Twit Twit on Twitter: The New Age Marketing Tool

No business could survive today without advertising their products. Companies are coming up with new marketing tools everyday. Starting with the granddaddies, newspapers and magazines of the past to TV, radio, and Internet ….we have come a long way! The Internet has not only proved to be a tool for advertisement but now it is used by companies to sell their products directly to the customers online.

Companies are forever looking for new ways to market their products online and the latest addition to the list is twitter. Twitter is a free network that has been introduced for social networking and micro blogging. It allows you to write mini blog posts (really mini! not more than 140 characters) to interact with people in your network. Initially, when it started, twitter was regarded as a social network for people to keep in touch with friends or family or colleagues just by asking them simple questions or informing them about themselves in a few words.

Today companies have discovered how twitter can be used as a marketing tool to promote their business. It is increasingly being used for lead generation and launching their brands which get to be seen by thousands of people who “twitter”. The best way to do this is to make people follow you. It cannot be done in one day and it needs patience.

You should start by following others. When you want people to see your account and what you are trying to promote you have to find out some well known people on twitter who is connected to your niche. Next, you should look for who their followers are and start following them by sending tweets. People become aware of you as a follower and if they are interested in you they will automatically go to your account to see which product you are promoting.

Another thing which you should keep in mind when you are using twitter and really want it work for you is to be a regular. Be seen on the twitter daily even if you are busy. If you twit sometimes people tend to forget you. If you seriously want to build up followers you must twit frequently. For example, suppose you are constantly in touch with your friend and that friend has another friend whom you don’t know. Your friend’s friend might become interested in your twits and start following you. This is one way of building up of network.

One of the most important things to remember when you start on twitter posts is that it is not a place where you make direct sale. It is important to understand that here you build up a reputation of you brand or company, subtly, which will help you in business. This is basically a social network community, so, if you go into direct sales pitch it’ll not be taken into the right spirit.

So, how do you use this medium effectively as a marketing tool? The steps would be:

• To post useful blog about your company,
• To make relevant comments relating to your business or your industry,
• People who are interested in your field would like to read about what you have written and become a follower
• They will read your comments everyday if it interests them so keep your comments interesting and up-to-date.

The best thing is to know what people are talking about. Twitter is a place where people comment freely about some brand or some company. It could be negative at times but it is a great way to know how your business is faring. As you give information on twitter you should be open to receiving the same. It will help you improve. Therefore, you should always respond. You must understand that if someone has taken the trouble to follow you and respond to you, it means that he or she finds your information useful. So even if you are busy you must take some time off to respond to the person. This way you will build up a list of followers which will ultimately help you to promote your product. Use twitter to announce certain company news or articles about your product or questions to the people who are your followers.

If you are twitting regularly you will find that some big companies boast to have a considerable raise in their revenue through twitter. It may not be the only way of marketing but an effective way to market your product along with other tools. They do it by engaging the customers personally on twitter and building up a huge follower list by personal involvement. Though it is time consuming for any big company but it is worthwhile as they are doing brand promotion without spending any money. They can create a loyal followers list by offering discounts or especial deals only to the people who twitter.

There are number of ways you can use twitter as a marketing tool:

• Hint about your upcoming product or event. You can talk about the date or a time when the event will happen. If you are attending a trade show you can let it be known through twitter. You can come back with your experience about the show. You can make special offers on twitter like package tour offers by touring companies.
• You can build up personal rapport with your followers on behalf of your company. You can post information about your work, talk about topics related to your area of interest, and interact with people on personal level.
• You can do hiring on twitter by letting people know that you need people to be hired in a particular field. Your followers can give you useful information about best people in the field who can be hired. In the same way you can be expected to be hired if you are looking for a job. If you have given an attractive profile on twitter, you can be sure of job offers when a company is hiring.
• If you are a musician or an artist or a politician you can post a blog about your next show or appearance. You will realize that how many people you can reach after such announcement.
• You can keep your company’s latest development by providing a link to your latest press release.

Here are a few examples as to how twitter is used for business purpose.

• News papers use twitter for breaking news or behind the scene happenings of an important story or insights into a developing story.
• Retailers inform people about new outlets, sales etc.
• Real estate dealers put new property information on twitter as soon as it comes to the market.

This proves that twitter is a powerful marketing tool without incurring any expenditure.

It is quite easy to post a link to twitter. What you can do is post blogs or articles, success stories, reviews, etc., on other websites that are relevant to your company or business. If you are interested in a large number of people reading them post a link in twitter.

Twitter is a great marketing tool if you know how to use it intelligently. On one hand you need to provide relevant information about your company in a subtle manner, on the other hand you should learn to listen to what others have to say about you. You cannot be making direct sale offer on twitter as it is not an advertising website. Rather you should put relevant, up-to-date information about your company from which people will get a hint about usefulness of your product. Also, you must make sure that you constantly interact with people who come back to you.

Tags: The New Marketing Tool, Twitter