Twitter as a marketing tool for business success
Do not commit the sin of not using Twitter for your business. Know why Social Media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are a must in every business owner’s social media marketing toolbox. Leaving these out, could mean losing a lot of “easy business”.
Twitter was a small noisy channel, used by people to send 140 character messages to friends and strangers. Suddenly critics took notice of a growing trend which did not seem to show any indication of being squashed. Twitter was growing by leaps and bounds. Suddenly big businesses started jumping on to twitter.
Brands like Coke, JC Penny, HP, Amazon, pop stars, models, film stars, everyone was running around to open an account. Every other guru had a new book or blog post out about how Twitter was the most important thing to have. Hell, there even was a Dummy guide for Twitter.
Now, there are Twitter trending tools, Twitter monitoring tools and Twitter applications mushrooming everywhere.Why do we need Twitter Strategies? Twitter is just a FAD right?
The Twitter trend is no longer a trend but a social media platform with a lot of potential and lots of benefits. As a business owner wondering whether you should take the plunge, you should also be wary of how things can go very wrong if you do not understand the intricacies of twitter. There is a reason why people hire social media marketing personnel to manage their Twitter accounts. If you are not savvy and do not understand the impact of the written word or let's say written 140 character statement, then you can lose your shirt and get a lot of bad karma going around.Twitter Marketing Strategy is a Must
A Twitter Marketing Strategy can help you as a business owner, measure, monitor and maintain your social media channel with ease. If you have no time or are not sure how to get the ball rolling hire a social media company or person to take care of these.Twitter Marketing Strategy you can implement Today
Understand your customer
This is the Golden Rule of marketing. It does not matter if you are marketing offline or online. If your marketing plan does not include this step, it is bound to fail. A few years ago, it did not matter, how you marketed your products. You could be grouchy, the shop need not have a fresh coat of paint, there could be no display, you still got sales and made money.
Today, your competitor has a slick salesman, a shop with a great display, lots of offers and smiling sales representatives. He is stealing your business, your customers and your sales. Don't let him. As a basic step, try to understand who your customer is. Understand why they like something, where they hang out, what turns them on, what turns them off, how much are they willing to spend.
Knowing your customer is the best way to market everything for greater sales and revenue. If for example you are selling "classical country music", then the audience is very different from those looking for "pop music".
If you understand your customer, your battle is half won.Plan your messages
Since you know your customer, this could be a piece of cake, literally. Let's say “Susan the bride" is your ideal customer. Susan is between 22 to 35 years of age. Her annual income is between $20,000 to $40,000 and she loves watching her diet. She is a great fan of exercising and spends every spare minute in the gym.
Do you understand where this is going? What messages would you send across if you have a diet plan for young brides to lose weight quickly?
Let me guess! Here are a few I have in mind:
1) Eating right
2) Which foods to eat
3) Importance of a balanced diet
4) Does stress make one gain weight?
5) How to lose weight in the most important places quickly?
6) How to find the time to stick to a diet in all the madness of arranging for a wedding?
What else would a would be bride be interested in?
1) Sales on wedding dresses, wedding food.
2) Tips to save a fortune on the wedding
3) How to plan for the big day
Integrate all these in your marketing messages and come up with a plan.Post your messages
You know what to post, it is time to know when to post. Think of a time you want to post and how often would that be. Would you want to post in the morning, afternoon or night? Would these messages be scheduled daily, twice a week? Who will send these messages and how. This would mean you need to sit down and write it in your journal or make yourself a reminder in your planner.Interact
Crafting and sending messages are a waste if you do not interact with your customers on Twitter. This is not a hit and run case. Do not drop your messages and take a hike. Interact, interact, interact. Take it as a mantra if you will. If you do not communicate with your customers, you've got it all wrong. Get yourself out of your shell and reach out to your customer.Measure
A Twitter marketing plan is useless if you cannot measure it's effectiveness. Each and every business has it's own KPI. Some measure the effectiveness by the number of followers, others by the number of re-tweets. Some are interested in branding, some with the increase in visits to the website.
Sit down with your marketing team and come up with the Key performance Indicators, identify what is something which holds value for you. Do not be surprised if a monetary gain is not an element.
This Twitter Marketing Strategy should be taken as a guide and as a stepping stone to designing your own unique twitter marketing plan.
