#HertsHour is a useful tool to help develop your brand online and it's not hard. Most importantly, it's free and if you dedicate an hour a week to it, could be very valuable to help you build a network to support your business growth.
Whenever you're using social media, the more you put in, the more you get out. Twitter works best when it's a conversation - or a series of conversations.
If you just use it to post your own words of wisdom, it'll quickly get very lonely out there, especially if you use a bot to schedule tweets and fail to follow them up.
The most regular #HertsHour contributors are those who log on fairly promptly at 12pm on a Monday and then welcome others as they join and begin to converse with several people.
They'll be the ones others follow and the conversation then spreads throughout the week - with or without the #HertsHour tag.
There's a few simple guidelines to follow when you join us over on Twitter:
* Get involved and respond to what others are saying;
* Ask people about their businesses. You have 280 characters to engage in a conversation and in return they will ask you about yours;
* Don't post more than a couple of blatant plugs - it puts people off, especially when there's a stream of them;
* Make sure in advance that your Twitter profile is complete and if it directs people to a website, that's up to date, too;
* Follow up with people during the week;
* Find out about what your competition is up to - they're usually just as nice as you are!
* Be positive, everyone who uses the hashtag and takes part in the hour is there to serve and add value - make sure you connect and reflect this back.
* Always use the #HertsHour hashtag as that's what most people search for.
If you want to find out more, take a look at the rest of this #HertsHour website, including the Networking Group / Business Directory and our Facebook page.
