Make Twitter Work
Have you heard about Twitter? I am sure you have, at least, heard the name. No, it is not the latest social fad. No, it is not a new way for kids to tell other kids useless things. Abandon all preconceived notions and assumptions for what you think Twitter is and what it is capable of doing. It is time to take a real look at this social media platform and realize its true potential.
First of all, for those that do not know, Twitter is a free instant messaging platform for social media. Everyone can use. Send a message and any of your followers can read it or any other Twitter users can search it out. Speaking of users, there are millions of them on Twitter; talk about an untapped market if you are not making use of this application. According to the State of the Twittersphere report (which I found using Twitter), 5 to 10 thousand people join Twitter every day. That has accumulated to over 5 million members to date. Check around your industry, I bet the leaders have Twitter accounts with plenty of followers. If, somehow, they don’t, then consider this your chance to jump out way ahead of the curve. The benefits this platform can bring to your marketing efforts and overall business cannot be denied.
The founder of Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch , commented on three huge advantages of Twitter: “(1) I get great insight when I ask questions, (2) let’s face it, I get traffic and (3) people on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places.”
Bestselling author David Meerman Scott said, “I have personally connected with hundreds of people I otherwise wouldn’t have, and I booked an interview on NPR and a big daily newspaper using Twitter.”
Even Business Week wrote an article that surveyed 18 CEOs and how they’re using Twitter to help their businesses.
The advantages of using it are being seen by everyone and it’s time you saw them too.
For the most part, the uses for marketing boil down to tracking and directing attention. Find out how people of influence think and feel about topics related to your business. Use this information to improve your marketing efforts on all mediums.
Twitter acts as a great traffic generating tool for your website. Make announcements and post links for to new content through it.
Connect with current and potential customers like never before. Twitter practically demands two-way customer engagement. Personal branding is a real option. Obtain customer feedback quicker and from a wider base. Have the ability to notify customers of new deals or information concerning your business.
Get creative and come up with great content to send out to your followers. It shouldn’t be too hard, you only have 140 characters to fill. The only real problem with Twitter is that once you get into it, the process may suck you in. Keep vigilant on your time management and make use of available tools that make Tweeting less of a time sink. Some of the better ones are: TweetLater , BUDurls , TwitterFox , Ping.fm and Twitter for Facebook. Track, manage and automate your Twitter efforts with these and more.
Remember to treat your Twitter profile kind of like a website: always add new, relevant content, promote your profile everywhere you can, and make sure to budget your time properly. Turn this free instant messaging platform into another super tool for your online marketing and business.
Joe Knowz 
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