It was not that long ago, that I was of the belief that social media was used primarily by people that believed someone cared about what they were doing minute by minute.  I believed that social media platforms such as Twitter were used by famous people to communicate with their fans or kids with controlling parents and those that just thought they were important.  To me, Twitter was absolutely useless.  Not only did I not have anything exciting to tell anyone on a minute by minute basis but, I couldn’t think of anyone that really cared what I was doing at any given moment each day.    Who cares if I am at the grocery store or the gas station or the coffee shop?  Nobody!

Suffice it to say, because of all of that, I never even really looked at Twitter.  I decided this past summer, however, I needed to check it out and try to learn what was really going on there.  When I first started watching, I did not have a clue what was going on.  With all the @this and #that and RT and only 140 characters, I was pretty sure that everyone was talking in some kind of secret code.  I could not see any conversations going on or anything that was of value to anyone.

Knowing that there had to be a reason for what everyone was doing, I decided to stick around and figure it out.  I kept saying (to myself) there had to be a benefit to it or all those people would not be there.

Maybe I’m slow or maybe it’s just that I’m not 20 something, but it took me more than a few days to figure out what was going on and after much reading, I ended up buying an ebook to help me decipher the code.  I used Nathan Hangen’s Twitter Rockstar to help me figure it out and I am glad I did.  This ebook is a wealth of information from setting up your account to learning the language to using Twitter properly.

Anyway, now I get it and realize how valuable a tool this can be for all types of businesses.  It is necessary.  You really do owe it to your business to learn how to use this amazing social media tool.  Not only can it be valuable for your business, it can be fun as well.

We’ll talk more here about the benefits and how it works in other posts but if you just can’t wait, check out Twitter Rockstar.  It will get you up and running in no time.

In the last post, “It’s All About The Numb3rs”, we talked about how to increase traffic by improving the outside appearance of the store.  With that you have created a welcoming atmosphere on the outside and hopefully have set a theme that now needs to be carried throughout the inside of the store.

Take a look at the inside of your store, a really good look.  What is it that you see and feel?  It is what you wanted to present to your customers?  Is there continuity in the design?  Is there any design at all? These are all things that you need to consider when looking at the inside of your store.

Let’s take, for example, a Cajun restaurant.  Do the colors and decorations give the feel of New Orleans or something else that represents Cajun?  Maybe it’s Mardi Gras or voodoo dolls or just southern charm but the feel of the restaurant needs to be Cajun and have an atmosphere that represents that.

If you have an oriental store, the décor should represent the orient.  It would be just strange (although I have seen strange) to walk into a Cajun store that is decorated with oriental stuff wouldn’t it.

Ok, not all of us are decorators and believe me I understand that, but it is important.  So, maybe it’s time to ask your friends to help.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  We all need to be aware of our limitations.  Ask several people (those that you know will be honest with you) to come to your store and ask them to give you their honest opinion and suggestions for how they think you could improve the feel.   If you are still uncertain, maybe it would be a good idea to hire a decorator to come in and give you some suggestions.

Hopefully this has given you some ideas that will help you create an atmosphere that your customers will absolutely love.  If you have any ideas about this subject, we’d love to hear them.