid version at $5 per month for individuals as well as a business version with advanced features at $25 a month. If you have been using a white-board and post-its to track things in the work place, then this will be a familiar transition. Projects are organized as boards, with lists under each board ( to-do, doing and done) to record tasks. Tasks can be reorganized between lists through a simple drag and drop. A progress bar shows how close to completion a project is based on completed tasks.
• Basecamp by 37 Signals:  Basecamp offers all the basic project management tools for collaborating with a large team. The project management portal is the central place where all activity around a project occurs. Each member can view tiles for projects that they are a part of and access information as per defined roles. A neat option is the Catchup button which summarizes the progress made during the day. You can test this application for free for 60 days for a single project. The paid plans start at $20 a month for 10 projects.
• ProofHub: Launched in 2010 this software has all the essentials of a project management tool - integrated project manager, milestones, notification and inbuilt chat.  The high resolution image viewing make it especially suitable for those in the design business. Information on multiple-members working on the same project can be hidden using the aptly named ‘casper’ mode. The application can be used for 30 days free of cost. The paid membership varies from $15 to $149 per month.
• Asana: Used by the team at Smallbiztechnology, this project management software allows you to set up and monitor multiple projects and assign tasks and subtasks within each to different members of your team. Other key features include the ability to add information directly from email, color code projects and chat within tasks with other members and/or guests. You can use the software free for the first 15 members of your team, with unlimited guests allowed as well. With additional members, plans begin at $50 per month.

While DropTask and Trello are more apt for organizing day to day team tasks,  Basecamp and ProofHub are more suitable for larger collaboration projects involving geographically dispersed teams.

Do Men and Women Have Different Small Business Outlooks?

How are men and women entrepreneurs feeling about their businesses’ prospects for the coming year? The 5th in a series of studies by Hiscox Small Business, the DNA of an Entrepreneur (PDF), found that while both men and women small business owners are optimistic about their futures, there are some important differences in how they run their businesses.

Overall, half of all entrepreneurs are optimistic about the coming year. That’s a decrease from last year, when 55 percent of all U.S. small business owners said they were optimistic about the coming year.

The level of optimism relates closely to how much growth the entrepreneurs had experiencedâ€"and when it came to growth, there wasn’t a huge difference between men and women.

About 50 percent of men and 45 percent of women say their businesses had increased sales in the past 12 months, while 57 percent of men and 52 percent of women have added new customers. The growth gap between the genders has narrowed quite a bit since Hiscox’s 2011 survey, when 43 percent of male small business owners had revenue growth compared to just 34 percent of women.

Both men and women also feel pretty much the same about government and its relationship with small business. Almost two-thirds of men (62 percent) and women (63 percent) think the tax system doesn’t favor small businesses, while 64 percent of men and 61 percent of women feel that bureaucracy is a “major barrier” to starting a small business.

Hours Worked

Male small business owners are more likely to be working full-time hours or more, while females are more likely to be working part-time. About a third (34 percent) of men say they work an average of 40 to 49 hours per week; the same percentage of women say they work an average of 29 hours or less per week.

The difference makes sense when you consider that a whopping 70 percent of women in the study say “flexibility over working hours” is a main benefit of running their own businesses as compared to being an employee. In contrast, most men say “less bureaucracy” was the main benefit to running their own companies.

But working fewer hours could also be holding women’s growth back.

Hiring Plans

More than twice as many men as women (32 percent vs. 15 percent) say they plan to hire new staff in the coming year. Considering how many women in the study work part-time, perhaps they don’t need employees.

On the other hand, perhaps hiring (whether employees, interns or independent contractors) could help their companies grow beyond part-time status, while delegating to those workers could enable women business owners to keep enjoying the same flexibility and limited hours they cherish.

Social Media Use

Female business owners are more likely than men to use social media in almost all facets of their business operations. Women were more likely than men to use social media to stay in touch with customers; for communications, marketing and public relations; for prospecting; for internal use and for market research.

The only area where men were more likely to use social media was hiring (18 percent of men use it, compared to 7 percent of women). It’s no secret women in general are more active on many social networksâ€"apparently, the difference carries over to the business world too.

Men, step up your social game, and you could see corresponding business growth.

Men and Women Photo via Shutterstock

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5 Task Management Solutions For Improved Team Collaboration

Task management software is an incredibly powerful tool that can help you assign tasks, track progress, share new information and drive collaboration within the team, all without having to track individual emails or hold frequent project review meetings. In a recent post, Ramon Ray briefly touched upon the benefits of task management software. 

In fact whether you run a publishing firm, home-delivery service, business consultancy or a manufacturing unit, task management software can deliver many benefits such as:

• Improved employee productivity: Fewer business meetings to discuss progress on assigned tasks means that employees will be able to utilize their time more productively.
• Improved service delivery: Get things done faster than competition.
• Lower project costs: With everyone in loop on relevant information, there are fewer chances of errors / delays
• Supports ‘work from anywhere’ culture: Most task management solutions can be accessed through a web browser and therefore can be updated remotely.

Worried that everyone in your team isn’t working in the same direction or that your are wasting too many productive hours collecting information from individual members? Perhaps one of these five web-based task management applications can help.

• DropTask :  The first thing that strikes you about this application is the beautiful visual display. Each task is set up as a colorful circle, which can be prioritized, grouped and shared with others in the team. Tasks which require greater effort for completion are displayed as bigger circles and can be filtered for view as per priority flags or progress status. For those in your team that prefer things the old fashioned way, tasks can also be viewed as a list. Designed for both individual and business use, this application is currently available free of cost.
• Trello: Another visual task management application it has a free and paid version at $5 per month for individuals as well as a business version with advanced features at $25 a month. If you have been using a white-board and post-its to track things in the work place, then this will be a familiar transition. Projects are organized as boards, with lists under each board ( to-do, doing and done) to record tasks. Tasks can be reorganized between lists through a simple drag and drop. A progress bar shows how close to completion a project is based on completed tasks.
• Basecamp by 37 Signals:  Basecamp offers all the basic project management tools for collaborating with a large team. The project management portal is the central place where all activity around a project occurs. Each member can view tiles for projects that they are a part of and access information as per defined roles. A neat option is the Catchup button which summarizes the progress made during the day. You can test this application for free for 60 days for a single project. The paid plans start at $20 a month for 10 projects.
• ProofHub: Launched in 2010 this software has all the essentials of a project management tool - integrated project manager, milestones, notification and inbuilt chat.  The high resolution image viewing make it especially suitable for those in the design business. Information on multiple-members working on the same project can be hidden using the aptly named ‘casper’ mode. The application can be used for 30 days free of cost. The paid membership varies from $15 to $149 per month.
• Asana: Used by the team at Smallbiztechnology, this project management software allows you to set up and monitor multiple projects and assign tasks and subtasks within each to different members of your team. Other key features include the ability to add information directly from email, color code projects and chat within tasks with other members and/or guests. You can use the software free for the first 15 members of your team, with unlimited guests allowed as well. With additional members, plans begin at $50 per month.

While DropTask and Trello are more apt for organizing day to day team tasks,  Basecamp and ProofHub are more suitable for larger collaboration projects involving geographically dispersed teams.

Three Solutions That Let You Control Your Video Conference From Your Keyboard

Video conferencing systems are opening up communication between small businesses and their clients, preventing the need to travel in order to have a face-to-face conversation. As technology has evolved, however, businesses are still struggling to launch and manage phone calls, whether they’re video-chatting from their cubicles or launching a video call in a conference room full of executives.

Cisco Jabber Keyboard

Logitech has created a solution with the launch of its UC keyboard. The K-725C incorporates buttons that allow users to answer calls, adjust the volume of calls, mute audio or video, and headset control directly on the keyboard. This is the first enterprise-grade keyboard that incorporates phone and video call controls, designed specifically to work with Cisco Jabber.

Currently, the Logitech K-725C only works with Cisco Jabber 9.2 and higher, which is great for businesses who use the popular video service. Cisco Jabber is a collaboration tool that allows businesses to make video calls and share presentations using a variety of devices. However, Cisco can be a pricier solution than some of its competitors, some of which are free.

Skype Keyboard Shortcuts

Skype is a free video conferencing service service acquired by Microsoft in 2011. It was once popular primarily with home users, but small businesses have begun to realize the benefits of the service, especially since the software is now built into the Windows operating system.

Skype users don’t have to buy a specialized keyboard to quickly access the service. Microsoft has created hotkeys to allow users to launch the service directly from the keyboard. Those hotkeys include:

• Control + S to take a snapshot during calls
• Control + M to mute the microphone
• Alt + Page Up to answer a call
• Control + Alt + Page Up to answer a call with video

But first you’ll need to activate hotkeys in Skype. Skype provides step-by-step instructions for doing that here.

Adobe Connect

While Adobe Connect isn’t free, it’s popular with many small businesses due to its compatibility with a variety of platforms. Like Adobe Reader, Adobe Connect presentations and conferences can be viewed by someone who doesn’t own the full version of the software. Adobe Connect has a list of keyboard shortcuts, both for attendee management and presentation control purposes.

Like Cisco Jabber, Adobe Connect can be pricey for smaller enterprises, with plans starting at $45 per month per host. While Adobe Connect has more robust features than Skype, its price may be out of reach for many small businesses.

Cisco and Adobe both have extensive, professional platforms for video conferencing, but small businesses who are struggling to build their brands while saving as much money as possible may find the price too high. For businesses interested in merely conducting video conferences, Skype’s free platform will likely suffice. However, the presentation capabilities of both Adobe Connect and Cisco Jabber may be worth investigating for most businesses. Whichever choice your business makes, be aware that you don’t have to pay extra for a paid platform simply to have easy keyboard access. All three options have keyboard shortcuts that can implement basic video chat commands without touching a mouse.

5 Ideas to Incorporate into Any Startup

Some risk is a natural part of being an entrepreneur and many entrepreneurs experience some exhilaration from all this. They are, after all, creating a new business from nothing, innovating with new products and services and creating companies that make a huge difference in the world.

But while there are no hard and fast rules for creating something totally new, there are some basic ideas that seem to work well for many entrepreneurs. Though they certainly do not guarantee success, they may indicate whether you’re at least headed in the right direction.

Below are five ideas you should consider incorporating into all your startup ideas.

Always Think Disruption

The best startup ideas are about doing something better. As a result, they usually change the way everyone used to do things, making the old way obsolete.

This is what entrepreneurs mean when they talk about disruption.

For example, Dropbox almost made external hard drives obsolete. And that’s not all. The service also ended up creating a whole new market complete with competitors in the rapidly expanding cloud storage niche.

WordPress and Adobe Muse are two related but different products continuing to disrupt the web design market.

Entrepreneur Ilya Pozin shares 10 more startups that are changing the world and what we can learn from them in a post on Forbes.com.

Apply the 25 Percent Rule

One way to think about your product or service, especially in a crowded niche, is to think about how it will compete.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to employ what’s called the 25 percent rule.

Your product or service should be able to do what competitors can for your customers, only 25 percent faster or more effectively.

They might receive 25 percent more referrals for their businesses by using your service or your product or service should be able to deliver customer satisfaction at 25 percent less cost.

Be Prepared to Fail Fast

With the risk of starting a new venture comes the risk of failure.

But failure too can help an entrepreneur learn and improve a product or service. The key is to fail early so the failures can help you find success.

Even huge companies the size of Microsoft have learned the importance of failing fast in an effort to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation. Don’t let your startup be any different.

Build a Strong Supportive Network

Startups need a support system. Since your business is unlikely to be an overnight success, you will need a loyal group of savvy users to sustain you in the beginning, giving you feedback on your product or service and helping you grow.

Creating a network will require offering people something of value in return for their involvement, often free of charge.

Whether it’s the free content you provide on your website or perhaps free information videos related to your product or service, offering value for free is a great way to build a community that will help you spread the word about your startup to others.

Keep Your Startup Lean

Keeping your startup lean means taking a very different approach to business. Think virtual offices, scaling as you grow, funding as you profit and hiring as you scale.
Steve Blank, a consulting associate professor at Stanford University, explains in a post for Harvard Business Review why lean startups are so important.

According to the decades-old formula, you write a business plan, pitch it to investors, assemble a team, introduce a product, and start selling as hard as you can. And somewhere in this sequence of events, you’ll probably suffer a fatal setback. The odds are not with you…

Blank quotes Harvard Business School Research that suggests 75 percent of all startups will fail.

Instead, Blank favors the “lean start-up” model. The approach looks at experimentation and customer feedback as an alternative to a lot of elaborate planning. But it also requires less investment up front.

Is the lean startup approach for you?

Idea Photo via Shutterstock

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5 Ideas to Incorporate into Any Startup

Some risk is a natural part of being an entrepreneur and many entrepreneurs experience some exhilaration from all this. They are, after all, creating a new business from nothing, innovating with new products and services and creating companies that make a huge difference in the world.

But while there are no hard and fast rules for creating something totally new, there are some basic ideas that seem to work well for many entrepreneurs. Though they certainly do not guarantee success, they may indicate whether you’re at least headed in the right direction.

Below are five ideas you should consider incorporating into all your startup ideas.

Always Think Disruption

The best startup ideas are about doing something better. As a result, they usually change the way everyone used to do things, making the old way obsolete.

This is what entrepreneurs mean when they talk about disruption.

For example, Dropbox almost made external hard drives obsolete. And that’s not all. The service also ended up creating a whole new market complete with competitors in the rapidly expanding cloud storage niche.

WordPress and Adobe Muse are two related but different products continuing to disrupt the web design market.

Entrepreneur Ilya Pozin shares 10 more startups that are changing the world and what we can learn from them in a post on Forbes.com.

Apply the 25 Percent Rule

One way to think about your product or service, especially in a crowded niche, is to think about how it will compete.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to employ what’s called the 25 percent rule.

Your product or service should be able to do what competitors can for your customers, only 25 percent faster or more effectively.

They might receive 25 percent more referrals for their businesses by using your service or your product or service should be able to deliver customer satisfaction at 25 percent less cost.

Be Prepared to Fail Fast

With the risk of starting a new venture comes the risk of failure.

But failure too can help an entrepreneur learn and improve a product or service. The key is to fail early so the failures can help you find success.

Even huge companies the size of Microsoft have learned the importance of failing fast in an effort to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation. Don’t let your startup be any different.

Build a Strong Supportive Network

Startups need a support system. Since your business is unlikely to be an overnight success, you will need a loyal group of savvy users to sustain you in the beginning, giving you feedback on your product or service and helping you grow.

Creating a network will require offering people something of value in return for their involvement, often free of charge.

Whether it’s the free content you provide on your website or perhaps free information videos related to your product or service, offering value for free is a great way to build a community that will help you spread the word about your startup to others.

Keep Your Startup Lean

Keeping your startup lean means taking a very different approach to business. Think virtual offices, scaling as you grow, funding as you profit and hiring as you scale.
Steve Blank, a consulting associate professor at Stanford University, explains in a post for Harvard Business Review why lean startups are so important.

According to the decades-old formula, you write a business plan, pitch it to investors, assemble a team, introduce a product, and start selling as hard as you can. And somewhere in this sequence of events, you’ll probably suffer a fatal setback. The odds are not with you…

Blank quotes Harvard Business School Research that suggests 75 percent of all startups will fail.

Instead, Blank favors the “lean start-up” model. The approach looks at experimentation and customer feedback as an alternative to a lot of elaborate planning. But it also requires less investment up front.

Is the lean startup approach for you?

Idea Photo via Shutterstock

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5 Ways To Turn Up the Volume With Twitter

Twitter can be a great way to amplify your message…if you can get your tweets to be heard above the din.

With about 200,000 monthly users and counting, Twitter can seem a bit overwhelming at times. As Lisa Barone explains, getting attention for your tweets can be challenging:

For a brand with a voice and something to say, Twitter acts as a powerful communication medium allowing you to put your stamp on things and get yourself heard. But let’s face it: Twitter is also kind of noisy. Your success on the platform rests on your ability to make your tweets stand out and gain visibility in your customers’ eyes.

Fortunately, there are ways to increase your odds of getting heard at least by your target audience even with all the noise out there. Below are some tips you might want to consider to both crank up the volume of your Twitter account and fine tune your message to reach your target listeners.

Start with the Right Data

Data on Twitter and other social media channels seems to be everywhere. Start by examining some of this information to see what it can tell you about Twitter users in general. Every person is different, of course, but understanding who is using Twitter and a bit about their preferences may give you insight into how to craft your tweets.

For example, social media software company Beevolve has compiled data from 36 million Twitter profiles. And the results provide some major insights. For example, did you know the vast majority of Twitter users are young and that more women use the platform than men?

The study shows the vast majority, 73.7 percent, of Twitter users are between the ages of 15 and 25 and 53 percent are female.

How might this information affect the way you tailor your next Twitter message?

Use Promoted Tweets

You don’t need to be a social media rock star to add major amps to your Twitter account. In fact, Twitter’s new promoted tweets are proving very effective at getting a message across.

For example, when British Airways allegedly lost his father’s luggage, Chicago-based business man Hasan Syed paid more than $1,000 to give his promoted tweets the boost they needed.

The effort paid off. Syed not only reached an estimated 50,000 Twitter users, his tweets were also picked up by major news media eventually bringing an apology from the airline.

Imagine how far your message could reach.

Do More Listening

Sometimes the key to getting your tweets seen by your fans is to pay more attention to what your audience wants. As Lisa Barone explains:

The good news is your customers will tell you if your Twitter strategy is working. They’ll tell you through increased RTs, blog comments, site traffic, additional social media interaction, etc. So listen to them. If you see that certain types of content are doing better, it’s a sign your audience wants more of that.

You’ll likely need to try a lot of different approaches with your tweets in the beginning, just to find out what works. Then watch your audience and learn.

Engage, Engage, Engage

Social media is all about…well, being social. There’s no point in trying to raise your voice unless you’ve found someone to talk to.

For this, Lisa suggests some simple techniques. You can use keyword searches, look for people who have already retweeted one of your posts or find potential clients and customers on Twitter.

Then, of course, chat them up, she suggests.

Become part of their conversation, answer their questions or start a conversation of your own. Just get started!

Be Sure to Personalize

Just retweeting the latest news from your industry won’t do. Remember, anyone can do that and there are probably plenty of them doing it already.

The real art of tweeting effectively is to add a bit of your own distinctiveness in every 140 character message, says Lisa.

To do this, you must do much more than simply post the title of the article you’re sharing and a link. Try to dig a little deeper.

Try to share what you think about the post too. What does it mean? What do you as a thought leader in your field conclude from it? You may also want to pick out a quote, an interesting point or an important statistic from the post you’re sharing. It will make your own tweet more memorable and sharable.

Have any suggestions you could share about using Twitter more effectively?

Crank Up the Volume Photo via Shutterstock

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