There are plenty of people still brushing off the potential marketing power of the popular microblogging service known as Twitter.
It's true that the popular social media service used to be regularly plagued with instability (Hello, Fail Whale!), inexplicable account suspensions, and some rather poorly-handled customer communication issues.
But it has survived the early years, and continues to grow in popularity and potential.
Twitter can be a great human search engine, an easy way to monitor the "back channel" (i.
e, to see what people are talking about) at a particular event, and there's no way better to send a short, powerful message to two or three thousand of your closest buddies.
And I'm only partly joking.
Here are just a few of the ways savvy business leaders have found to put Twitter to work in the marketing department.
1.
Use Twitter to develop client relationships.
Even when you are just getting started building your Twitter account, you have the opportunity to connect with people interested in your brand.
Use the search.
twitter.
com function on Twitter or a third-party app like Twellow or TweetAdder to search bios for keywords that let you know a particular person might be in your target market.
Strike up a conversation! When clients or customers list a Twitter account on their business cards, websites, or other collateral, follow them and stay engaged.
2.
Drive traffic to your website using Twitter.
When you have a great blog post, news item, discount offer, new product, or helpful tip to share, post the link to Twitter.
Do you have a new free whitepaper that people can download? Let your Twitter followers know and invite them to pass the link along.
3.
Use the "Favorites" feature to mark client testimonials.
If you are doing business so well that your Twitter followers post compliments, be sure to thank them and use the Favorites function to keep the link handy.
These unsolicited online raves are fantastic instances of social proof that you can use to give credence to your brand and company.
4.
Monitor your business on Twitter.
Just as you should maintain internet alerts on your CEO, business name, products, brand and so on, you should keep an eye on Twitter to see what people say about you as well.
Not only does this give you the opportunity to engage with people who are talking about your business, it keeps you abreast of the current tide of sentiment among your clients.
5.
Respond to tweeted customer concerns or complaints via Twitter.
The immediacy of Twitter means that if a client gets frustrated with your product or service, they may well Tweet about it.
If you are monitoring your company's account carefully, you can quickly respond via Twitter to address the concern in a timely fashion.
If you manage to publicly solve a customer problem on Twitter, you not only make one customer happy, but you also send a positive message to the thousands who may be watching the exchange.
6.
Use hashtags to promote events on Twitter.
Be thinking about a unique identifier (for example #YourEvent) for your company event as you begin the planning process.
Then use Twitter, email, your website, and other communication channels to let your clients and potential attendees know what the hashtag is.
Use simple incentives or games to encourage everyone to use the hashtag, so that it becomes very easy to monitor all tweets related to the event by clicking on that hashtag wherever it appears! 7.
Establish yourself as a thought leader in your field.
By tweeting useful industry links, helpful tips, and other valuable information, you increase your company's reputation as a leader.
Be generous with your insights, help out whenever you can, and you increase your brand's popularity and respect.
Don't forget to monitor and measure Twitter's value in your business.
Choose key metrics to follow like reach (number of followers), response rate (the number of @replies you receive for each tweet), retweets (how frequently someone passes along one of your links or tweets), and conversions (traffic into your sales funnel that comes directly from Twitter).
Using Twitter for business marketing does take an investment of time and energy.
If you can point to a solid graph over time of successful brand interaction with this social media platform, you can make the best decisions about future investments.
It's true that the popular social media service used to be regularly plagued with instability (Hello, Fail Whale!), inexplicable account suspensions, and some rather poorly-handled customer communication issues.
But it has survived the early years, and continues to grow in popularity and potential.
Twitter can be a great human search engine, an easy way to monitor the "back channel" (i.
e, to see what people are talking about) at a particular event, and there's no way better to send a short, powerful message to two or three thousand of your closest buddies.
And I'm only partly joking.
Here are just a few of the ways savvy business leaders have found to put Twitter to work in the marketing department.
1.
Use Twitter to develop client relationships.
Even when you are just getting started building your Twitter account, you have the opportunity to connect with people interested in your brand.
Use the search.
twitter.
com function on Twitter or a third-party app like Twellow or TweetAdder to search bios for keywords that let you know a particular person might be in your target market.
Strike up a conversation! When clients or customers list a Twitter account on their business cards, websites, or other collateral, follow them and stay engaged.
2.
Drive traffic to your website using Twitter.
When you have a great blog post, news item, discount offer, new product, or helpful tip to share, post the link to Twitter.
Do you have a new free whitepaper that people can download? Let your Twitter followers know and invite them to pass the link along.
3.
Use the "Favorites" feature to mark client testimonials.
If you are doing business so well that your Twitter followers post compliments, be sure to thank them and use the Favorites function to keep the link handy.
These unsolicited online raves are fantastic instances of social proof that you can use to give credence to your brand and company.
4.
Monitor your business on Twitter.
Just as you should maintain internet alerts on your CEO, business name, products, brand and so on, you should keep an eye on Twitter to see what people say about you as well.
Not only does this give you the opportunity to engage with people who are talking about your business, it keeps you abreast of the current tide of sentiment among your clients.
5.
Respond to tweeted customer concerns or complaints via Twitter.
The immediacy of Twitter means that if a client gets frustrated with your product or service, they may well Tweet about it.
If you are monitoring your company's account carefully, you can quickly respond via Twitter to address the concern in a timely fashion.
If you manage to publicly solve a customer problem on Twitter, you not only make one customer happy, but you also send a positive message to the thousands who may be watching the exchange.
6.
Use hashtags to promote events on Twitter.
Be thinking about a unique identifier (for example #YourEvent) for your company event as you begin the planning process.
Then use Twitter, email, your website, and other communication channels to let your clients and potential attendees know what the hashtag is.
Use simple incentives or games to encourage everyone to use the hashtag, so that it becomes very easy to monitor all tweets related to the event by clicking on that hashtag wherever it appears! 7.
Establish yourself as a thought leader in your field.
By tweeting useful industry links, helpful tips, and other valuable information, you increase your company's reputation as a leader.
Be generous with your insights, help out whenever you can, and you increase your brand's popularity and respect.
Don't forget to monitor and measure Twitter's value in your business.
Choose key metrics to follow like reach (number of followers), response rate (the number of @replies you receive for each tweet), retweets (how frequently someone passes along one of your links or tweets), and conversions (traffic into your sales funnel that comes directly from Twitter).
Using Twitter for business marketing does take an investment of time and energy.
If you can point to a solid graph over time of successful brand interaction with this social media platform, you can make the best decisions about future investments.
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