Since its launch in 2006, Twitter #Twitter has become one of the most talked about and popular social media sites in the world, boasting more than 240 million active users. It’s fast, immediate and straight to the point. Marketing on twitter for your company is an important strategy to succeed.
With a strict 140-character limit on messages (called tweets) the microblogging platform may not appear to be a smart marketing #SmartMarketing choice.
However, used well, Twitter can amplify your impact, generate excitement around a new endeavor or product launch, increase traffic to your website and create interactions with a new audience.
For example, SingTel, a Singaporean telecommunications group experienced a 39% increase in traffic to its 4G website and a 17-fold increase in daily brand mentions following a Twitter campaign to raise awareness of its 4G services launch.
The company created the #Need4GSpeed hashtag to highlight instances of when people need high-speed connectivity. It also used Promoted Tweets (paid for tweets) embedded with images and videos.
With a little ingenuity you can leverage Twitter to create more leads and opportunities for marketing on twitter, and you can do so with little or no financial outlay. Here’s how:
Get your avatar right – this is the picture that accompanies every single tweet you publish. Therefore, it’s going to be the image that people will readily associate with your business.
Select an image that best reflects what you do. Avoid using cartoon characters #CartoonCharacters or logos as these create barriers between you and your followers. They want to know exactly who they are following.
Create a powerful profile – Twitter gives you 160 characters to write your profile. Make each one count so you are shown in your very best light.
Follow people – when you follow people on Twitter you get to read what they share. Be selective and only follow those people who are going to add value to your business. Unless you are a top Hollywood producer or newspaper editor avoid the temptation of following big name celebrity tweeters.
The sorts of people you may want to follow are customers, suppliers, business partners, competitors, trade organisations and other businesses in your locale. Be mindful not to follow too many people as you will just clog up your main Twitter page and risk missing some really important stuff. Quality trumps quantity.
Start talking – you don’t always have to wait for the conversations to come to you. Tweet questions and ask your followers for their opinions.
Create valuable and meaningful tweets – in the main, direct selling #directselling on social media does not work. The trick is to hit that juicy sweet spot that sits somewhere between what your followers want to know and read about and what you want to sell to them.
This is not as difficult as it may seem at first. You are an expert in your field and have a wealth of information that can be passed onto your audience.
Use that to your advantage by focusing on how your followers can have their problems solved by using your products and services. Tweets can link to any kind of content on the web such as videos, photographs, articles and blog posts.
Add images to tweets – you don’t have to say it with words all the time. A great picture is social media dynamite. Tweets with pictures inspire others to retweet #retweet.
Post videos – Vine #Vine is Tweet’s mobile platform that lets you capture and share short (6 seconds only) looping videos. You can download the app for free from the Apple store. As with tweets, brevity is the watchword. Six seconds is not a lot of time, but it does encourage marketers to create clear and concise messages.
When Kia Australia wanted to increase awareness of one of its new models, a car full of ‘smart solutions’ #smartsolutions such as under seat storage, it turned on the cameras. The company produced 18 short videos depicting solutions to everyday challenges. They were a hit that resulted in a 40% increase in followers.
Join the conversations – build your reputation as a thought leader by making valuable contributions to twitter conversations about topics related to your industry. You can find out what people are saying about your field right now by going to http://search.twitter.com. Once there, just type in a keyword and join in.
Create #hashtags – hashtags (#) denote keywords or topics in tweets. Conversations gather around hashtags and when you click on one you’ll see posts on that subject in real time.
You can create your own hashtags to make it easier for people who are exploring a topic to find you. For example, if you are a florist you could create #pruningrosestips.
Opportunities
Many businesses find it takes a few months before they have found their feet on Twitter and established their credibility and authority. Success #success may not come overnight, but with patience, and once the basics have been mastered, a world of opportunities awaits.
