As millions of people connect through social media, you cannot blame advertisers and marketers that are jumping for the chance to get their share of the pie! The only problem is that not everyone that steps into the world of marketing makes a success of it.

The problem with marketing on Twitter is that it is a short conversation site, long articles, advertisements and write-ups won’t work on Twitter.  People using Twitter want short and powerful messages that will interest them and keep them interested.

Here are 7 tips on how to avoid this happening, these 7 tips will help you successfully market your brand/company.

7 Tips to market using Twitter

Know the rules

In order for successful conversing with fellow Twitterers, you will have to know the rules first.  Even though most Twitterers are very friendly and forthcoming, you will find that there are still rules to abide by as with the business world.  Get to know them.

You must know that you can always ask for help.  Strange as it may sound being a brand, you are still allowed to ask for help where you need it.  Although it might make you feel vulnerable just know that there are always people in the Twitter community that will be there for you when you need them,– that is why it is called Social media.

Connect person to person

On Twitter people would rather connect to a person than to a webpage on a company. Therefore you must make your updates personal and human, it must not sound like it came from a machine.  Keep the updates fresh and fun and most of all interactive. It would help if you also add a photo of yourself or your brand/company.  This assists in making your site more intimate and personal.

For example, I am the owner of the blog for WSI4All, there is a photo and my contact details on the blog for you to contact me if you need assistance or advice.  This of course makes for a more intimate and personal approach and builds the trust of the readers.

Twitter in general is a more personal approach to marketing and sales as a corporate company’s customer service department, where you have to wait in queue and be cut off by the telecomputer system.  You can voice your opinions, ask your questions and give your suggestions all on one site – Twitter of course!

Successful Communication is a must

Where Twitter is different from any other marketing system in the corporate world as it is about interacting and building a relationship with potential clients, and not just making a sale.  By interacting we mean asking the client for input, asking and answering questions and being a third party as such between two clients interacting on Twitter.

This means you have to actively listen to your client to be able to know his needs and tend to them.  This helps build a personal atmosphere between you and the client resulting in a more fruitful outcome from both sides.

Promote a dedicated and Professional Representative

The best way to become successful is to update your Twitter on a daily basis. You will see that the large successful companies on Twitter have thousands of updates on their pages. It works better if you delegate one person to do all the updates. That way the person is aware of what was updated last making for more accurate control. He can also build relationships with important customers and be your company’s representative.

Like with everything there will have to be rules set out regarding marketing on Twitter.  With the help of the rules there will be guidelines in place for who marketing must be done for and which ones just want to chat by asking “What are you doing”?

Give people a good reason to follow you

A few ways to keep them coming back once they are on your page is to offer freebies, inside information or even just one on one conversations to keep them feeling special.

There are key people within Twitter that start to discuss your company if you have been using Twitter for a while.  They encourage users by being an ambassador for your brand.  You can keep them informed and satisfied by inviting them to your business functions.  Make conversation with them and get inside information on how you can improve your service for instance.  What is also great about them is if they like your brand they can give positive verbal feedback to contacts that they know, in other words, word of mouth which is always great for your image.

Integrate your messaging

The reason why Twitter is such a powerful tool is that it has very flexible technology. It can be set up to update your readers automatically should you post a blog entry or that any RSS feed can be re-broadcasted through your Twitter postings. Beware of over using this as it can take away the personal approach to your marketing strategy.

You can also add extras like widgets, badges and buttons to your site to make it possible for your followers to tweet its contents.  Each article can be linked with one of these buttons so the reader can be updated by a link to your page.

Tracking Conversations

You can keep track of who is discussing your company by using the @reply feature.

This can also be done frequently to keep updated of what people think about your company.  The feedback can help you change or improve your service making it better.

Contact me for Internet Marketing in Bloemfontein.