Positively Pittsburgh Live Talkcast

What's the Twitter about Twitter and what is it?   It's a social media tool which enables people to post via instant message.  Originally designed to help people stay connected it's quickly becoming a tool used by businesses around the world.  So how do you make twitter interesting and something to get your target audience to respond.

Some ideas to Tweak Your Twitter and get more tweets:

1.  Drive traffic to your blog.  Post a question on Twitter and include a link to your blog.  For example.  I would love to find out what marketing ideas people would like me to talk about on this show, so I am posting those questions on twitter and linking it to a blog post where respondees can post comments.

2.  How about driving  traffic to your blog or webinar or talkcast or with a  twitter post using some of the more interesting or unique comments to blog posts you've written or testimonials.  These can start very interesting conversations and drive traffic to your blog and company website.

3.  Announce contests – with a link to your website where the contest details are offered OR post a question and challenge someone to be the first response, give a prize for the first and the tenth respondee just like the radio stations or better yet direct them to a landing page with a free gift.   Give them something related to your business for answering the question correctly first.  If you own a restaurant you could give a gift certificate to the first person who answers the question correctly.

4.  Share personal adventures which relate to your business.  If You have a contest, event or promotion, post a funny picture of that event, this is a great branding tool and if it's funny enough it can go viral.

5.  Post interesting or thought provoking statistics, quotes, or headlines and start a conversation.  Remember no hard sell but during the conversation, when appropriate, it may be possible to link to your company website.

6.  Make an announcement.  Have a new wonderful product or service to share with the world?  Use twitter to make an announcement – amplify the power of the announcement and post a code to give the first 5,10, or 50 customers.  Make it an event.

N.B.  Remember to be subtle, don't use overkill, make it interesting, no one likes to be blogged to, podcasted to or twittered to with nothing but advertisements about your business. Like any social marketing tool the key is to market subtly.  No one wants to read an advertisement for your business – however it can still be a valuable marketing tool.  Be creative, think outside the box.  There are a wide variety of ways to make Twitter more than just a fun social tool, use it to build your business.

Now that I have got your interest how do you get started?

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor's names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. People want to see you.
3. People love to talk about themselves so don't forget to talk to people about their interests.
4. Share links about other things besides yourself, interesting things in your community, books to read, blogs to check out, favorite web sites, tools people can use.
5. Chris Brogan Community and Social Media says,  Instead of answering the question, "What are you doing?", answer the question, "What has your attention?"
6. Announce New Products Twitter is an excellent tool for letting hundreds (or even thousands) of people know about new products you've made available for sale. Depending on the people who are following you, an unlimited number of consumers will instantly have access not only to a brief product description, but also to a link that takes them directly to the product page on your web site. Direct marketing is one of the best ways you can use Twitter to market your business. But you do need to build your list of  followers,  make friends, follow them and ask them to follow you on Twitter.
7.  Advertise Discounts Microblogging doesn't make advertising discounts much easier except that Twitter offers the ability to include a link with every post. If you've decided to offer a discount on the products or services of your business, make a quick announcement via Twitter and watch the hits roll in. This means you never have to waste another opportunity to gain new clients.
8.  Spread Ideas One of the easiest ways to use Twitter to market your business is to plan new seeds in the minds of your readers. Mentioning a simple quote or statement of fact can have a larger impact than a full article on your regular blog. For example, if you Have a dry cleaning business you may want to put out a quick tip to make the dry cleaning process easier. Then add a link to your dry cleaning business.

Follow:  jqsdreamweaver on twitter or pospittlive

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information: © Joanne Quinn-Smith, Monday Morning Marketeer 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960 or
www.positivelypittsburghlivemagazine.com on the Monday Morning Marketeer Channel.
Blog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
e-mail: infoatmondaymorningmarketeerdotcom