Twitter: Is it Worth the Effort?
Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak before a group of small business owners who wanted to know how they could market their businesses online through a website.
While a lot of questions were posed, one topic that kept popping up and which lead to an interesting discussion from different participants is Twitter.. if it is really worth considering as a marketing channel. One participant quoted a drop off rate of about 60%.
So is Twitter really worth the time and effort? Here are key points that came up and I wish to underscore for you.
- Twitter is not a magic bullet solution for improving an online business, it is just another networking opportunity just like any other, a venue for you to meet new people.. whether those relationships become significant.. turn into business opportunities or personal relationships, is up to you and who it is you meet
- Just like any venue or opportunity to network, results may vary and that would depend largely on the people who are at that venue, or on that channel, and if they would be interested in YOU, who you are and what you have
- It is about YOU, when you get on a social networking site, people see and get to know you and what you do, if you interest them then good, if they don’t fancy you then no harm no foul, move on… again think of Twitter as simply a virtual version of real life meet ups, mixers and such
- Since Twitter is a medium to network and build relationships, then leverage on that opportunity, the chance to establish, build and maintain relationships that CAN lead to business opportunities, establish your authority and earn trust.
A lot of people have this misconception about Twitter and I think it is primarily the fault of Internet Marketers who sell information products and software that are to do with Twitter, a key part of their marketing focuses on huge income generated from Twitter. So that people are then lead to believe that Twitter is the ultimate solution to improving a business on the internet.
So, should you Twitter?
My honest answer would be, it depends on your results.. Like any marketing activity you undertake, you need to have some sort of way to gauge results of your actions, so if you are on Twitter your metrics may be things like traffic sent from Twitter, click through rate on your links, number of people following you, number of mentions of your name or number of ReTweets other people give you.. and maybe ultimately number of sales generated from people as a result of your correspondence or contact with them on Twitter
Image Source: http://roystonrobertson.blogspot.com/2009/04/twitter-cartoon.html
Free Twitter Guide for Download
I just spent the entire evening putting together a free Twitter guide for friends of mine who did not quite get Twitter. Hopefully this sheds some light into the nature of Twitter and well, I hope they find it helpful.
Today I also came across an article that talked about Twitter’s lack of user loyalty, indicated that a number of Twitter subscribers do not continue maintaining their accounts past the first month, and while there could be several reasons for it and I can only assume that is due to their being used to other social networking sites that are laden with so many features.. while Twitter simplifies things and focuses on one feature which is its being a microblogging platform.
So here is that guide, temporarily available through this link national lampoon presents cattle call online
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How to Use Twitter in Business
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in business, especially for those whose business has an online presence. You can use Twitter to get people to your website to promote your product or service, and I will put this in a Do’s and Don’ts format.
Do make it personal, networking is all about building a relationship with your market or audience.
If you represent a company or product don’t put a company logo or a picture of the product on your Twitter profile, YOU represent it by putting your face and your credentials on the profile… answering the “who you are” and “what you can do for your market” will help a visitor to your profile page decide whether they would FOLLOW your or not.
Do use a keyword in your profile name that you believe is a word that your audience is searching for to add to their network. For instance when people want to search for people to follow or add, they would click the add button on the right side of their page, then choose “find on twitter”, then type in a word or phrase that the results of which would yield people who have that keyword in their account names and One Line Bio. People would typically go through these selecting who to follow.
Don’t simply put your company name but if not too long, your company name together with the keyword, especially on your One Line Bio (inside profile settings). This One Line Bio is what appears on the list of results.
Do make regular posts or tweets that have keywords you believe your audience is looking for. People looking for information on Twitter use the Twitter engine to find posts by other people that have the keywords they are looking for. This is done by going to http://search.twitter.com/ and you can check what other people are tweeting about that relates to the topic you are interested in. Your tweets can be about your product or service, focus on content marketing. Provide people with helpful and useful information that they can use which is related or can tie in to the product or service you offer.
Don’t be too hard-selling, nor simply talk about features of your product. Instead focus on benefits… and here is an example. My suki example has always been Island Banca Cruises which is run by a good friend and of course owned by someone I know.
What IBC would do is to make a list of keywords that are related to their services….
- island hopping
- beach
- cebu
- and even more
Then IBC would need to write down as many Tweets on a draft that all have the keywords in the sentence. Instead of making a post saying, “check out our island hopping summer promo of XXX amount”, you can instead publish a tweet saying ” go island hopping this summer for cheap and dive into the clear waters off Mactan, see pictures.” Right after that, there is a link to the photos, and what this kind of post does is it gets attention and interest all at once, and the interested reader would click the link to see the pictures, the pictures would then show people enjoying the scenic cruise and photos of the clear waters plus other photos that highlight the amenities of the services.
What you have done is built the readers DESIRE for the service. Immediately right after or beside the photos you should have a conversion button, a link that would lead them to a page they they perform that action you want them to do. The action you want them to do is contact you to book island hopping cruises, so you can create a LINK that says “Go Island Hopping this summer, avail of our XXX promo, ALL-In, click this link to inquire or make a reservation”. That entire line is a link that leads to a contact us page that they can fill up and submit. The last portion is a strong call to ACTION, where you are able to get the person who Do what you want them to DO.
Don’t simply put a call to action on a Tweet because if they do not have a desire for the product, they will not perform the action you want them to do. You have to build that desire and I showed you how to do that step by step.
Then IBC can make at least one post per day, each Tweet is a line that catches their attention, and has a link in it that sends them to a page on their site that will build a reader’s interest for the service.
Do keep adding people to your network, follow people who you believe would be interested in what you have to offer. Once you follow a person, they receive a notice via email that you have followed them, typically they would check you out to see who you are and if you or the product/service you have is interesting to them, they would follow you back. The best thing is a lot of people use the auto-follow feature where they automatically follow you back when you follow them.
Don’t follow too many people that are not related or would not be interested in what you have.
The best way to add people? Go to http://search.twitter.com/ and type in keywords to find posts by others, posts that have those keywords in them. You can go through the profiles and choose who to follow. Alternatively you can also use the ADD feature in your account as described earlier.
Do reward people for following you or following you back. Appreciate the fact that they have opted to receive your messages, and offer an item or something of value or benefit to them.
For example, each time someone adds me to their network or follows me, I would send them a direct message thanking them for the follow and give them a link to a freebie of some sort. If I have a Twitter account that sells myself as an expert in Internet Marketing, I would then send them a link to a page where they can download a free EBook on Internet Marketing. People love freebies, especially freebies of value.
Finally, the best part about Twitter marketing is, all of the processes I described above, every bit of action or activity can be automated and you are spared from the manual hassle of adding people, followig back those who follow you, making posts or tweets and sending them a direct message with a thank you.
If you are new to Twitter, learn the ropes first manually as I described above… then when you got it down, expand to using software and applications to do that for you and free up your time.
How to Use Twitter
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Twitter is basically a means for you to get real time updates about what your friends or family are up to.. and have the ability to reply or comment on those updates. Twitter is essentially a networking and a fast and easy communication tool that can be used in a variety of ways, but let me tell you about three.
How to Use Twitter as tool to keep in touch with people that matter to you.
Twitter is a social networking site, a micro blogging tool that allows you to publish posts 140 characters at a time… just enough to be able to briefly tell people who are “following” you, what you are up to.
Following people means, you start to receive posts they make because, you probably know them (personally or not), and want to know what they are up to.
Twitter as a customer support tool for businesses.
Ten years ago, people loved email, people loved getting it, people loved sending it… and yes it was so cool to have your own email address.
Today with rampant spam, and spam filters unable to prevent some spammy email from getting through to your Inbox, people are actually not as eager to check their email addresses.
What does this mean for a business who wishes to keep in touch with their customers and do a little after sales support? Only a small number of your existing customers are going to get your support emails, and those that do… simply avoid or ignore them.
With Twitter you are able to broadcast short and non spammy messages to customers regarding issues or concerns pertaining to the service or product they subscribe to or have bought.
How to Use Twitter as a Business marketing tool.
Twitter is also a great way of getting the word out about a service or product you wish to promote, since you are able to seek out people to add on your network based on certain criteria such as interests, professional backgrounds or location.
This is one facet of Twitter that is most often abused by many, and many are not doing it the right way.
Remember that, if a person is not interested in who you are or what you have to offer then they would not follow you to get more of what you have to offer. Here is permission marketing best used, if you have a Twitter account that represents a product or service then the posts you publish should be of value to people who you deem to be your target market… they find you by using certain keywords that you use on your posts, they read your posts and get them interested in what you have and follow you to get more of what you publish, they click the link to your website and the job of selling them your product is half done!
In conclusion, regardless if using Twitter for personal or business purposes, you should keep in mind is that people follow you on Twitter because they believe you are worth following due to familiarity, relationship or what they can benefit from receiving your Tweets… and if the latter be the reason for the follow, make sure you do deserve it and not make them regret doing so.download extraordinary rendition online ??????? ????????
4 Simple Tips to Twittering Success
So you have been Twittering for a while now and you are starting to gain a good number of followers, the question now is.. what next?
I want to give you some tips that will help you succeed in Twitter, which are typically best practices that people successful in social media, live by.
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Start a conversation, and sometimes this is often best done by starting a question about an interesting subject. Answer other people’s questions especially if they are going to help them out, they would appreciate that greatly. Comment on other people’s tweets, but make sure it is also something helpful.
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People hate marketers. We know that as fact. So if you start a conversation, or if the first message you send someone is an ad or a link to something you wish to promote… you are going to piss people off.
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By retweeting you are passing off other people’s tweets to your followers, when you found that tweet useful. By retweeting you put that message and the author of that message in front of all your followers, giving that person more coverage and potentially more followers, as there is a chance that your followers who found that retweet useful will also follow that person.
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Don’t simply put out crap and inconsequential messages, remember that you want to provide something that your followers appreciate and not regret following you and getting your updates. Unless of course all your followers are friends and family who don’t really care what it is you are mulling over. However if your Tweeting is for business, be selective of what you say.
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