The decline of print media and the rise of social media have altered the marketing landscape. Social media has been a disruptive force for change but it’s also provided a simple, cost-effective means for businesses to reach potential customers. By effectively using sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube, businesses can launch new products, promote existing products or services, and exponentially increase the number of customers they can reach without incurring high cost.
Twitter has expanded from a simple social media platform into a marketing giant and one of the most-used social media tools for advertising. Recent metrics has 500 million Twitter users posting 5 billion tweets per week. When you think about the exponential effect this could have on getting your message in front of consumers, it’s not hard to see the power of Twitter as a marketing tool.
Here are some simple and effective tips for gaining a large following on Twitter and boosting your web traffic, your customer base and, ultimately, your business.
Make Sure All of Your Social Media Accounts are Synched
Twitter is a very powerful tool but a business should not overlook Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Tumblr, YouTube and others as viable marketing platforms. To save time and energy, be sure to synch all of your social media accounts thus ensuring that your message is consistent and you are fully utilizing all means of reaching your intended audience. There are a variety of third party tools and apps like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck that can help you update social media regularly, schedule posts, post to multiple sites simultaneously, and have a single dashboard for managing all of your social media.
Link Your Website and Social Media Sites
Social media buttons and icons that can be embedded in your websites are prevalent and they are an easy way to make sure that your web traffic has access to your Twitter and Facebook pages and vice versa. Make it easy for web visitors to “like” or “follow” you on social media and you are again tapping into the exponential growth offered by all of their friends and followers in return. Similarly, make sure that your social media links back to your website so that followers have direct access to all your business has to offer. It’s worth noting that some time should be spent making sure your website is optimized to convert traffic. Additionally, recent changes to search engine optimization have placed a greater emphasis on linking between social media and websites. If your web traffic from social media sites increases, so too could your page ranking.
Offer Value
If your messaging is delivering a perceived value to its audience it will not only attract more followers but also strengthen their brand loyalty. You should think beyond the traditional coupon or discount codes and get really creative with the medium. This could come in the form of contests and giveaways, or direct access to product launches and rollouts. The possibilities are only limited by your creativity and the good will and brand association you’ll be building will be priceless.
Do not Oversell or Spam Followers
To expand upon the points made in the topic above, be sure that you are delivering value in your messaging and not just flooding followers with indirect, impersonal sales pitches. This also applies to the frequency of posts and updates. Most users don’t want multiple updates a day and many may not even want weekly posts. Only post tweets when you have something to say. In this world of spam and internet marketing, it’s easy enough for business messaging to fall into chasm of white noise that will go unread and ultimately “unfollowed.” Make your messaging and tweet content is unique, post links to complementary products, or even use the platform to advance social awareness and charitable organizations. Doing so will instill in your followers a sense that your company is made up of individuals who care, rather than some faceless corporation chasing sales.
Follow Others
Your Twitter following should not be static or one-way. By associating yourself with complementary businesses, social-minded organizations or even celebrities, you can then tap into all of their followers and possibly even advance your own status in the eyes of your followers. Be careful not to follow individuals directly as this clearly crosses the line between professional and personal boundaries.
Do Not Be Shy About Asking for Re-Tweets
This is pretty self-explanatory. The only caveat is to make sure you aren’t violating the “Don’t Oversell” suggestion. If you’ve followed all of the advice set forth above and you are careful to word the request appropriately and in a genuine way, then followers should be happy to share your company with their social network. In the off chance that they are not already doing so, it doesn’t hurt to request a little love from your Twitter followers.
Implementing all of the above referenced Twitter marketing strategies will all but guarantee increased traffic and followers. If you implement them well, and continue to improve on the messaging and techniques, you could see a dramatic impact on your overall business. Social media is a powerful tool for marketing.
