Here is an article I received in my email from SitePro News (MAR. 15, ISSUE #1360) by Anton Pearce. I thought many of you would benefit from it so I wanted to share it with you here. Again, these are not my words but an article by Anton Pearce in its entirety:
Here
are four tips to use your Twitter account effectively. Following other Twitter
accounts that are in your target demographic will help you get an idea of what
the conversation is. Then you need to post updates about your company, brand or
product. As with any online medium, you want to be very careful to not spam any
of your followers. Lastly, make sure that you follow successful online
marketers, and look for other participants who are in your industry.
First Build an Account for Twitter
Marketing
The first thing that you should do is to set up your Twitter account and
populate it with several interesting Tweets, which are Twitter posts. Then
begin following people who are also using Twitter, and you will find that most
people will follow back. When your entire Twitter feed has blanks, though, most
people will not bother to follow you. Once you start a micro blog post, you can
get on with following any target demographic, and this can be done in either of
two different ways.
1. Go to Twitter.com and do a search by typing in keywords that relate
to the demographic that you are targeting. For example, if you are trying to
sell an application for the iPhone, you would enter the keyword 'iPhone' or
'iPhone app' or anything that may find people who own an iPhone. It's easy to
follow people. If your posts are interesting and relevant, you will probably
pick up some followers this way.
2. Locate Twitter accounts that you want to follow by clicking the 'Find
People' option. Then enter your keywords, related industries, locations or
other defining detail to locate followers, and begin following them.
Twitter Marketing Uses Current Information
By adding news that is interesting and relevant about your services or product,
you can keep your Tweets current. You can also add information about related
news for your industry to keep Tweets interesting and informative. For example,
if you sell cooking gadgets, you may want to post news about food and recipes.
As you work on developing your targeted demographic, you need to keep your
followers engaged, so you will want to tweet, or post, often. Make sure to
retweet relevant tweets from other Twitter followers. This is another great way
to pick up new followers, and when they start to follow you, you also are
plugged into their followers. Retweeting is one of the fastest ways to build
your following or network.
By checking with search.twitter.com frequently you can look for brand names and
see what customers are saying. You can follow these Twitter accounts and thank
them. If you see customers who are angry or dissatisfied, you can follow them
as well. Then you can retweet them and solicit solutions to the problem. Your
customers will be thrilled with the feedback from you, and even more thrilled
when you rectify the situation. Twitter makes it easy to grow a 'word of mouth'
reputation virally.
Twitter Marketing and Spam Do Not Mix
Spam in any electronic media is the kiss of death. If you begin spamming your
followers, they will drop you like a hot potato. Spam activity would include
only posting information on your products, retweeting the same URL repeatedly,
obnoxious Twitter handles, and frivolous tweets. Twitter followers are savvy
consumers, and anything deceptive or patronizing is going to leave a bad taste
in their mouth.
Twitter Marketing Can Assess the Competition
If you want to build a quality following, then follow quality people on
Twitter. There are many online marketers that are experts on Twitter like Dave
Peck, Chris Brogan and Guy Kawasaki, and they should definitely be included in
your list on Twitter. Also look for corporations that are active on Twitter.
They are blazing a trail with their marketing, and you can get good marketing
information from them.
Do not forget to look at what your competition is doing. See how
they are going about increasing their own following on Twitter. If you want to
be a smart marketer online, then you need to constantly be aware of what your
competition is doing out in cyberspace. You have a huge marketing opening if
they rarely post on Twitter, don't retweet, or attend to negative posts.
Twitter Marketing Requires Patience
When you are using Twitter as part of your Internet marketing plan, you need to
give it time to work. Twitter results take a while to appear, because it is one
of the more long-term strategies. You will have to build up your networks and
following, and if you use the correct strategies, it will happen in a timely
manner. However, do not start a Twitter campaign if you are not going to see it
through to completion, because an unattended Twitter account is worse than no
account at all.
Once you have built a good Twitter following, then you want to market with a
gentle touch. Instead of using 'in your face' marketing tactics, pose a
question where your product or service is the answer. Tweet that there are
updates on your company's blog instead of trying to cram the information into
your tweet, and people that want to know more will click through to your blog.
Always respond when your followers tweet you. If you do not keep up with your
following, it will begin to crumble. If you have too large of a following to
maintain, then outsource your retweets or assign an employee to monitor and
reply to your followers.
Twitter is an interactive marketing tool, and because of this it is valuable in
two ways. While it is instrumental in getting your message out, it is also
hugely helpful in taking the pulse of your customers. So make sure that your
Twitter marketing efforts start strong and more importantly stay strong.
About The Author
For more advanced guidance, sign up for Anton Pearce's 'Clients on Tap' ezine.
It's absolutely free and will show how to implement systems that generate all
the clients you need for your professional practice. This ezine is essential
reading if you want to get your marketing online systems set up right without
wasting a lot of time and money. Visit www.antonpearce.com
I hope you enjoyed his article!
Happy Tweeting!
