Twitter, in a very short amount of time has become a serious force within the Media Landscape. With millions of users and hundreds of millions of tweets daily, twitter provides a quick, effective, personal outlet to entrepreneurs looking to develop and nurture their customer base. Twitter is actually one of the simplest social media tools available to business owners and marketers, and it dovetails well with the passionate mindset of entrepreneurs.
As with all forays into Marketing and specifically Social Media Marketing it is important to mention that you MUST have given a significant amount of thought and effort to your strategy. Twitter is a tool like a cordless drill, if you haven’t got anything to build or fix then it won’t be much use. Don’t get caught up in the novelty of the tool – continuously focus on the end goal.
So, you have created your account and are wracking your brain for what to say? I won’t go into the details of what a hash tag is or how to get more followers as that type of info has been covered all over the internet. Let’s focus on the content of your first tweet. There are a few ways you can go here and they can be summed up rather easily with three examples.
Example 1.
A “personal” message
Example 2.
A “business” message
Example 3.
A “promotional” tweet
In the first example we have a tweet of a personal nature. The purpose of this tweet is simply an expression of the personal tastes of the poster and appears to have no monetary or financial tie in. The second example is market driven and questioning in nature. The purpose here is to promote discussion around a topic, idea or product. The third example is what I like to call a promotional tweet, simply because it directly points to a product, service or content created by the tweeter. (in this case re-tweeted by the content creator)
In very simple terms these three types of tweets can be employed by the same account to very effective use. Using personal tweets to tie your customers to the real you creates a personal connection and tangible support. Using business or market messages establishes you as an expert in your field. It goes to building social proof and can spark some amazing business and marketing realizations. Promotional tweets have their time and place. Of course it is always better if someone else does the promoting for you, as in the above example. But given the immediacy of Twitter, like radio, it is a good fit for daily or weekly promotions. Using too many promotional tweets will lose you followers and decrease the engagement of those who decide to stick around.
As a good way to get started start focusing on the personal side, work into the market side and finish up with a promotion. The actual content should be a reflection of you. What do YOU find interesting? If your end goal is to create a group of like-minded followers of what you do, then it only makes sense to talk about what you do with passion and conviction.
Still having trouble deciding whether to make the time/resource commitment to Twitter? Give Alfred a call at 613-220-2265 and we’ll have a chat.
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