Why Twitter? by Sue Henry
One of the most common questions I hear as a social media expert is: “Why Twitter?” Good question. I’d like to share a few thoughts on what Twitter is and how it can be used to truly maximize your online marketing efforts and results.
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that asks you to write about what you are doing now. You can interpret that to be (1) what do you wish you were doing, (2) what are you thinking, (3) what problem do you need solved, (4) what problem did you have and you just found the solution, (5) what are working on that is related to your business, clients, customers and/or referral partners.
Think of Twitter like an ongoing, real-time, global conversation about the things that matter to us. It IS NOT about selling or pitching your product. Yes, people do this, but I highly doubt they make any money. Why? Because people like to buy, they don’t like to be sold.
So if you aren’t supposed to “sell” or “pitch” your products and services in your tweets, then how do you monetize your Twitter experience? Use Twitter to move prospects out of Twitter and into your company funnel as soon as possible. Recommended tweets support Twitter’s main purpose of:
1. Networking globally
2. Adding value to others
3. Sharing experiences (engage them with emotion)
4. Collaborate
5. Instant feedback on your ideas, thoughts, etc.
6. Refer people to good products or services (refer, NOT sell)
Building trust is essential. Spend some time tweeting about what matters to you personally as well as in your business. Then when you add a tweet about a free report, CD, or information on your website that can be of benefit to them, they’ll be more likely to go to your website, sign up, and buy.
Twitter, like all social media, is a learned process. It takes time to learn the subtle nuances, culture, and acceptable behaviors. But once you do, Twitter will become a marketing tool that will truly increase visibility, credibility, and, of course, profitability.
September 6th, 2009 at 10:33 am
I recently attended a webinar on Twitter and adopted one practice not covered in the above article.
I don’t have to come up with all the content while I am trying to bring value to audience I want to reach. A sizable percentage of my tweets are tweets about articles I found or re-tweets of articles people I follow found. Sometimes it is my own content…could be a cool trick or tool I find…or a tip of some kind.
So many business owners who are thinking about twitter ask me where I find all the time to keep an active Twitter account. I tell them one secret is to find content that will interest and send a link.
Recently, someone asked me this question and they are well read in a topic and they love quotes…so I suggested making some of her tweets quotes she likes (as it pertains to her business or of value to her audience).
We see so much every day…some is worth mentioning to your following.
(my twitter id: eputkonen)