Top 10 Ways To Use Twitter To Grow Your Business
Posted in Online Marketing | Social
by Clay Mabbitt on May 6, 2009
Twitter is a simple service that allows anyone to sign up for free and make short posts about what they are doing and thinking. The posts are limited to 140 characters. You can “follow” other people on Twitter to receive updates when they make a new post. And they can follow you to see what you’re posting.
Simple enough, but you may be wondering how this simple application can be useful in a business context. 140 characters isn’t much to work with. To help you out, we’ve compiled some ideas on using Twitter in a business context.
- Get Feedback – Ask a question on Twitter, and it will be visible to millions of users.
- Develop Personal Branding – Use your username, portrait, and messages to brand your business.
- Keep Customers Updated – Make announcements to your customer base when you are running specials, releasing new products, or winning awards.
- Hire People / Find Vendors – Search for any mention of the people on your short list in Twitter or just ask a question about them and see what kind of replies you get.
- Find the Latest News – Do searches on keywords in your industry to get up-to-the-minute reports on what’s happening.
- Direct Traffic – Share links to the newest and coolest pages on your website or elsewhere on the Internet.
- Network for Benefits – Build relationships with potential customers and referral partners by joining conversations.
- Business Management – Use Twitter as an interface for internal communications and display your transparency and reliability to the world.
- Find Prospects – Search for people who are experiencing the pain your product or service is designed to fix.
- Leverage Exposure On Other Social Media Sites – Direct your Twitter followers to check out what’s been added to your profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media sites.
That’s a bird’s eye view to get you started. If you’re interested in more detailed, step-by-step instructions for putting these ideas into action, allow me to suggest Using Twitter to Boost Your Bottom Line.
I would add a number 11 being: Tracking Trends. One of Twitter’s main functions is the capabilities of live search. It is not only searching for prospects but watching the communication between individuals based around trend.
And remember that in order for people to answer a question you need to provide the value first. If they “follow” you.. only then can they answer a question.
Good tip. Thanks, Kyle!
[...] people to follow you on Twitter. Depending on how you use Twitter, it may make sense to invite people to follow you and keep updated on what you’re doing. [...]