As social media networks shoot out of the milky way and company advertising campaigns struggle to find the best ways to advertise with dwindling budgets, Twitter is both a micro platform for social media as well as advertising.
How can your business (home office or storefront) benefit from using Twitter? Here is a partial list generated from several Twitter users and social media experts from across the Webosphere.
1. Twitter helps one organize great, instant meetups (tweetups).
2. Twitter works swell as an opinion poll.
3. Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
4. Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially if the news impacts online denizens).
5. Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s?
6. Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).
7. Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
8. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online.
9. Twitter can augment customer service.
10. Answer the question, “What has your attention?”
11. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
12. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just adding a link.
13. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
14. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
15. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
16. Make useful tweets about your company, give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc. (Items 1-16 courtesy of ChrisBrogan)
17. Use a bookmarking tool and posting great web finds in your tweets every so often is a great way to mix up your content.
18. Add a twist when promoting an event or post or idea don’t simply link to it, , ask if people have any thoughts, pose an interesting thought.
19. Mix up your tweet content and staying active is a good way to build followers and create dialogue.
20. Monitor brand and reputation. One of most important and frequently underutilized objectives for twitter is as a way to monitor your brand and reputation. Anytime anything is being said about your company, products, people, or services you can track it and respond instantly.
21. Create advanced searches around topics that would identify someone as a hot lead is really pretty easy using the form on the advanced search page. People are asking questions, complaining, and searching for stuff in every corner of the world on twitter and these people are often more than happy to hear from someone who can provide an answer locally. With a little practice you can set-up a series of tweets that might turn up leads for your business every single day. (Items 17 -21, courtesy of DuctTapeMarketing)
22. Use Twitter as a marketing or public relations channel. However, too many self-serving, self-promotional tweets can actually damage your reputation. Instead add some personal tweets too, or less promotional updates. Maintain the interesting human side as well.
23. Be a Twitter “listener.” Using search tools like search.twitter.com, TweetDeck or desktop applications like are easy ways to keep track of what’s being said about the company, its product names, or even the industry as a whole. Smart companies are tuning in to these micro-conversations to get early warnings of problems and to collect feedback on product issues or ideas.
24. Network with like-minded people. Yes, you may even tweet with your competitors or those in other areas, which don’t affect gaining new prospective clients or customers. For example, surgeons and doctors who only practice in one city may communicate ideas or products with other physicians across the country.
25. Add your Twitter feed to your blog or to other social media profiles. If you have a following at your blog or a lot of connections at Facebook or LinkedIn, you can leverage this audience to increase your followers at Twitter (Items 22 -25, courtesy of Flyte).
Follow us on Twitter @SearchCircus to listen, follow and respond to our daily tweets. How does your business use Twitter or do you think your business can benefit from this type of social media marketing?
