Twitip

Dear Business Owners Worldwide,

There’s a reason you’re seeing the word “Twitter” nearly everywhere you look these days.

What other media platform (aside from expensive TV, Radio and pay per click ads) gives you the same opportunity to reach and influence large groups of people the way Twitter does? From adding and engaging targeted followers (a.k.a. potential customers), to driving traffic to your blog or website; Twitter has emerged as the perfect marketing tool for essentially any business.

Proof that the time for your business to embrace Twitter is NOW lies in the pudding below. Here are 8 ways you could, and should, be using Twitter to successfully market your business.

1. Monitor comments and conversations about your company.

By using Twitter Search or IceRocket, you can monitor what’s being said about your company. This gives you the ability to respond in real-time and either give thanks for the positive commentary or fix the negative. Check out this blog article about how a Domino’s franchise used this technique to turn a negative into a positive – “Chicago Pizza Guy Creates Social Media Domino Effect”

2. Add targeted followers.

There are Twitter applications available that give you the ability to type in a city or zip code into the search tool and target your ideal following. Two that we use are Twellow and Twitcatch. These are great tools for businesses that want distribute their product or service locally or to target people in certain industries.

3. Drive traffic.

As you become actively involved in the Twitter community, your influence will grow and your ability to direct traffic from Twitter to a desired location such as your company Facebook Fan Page, Blog and/or website will improve. This works best by tweeting links to quality content that in some way adds value to the lives of those in your audience. Just be sure and tell people what the link is so that people won’t take it as spam.

4. Hold a competition.

This has been an effective strategy for motivating people to participate and actively engage in whatever it is you’d like them to do. Often times a product, service or prize is offered for actions taken by others that will lead to increased revenue for your business (references, facebook fans, links etc.). Sometimes, however, just finding any way to reward your audience can create new business opportunities in ways you’ve never imagined.

5. Use Twitpic.

This is a great tool that allows you to show pictures of people using your product. Using pictures in your tweets brings more value and versatility to your tweets. And as the saying goes, a picture truly is worth a thousand words.

6. Announce special sales and deals.

What good is a great special if no one knows about it? Announcing to your Twitter community that you’re having a special is a great way to drive additional traffic to your site.

7. Brand yourself.

Twitter is a great tool for increasing your social media awareness on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Linkedin, Myspace, etc. Studies show that the vast majority of Twitter users also belong to other social media sites as well. This is a perfect opportunity to create a congruent image of yourself and your company.

8. Build valuable business relationships.

Just as it does in real life, it takes time to develop key relationships through social media. This is especially true with a platform such as Twitter because of all the noise that takes place. As you build your following and actively engage, it will become increasingly obvious which Tweeps you’re going to want to establish relationships with and which ones you don’t. My advice is to identify centers of influence within a particular field you feel your business could benefit from. For obvious reasons, it helps to have something of equal or greater value to exchange, as this gives the other party motivation to want to pursue the relationship.

When it comes to an all-in-one online marketing tool, Twitter fits the bill as well, if not better, than any other. Whether your company is a small or large one, using these ideas to market yourself you will set yourself apart from your competition.

If you or your business has yet to embrace Twitter, the time to do so is NOW.

Sincerely,

David McClellan