Twitter For Business?

Twitter for business?

Lets start by covering what Twitter is, then we will check out the different ways Twitter can be used, followed by ways to implement your fresh knowledge to create value for your business.

So exactly what is Twitter?

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, SMS,  or external applications (like the Twitter iPhone app).If you want to group conversations or categorize tweets, then consider using hashtags. These are words or phrases prefixed with a ‘#’. A search for “beer” would turn up all messages that included the word beer, a search for #beerfest2009 would turn up all tweets that included the hashtag ‘beerfest2009’ in the tweet. So when you want to track tweets about your brand, ask people to insert a hashtag (one that you create – remember that the hashtag must be unique in order to distinguish the relevant tweets from noise)

[flashvideo file=http://b6-videos.s3.amazonaws.com/twitter-how-to.flv /]

The first step is to create a Twitter account, this is fairly easy process, and you will end up with an account for your marketing campaign at Twitter like this: http://twitter.com/box_online. Remember to create separate accounts whose names are related to the product/service you are going to promote, even if you have a personal Twitter account. This will look more professional in the long run to have a dedicated following comprised exclusively of the target audience and will allow you to keep your personal account for your more quirky personal tweets (i.e., individual posts to Twitter).

Customize the profile. Once the account has been created, tweak the profile details to make it attractive to the target audience. Add an original logo, match the color of the profile with that of the logo, include keywords about the product/service to be promoted, add pictures and bits of information which are interesting and usable and fill in all the sidebar information.

Put badges on the website. Putting badges on the website and the web pages related to the promotion will allow the visitors to the website to follow you on Twitter. Twittercounter and Twittergrader badges are recommended for this purpose.

Seek followers. This is the most important aspect of Twitter, whether you are doing it for personal reasons or for a marketing advantage. Web marketers seek quality followers from the business vertical in which they are promoting their product or service. This can be done by going through the profiles and tweets posted by various followers and getting noticed by contributing to their conversations.

Jump in and reply to interesting @-reply tweets, which are public conversations between two users. [If they expect a conversation to be private, they should be “direct messaging” (DM) each other instead.] Check out both parties and “follow” them if they interest you. If you follow someone with, say, 10,000 followers and reply to his/her posts meaningfully for long enough, chances are good that he/she will start to reply to you and start following you.

Retweeting means forwarding someone else’s tweet to your own follower list. Proper retweeting can go a long way in gaining invaluable followers who are very popular themselves. Credit your Tweet source by adding their @ tag; e.g., when Box_Online, whom you follow, sends out, “Great new productivity site at http://b6group.com/,” retweet it to your list as “RT @Box_Online: Great new productivity site at http://b6group.com.” If you have characters to spare, you can spell out ReTweet. If someone with 10,000 followers retweets your posts, their followers may retweet your post and so on, with the potential for massive exposure.

A Break-Down of Tweet Topics During A Recent Event: WordPress WordCamp SF

Does It Actually Work?
Here are some examples of companies that are using Twitter in various methods.
@DellOutlet : Sales : Additional sales channel to sell refurbished products.
@HomeDepot : Marketing : Allows people to get more information on the products that they needed or wanted.
@JetBlue : Customer Service : 600,000 followers to let Customers know about upgrades, delays etc…
@IBM / Sun : B2B :  for events, and new product launches.
Do this:
@JeffreyHayzlett : CMO Kodak
@DellOutlet : Not always pitching… talking about adding value, they also follow their other brands.
@CNN : Strong bio, links back to the site, follow the followers
@IBM : Events, B2B group, partner channels, design group… if you are in the
design business, you are not going to know about IBM Design… you will
search for IBM.. and via Twitter you will find it if the brands are
also followed on the IBM Tweet.
@DunkinDonuts : Good logo, good following, offering feedback for not having shops in a given state.
@ScottMonty  : Personal dialog.
@zappos: Taken their brand and presorted it for you, provides insight into
behind the scenes ops, used as a contest & feedback mechanism to
better involve and serve customers.
Not this:
@ FujifilmInkjet : No dialog
@ofc : Same 5 posts re-written 40 times selling products.
@GU : No bio, no links back to their main site.
@Microsoft : Zero posts.
@ Subway : No presence but the brand is one of the most talked about brands on Twitter.
@nissan : Dealerships are followed but no dialog, no persona, no spokesman.

Can You Implement A Twitter Strategy Now?

Your new Twitter account is a key to a successful online pull marketing campaign.  Using your new account can help you to research what people are saying about your brand or topics related to your business. Using API’s like Twittervision API, you can even figure out where people are talking about which topics. You can Tweet about your products and services to attract Consumer attention to your brand.  Once you have a solid following, its time to spread information and content in order to attract Consumers to your website where you can give them value and convert prospects into leads. Consider using tiny urls as a way to save space and lead Customers to content.  Twitter is an excellent medium to use for promoting company events, remember to create a hashtag (#) for your event that will not only inform Customers regarding event details, but also provide a forum for valuable feedback. Remember to post your press releases to keep Customers up to date.

If you have any questions, or would like to recieve a Twitter marketing process map, please feel free to contact us at anytime.