190 million users. 65 million tweets per day. Twitter has become a vital player in the social media landscape and the preferred broadcast tool for a vast number of individuals – including such notables as Aston Kutcher, President Obama, and yes, even the Pope. Yet despite the hype, I talk to clients every day who are still wondering about Twitter’s role in their lives, and trying to determine best ways to leverage this social media channel for business betterment. Based on my own use, my client’s experiences and some independent market research, I thought I would share with you ten of the ways I can see Twitter contributing real value to growing companies.
1. Share your headline news
What if you could write your own headlines? With Twitter you can. Are you signing new customers? Have you landed a round of financing? Is your business moving or growing? Using Twitter as a personal news platform for your business can help you create buzz. Many top-ranked technology and business journalists are active on Twitter, and actively troll Tweets for story inspiration – going so far as to actively solicit story pitches through the medium. Keen to have a journalist write about you? Start following them first – just maybe they’ll follow you back.
2. Talk with your customers
Twitter can be a simple and effective way to give your customers insight into your business and engage them in two-way dialogue. Encourage them to follow you, and use the tool to provide your customers critical and informational updates that offer true value.
3. Collect feedback
Got a question? Need an answer? While it’s not an empirical survey method, Twitter can be a mechanism for floating trial balloons, and for capturing simple feedback from a mixed audience of followers.
4. Become a trusted advisor
Are you seeking to be known and acknowledged as an expert in your field and the go-to authority on a particular subject? Take an advisory and thematic approach to Twitter, and provide ongoing counsel to your following on a key topic associated with your business. This approach can work very well in conjunction with a blog – where you expand on your advice within the blog and then Tweet the headlines (see point 1 :-)). You can also become a syndication engine – offering up retweets and pointers to interesting news articles related to your subject matter.
5. Build demand
If you are launching a product, service or marketing campaign – what about offering it up to your followers as an exclusive short term offer to kick start demand. Use #hashtags associated with relevant keywords to enable effective searching on appropriate topics, and pointers to a specific campaign landing page to track traffic. Depending on your business, offer special discounts and promotional offers to those who find you on Twitter.
6. Find talent
Recruiting? Promote job listings via Twitter in concert with Tweets that showcase the benefits of working for your business, and share aspects of your corporate culture. Remember, social media is a powerful conduit for word of mouth advertising and your reach will multiply based on your number of followers.
7. Drive traffic
Use Twitter in conjunction with your blog, your LinkedIn group, your Facebook page, your YouTube channel and your web site to drive traffic to other social media avenues and to specific campaign landing pages. Active social media contribution can be a very powerful tool in helping your business’ web site attain stronger natural rankings on search engines.
8. Build your personal brand
Outside of promoting your business, Twitter can become a strong channel for building your personal brand. Use it in conjunction with your LinkedIn profile and Facebook to present a consistent face to the world. Celebrate your successes and accomplishments. Share your knowledge. Keep your followers informed – but always remember this is a very public forum, so self edit and carefully position yourself as you want to be seen by others.
9. Tell a story
Do you have a technology that captivates the mind? Customer stories that tug at the heart strings? Are you dedicated to solving world hunger? Tell your story 140 characters at a time. Create a narrative by using multiple twitter voices communicating for a common purpose.
10. Listen
Twitter is not a one way communications flow. Use the tool to listen to conversations, track market trends and monitor satisfaction and loyalty. Watch what your competitors are doing and saying. And keep an open mind to feedback and suggestions for improvement – it may offer you an idea for the next great thing.
