Twitter and Your Business

By now, almost everyone knows what twitter is. But we may briefly mention, by way of introduction, and for the benefit of the few who may be unfamiliar with it, that Twitter is a popular social media site. The way it works is such that you create a profile on it (where that can be your individual profile, or in this case, your business profile). Then you recruit followers, at least the initial ones, as you would do with a Facebook page. Thereafter, you create short messages, limited to 140 characters; these mostly being updates on what you are doing – which are then broadcast to your followers. These messages, if you allow it, are put into the Twitter database: so that a person searching for related messages can retrieve them.

Twitter as a potential marketing tool

Twitter is one of the leading tools in what has come to be referred to as social media marketing (SMM). One of the ways in which Twitter comes in handy as a marketing tool is where it is used to create ‘buzz’ around a product. We will recall that when you create a twitter message (also known as a tweet), it is send to all your ‘followers.’ If you have managed to get several thousand followers, it means that every tweet you send out is, effectively, an advertisement to the several thousand who are in turn likely to pass it on to their followers and ‘off-line friends.’

Twitter can also be very handy in new product launches: as a tool for letting word out about the products. Indeed, as long as it is a good product you have just launched, word around it can spread virally on twitter, as the initial people to get the message pass it along.

Then again, if you are in the sorts of business that revolve around ‘events’ (like if you are a musician, an event organizer and so on), you can use twitter to update your audience about the upcoming events. In these business lines, by the way, the greatest challenge faced is usually that of letting out word about events. Twitter gives you an opportunity to do that dynamically: you not only tell people about the event in question and when it will be taking place, but also travel with them in the ‘buildup to the event.’

Tips for successful Twitter marketing

For starters, at profile development time, you need to ensure that your name is a meaningful one. People expect messages from people, so don’t create your Twitter name to be a product or company name. Instead make it a personal name (and then, maybe in brackets, include your association with the business or product).

It helps if you make your tweets keyword rich, but still natural. You will find keyword usage easier in the short tweets, compared to longer narratives where context for keyword usage tends to be hard to get sometimes. Having people who are ‘opinion leaders’ as your followers can be very useful. If you become their followers, and possibly even sent them followership-requests, you may nail them.

Advantages of twitter marketing

One of the biggest advantages to Twitter marketing lies in its cost effectiveness. It also helps that Twitter gives you a forum for instantly letting word out – and actually getting people to see it. And properly leveraged upon, Twitter can turn out to be one of the most effective marketing tools, in terms of things like conversion rates and so on.