Businesses finding new customers on Twitter. Are you?

[v9designbuild]

Search Engine Land writes "...There are countless stories in circulation about how businesses are using Twitter to find customers and serve existing ones. Some businesses have figured out how to use Twitter Search and other similar tools to hear what customers are saying and make connections with local prospects..." See Major outreach to business users

Twitter has launched the following to business users: Twitter101, which recommends: "As a business, you can use it to quickly share information with people interested in your company, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and other people who care about your company."

Also, good advice is to be found at Search tips for b2b marketers on Twitter Search Tips For B2B Marketers.

Not working for me, though. Words, is all I can say. Any ideas as to how this works in the real world for a small business?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Not working for me, though. Words, is all I can say. Any ideas as to how this works in the real world for a small business?

The following was a real wake up call for me and tells the story. Basically advertisers think more of the potential for marketing with Twitter than consumers do. Not that many consumers even think much of Twitter or even know how to use it. Pay attention to the consumer charts.

<a href="http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/07/23/advertisers-consumers-have-mixed-feelings-about-twitter">Advertisers, Consumers Have Mixed Feelings About Twitter</a>

 

[Laura61]

That's interesting. I am relatively new to the social sites, so I don't know yet whether it's going to have the impact on my business that I'm hoping it will. But it seems promising. It probably depends somewhat on your niche - if it's technology related, more of your customers are likely to be Twitter users than if it's something like, I don't know, women's shoes, gardening, mechanic tools, etc. At least that's my guess.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yes Laura, that's true, the niche is sure to be important.
Now if you are marketing to marketers you've probably got an audience on Twitter.

 

[SaraT]

I also think when you tweet, you dont want to sound like you are self promoting! One has to remember, people are following you because of your common interest.
The other thing I've noticed about Twitter in real world is that you can spend hours browsing and tweeting..

 

[Jeremy Morgan]

The biggest mistake people make when marketing on Twitter, or any social network, is lack of content.

Face it, nobody wants to read a bunch of ads. We all know this, yet for some reason people forget it when they go on Twitter or Facebook. They sign up, start adding people, and they post thier 50% off sale over and over, or a list of their inventory.

News Flash: Nobody cares what Bob's discount shoe emporium has to say on Twitter. You can have the absolute best shoes, at the lowest price, and nobody cares. They won't follow you, and wont click your links.

But when Bob starts posting about personal stuff, and talking about things like movies, music, and current events, someone might listen. Even better, when someone has questions about shoes, and Bob answers it, he gets noticed. Start giving out enough advice, and becoming useful, and people start following Bob.

When Bob becomes an "authority" and a well known figure, and he posts a 50% off sale, guess what happens? Bob gets flooded with clicks and sales, because he's earned their trust, and built a relationship. They aren't buying from a link, they're buying from Bob.

So you really have to tailor your content to your audience, and use some old school marketing thought to really make it on Twitter, or any social network. The rules have changed, but some things still apply.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Really good points all, Jeremy. People sometimes forget it's all about relationships. Agree with all you said!

 

[socubeliveg]

hi,v9designbuild, Thank you for your post.I am a new to Twitter,so I wan to learn from you about how to use Twitter to promote some bad sites of my company.I have a bad site with the PR 6.but the traffic is very low.I have a question.How to use Twitter to bring more traffic to my bad site ?
Jesoph

 

[Jeremy Morgan]

what exactly do you mean by a "bad site"? It's somewhat unclear.

 

[Fantasy Guy]

I have been using twitter for about 1 month now, I quickly got up to 40 followers or so but lately I have dropped to 30ish. I realize its not huge numbers, but i'm wondering if twitter really is worth using. Seems like other ways of marketing are far superior. Like blogging for example

 

[Laura61]

Fantasy Guy, your followers may have dropped because of a spammer purge Twitter just did. I lost about 20. But if they were spammers, they weren't valuable followers anyway, so I think it's a good thing. It's worth sticking with for at least a couple more months before you decide to stop. Just a suggestion.

 

[Jeremy Morgan]

The biggest factor in not succeeding on Twitter and social media is giving up too fast. I know this firsthand, because I did the same thing.

I signed up for some sites, and posted a few things, etc and didn't see instant results, so I moved on to something else. Then later I decided "I haven't given this enough of a shot" and I went full bore for about a month.

At the end of that month, I had thousands of followers, and my inbox was full of new leads and contacts. You just have to give it a really good honest try before giving up.

 

[v9designbuild]

Twitter "in its infancy" but already precocious

The article Linda pointed me to on advertisers and consumers seems to conclude that neither the writer, the pollsters nor I seem to have much idea what will become of Twitter. I simply add the headline to the story with an accompanying url whenever I write.

One comment at the end of the piece sums it all up quite concisely: "The best approach I have seen from businesses on Twitter, is providing real valuable information to their consumer base via links to relevant articles, answers to questions and helpful advice." Fine, but what followers are your real "customer base" and who actually clicks on your links?

Beside the demographics, the article said that just under half of advertisers say it is in its infancy and its use will grow rapidly over the next few years. But aside from this, it is The Economist that I would listen to more, in that the immediacy of Twitter alerts are now what news consumers are tuning in to. In a recent article, Twitter 1, CNN 0, on the protests in Iran, 10.5m American TV-viewers turned to CNN, but instead of protests many of them saw a repeat of Larry King interviewing "burly motorcycle-builders". The article went on to illustrate a typical post: "Iran went to hell. Media went to bed".

Twitter is indeed a wake-up call for all mainstream journalists and although I have covered this in a separate post, new media has prompted a 92-page report by Peter Horrocks of the BBC: The End of fortress journalism.

As SEMs, we now inhabit their world to an extent in which we are "journalists" too, which the world's press, according to the Mr Horrocks, is being forced to follow. And for Twitter to be well ahead in the breaking news story on Iran carries weight in that yes, Twitter may be in its infancy, but it's already a very precocious child that has major news organisations like the BBC on the back foot.

 

[Jeremy Morgan]

Twitter definitely has the "fad" thing going for it, and fads fade. But the question is, how long will it take?

Honestly I don't see Twitter as being a "get rich quick" or even "make money quick" type of thing. I see it as an avenue to communicate with your customers, build relationships, and get honest feedback about your product. The actual money you make from links posted on twitter will likely be very little for most companies.

Think about, a lot of people use Twitter through their phone or PDAs. Does your website show up good on it? Are people on the go really going to read your mile long landing page, then break out their wallet on the subway because of one of your tweets? Probably not. But if they ask a question about your product, and you answer it, you're one step closer to the sale. Also if people know you're responsive and available in this way, they're more likely to buy from you.

So I have no idea which way it will go, or how things are going to progress, but my money is on using it as a relationship tool rather than a direct sales tool.