Twitter Tips for Movers and Shakers, with Bruce Van Horn – Episode 11 of The Action Catalyst Podcast

Speaker, author, and coach Bruce Van Horn shares Twitter/X tips for movers and shakers, including the critical importance of authenticity, putting connection over saturation, and the most common-sense advice that you probably overlook all of the time.

About Bruce:

Bruce Van Horn is a bestselling author, speaker, thought leader, transformational life coach, business and leadership coach, marathon runner, and cancer conqueror. Bruce hosts the “Life Is A Marathon” podcast, which has millions of listeners in over 205 countries around the world. Bruce is passionate about sharing his life experiences and respected insight to help people overcome their negative thinking and limiting beliefs, and develop a winning mindset, and loves coaching people to become the fullest expression of who they were created to be.

The Action Catalyst is presented by the Southwestern Family of Companies. With each episode, the podcast features some of the nation’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing meaningful tips and advice. Learn more at TheActionCatalyst.com, subscribe below or wherever you listen to podcasts, and be sure to leave a rating and review!

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(Transcribed using A.I. / May include errors):

Host
I am so excited about our next guest, Bruce Van Horn. You probably haven’t heard of him. He’s not Lady Gaga, he’s not a celebrity, necessarily. He’s not a somebody who is is really something that you would see on TV. And yet, he is using Twitter to create an impact in the world, to get his message out there. And I absolutely have been inspired watching it. We’ve got him on the show today to talk about Twitter tips for movers and shakers. Bruce Van Horn, welcome to the show, my friend. You know, first of all, why do you think that you have such devout and engaged followers?

Bruce Van Horn
It’s pretty amazing. And I think the things that I do, I don’t think are special. I think that they’re just common sense. I’m a little bit confused why more people don’t do it? I think the real reason is that I just try to be real. I just try to be a real guy. I’m a dad, I’m a business owner. I’m really interested in things related leadership. And so I write about those things, I tweet about those things. People are just interested in them, you know? So I share my successes. I share my failures. The things that I’m thinking about, and people have just really sort of bought into that, you know, I don’t try to be something that I’m not. I think that’s really just it, the authenticity of just sharing what I really am.

Host
What are some of the big mistakes and that you think people make?

Bruce Van Horn
Well, I think that they just don’t understand the platform. The old school was that you just inundated the marketplace with your brand or your product, hoping to just saturate the market, so that when somebody was in the in the market for a widget yours, the first thing that came to mind, and people that are on social media are on social media because they’re actually trying to avoid that. They’re it’s not the flyers that come in your mailbox or the junk mail or even the spam that shows up in your mailbox. They’re on social media simply for the purpose of connecting, and they just don’t want to be bombarded with advertisement. And so Twitter especially well, while Facebook is great, advertisements are certainly making their way into Facebook and and there are pros and cons to that, but especially Twitter, there people are there to have short conversations, share what’s going on with their lives, or to ask a quick question. And so when businesses are out there on Twitter, and all they’re doing is tweeting, hey, this product is on sale for such and such, here’s the link, or, you know, this product, and all they’re doing is selling, people get really turned off by that, because what they really want is to connect, because again, the marketplace is shifting, and people are interested in building relationships. And so let’s just use for example, I bought a car at Carmax recently, and the guy who sold me my car was so great. Even gave me his home phone number if I had any questions while I was in the buying process. The next time that I’m in the market for a car, I’m going to call him on a cell phone, or I’m going to call him at home. And if he worked at Carmax greater, if you worked you know, the next dealership, he’s probably going to be my go to guy. The next time I’m in the market for a car, and building relationships with people, that’s really what’s going to bring them back, using your marketing efforts and especially social media, to just be useful, to put information that useful to your clients, that may not necessarily. It’s okay to send a link out if you’re if you’re running a sale on something, it’s a great way to get an instant message out there to somebody so that your customer can come in. And I think what you really need to be doing is just interacting.

Host
So is the strategy then that I want to teach my people to use Twitter to build human connections with you. And, you know, hopefully I’m doing a good job of keeping my people around?

Bruce Van Horn
Yeah, I think that that really what it is. And I know that a lot of companies worry about that. I think every business owner is concerned when they’re when their number one salesperson goes to another company, that they’re going to take those leads with them, but I really think that that’s a fear that placed them in the wrong place.

Host
Bruce, let’s say I’m in business. What are the strategies that you have for me that I can do, the practical things that I could do that to boost my influence on Twitter?

Bruce Van Horn
Sure, I think some of the things are just so constant that you almost overlook them. I think obviously the Golden Rule treat other people as you would have them treat you should. Should be your number one rule in business and in life anyway. But basically, just spend more time being interested in others. Rather than trying to be interesting to others, it is being other focused. Make it all about your users, all about your customers, rather than about you. Certainly you’re going to want to promote your business, but you just don’t want to be doing that all of the time. There’s so many things that you can do if you just pay attention. Attention, a little bit of attention when you’re watching your followers, your Twitter followers will tell you certain things about their lives, things that they’re doing, things they’re interested in or or excited about. I’m a marathon runner, so I have a lot of followers who tweet about races that they’re going to be running. I’ll make little notes about that, and a week or so later, I’ll send a tweet out and say, Hey, Brian, how’d you do in that in the national marathon last month? And they’re really cut by that. So be be aware that you can use Twitter as a way to reach out not just to your whole audience, but to an individual, for example, Chris liccardo, who used to host the entree leadership podcast, Chris wound up leaving the Dave Ramsey organization not too long ago to go and do this thing. But he just mentioned in passing that his daughter had been very, very sick and had been in the hospital. And I just sent a tweet out to Chris and say, Chris, you know, sorry, but you left the Dave Ramsey organization. Glad you’re doing other things, but by the way, how’s your daughter doing? He was just really touched that I remembered, let alone bothered. Ask, I think, other things that you need to do on Twitter or be a positive voice, be an encourager. Send tweets out there that that encourage people and motivate people to be better than they otherwise would have been. You just never know when somebody is having a bad day and they need to hear something, even if it has nothing to do with your business, send out some encouraging tweet be thankful. Great friend of mine runs a local running store. People come in to a store with the encourages people to come in with their rate DIB from any race that they’ve run, and he puts their pictures up on his Facebook page. And people eat that up because they love just a little recognition. Also, there’s putting links out there, you know. So you know, while you’ve got a lot of content, there’s probably content out there that you haven’t written, that your followers might be interested in.

Host
Well, folks, there you have it. Bruce Van Horn, Bruce, thank you for being on the show. We really, really appreciate having you.

Bruce Van Horn
It was great giving me the opportunity, really do.