My previous post mentioned tools from "The Twitter Book". Here are some business marketing tips from the book. The main points 1-20 are from the book - the annotations are my interpretations...
1. Listen first - if you do nothing else at least use some of the tools mentioned in my previous post to track what people are saying about you
2. Have clear goals - is it for acquisition, loyalty, revenue generation, thought leadership...?
3. Integrate with other channels - make sure messages are consistent with your blogs, social media etc, consider the role of Twitter in your mix
4. Start slow, then build - dip your toe in the water, does it work for you?
5. Figure out who is your twitterer - who is passionate, knowledgeable, patient...?
6. Reveal the person behind the curtain - don't hide, who is writing it? Show who you are in the profile section
7. Manage multiple staff twitterers - if more than one of you is tweeting, then co-ordiante and think about the role of each of you, also link to each other to get more followers following each of you
8. Coordinate multiple accounts - at least know what your colleagues are saying and don't contradict, promote their offers if relevant
9. Make your brand findable - call your account by your company/brand name - put your personal name in the profile
10. Be converstaional - ask questions, invite replies, ask for suggestions...
11. Retweet your customers - if they have something valuable to say, then credit them and share it
12. Offer solid customer support - give advice & tips on common or current issues
13. Post mostly NOT about your company - talk, don't sell, be a thought leader
14. Link to your own sites - if you have some valuable insights / research / white papers on your web site or blog, then link to them
15. Make money on Twitter - copy Dell - promote offers and deals, maybe set up a separate twitter account for these commercial offers, keep the thought leadership separate
16. Communicate problems and resolutions fast - retweeting means word travels fast, see how quickly photos of the plane in the Hudson river were around Twitter
17. Post personal updates - even if it is a corporate account, post some personal opinions / news, but not your vacation photos! It is not Facebook
18. Engage journalists and PR people - follow your industry opinion formers and hope they follow you, also follow HARO
19. Follow people who follow you - it is good manners!
20. Use Twist to monitor topic frequency - see my previous blog post for more and a link on this one
I got a question , its obvious that Twitter could be use for business, but how to get followers ? We all know that 90% of the people in twitter doesnt want to receive offers or ads. They define it as spam and block you. How to be more interesting and get followers ? Some sites offer you to pay amount of money and they provide you new followers , is it worth such an investment ?
Posted by: Amoureuse | July 27, 2009 at 01:17 PM
Good question. I'd always advise against paying for followers. I'd need to be convinced that the people you are paying for are actually interested in what you have to say and positively opting in to follow you.
I'd say that acquiring followers is similar to acquiring web visitors, the same rules and techniques apply. Use as many of your current channels as possible first (does it have your twitter details on your web site, email sign off, product registration, packaging, press ads etc)?
You may also want to find some influential people in your market to follow in the hope that they and their followers will follow you. Join some online communities, build your network and reputation, comment on other tweets from people who are respected...
Start to generate content and send personal messages to people with networks and see if they will retweet you....
Just some quick thoughts - let me know how you get on
Posted by: nick baggott | July 27, 2009 at 04:19 PM
@Amoureuse That's exactly the wrong attitude.
Twitter isn't a mazgazine that carries adverts. It's about relationships. If you don't want relationships, or you don't have time, then use yuor energy somewhere else. Booking banner adverts or PPC perhaps?
As Nick says, "paying" for followers will most likely get you time wasters.
I have training videos about these concepts on my blog.
Posted by: Peter Buick | August 04, 2009 at 12:51 PM
Different Social Networks sources as face book and Twitter are means to present your services to different social networks , these are use as promoting and advertisements catering different sectors in easy ways .
Posted by: Shortcuts to Millions | October 16, 2009 at 06:08 AM