Winning Ways with Twitter Revealed by Savvy Interior Designer

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Françoise Murat of Françoise Murat & Associates, a garden & interior designer based in Hampshire, has built up a great following on Twitter in just over a year and won some fantastic opportunities from it. I wanted to find out just how Françoise has done it and she’s agreed to reveal some of the ways she uses Twitter which hopefully will inspire other small businesses and show them how they can also increase their reach and results with the service.

1. When did you start using Twitter?
March 2009

2. What was the attraction to using the service?
A friend of mine explained the business case behind using this and social media in general, I was convinced and decided to give it a go.

3. Did you have a plan before starting to use Twitter or just try it out and see how you got on?
Yes – I read a lot about it, but I knew first and foremost this would be to:
a)    Disseminate my name/brand/company
b)    Get more traffic to my blog and more subscribers to my e-newsletter
c)    Get people to book some of my courses
d)    Build a reputation as a thought leader in my field

But I also just launched myself and looked at how people interacted, what worked, what did not work, and this gave me a picture of the application and its followers.

4. Who have you connected with and do you connect with any particular groups of people?
With a variety of people that have ties to my work:
-    Food bloggers/restaurants/hotels/B&B (to get them to contribute to my newsletter, offer my Potager classes and designs to restaurants and hotels)
-    Mothers with children (for my children’s gardens, seeds, classes)
-    Architects, engineers, surveyors (anyone in the built environment industry who might all want to use my services)
-    Other garden designers and interior designers (always good to see who is very good as might want to hire them when works gets very busy as an associate, share our knowledge/experiences)
-    Artists, crafts, soft furnishing supplier, contractors and suppliers
-    Social media leading lights – to learn more and marketing tips and ideas
-    Journalists – they are always looking for stories – so this is where my PR lady can feed them stories and info
-    Historians, heritage, conservation people – to work with/collaborate

5. How have you managed to connect with some well known / influential people using the service?
Yes – people that matter in my industry:
Sarah Beeny – we blog for her now since last November (2009)
Country Life – we started blogging 1 x month since March 2010
Real Homes magazine – we will be featured in June and July for interiors and gardens tips (from a journalist who I met on Twitter who works for them)
Leading journalists in property (Times, etc)

6. Would you have been able to connect with them outside of Twitter?
No

7. What do you like about Twitter?
It’s immediacy, intimacy, you soon find out about someone’s personality therefore you get to know them quickly.

8. What do you dislike about Twitter?
Nothing – but you do need to keep in the loop.

9. Do you have any tips to give to someone starting out on Twitter?
-    Be yourself, show your personality, be social!
-    Do not push market, people will visit your website /services /products because they like you NOT because you tell them
-    Engage with others, share information, push other people’s work/links and blogs (you must always read them first!) and only if you think they are worthy to be shared with your followers – it’s your reputation after all.

I can’t thank Françoise enough for sharing her Twitter strategy. Although she makes it look easy, it’s taken a lot of time and commitment to get the results from Twitter that she wanted. You can follow Françoise on Twitter here and visit Françoise Murat & Associates website to find out more about Françoise and her interior & garden design services. She’s also offering workshops on interior and garden design over the coming months.

Have you had any successes with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn? We’d love to hear from you so please share your story & tips or let us know and we’ll interview you too!