From a business perspective, social sites offer a chance for potential customers and influence purchasing behavior as online social networkers are three times more likely to trust their online community of peers on advertising to make purchasing decisions .* And, according to a survey by Nielsen , consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising by 78% of respondents .*
How to use Twitter, the most celebrated social networking tool of the moment, and generate more business? Here is the formula I use for customers who use twitter. The same principles will work for every company, because it is not about the product or service you have, it is about the people and creating a social buzz that will lead company for you.
Social marketing has grown exponentially for the last few years. From the beginning of the blogs, MySpace and Facebook networking sites like linked and the newest star: Twitter.
What makes social marketing so popular? Simply put, human nature. We all want to feel that we are part of a community whether in the local community, such as churches, teams, etc., or in the online community, such as Twitter. Thanks to the internet, our sense of community people from across the United States and beyond our borders bring us to the global community.
From a business perspective, social sites offer a chance for potential customers and influence purchasing behavior as online social networkers are three times more likely to trust their online community of peers in the advertising to make purchasing decisions .* And, according to a survey Nielsen, consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising by 78% of respondents .*
In other words, if someone is recommended for your business by a co-worker, neighbor, friend or member of the online network, which is 78% more likely to buy your company. Because of this fact, 81% of people in the market, respondents said they were spending as much, if not more, social media than they do (or had) in the traditional advertising .*
So how do you use Twitter, the most celebrated social networking tool of the moment, and generate more business? Here is the formula I use for customers who use twitter. The same principles will work for every company, because it is not about the product or service you have, it is about the people and creating a social buzz that will lead company for you.
First, of course, you must set up an account on twitter, if you do not have. When setting up your account, make sure that you have a picture of yourself or a representative of your company. Since the key to networking is to twitter followers, the photo makes people more likely to follow you. Also include your location (local search), a link to your website (http://ideasthatwork.net) and brief information about your company. For a more professional appearance is best to create a custom background for your twitter site.
Side Note: TweetDeck.com is a great tool to help you manage the twitter universe.
Here are some basics you should know before you start two tax:
* A follower is someone who overlooks your updates.
* Following refers to the act of you following other people.
* The @ symbol is placed before a user name in the Tweet to reply to another user, and this is reflected in the main stream twitter
* The # (hashtag) is used to help you sort by subject. For example, you can use # survivor to Tweet with other Survivor fans.
* Direct messages go only to the user that your messaging
Once your account is set to begin posting at least 1 Tweet, so people will know what your profile you have.
Then you need to find people to follow. If you really in this business to get referrals, I suggest you do not follow the person on twitter. Place a search for key words that describe your business. If you want to concentrate on the local market, the use of the city and to search. If you have a wedding planner, look for the word “marriage”. This search can easily be done within twitter by using the search box at the top of your homepage.
There are also very well respected member of the twitter community you want to follow based on your business. For example, business owners want to follow in May Business Week (@ bizweek). If you are a coffee lover, you may want to follow Starbucks (@ Starbucks). MrTweet.com can help you find people you want, but remember you do not need (or you) everyone follows.
Once you’re following, you see that people start to follow you back and you’ll also see that people after you that you do not follow first. (All these below can confusing, since it is easier to hang with the practice) Remember that you want potential customers or people who can lead you to potential customers. You must also follow people in similar businesses, as long as they do not directly compete with you (unless, of course, you want to know what the competition does!) And if people follow you, check their profile for the next return. There are hundreds of thousands of people on twitter, and not everyone will be in your target market.
Now that you are building your list of followers, you need to start two budget on a regular basis. You can give tips related to your business, some people famous quotes or jokes, others are focused on the daily events aimed at. I trade off between tax optimization tweets, projects I’m working on this day in history info, etc. I am also tweet about everyday things, like the forces of technology working against me - Argh! The more fair and transparent you are, the more people like you and with you in conversation.
Twitter is also very good for self promotion - to a point. Nothing is worse than follow someone who only talks about their products, services or only on their own blog or material objects. It is a good idea to “retweet” or to the good information that others post. Within the 140 characters can be left for specific information anywhere on the web, including your website. Everything you need to do is copy the URL or web address of the page you want to link and paste it into twitter. Often you find that the Web address for the link is too long for twitter, takes too much space. In that case, you use a site like tinyurl.com to shorten the link.
A large part of twitter increasingly concerned participate. You can sit and read the twitter stream but when you start with the answer to the people you will begin to others and bring them into your world. The next thing you know, people will check your website and refer you (via twitter) to others. If you are really concerned you really reap the benefits. And, if you work with web analytics on your website, you can see the movement that refers to your twitter, and how much of that traffic converts into business.
Once you’ve mastered the “two-tax” you want to use twitter in more ways to integrate twitter with Facebook and the addition of the twitter stream to your website.
There is no doubt that the Internet has forever changed word-of-mouth advertising. The power of the people is now greater than ever and is a part of everyone’s daily life. Using twitter as a part of your online marketing campaign you can influence the buzz about you and your company.
PS … can you me twitter: @ tkimsey
* “Social Networking Sites: Defining Advertising Opportunities in a competitive landscape,” Jupiter Research, March 2007
* Nielsen, “Word of mouth of the most powerful tool”
* TWI Surveys / Society for New Communications Research, (November 2007)
