Why You Need to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business
By Michael A. Stelzner Reprinted from Rain Today
Right now Twitter is the talk of the web among marketers. Use of the elegantly simple social media site has shot into the stratosphere unlike anything in recent memory—and even CEOs are leaping onto the Twitter bandwagon.
The New York Times calls Twitter “one of the fastest growing phenomena on the Internet.” A recent study determined new members are signing up at a clip of 10,000 per day. And unlike other “here today, gone tomorrow” services, Twitter seems to have staying power.
With companies tightening their ad spending, social media is clearly the next marketing frontier. For this article, I spoke to a number of marketing professionals who’ve been exploring the Twitter terrain for a while.
Why Really Big People Use Twitter
Twitter is not just a fad. When very high profile folks begin evangelizing Twitter, it’s worth closer examination. Here’s what some of those gurus told me:
- Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch identified three big advantages of Twitter, “(1) I get great insight when I ask questions, (2) let’s face it, I get traffic and (3) people on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places.”
- Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com said, “We’ve found that Twitter has been a great way for us to connect on a more personal level with our employees and customers. We use it to help build our brand, not drive direct sales. It’d be like asking how does providing a telephone number for customer service translate into new business when they are mostly non-sales-related calls. In the long term, Twitter helps drive repeat customers and word of mouth, but we’re not looking to it as a way of driving immediate sales.”
- Bestselling author David Meerman Scott said, “I have personally connected with hundreds of people I otherwise wouldn’t have, and I booked an interview on NPR and a big daily newspaper using Twitter.”
Practical Ways Twitter Can Help Your Business
This is where it gets interesting. A lot of people are doing some very innovative things with Twitter. Here are some of their stories.
The Twitter Plan: Cindy King, an international sales specialist, saw a huge boost in business inquires by implementing a strategic Twitter plan.
“Following the right people on Twitter was key. There are some people very gifted at building relationships on Twitter. As I followed these online community builders, I realized that some of them are also excellent direct response copywriters. They get their Twitter followers to take action,” said King.
“Light bulbs went off, and I spent a weekend putting together a tweet marketing plan and entered in 6 weeks worth of tweets, 5 a day, using TweetLater. I used a mindmap, created categories, varied times on tweets and used BUDurls so I could track results and improve my tweet plan the next time around. That was a month ago,” explained King.
When King finds a spare minute between projects, she logs into Twitter and watches what folks are talking about. When she tweets, about 90 percent of the time she presents useful information and resources to her followers. The remaining tweets are surveys and questions. Following this strategy, King saw an 800 percent increase in inquiries about her business after she setup her Twitter campaign.
Getting In Front of High Profile People: B2B copywriter Terri Rylander took a much different approach. At first she was very skeptical of Twitter. ”I looked at it but couldn’t figure out why people would continually send out messages about the size of a text message, unless they were a teenager. Twitter was for sending updates they said. I don’t have time for updates, and besides, who would care?” said Rylander.
She later came across a peer in her industry that was using Twitter and suggested Rylander follow her on Twitter. ”That’s when I discovered Twitter as a business tool. I’ve been in my particular niche for over 10 years and know who the players are (though they don’t know me). When I checked who she was following on Twitter, there they all were! It read like a “Who’s Who” list.”
Rylander joined Twitter and began following and interacting with the people she respected. ”Other than a cold call on the phone or e-mail, I would never have the chance to get my name in front of vendors, industry nalysts, and industry experts. I’ve had a number of Twitter conversations that have also led to personal conversations.”
To stay top of mind with experts, she offers interesting links, responds to tweets and posts thoughts for conversation at least a few times a day.
Getting Traffic and Leads: Pam O’Neil, VP of Marketing at BreakingPoint said, “Twitter has all but replaced our PR agency as large percentage of our followers are press and analysts. A writer for ZDNet wrote about us and linked to us based on something we tweeted and that resulted in a huge spike in web traffic and at least one deal with a major service provider.”
Mike Damphousse of Green Leads said, “Twitter is new to us. That said, in a few short weeks we’ve had a definite increase in all sorts of traffic. Out of the normal inbound leads, the number has increased 15% and two of the inbounds are now active pipeline opportunities. We’ve found one extremely valuable partner relationship. We are also building PR relationships, although finding the contacts is a bit of a chore.”
Some Tips for Twitter Newbies
For businesses seeking to grow using Twitter, here are a few tips…
“One of the first things you’ll notice is that no one on Twitter wants to be ‘sold to’ or ‘marketed to.’ They are there to build relationships and you don’t build a relationship by being overly aggressive with your marketing efforts,” said Pam O’Neil.
Cindy King suggests thinking of Twitter like a great big cocktail party. ”Twitter friendships are just as limited as acquaintances you meet at a cocktail party. You need to take the conversation to the next level.”
“Twitter is about engaging, connecting, and building real relationships,” said Internet marketing advisor Jenn Givler. “The businesses it works best for are the ones that have a deep understanding of the people they serve.”
Michael Stelzner is the bestselling author of Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged. You can follow Michael on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mike_stelzner.
