July 14, 2009
Twitter is a free, social networking service which offers a new-age way to enhance brand recognition and build relationships with your prospects and customers. Twitter enables users to micro-blog, or communicate through small, quick spurts of content and reach thousands of people every day.
Here are few tips on how to use Twitter as part of your online marketing strategy to target new business in Charlotte and anywhere else in the world.
- Create a list of topics for posting before you get started. The more you plan out your endeavor, the more you'll benefit from marketing on Twitter.
- Follow your competitors. Your competitors will have already sought out a similar target audience you want to reach, which enables you to catch up quickly. You can also track your competitors' marketing tactics and messaging.
- Make a commitment to Twitter before starting. Twitter requires constant involvement and timely follow-up. Without this, Twitter loses its credibility. Successful Twitter marketing also requires intelligent message writing. With only 140 characters at your disposal, choosing the right message and responses is crucial to your success.
- Strengthen your brand image. Create an interesting profile by posting photos and information about your company. Be sure to seek out people, companies and groups that you are interested in on a personal level, too, even if they are unlikely to use your services. This helps create a personality for your company, which can help make you seem more accessible and friendly.
- Participation is key. Users must be willing to participate in online conversations and communicate with other businesses, consumers, and individuals. Not only can you share your industry knowledge, but it gives you the opportunity to spread the word about your business and share something about yourself with the rest of the community.
- Inform people of new products and services offered by your company. The Twitter community is a great way to stay on top of industry news, as well as promote your new products and services. However, don't to make product or service promotions the sole focus of your Twitter account. Twitter is a social network, not a medium for spamming. Be sure to post only meaningful, relevant content that readers will look forward to reading.
- Drive traffic to your web site. You can add links to your website, blog or press releases, which is also a great way to increase your company's exposure.
- Promote events. If your company is throwing an event or attending a conference, you can tweet (create a status update or post) about it to generate interest in the event. Pre-networking can add value to the relationships you then create in person.
- Create unique ways to interact with readers. Engage others in your field by asking thoughtful questions, request feedback on your products, take polls, and facilitate conversation.
- Follow relevant Twitter feeds. The owner of a feed will be notified when you follow their feeds, creating awareness and building traffic for your own company as well.
- Use it as a back-up form of communication. Twitter is a reliable tool for communicating with customers if your website or email servers go down.
- Read feedback about your company without a formal survey. If you search for your companyâ??s name using twitter search, it will return all the tweets where people mention the terms you search for. This is a great way to gain insight on opinions behind the scenes.
Joe Gass, President Heritage Printing & Graphics 5900 Harris Technology Blvd, Suite G, Charlotte, NC 704-551-0700 www.heritageprintingcharlotte.com
