Friday, March 30, 2012

A Short Guide to Marketing on Twitter

By Twana Houff


Social media has changed the way we live, from the way we interact with each other to the way we conduct business. For both our personal and professional lives, our communication has become more efficient in both breadth and speed. When it comes to business operations, sites like Facebook and Twitter have especially revolutionized how we promote and market our companies and products. If you are looking to use Twitter as part of your company's marketing strategy, there are a few key points you should keep in mind.

When it comes to using Twitter for either personal or business reasons, probably the main thing to keep in mind is consistency. The main aim with Twitter is to build a list of followers with whom an individual or company can directly communicate and exchange information. Yet, if your company does not actively and consistently engage and interact with the Twitter community, it will surely not gain many new followers and could actually lose many of the ones it already has. Moreover, whatever is posted should be appropriate to your company's identity, ideally concerning new product releases and special offers, or any other regular updates.

Also, for followers to continue keeping up with your company's posts and updates, they should be quality posts, of some use or value to your followers and customers. Information about products, links to discounts or coupons, opportunities for exclusive access to promotions or events, followers of companies' Twitter accounts really appreciate benefits which make them feel like VIPs. Because they never know when offers like these will be posted, followers will usually check in for updates many times in a day, and often everyday. Twitter also allows companies to get direct feedback, product reviews, and other important market information directly from their customers and critics.

Through direct feedback and communications, companies are able to give themselves routine check-ups, using public opinion to assess the success or failure of certain products or company processes. You will be able to know pretty much immediately whether your products are liked, and to what degree, by the wider, Twitter-using public. Instead of taking months to collect data on opinions about new products, and then more months to assess it and make the appropriate adjustments, this whole process can be completed over the course of weeks. In the same manner, through Twitter your company is able to discover what kinds of products, and options on those products, your customers want.

While business is surely a serious matter for you, Twitter users do appreciate companies that use the site in fun and entertaining ways. By this, your customers and followers will not simply see your company as a profit-driven corporation, but more as an engaging part of their own social network, among their other friends and family.




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