Food4thought series - Twitter

Paul Yates and Jane Houghton-Fenning with the Maitre D of the Oyster and Otter. 


"the event was very interesting, throughout, very accessible and the food was excellent, I also really enjoyed networking but I didn’t like having to go home”


A group of people turned up last Tuesday to hear all about Twitter for business success, to network, enjoy some good food and have a relaxing evening. The launch event for our food for thought series was held at the Oyster and Otter Restaurant last Tuesday.

The speaker Paul Yates introduced the network to Twitter for Business. Paul is a coach and business man who uses technology to build client relationships so is completely in touch with using twitter for business success.

One of Paul's first points was to ask us all why we tweet. It is certainly something worth thinking about. How does twitter fit into your marketing strategy and why should you tweet at all? Return on investment is crucial for businesses in recession and to take time out for twitter can appear non sensical if you dont know what your strategy and plan is.

Paul walked us through a few scenarios and made sure we knew some of the do's and dont's of twitter. One of his great questions to the group was to ask if we would buy from someone we had just met. Using twitter simply for sales doesn't work. Twitter is about building relationships, having conversations and creating online networks. That is why a good photo of yourself rather than your building or worst case the egg is really important, you need to look like a real person to create relationships.

We covered a number of issues from apps to go with twitter and automate tweets such as Tweet Deck and Social Oomph to ways of finding followers using Listorious. 

The whole discussion took about 45 minutes and was followed by a question and answer session. It was informative and inspirational for those there who were a little wary of using twitter. Paul's stories meant that he gave real examples of how twitter had worked for companies, not least being able to talk to the real movers and shakers in business rather than the gatekeepers.

Following the masterclass we had an opportunity to sample a fabulous meal prepared for us by the Oyster and Otter Chefs. The meal and surroundings meant that we could network in comfort and  really discuss what we had learned.

Joanne Scott from Strawberry Standards said, the food was excellent as well as the company and the content of the evening and Liz Cook from Job Trials said it was also lovely to get to know people in a friendly environment.  






Follow us on twitter at Amanda_CBP and find out more about our work.