5 Tips to Tweak Your Twitter Techniques
One of the greatest features of Twitter is it is a free micro-blogging site that you can utilize in your marketing plan. As an entrepreneur Twitter can be an integral part of your brand development. Start-ups with little brand recognition, small companies as well as larger companies with well established brands participate on Twitter. Companies use Twitter to:
“Listen” to their brand evangelizers
Respond to their critics
Attract new clients
Announce new products or services
Monitor their brand
And generate sales.
Some companies are successful at using Twitter and others find their attempts less successful.
What makes Twitter a successful tool for Entrepreneurs?
The keys to success are: follow your customers/clients, quality content, no spam, follow industry leaders and influencers, and patience. The following 5 tips will help you tweak your Twitter techniques.
Follow Your Customers/Clients
If your Twitter account is fairly new post half a dozen tweets before you start following people. Not sure what content to use? Check out tip number 2 below. You want to have tweets in your Twitter account so that when people look at your Twitter page they will have an idea of the type of content you are sharing.
How do You Find Your Customers/Clients?
There are two ways to find your customers/clients. You can use search.twitter.com and “Find People” feature on your Twitter home page. On both sites you can type in keywords, your industry, or location if your customers live in a particular city. The results will show you Twitter profiles that match your search criteria. Be sure to look at some of the profiles for your customers/clients. You want to see if they are actively participating in Twitter. If they are then click the “follow” button.
Quality Content
When you follow someone on Twitter that person receives a notice. They can opt to follow you back. Chances are before they follow you they will check out your profile hence the need for quality content. You want to be tweeting content relevant to your industry, your product/service, your company. You want to have a variety of information that will engage customers/clients.
Another aspect of quality content is the “retweet.” If your followers post interesting or relevant content then retweet them. This facilitates conversation and connection within the Twitter community.
No Spam
Along with quality content please keep in mind there are some unspoken rules of etiquette on Twitter. Entrepreneurs can quickly ruin their brand reputation by being labeled a “spammer.” Spamming Twitter consists of exclusively posting overly aggressive sales tweets and/or posting the same URL multiple times within a short period of time. Twitter users are not a tolerant bunch. They will not follow accounts with blank profiles, no tweets posted and tweets that are all advertisements. The Twitter community demands quality interactions. Keep in mind if you choose to use spam techniques other Twitter users can “block” your account.
If enough Twitter users block an account then that account will be shut down.
Follow Industry Leaders and Influencers
Learn by example. Follow leaders of your industry to see how they are using Twitter. Follow people that are influential Twitter users to get an idea of what content they are posting. Follow corporations or vendors that are valuable to your industry. Staying informed of industry news sets you up as an expert in your field when you share information with your customers/clients.
Remember to also follow your competition. This is an excellent opportunity to monitor their Twitter activity and assess successful and unsuccessful efforts on their part.
Patience
One of the purposes of participating in Twitter, as with most social networks, is to build a relationship with your potential customers/client so that they will become customers/clients and to maintain a relationship with your current customers/clients so you retain them. Building a relationship takes time.
Twitter is an interactive marketing tool. Instructions are: “tweet, retweet, respond” then repeat. Take into consideration the 5 tips, follow customers/clients, quality content, no spam, follow industry leaders and influencers, and patience to tweak your Twitter technique for a successful experience.
