ADVERTISING ON TWITTER
If you decide that your writing isn’t persuasive enough and you need some help to toot your horn, consider advertising on Twitter. Advertising takes the form of sponsored tweets or ads. If you decide to invest in advertising on Twitter, mix in some real tweets with the sponsored stuff. If you rely solely on ads, your followers will see it as spam and unfollow you. Here’s a list of advertising sources for you to investigate:
. adCause : http://adcause.com
. Magpie : http://be-a-magpie.com/en
. SocialSpark : http://socialspark.com
. Sponsored tweets : http://sponsoredtweets.com
MARKETING ON TWITTER VIA PEASHOOT
You can use the web Twitter application Peashoot, at: www.peashoot.com, for marketing on Twitter.
Peashoot offers different plans and features a 21-day free trial to see whether the application is right for you.
At Peashoot, you can:
. Use the audience builder to find followers. The Peashoot audience builder automatically finds Twitter users who are relevant to you, your service, or your company.
. Track your Twitter return on investment (ROI). Peashoot claims to track exactly how much of your web site sales can be tracked to links you’ve posted on
Twitter. You can then track which of your Twitter campaigns is the most successful.
. Set goals and track your progress. You can create Twitter campaigns with specific goals. Peashoot notifies you by email when you reach them.
. Track campaign activity. Active listening technology enables you to track Twitter activity directly related to your campaign.
. Use real-time tracking. When you create an account with Peashoot, you can see clicks and conversations regarding your campaign in real time.
Peashoot is totally browser based no installation needed. You can customize your goals, create progress reports, export data to comma-separated value (CSV) format for use in spreadsheets, and integrate data with Google Analytics.
MAJOR BRANDS AND TWITTER
This list describes a couple of reasons, which you can apply to your business:
. Twitter can facilitate excellent customer relations. Companies post information about their products for their followers, solve problems, provide customer
service, and more, which can lead to increased sales.
. A presence on Twitter helps avoid bad customer relations and can also be used to squelch false rumors.
CREATING A TWEET STRATEGY FOR YOUR BUSINESS
When you create your campaign, the goal is to do some viable marketing to a warm audience without overstepping the bounds and making your messages sound like blatant advertisements.
Here are some ideas on how to start marketing on Twitter.
. Create an account using your business name as well as your own name. Twitter limits you to a username of fewer than 15 characters. If your
business name is longer than 15 characters, get creative.
. When creating an account for your business, use your company logo as your Twitter avatar. When you use your logo, you’re consistent with your
other forms of marketing that also use your logo, such as printed materials and other online marketing endeavors.
. If you have multiple accounts for your business, personalize them. Use related names, such as newliferuth and newlifetobie.
. Follow the right people. Follow leaders in your industry, and follow competitors. When you make your first foray into Twitter, you don’t know
what to tweet about. Following the right people quickly educates you about the topics the heavy hitters are talking about.
. Don’t send your first tweet until you know the lay of the land. After following people in your industry for a couple of days, you can get the ball rolling
by retweeting messages written by others that you think are useful. When you start retweeting, people notice you and you start to pick up followers.
. Continuously monitor your company on Twitter. Perform a Twitter search for your company name to find out what people are saying about you.
. Monitor your competitors. It’s nice to know that type of feedback they’re getting. If you run across dissatisfied customers, you may be able to
convert them to your company by offering a solution to the problem that the tweet author experienced with the other company. If you can’t
offer a solution, follow the disgruntled user, and he may follow you in return and eventually become a customer.
. Use industry buzzwords. When you write a tweet, use words that people will associate with your industry. This strategy makes your Twitter posts
easier to find when people use the Twitter search engine.
. Send tweets from your wireless phone at conferences.
. Dedicate part of the day to the majority of your Twitter activity. After spending a week or so analyzing the habits of your followers, you know at
which time of day your followers see your message.
. Give away samples of your product or e-books about your services. If your product is expensive, offer a discount. Send a message to followers
announcing your giveaway for the first ten followers who send you a direct message.
. Create a contest or competition involving your industry.
. Promote online events such as webinars on Twitter. Promote your local events as well.
. Announce new products. You can also provide tips on the proper use of your product.
. Allow potential customers to ask questions about your product or service before the sale. After you establish yourself as an expert, you’re bound to
field questions about who you are or what you do.
. Give your customers a way to get service by way of Twitter.
. Be a real person.
. Talk to people about their interests.
. Ask questions about your industry.
. Spend time looking for interesting online content about your product or industry. You can find many interesting articles about your business using
social media bookmarking sites such as Digg (www.digg.com). StumbleUpon (www.stubleupon.com), or Technorati (www.technorati.com). Turn the
URL into a short URL at (www.tinyurl.com or www.bit.ly) and send the link with a short description to your followers. When you shorten
a URL at www.bit.ly you can track how many people clicked the link.
STARTING YOUR TWITTER CAMPAIGN
Here are some suggestions for getting your Twitter campaign rolling:
. Spend some time researching new and interesting things about your industry or the products you sell.
. Find out what time your followers are active.
. Identify some followers who retweet your messages.