I once read an article where twitter was compared to a black hole –it can suck your time, effort, and budget rather effortlessly, and leave you with no great returns to show for it. If used correctly however, twitter can be an amazing marketing tool that can showcase your brand, build your reputation, and leave you with time and money to spend on other marketing initiatives.
Here’s the very first thing you need to know about twitter if you plan to use it for your own marketing needs –the campaigns which work for others may not work for you. So forget about ripping off your competitor’s ideas (though tailor-making them to suit your own needs can work in your favor).
These are my top reasons why you should consider twitter as a marketing tool:
- You can deliver information in real time. From bombings and uprisings to launches and news flashes, twitter is an easy way to deliver your message instantly and to a wide audience. Imagine how you can use such a powerful tool to promote your brand!
- Your message is highlighted thanks to the character limitations twitter imposes on each tweet. Shorter in this instance is not only sweeter, but also more intense. You say what you have to in 140 characters!
- You have easy follow/be followed buttons, which take the guesswork and effort out of selecting your individual audience and allows you to search and find them in a matter of minutes. You can also gauge your audience quickly.
- You can build a substantial network to market in the time it would normally take to plan a larger more traditional marketing campaign.
- You can drive a large audience to your blog and website, to your landing pages, and to other marketing channels. Cross marketing is one of the best ways to gain brand awareness, and twitter is a champion in allowing you to cross promote your services.
- Your voice does count, and unless you constantly criticize or demean your fellow tweeters, you do get to have your say on issues that are current and important. You also get share your own promotions as long as you are wise to interspace them with the promotional efforts of others.
- You can use twitter to drive tight online campaigns like seasonal sales, webinars, and even offline campaigns like tradeshows and conferences. By linking it to the sign up and landing page or other marketing channels like LinkedIn and Biznik, you can collect a cross-audience to help widen the marketing circle. Sometimes, a heavy campaign calls for its own hashtag. Here’s a great post on How to Use Hashtags on Twitter effectively. And once you’ve run a campaign, use a site like HashTags to analyze the results.
- Analysis, like message delivery, is immediate and in real time. You can reconfigure your marketing campaign in a matter of hours, not the days it would normally take to redefine a marketing initiative. You can also use Twitter Search tools to find out what people are interested in, track and monitor your competition, and research new trends that are playing out.
Begin by creating a comprehensive marketing plan in which twitter can play a stellar role, but not the only role. Combine it with other marketing initiatives –tweets are a great way to share your blog posts, introduce new campaigns, and poll for research. Anything goes, but you do need to remember that self-promotion is considered uncool and can get you quickly voted off lists and unfollowed. Instead share a variety of content, some yours, others of those that you come across.
Ignore the ‘be seen not heard’ rule. Online, you need to interact with your followers, network with your peers, and model yourself after your influencers. This means sharing content, retweeting interesting links, asking questions, responding to those who post questions, and being proactive in general. It’s also okay to take the conversation offline. Many a time, I have visited a twitter follower’s website or facebook page and found interesting content. I’ve commented on it and initiated a conversation, which has led to other interesting networking opportunities.
Calculate your time/return on investment ratio and refine it where necessary. There are plenty of tools that help you measure your twitter score, including Klout, TweetGrader, and TweetReach.
However, the simple truth is that you are investing something into twitter. It could be your time or money if you pay someone to handle it for you. Unless you can justify higher returns, you have to ask yourself why you are going with twitter and not any other marketing tool.
