Promote Yourself

How to use Twitter to promote your business

Twitter is a social media phenomenon that uses 140 character messages to let its members communicate with each other. Although it may seem impossible for a business to effectively use such small messages to reach its customers, Twitter represents a remarkably powerful marketing tool. Best of all, there is no cost to use Twitter.

The first challenge that a small business faces when launching a Twitter marketing campaign is to attract followers. Followers are other Twitter users that subscribe to your message stream. To get your customers to follow you, make them aware of your presence on Twitter. Post signs in your store. Print a message on your receipts such as “Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yourtwittername.” Include your Twitter name in all of your emails and post a link to your Twitter account on your website.

Another way to attract followers is to use a Twitter custom called Follow Friday. Every Friday Twitter members recommend that all of their followers start following certain other members. Others will not automatically recommend you on Follow Friday, especially since you are a business. You need to do some recommending on these days yourself first. Read the tweets of some of your followers and then recommend your more interesting and active members to your followers. The hope is that these people will return the favor and recommend you on Follow Friday which will lead to more Twitter followers.

After you get your account up and running and you have attracted some followers it is time to start sending out some messages, or tweets as they are called on Twitter. You can send out messages about your daily or weekly specials. You can offer your followers exclusive deals that they can redeem if they print out your tweet. By entering a website address in your tweet you can lead your followers to your site that announces a new product or promotion. Create a sense of urgency by sending a tweet offer that must be redeemed that day. The marketing opportunities are limited only by your imagination.

Since your tweets can be only 140 characters it is important to compose them carefully. Writing such a short message can be a challenge. Creating messages that makes sense and contain all of the information you want to convey may seem impossible. Do not despair. After a while on Twitter you will adjust to the writing style and get a grasp of the Twitter lingo.

A word of caution about over tweeting is needed at this point. Just as consumers quickly became frustrated with promotional emails, they are already becoming fed up with companies that spam on Twitter. Do not send a tweet every few minutes or even every hour. On the other hand, you need to send enough tweets so they are seen by enough of your followers and they do not get buried in your users’ Twitter stream.

You also need to make sure that you do more than marketing on Twitter in order to become accepted by your followers. Twitter is a social site. Communicate with your followers about things other than your promotions. Send a message about a local event. Tweet about a movie that just opened, a concert or a local sports team. You will be much more accepted on Twitter if you intersperse non-marketing tweets into your promotional messages.

No one knows if Twitter is just a fad or if it is here to stay. Regardless, your business can benefit now by using Twitter to communicate with, market to and build relationships with your customers. Do not let this opportunity pass your business by. Sign up for a Twitter account and get tweeting!

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