Now that you have a Twitter account and have made a Tweet, let’s start to reshape your Twitter presence to make it an effective marketing tool for you and your business. In the next several posts, I will look at the various structural pieces of Twitter and give you tips on how each of these can be changed to create an effective small business marketing tool.
The Goal
You are on Twitter with over 20 million people. This number is doubling almost every six months. At this point in time, Facebook has over 200 million participants. Already Twitter has more businesses using its site than Facebook has with its 200 million participants. Clearly businesses are recognizing Twitter as a marketing tool. Bottom line, you have plenty of competition for attention on Twitter.
With this type of competition, you need ways that make your Twitter presence (think of your Twitter account as another website for your business) interesting and attractive. People will be looking at your Twitter website 24/7. How can you make these Twitter structural elements interesting and attractive to get people to follow you?
Your Picture
I already suggested using a head shot picture of you on Twitter. People buy from people not from a logo. Studies have shown that a picture on Twitter out performs a logo or a company name in getting more followers.
The tone of Twitter is causal. This is not the place for a slick corporate marketing document. What type of picture would people expect from someone in your profession? You picture needs to be a balance between professionalism and casualness. Make sure people can see your face on the picture. People relate better to faces than bodies. You will have an opportunity when you customize your Twitter background to have a larger picture of yourself.
I‘m not going to detail the basics of creating your Twitter account.Go to www.twitter.com and follow the simple instructions.This takes about five minutes of time.We will come back to many of these elements to show how you can make them more effective for marketing purposes.For now, use your real name, a brief 160 character bio, including a link to your website and add a real photo.When completed, you can go to www.Twitter.com and log on to your account. Type into the box, “What are you doing?” any brief message.Click Submit and you have made your first Tweet.
Here are some basic concept you will be using on Twitter.
Tweet—when you write and submit a message less than 140 characters is called a Tweet.
Follow—when you add someone to your list of people you are following on Twitter.Your Tweet show up on their home page.
Handle—Your Twitter name @alhanzal.This is like your URL on Twitter.
Replies—when aperson directly replies to you at your handle.@alhanzal nice job, etc.Usually this is done to engage another person in a conversation.
Retweet—taking someone’s Tweet or other materials and passing it on to others.This is a great way to share content with Twitter followers.
DM—this is a message sent directly to another person on Twitter.They must be following you to use the DM function.It is a way of keeping a message private.
Hashtags—by putting the # before a message, it’s a way of tagging the message much like tags on a blog.So it might look like #small business marketing and by using this you can search for all small business marketing Tweets.
Over the past several blog entries, I shared with you some reasons other expert suggest for using Twitter. In this post, I share with some of the ways Twitter has been helpful to my business.
Build expertise. People buy from people they know, like and trust. By participating in Twitter, I have the opportunity to let others learn more about me and learn the expertise I bring to the table.
Build relationships with others. I use Twitter to build relationships with existing and potential customers. Relationship building on Twitter involves give and take on different levels. Relationships allow me to build new contacts and steer more traffic to my website.
Test new ideas. Twitter is a place to ask questions and get input from others on new ideas, new services, current trends or questions about my existing products and services. Others provide valuable insights, even to simple questions like does anyone have a recipe for grilled salmon! Within hours I get several suggested recipes.
Build brand awareness. Twitter allows me to create a profile on my sites. I use this profile to help build the image I want of my business.
Find resources. I keep an eye on Tweets that coming down my stream. When they mention a resource I think would be helpful to my business, I check it out. I have found many valuable resources to keeps my business current.
Learn customer preferences. I like to listen and watch on Twitter and learn what others are concerned about and what they are saying about the market place. By learning about their likes and dislikes, I get insights into how to make my products more effective.
In this post, I will share the thoughts of two other small business marketing expets on ways to use Twitter. Both John Jantsch of Ducttape Marketing and Al Ferretti are helpful authors when it comes to small business operations. Ferretti will talk about the networking value of Twitter. Enjoy and prosper.
17 Ways to Use Twitter for Business and Some Not
More and more small business folks are giving in to what seems like an insurmountable mountain of hype and jumping on the twitter bandwagon.
But, some people still look at twitter on the surface and conclude that it’s one big waste of time. I can’t say I disagree completely, however, like all social media and marketing tactics, before you can determine if something makes sense you need to analyze your objectives. So, instead of asking why you would use it, ask how it might help you achieve some other already stated objectives.
1) Would you like a way to connect and network with others in your industry or others who share you views? It’s a good a tool for that.
2) Would you like a way to get instant access to what’s being said, this minute, about your organization, people, products, competitors or brand? It’s a good tool for that.
3) Would you like a steady stream of ideas, content, links, resources, and tips focused on your area of expertise or interest? It’s a good tool for that.
4) Would you like to monitor what’s being said about your customers to help them protect their brands? It’s a good tool for that.
5) Would you like to extend the reach of your thought leadership – blog posts and other content? It can be a good tool for that.
6) Would like a way to quickly find vendors, partners, tech help, even employees for your organization? I can be a good tool for that.
7) Would you like to promote your products and services directly to a target audience? Not such a good tool for that, but it can light a path back to your web site!
Now, if that weren’t enough, the open nature of the twitter platform is spawning uses far beyond what was ever imagined or what many people can grasp - and this use of the technology will only get bigger.
Here are few things you may have never considered
Publish your Flickr photos on twitter - Visit twittergram and set-up an account and then just upload to Flickr but tag your photo twitter and it goes into your twitter stream.
9) If you use online todo list Remember the Milk - you can set it up to flow into twitter - this might be a way to assign todos to remote teams
10) Using strawpoll you can create mini polls into your twitter stream - great for flash feedback
11) Use twitter to keep up on traffic jams with commuterfeed
12) Have twitter alert you when you have a meeting with timer
13) Get and fill current job openings with tweetajob
14) Track FedEx, UPS and DHL shipments with TrackThis
15) Get help quitting smoking
16) Keep a diet journal
17) Get a tweet when your plants need water - - okay this one would be way cooler if it simply tweeted you when the plant watered itself. http://tinyurl.com/b9nnsu
Illustration: Pasquale D’Silva
7 Tips for Networking on Twitter
June 17th, 2009 | Author: TwitterWatchDog -By Skeeter Hansen and Al Ferretti
We’ve been using Twitter for six months now and have met so many terrific, interesting and business savvy people.
On Twitter, you’re allowed 140 characters when sending a tweet. It may seem short, but you can get in quite a mouthful. No one ever said networking had to be a long drawn out novel, sometimes shorter is better. Don’t underestimate the power of short and quick replies because with the right words they can be very effective.
We have observed over the months that everyone uses Twitter for different reasons, but the majority of people who use it for networking don’t always know how to network effectively.
These 7 tips will show exactly how you can get the most out of your networking efforts on Twitter.
1. Start by using your real name on your profile, upload a real photo of yourself and fill out your bio. Your bio is about you and not your business. People want to know they are talking to a person. Your website link will take care of your business.
2. Follow people that interest you and who can help grow your business.
Follow quality people. People you can connect with is more important than the quantity of people you follow.
3. People want knowledge, information and resources. It’s always better to give first and then receive. I’m not saying you shouldn’t self-promote, but if the whole time you’re on Twitter and you’re just self-promoting, people aren’t going to care and will most likely un-follow you.
Note: Networking is about engaging, building relationships and providing value. A person who only has self-promotion on their mind is looked upon and labeled a spammer.
4. People like freebies and tips. Offer your best tips on working from home, on direct sales, web design, marketing and even Twitter tips. There are tips for everything so find something in your niche that you think would be valuable information. Throw in a few freebies as everyone loves something for free.
5. It’s important to engage in conversations with your new found “friends”. Don’t ignore their tweets. Use it to strike up conversations by asking a question or giving a compliment, as you will never know where these will lead.
6. If you read an interesting or newsworthy tweet, retweet it. This is a great way to say something if you can’t find anything to say. Retweeting a quote is a great way to help promote others, others will help to promote you.
7. Expect to spend some quality time and be consistent in your networking. Try to visit daily and the relationships will start to take shape. Enjoy and be yourself on Twitter and be respectful. Your reputation should always be guarded as you brand yourself.
A number of people don’t take networking seriously because they don’t know how to effectively network. There are many people who do know how and can show you the ropes or better yet take the time to learn and observe what others are doing.
**Free Twitter WatchDog Secrets, Tips, Tools, Applications and Special Bonuses** http://tinyurl.com/nxn3lv
The question many small business owners are asking, “Can Twitter be helpful for my business or are these short updates just a huge time waster that I cannot afford to do?” This is a great question. It can be answered “yes” and “yes.”
As I explore how Twitter can be used by the small business owners, I turn to others and what they have found with Twitter usage. In the next couple of posts, I will share what they have found about small business Twitter usage and then share with you some of my own thoughts on Twitter usage for small businesses. Enjoy.
From David White who has a free seven part series on the use of Twitter
Every successful business uses, needs or has a mailing list. You can use Twitter to build your mailing list in record time… At Twitter every one opts-in to hear what you want to say, as your follower, you do not need to ask, you do not need permission. You do not need to stuff envelopes and you do not even need to pay for stamps!
Top 10 reasons to drive your Twitter following:
1.Drive more traffic to your website and raise your profile
2.Promote specific events / conferences
3.Announce new updates, new initiatives, new services etc.
4.Demonstrate a customer centric focus
5.Search current trends in real time
6.Share best practice, knowledge, ideas and information
7.Reach and engage with your targeted audience
8.Keep people informed of your latest news
9.Turn prospects into Advocates
10.Develop new contacts
So, before we get going, here is a quick start guide to making it all happen, this should take you no more than just a few minutes – then I can get on with the real business…
So the bottom line is the more followers you have on Twitter, the more people you can talk to. Your followers are your mailing list. You can’t buy the list, you don’t need to stuff any envelopes or pay for stamps. You just have to write a very short text. Literally, like a text, you can only write messages that are no longer than 140 characters long.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I will begin dissecting Twitter to uncover how it can be used for small business marketing.I will focus my posts around five major topics and provide step by step processes for using Twitter in your small business marketing.
What is Twitter?
Why would I want to do Twitter marketing?
How can you create an effective Twitter presence?
How to do Twitter marketing
Twitter tools you can use to do Twitter marketing
Let me start with a description of Twitter.
What is Twitter?
By now you have probably hear the Twitter description.It is a social networking site, a micro blog, that allows you to tell people in 140 characters or less “What you are doing right now.”Let me break that description down into marketing terms.
Twitter is a social media website.It is one of the many social media websites that make up Web 2.0.As a website it gives your business an additional presence on the internet that can be used to drive potential customers to your business.
Like other social media sites, Facebook, Linkedin and thousands of other sites, it is an interactive website.People who join Twitter are expected to participate in the conversations by listening and commenting.
Last year Twitter had 8 million participants.This year that number is 22 million.It is the fastest growing social media site on the internet.Already, Twitter has more businesses on its site than Facebook has with its 200 million participants.
The people who use Twitter tend to be older (45-54) than other social media sites.People who use social media sites have 25% more disposal able income than those who don’t.
If you searched Twitter’s top 75 topics, you would find 30% of these topics deal with entertainment.This heavy emphasis on entertainment may reflect the current bias against using Twitter to promote business to retail sites.However, with the growth of Twitter, it will become more diverse.
Twitter is real time communication tool.The real time quality was dramatically shown during the recent Iranian crisis when the government shut down traditional media sources and the world learned about the events via Twitter.Communications is instantaneous.
Tweets are not caught in spam filters like many emails.There is no need to open a Tweet, because the entire Tweet (140 characters) is right there on your home page.)Twitter will have an impact on traditional email marketing efforts.
The key to Twitter’s marketing functions is getting “followers”.You can grow a list of potential customers very rapidly using Twitter without the usual limitations involved in list building.No stamps; no stuffing of envelopes.
Twitter can be linked to cell phones with internet connections so it becomes a very portable tool for everyone to use.
A month ago, Oprah sent out her first tweet on Twitter. In the space of three days, she had 300,000 followers. Twitter has official become an American icon! In an interesting article, Kenneth Yu talks about how you can use the Oprah effect to help your marketing. I had have taken some excerpts (click here for complete article http://tinyurl.com/cq84nq) from his article for this post. Enjoy and prosper and Tweet!
If you are on Twitter, your world just got bigger!
As you know, Oprah is one of the most influential people on earth. Love her or hate her, her endorsements have turned otherwise obscure books into New York Times best-sellers; she is the reason why The Secret is the world-wide phenomenon it is today as opposed to a niche viral video. And now, Oprah endorses Twitter above Facebook and Myspace and all the other social media.
It doesn’t take a detective to know that whatever Oprah endorses becomes successful. We can already see the spike she’s caused; over 1.5 million more users were added on Twitter because of her arrival. Now you have a fresh audience on Twitter. Twitter’s grown immensely over the last year (1000%) and it’s probably going to grow another 1000% in the next few months because of the Oprah endorsement.
The right demographics are using Twitter
The second point is the acceleration of a trend that’s already growing on Twitter, namely that the older demographics are the first to get on board the Twitter wagon. The 25-35 year-olds and the 45-60 year olds are by far the biggest users of Twitter right now, as opposed to teenagers or kids. The Oprah audience is largely of this demographic as well.
This demographic has money, is eager to do business, and have the disposable income that marketers and businesses covet.
It’s not a fact ignored by many corporations either, because tons of brands are getting on Twitter. Although Twitter has one seventh or one-eighth of the audience of Facebook, there are more businesses on Twitter than there are on Facebook already.
You Know what people want
Oprah now has what is probably the most effective channel of knowing what people are thinking of or about at the moment. Remember that I’ve said before that Google is good for what people are searching for at the moment, while Twitter is good for what people are thinking of at the moment.
As you may know when it comes to marketing research and focus groups, a lot of focus groups don’t really work simply because people in that kind of setting will give an answer they think you want to hear as opposed to what they really think. On Twitter, it’s uncensored and spontaneous; you get a true feel for your market’s demographic and you can craft marketing angles one after the other to create really excellent response results.
Dominate a marketing channel
It’s easier now to dominate a certain channel of marketing for a particular niche as opposed to dominating the niche itself (unless of course the niche is really small and is at its beginning stages). We’ve reached a point where nearly any and every niche is crowded.
What you can do is be an authority in a specific marketing niche. And because of the newness of Twitter and because of the pioneering aspect of Twitter you can go on Twitter now and be the expert in your field for that particular channel. Because of Twitter’s mainstream acceptance, when you position yourself as a Twitter expert, you have a large inbuilt list of buyers and prospects that you can reach out to that will see you as an authority, as the channel expert in your field on Twitter.
Jan Wallen has helped thousands of executives and professionals find success in their business
and careers. Jan has 20 years experience with Fortune 500 and Big 5 firms, advising, mentoring,
consulting and training C-level executives and partners. Whether you’re a CEO, executive,
salesperson or entrepreneur, Jan’s practical, positive approach and strategies give you all the
tools you need to streamline your job search and your sales and get results.
Jan is the author of “Mastering LinkedIn in 7 Days or Less” - the proven step-by-step program
that shows you exactly how to use LinkedIn to find a job and find clients …in record time.
Her Web site is: www.LinkedInWorks.com. People can purchase her book there or at Amazon.com, and subscribe to her eColumn – full of easy-to-use tips they can do in 15 minutes or less. They can also sign up for the Webinars she gives –
“Take Days Off your Job Search with LinkedIn”
“Link Up with LinkedIn – Find Clients and Grow your Business”, and
I believe the future belongs not to the biggest or the strongest, but to those who are willing to adapt.
Over the past four years, my own efforts to help small business owners with their marketing efforts has become a living example of this belief.
Traditional Marketing Efforts
Initially When I started helping small business owners with their marketing four years ago, I employed the tools I personally used to grow my retail flooring business from $900,000 to $2.300,000. These tools involved:
Building a solid marketing messages
Applying the message consistently across marketing media
Creating good yellow page ads
Customer newsletters
Customer Loyalty programs
Add on selling and Up selling
Joint partnerships with other businesses
Digital Marketing
Two years ago, I realized that we were in the middle of a paradigm shift. Lead by customers using the internet, small business owners needed to use the internet if they were going to be successful with their marketing efforts. While the core ingredients of creating a solid marketing message remained the same, there were new marketing tools.
Websites
Search engines optimizations
Key word analysis
Email Marketing
On-line customer loyalty programs
On-line joint ventures with other businesses
Today’s Social Media Sites
In the last six months, I recognized that small business owners must make even more adaptations. With the advent of social media sites, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and many other sites, the rules for successful small business marketing have again changed.
Creating a brand presence on social media sites
Learning how to interact with potential customers on line
Using blogs, video, audio and text on line
Learning how to promote with new marketing rules
I developed a free special report, A Small Business Blueprint for Social Media Marketing that you can access by completing the form in the upper right hand corner of this blog page. It’s free and provides a great framework for a small business owner on how they can use social media marketing for their businesses.
My intention six months ago with this Internet Marketing Tools Blog was to use the blog posts to dig deeper into the most popular social media sites. By reading, researching and writing, I hope to help small business with using these sites for their marketing efforts.
I started with Linkedin, a business orientated social media site. With the economic downturn and the record number of lost jobs, I took a small detour. I spent the last three months, exploring how Linkedin can help others find a job. This has been an exciting process. Linkedin has so many tools to aid people in their job search.
Beyond the research and posts I have made with Linkedin and job searching, I compiled those ideas together in a free e-book. (Currently being proof read). I will make that available as a free e-book in the next 2-3 weeks. It’s a small way that I can contribute to help others who are looking for work. (I will notify you how you can get a copy of this free e-book.)
Future Directions
Now I want to return to the original purpose of this blog and start on another social media site. I will start with Twitter since it has been in the news lately with the political developments in places like Iran and China. I will explore in more depth the purposes of Twitter, what it is and how it can be successfully used for small business marketing.
I hope this gives you insights into the adaptations I have made and the course I will be taking rmy blog for the immediate future.
I need some help: I’ve joined LinkedIn and now want to find other people in Colorado who can help me find work. I’ve a background in computer networking and am a civilian employee of the Air Force, but I’m pretty new to LinkedIn. Do you have some advice for me?
This was a question posted to Dave Taylor who has become an online expert helping people use technology to find employment. He has a detailed answer to the above question. It summarizes well many of the Linkedin principles we have covered over the last month on how to use Linkedin more effectively in your job search. To read his response go to: http://tinyurl.com/3d2zu2.
17 Ways to Use Twitter for Business and Some Not
