Many large companies started using Twitter to reach their customers. Today, many small business have adopted the practice, allowing them level the playng field.
It is simple to use, free, and it is brand, spanking new, so finding creative ways to use it in a marketing strategy is a wide-open field that may really yield some tidy profits. Some very small businesses do not even have a web page, so for them having a Twitter account is quite a lot cheaper than building and maintaining a web page. Marketing through Twitter is organic in nature.
Since it is simply a 140 character post, or tweet, even the most overworked small business owner can find the time to work in a few tweets a day. Tweeting is a fantastic way to build a following, or network, and it is a fantastic way to stay in touch with your customers. For small businesses it is as vital to retain customers as it is to get new ones, so having an open dialog with your customers is key to keeping them pleased.
One of the draws to Twitter is that it adds a personal edge to marketing. Many people say that Twitter “makes” the business. From coffee carts to custom bakeries, Twitter has connected prospects with businesses in a synergistic union many times.
Each success tale is another illustration of how direct marketing can really grow a business. Twitter is the 21st century’s ‘word of mouth’ advertising. Twitter reaches everyone, allowing you to develop a new customer base while keeping your current customers pleased.
Keep Track of Customers While Tweeting for Business
Since Twitter is a micro blogging tool, it is a fantastic mechanism for vendors and suppliers to use to stay in touch. It also lets small businesses connect to each other to build a supportive community that is not limited by geography. For example, a leisure activity store in Texas may connect with a leisure activity store in Wisconsin and be able to share thoughts that improves their customer service, or they may even split orders from vendors to help keep costs down. Small businesses can easily reach other businesses, prospects, vendors, and customers through Twitter.
Most small businesses do not have the time or the resources to administer and tabulate market surveys. They simply take too much time and money; but, a grass roots survey on Twitter helps small businesses to hear what chatter is going on about them. You can solicit feedback, and you can respond to the comments both excellent and terrible. Keeping your ear to the ground to anticipate what your customers want next has never been simpler if you are using Twitter.
Twitter allows you to keep tabs on your competition also. Twitter lets small businesses track their competitors and it lets you see what competitors are doing that is right and what they are doing that is incorrect. You can look for tweets that even mention them to get a sense of what people are saying about them. So Twitter is not only a valuable communication tool, but it is also a fantastic way to keep your eye on the competition.
By using Twitter to build a presence in cyber space, you can make an unstoppable small business force. Twitter gives your business a unique voice. Tweets should have some form of personality to them, humanizing your business. Information can come quickly on Twitter, so you need to focus on a ‘right here, right now’ mentality.
Twitter can add a new twist to your marketing campaign at no cost to you. So the next time that you are wishing that you had a larger client base, simply try tweeting for business. It is quick; it is simple, and mostly it is effective.
Posts Tagged ‘Tweeting’
Tweeting For Business – Tweet Music To Your Ears
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010How To Market On Twitter By Tweeting Great Content: Don’T Run The Risk Of Being Un-Followed
Monday, March 1st, 2010Twitter has become a major force in the social media landscape. And it has become a powerful resource for marketers. But there is a paradox with marketers using Twitter. Social media is about socializing and connecting with others who share your interests. Yet marketers have found that social media sites like Twitter are a fantastic resource to connect with their target audience. So how does a marketer socialize and market on Twitter?
How Do You Market On Twitter?
It all comes down to marketing strategy. Marketers have to remember that socializing comes first when it comes to Twitter (and other social media sites). Â If all the marketer does is tweet marketing messages, their followers will feel like theyâ??re getting spammed. And the first thing someone will do if they feel like theyâ??re getting spammed is un-follow you. Excellent bye target market.
A marketer has to share, i.e., tweet, fantastic content with their followers. Your tweets should be 80% content, such as sharing useful information and experiences, and starting conversations with people. The other 20% of your tweets can be marketing related. Sharing content your followers find fascinating and useful will establish you as someone who can be trusted, and build your credibility, and authority.
Where Do You Find Stuff To Tweet?
One place is StuffToTweet.com. This website lists well loved and fascinating articles, videos, how-toâ??s, and recipes.
You can also tweet:
Do a Google search for these different types of media and youâ??ll find plenty of options.
You can also find content by using Google Alerts. Tell Google what topics you are interested in and Google will send you an email with a list of content for that topic.
How Much Should You Tweet Each Day?
You should tweet throughout the day, keeping the 80/20 rule in mind. But letâ??s get real. Who wants to be tied to Twitter all day? Granted there are some people who like to be on Twitter all day, but most people are too busy and staying on Twitter all day is impractical.
So what should you do? Use a service such as SocialOomph.com, which use to be called TweetLater. SocialOomph allows you to schedule your tweets throughout the day, week, or month. Itâ??s simple to do. Just write your tweet and schedule the time and date you want your tweet to go out. The service is free.
Conclusion
Effectively marketing on Twitter is about tweeting fantastic content. With the right mix of socializing and marketing, you can successfully market on Twitter.
Pleased Business Building,
Yoli
Tweeting yourself to a Better Career
Monday, February 15th, 2010The convergence of PR and social media is inevitable, and the ways in which those of us in the industry use social media continue to expand. One area that has seen some fascinating changes is recruiting, and the role played by social networks. Nearly everyone is familiar with LinkedIn, a very conventional yet very useful tool for both the recruiter and the professional looking to make a career change now, or just interested in building out a network of people in the industry. Facebook, too, which in 2007 opened its doors beyond its college/university roots to professionals is finding increasing adoption among recruiters.
More fascinating still is the use of what I would call emerging tools, either newer social networks or social media tools that might not be immediately associated with a career search, but which you might want to look into any way.
Lately, I have been spending a lot more time on Twitter, which can best be described as a global instant messaging system. I won’t offer a Twitter tutorial here, but here’s the quick downlow on it. Twitter was launched in 2006, and in 2007, after winning a high profile industry award, the service really started to take off and soon became a phenomenon. Twitter comes under a new social media heading called “microblogging,” tools that let you blog simply, quickly, and tersely. Twitter is basically IM, limited to 140 characters. Like most social media, Twitter is free. You sign up, establish an identity and then add people that you are “following” on Twitter. Twitter describes its various features and actions in a very unique way, which might be part of the “terrible press” it has received. Your posts are called “updates” or “tweets.” You are “following” the people whose updates you add to your “timeline,” and the people who add you to their timeline are called “followers.” (If you want to see what Twitter looks like in action, just go to the home page and click “Public Timeline.”)
For a long time, many people criticized Twitter as an endless stream of narcissistic and mundane chatter. Recently, but, as people have learned to adapt Twitter to more vital tasks than communicating that you have just fed your cat, the service has begun to see a number of fascinating commercial uses.
Many recruiters are now using Twitter to better connect with candidates. A search on the term “recruit” on Twitter’s home page returns 87 people somehow associated with recruiting. (Not all of them are recruiters. Check the user profiles for more information on each person.) Among these is Lindsay Olson, PRJobs on Twitter, a public relations recruiter. I “met” Lindsay through Twitter. I was impressed by how she uses Twitter. Lindsay “converses” with people on Twitter in a very natural way, letting them see the daily worklife of a recruiter. In this way, Lindsay develops credibility, and builds friendships with a large number of candidates and connections to potential candidates.
I interviewed Lindsay by email on how she uses Twitter. She confirmed my view, which is that any “commercial” use of social media requires an understanding of the etiquette and unique attributes of the medium, and a willingness to downplay hype and conventional marketing tactics:
“As a recruiter and business professional utilizing social media technologies in my business, I reckon the single most vital way of communicating this way is by joining the conversation as a peer, and interacting on a personal level. If you are just throwing links to your jobs and your business out there, your followers get sick of the shameless self-promotion. I reckon the day in the life of a recruiter is somewhat of a mystery to many people, especially potential candidates, and have found Twitter to be an brilliant tool to share my profession. I feel that sharing my successes, failures and experiences in recruiting is helpful for people to understanding how to better interact with a recruiter as well as potential hiring companies.”
Many recruiters, and business people in general, have been reluctant to use social networks for commercial purposes due to privacy concerns. In fact, I contacted one recruiter, who uses Facebook and LinkedIn but not Twitter, and she agreed to speak with me for this piece, but only as an unidentified background source.
I questioned Lindsay about this and she said that it is not “a concern as long as our clients’ and candidates’ confidentiality is respected in public,” which she makes a part of the rules she holds herself to in her use of all social media.
I strongly recommend looking into Twitter and other “alternative” social media as part of your career networking plot. The world of Web 2.0 — blogs, podcasts, wikis, social networks, etc. — is a highly connected and visible one. This high visibility environment has its etiquette, and brings with it the learning curve of any new technology, but the rewards of being so visible and so well connected to the right people can far outweigh the effort required to get up to speed.
Have You Heard These Words: Twitter, Tweet, Tweeting
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010Have You Heard These Words…..Twitter, TWEET, TWEETING, Internet Marketing, Making Money, Home Based income, or blogging for income?
Hi my name is Tom and I am a 40 year ancient married father of four and I have been hearing for the last several months about TWITTER.It is all over the news as well as the internet. Being a curous member of the Generation X I have started to look at several ways to increase my income. I am in the securities industry and well as we all know the market has had some huge drops in 2008 and 2009. Recently, I chose to take the plunge and I opened an account. At first there really did not seem to be much to it.If you look or Google you find tons of information that will just spin your head right off your neck! Well I am a kind of gotta have it now kinda guy and with family, and work, I just don’t have the time to hunt down all the info.Recently I learned how cool HOW TO videos are and have been learning from some fantastic videos out there on Internet marketing as well as social marketing.Videos are the best learning tools that I have found. With that said, I came across The Twitter Traffic Machine, by a guy named Bill Crosby. At fist I found nothing but then realized I was typing in Bill COSBY who is neither a blogger or white bald guy with a sense of humor for that matter.
“The Twitter Traffic Machine” is a system that can build you a following of possibly 16,000 + followers in as small as 90 days.Currently Bill Crosby’s being followed by OVER 28,000 people as of 4/13/2009.The reason I looked at this opportunity is for the sheer traffic numbers that are possible. Imagine have a list of 10,000 people you can instantly give a link to.The possibilities seemed awesome.Well, I bought Bill’s product and guess what, it does what it says! Like I said earlier I like videos to learn internet marketing and how to stuff. Not only does this have videos but there is an ACTUAL GAME PLOT.This plot shows you how to duplicate his success.
I found Bill Crosby’s “Twitter Traffic Machine” so simple to know and implement. You just place the thing on autopilot and watch it build, making you more money daily. And the price is so reasonably low, I spent more yesterday taking the wife and kids to dinner . The huge thing for me with internet products is this A MONEY BACK GUARANTEE! If you are not satisfied, FOR ANY REASON he has a 60 day, money back guarantee! I reckon you owe it to yourself to check out and look at the videos on his info page. This I product and strategy I believe is going to be the marketing tool you’ve been looking for to skyrocket your traffic and sales! Just one word of advise, don’t show your age and say you twatted, heard that on a newscast and cracked me up.
Excellent luck all
Celebrity Branding You: Tweeting … and Why It’s not Just for the Birds
Sunday, February 7th, 2010Copyright (c) 2008 Nick Nanton
You’ve probably heard the buzz-terms “social media” and “social networking” more times than you care to count; although if you’re like most people, you still haven’t figured out what it means or how you can use it to increase your celebrity status, and, most importantly, your profits. You’ve also probably seen kids wandering around aimlessly with their cell phones, tapping away at their keys as they wander through the world — clueless about what is going on around them because they are so entrenched in their own small world of text messages.
Well, the excellent news is, it’s not that hard. The entire concept of Celebrity Branding” revolves around making a relationship with your fan base, and continuing the conversation you want to have with them via multiple forms of media that allow you to control your message. The ancient standard method of doing this is with a hard copy newsletter sent to your prospects and clients; which is still one of my favorite methods. I would challenge you to find a better form of media, but we’ll debate that another day.
Social media allows you to take that same concept you can capitalize on with a newsletter, the concept of building a relationship and continuing your conversation with your fan base, but it takes out the constraints of physically publishing your thoughts (which is a double-edged sword, as it sometimes allows you to be a bit more sloppy about crafting your message. There is a mental barrier we have when writing something that is going to be place in print; we often spend more time crafting this type of message than we do when we draft an email or other communication that we perceive as having less value than printed material).
Wikipedia.com defines Social Media as: …the use of electronic and Internet tools for the purpose of sharing and discussing information and experiences with other human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their tales and experiences.
It’s really not that scary, I promise. You’ve probably even seen a MySpace, Facebook or YouTube page in the past. These are fantastic, but I want to take you a small further down the path to one of my favorite tools that hasn’t been around quite as long, and that makes use of some newer technology.
Twitter.com – Twitter is a “micro blog,” which means that it is intended for publishing small messages, not longer messages like you might see in a traditional blog, and was made to answer the question “What are you doing?” (Note: If you aren’t familiar with what a blog is, that’s okay too, but we don’t have space to cover it in this article. Go to Google, and type in “what is a blog” and you’ll find all you need to know. )
Twitter allows its users to send and read other users’ messages that are up to 140 characters in length (otherwise known as “tweets”). Users “follow” each other and can opt to receive updates from other users on their cell phones, or can just check in online to see what those in their network are doing. Users can also “Tweet” by texting messages to a phone number, or they can update their messages online at Twitter.com. While it sounds very narcissistic and shallow, and it certainly is for some users, savvy marketers have started using Twitter to expand and further entrench their fan bases in their way of thinking.
Tweets can contain something as simple as what you had for lunch or that you’re heading to the gym; or you can opt to tweet a link to a fantastic article you read, to announce some fantastic news or even to announce a contest you are holding. It sounds like it would be pretty silly, but give it a try and you’ll find out pretty quickly how addictive and productive it can be.
Twitter allows you to connect with your audience in small bursts. Some of the people who are worth following to learn a bit more are (I’m going to give you their usernames so you can find them on Twitter):
craigballantyne – Craig is a health and fitness expert based out of Toronto, Canada and is the founder of the Turbulence Training” fitness system. Craig shows individuals how to get and stay in shape without having to go to the gym. He tweets about every meal he eats to give you some insight into how you can eat to stay healthy and also posts links to some of his workouts to you can follow along at home.
barefoot_exec – Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive, offers tips and resources for working at home. Carrie shows you why working at home can be much more fulfilling than holding a regular job, and also shows you how to be as productive and profitable as possible.
skydiver – Peter Shankman is a PR Guru and founder of HelpAReporterOut.com, which is a resource to help you get cited as a source in major media outlets. He is one of the few people I know who can be amusing in text, and he has some pretty amusing things happening in his life. He’s fun to watch and he sends out urgent queries from journalists via Twitter as well.
zappos – Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com, an internet-based shoe retailer who has built an online shoe store into a billion dollar franchise, based on his savvy marketing and his ability to give online shoppers what they want. Tony is always on the go and posts some pretty unique stuff. Recently Venus Williams was coming in for a tour of the Zappos headquarters and he let everyone tweet in messages to her that he read to her aloud.
There you have it — a few fantastic resources to get you started using Twitter. As I said before, it sounds a bit weird, but once you start using it you’ll see how others are using it to continue the conversation with their fan base, breed loyalty, increase profits and meet new prospects.
Twitter for Real Estate Professionals: What’s All the Tweeting About?
Monday, February 1st, 2010Tech savvy real estate agents know the importance of using the Internet’s global reach to their advantage. They build informative websites that are optimized for search engines, they blog regularly, and have started to make profiles on various social networking sites like ActiveRain and Squidoo. A relatively recent addition to the social networking sphere is Twitter, a place where you have only 140 characters to write something about your day, question a question, or link to an article or website of interest. Some consider Twitter to be a place where users “micro-blog,” while others see it as more of a chat room with thousands of users ‘chatting’ all at once.The original premise of Twitter was to provide a venue for people to post small, simple status updates; to answer the question: What are you doing? Users share tales about their pets, upcoming appointments, their moods, and much more. You can follow the adventures of other users, and accumulate followers of your own. You can direct questions and answers to specific people, or send out calls to everyone all at once. The appeal of this type of technology baffles many real estate agents who’ve never used the service, but those who have stuck with Twitter see the benefits of this new type of networking. Rather than trying to see Twitter as a revenue producer, it’s vital to know that Twitter is first and foremost a networking tool. Don’t be overtly promotional in your posts (known as “tweets”). If self promotion is your primary M.O., you’ll quickly lose followers. Users aren’t interested in being bombarded with spammy posts, so if you want to use the site to advertise your services, be very subtle and make sure that your personal posts far outnumbers the more professional ones.While it may seem counterproductive to be laid back when you’re trying to promote your real estate business, you have to keep in mind the intention of social networking sites. They are meant for people to connect with others who share similar interests, or who live in the same community. The mood is casual and certainly more personal than your business website. Grammar and spelling rules are relaxed, and you can talk about the pizza you ate last night or the rotten movie you just watched. People following you will find your posts fascinating because you’re being authentic.The more people that get to know you and like you, the more opportunity you have to gain clients in the future. It’s the same as expanding your circle of contacts in the real world, and it can be invaluable for your business in the long run.The thought of social networking being effective over the long term is critical to know. Unless you are very lucky, you probably won’t gain any new clients straight away, but you’re building a solid foundation of online friendships that may develop into business relationships.In addition to being a vehicle for finding potential clients, Twitter is also a fantastic venue for networking with other agents. You can share tips, question questions, and refer clients to agents outside of your service area. Other agents will do the same for you. Building relationships with other real estate agents can be educational and emotionally satisfying, as they can relate to the stresses you encounter on a daily basis. Twitter is free and it only takes a moment to make an account. Search your area for people with accounts, or see if anyone you already know has an account. You can start to follow their tweets and engage people in conversation. Soon you’ll have followers too, and you’ll start to appreciate the possibilities that this kind of networking can offer. Be open-minded and creative, and soon you’ll see how you can make Twitter work for you and your realty business.
Which is more productive? Blogging vs Tweeting
Thursday, January 28th, 2010Itâ??s incredible how quick people change their opinions of social media sites. I can remember back to the summer of 2008 when my business friends of mine dismissed Twitter as a waste of time. As time goes on the micro-blogging site is only continuing to grow on me, and now the challenge exists in allocated my time and efforts between tweeting and blogging. The following is a response to questions I field from numerous marketers and attempts to compare the two based on four parameters.
Effort
Many marketers are realizing that tweeting requires more effort than expected, due to the large number of tweets for those with significant followers. Blogging necessitates effort in a different way, since each post is much longer yet fewer of them exist. But, allocating your efforts evenly between the two will likely yield more immediate activity and response from your readers on Twitter.
Money
Comparing the monetization is probably a bit pre-mature. Twitter is still quite new and thus trying to formulate a workable model for monetization. Blogsâ?? more established framework lends itself to Google Adsense given a strong and consistent follower base. Alternatively, Twitter doesnâ??t give users that capability. So having a hundreds of thousands of people reading your tweets will not directly pay you anything. View Twitter as merely an avenue to your money-generating sites online.
Results
Twitter garners more appeal to me as an online marketer, and personally it appeals to my instant gratification propensity in the way it can yield immediate results. Itâ??s a matter of a mouse-click to get your informative, news-worthy, humorous or bizarre thoughts to the world. By contrast, a well scripted blog post could take days to attract the same number of eyes.
Time
The irony with Twitter lies in the time consumption users experience. Unlike blogs, which can require more time in per-post writing, Twitter originally started with the hopes of limiting the time required to communicate with online social circles.  Despite this, Twitter users can choose their degree of involvement regardless of their following site. Personally I try to limit my own Twitter use to an hour a day, which includes new tweets, responding to messages, and managing my followers/unfollowers.
So which is more productive? Instead of jumping to hard and quick conclusions, Iâ??d recommend social media junkies to use both and to achieve an inter-connected balance between the two. The undeniable truth prevails: offering excellent quality content yields the highest productively.
Quick Work From Home Tips: Marketing Through Tweeting
Sunday, January 17th, 2010Probably one of the many reasons why Internet marketing is pretty much thriving over the years are those Internet tools and resources – some are free and some come with a fee – that have come into existence to help folks with activities in relation to their work from home or online businesses. Just like using social bookmarking sites, article directories and social networks, people are now marketing through tweeting or through the use of the most well loved microblogging site, Twitter.In this modern age, you will rarely find someone who doesn’t have a Twitter account but even those who are not riding the Twitter bandwagon know at least what the aforementioned site is and how it works. Twitter lets its users post small (140 characters maximum) updates, information and shout-outs in the form of “tweets.” Early on, this was thought of as just an activity between friends and family to keep each other updated and connected. But tweeting has developed more uses ever since. It’s now a way to track activities of celebrities and well-known personalities, to post business updates, to share fascinating news, tales and information, to widen your circle of online friends and, of course, to advertise your work from home or online business.Using Twitter and including it in your marketing campaign and strategies is one excellent go considering the number of people using that site all over the globe every hour, every day. But marketing through tweeting should be effective enough to ensure you that you and your work from home are on the path of success. Here are a few quick tips to do that:The FollowAlmost all work from home tips regarding Twitter would tell you to build a following. It’s indeed the basics of this site. One has to increase the number of his or her followers. If you look at it in a social aspect, getting more followers will give you the chance to know and interact with more people. In a business aspect, more followers means more people to promote your products and services to. That, in turn, means more potential customers. And for those folks you followed yet haven’t been able to follow back ever since, just do a small “unfollow” magic.The FeaturesTwitter has a lot of features that you can utilize to your advantage. Online marketers have been searching and adding features that will help them advertise their online businesses, services and products using Twitter. Some of the well loved choices are Retweet, Group Tweet, Auto Complete, Tweet Popularity, Tweets-threading and others.The PostSome folks using Twitter may find it hard to promote with such small available space for content. One hundred forty characters may not be enough but you got to learn how to make small content, a post that is still genuine and fascinating although presented briefly. Also, if you’re linking, keep in mind that you should link to something (a web page, an article, etc.) that has excellent content as well.The DetailsThis may just be a small deal but if you are going to be marketing through tweeting, you should at least have an thought or two about who your followers are. Sometimes when you check on the profiles of your followers, you will find either some empty accounts or those that have already been banned. If you have sufficient time, you can “unfollow” those. Just reckon of it as a way to clean your list of followers and besides, there’s clearly no use following them. Do you want to waste your time and efforts advertising your products and work from home to such blank accounts?