How to Use Twitter as a Marketing Platform

Twitter, a well known social networking platform, is being used readily to market services and events. Using Twitter as a marketing platform is easy and cost-effective.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Twitter account Website or personal blog

Gaining Followers

1. To market successfully on Twitter, you will need to gain a large number of followers. Followers are other Twitter users who "follow," or see your updates on their main page. First, do not put your Twitter account settings on "private." People considering following you will want to see your "tweets," or updates, before committing to follow you.

2. "Tweet" regularly with relevant information to your target audience. Regular updates shows your followers that you are interested in providing fresh content for them.

3. When a follower replies to one of your tweets, respond back. That shows your followers and potential followers that you enjoy engaging in conversation with them and provides your followers a benefit for following you.

4. Analyze the trending patterns section of Twitter.com for topics you can adapt to your target audience. The trending patterns section of Twitter will allow you to contribute to a trend page, where your tweet will show up to anyone looking at the trend page.

5. Follow your followers. The idea is to show your followers that you are interested in what they have to say.

Marketing your service or event to your followers

6. Link as many tweets as possible to your website that promotes your service, product or event. Use TinyURL to shorten each link's length and meet Twitter's 140 character limit.

7. Offer coupon codes and promotions to Twitter users. Either place a coupon code in the actual tweet, or link to a page on your website with a printable coupon.

8. Don't over tweet your sales pitch. You do not want your account to be flagged as spam, or your followers to drop you for appearing "spammy."

9. Provide a link to your blog from your Twitter page and vice versa for branding reasons. If you have other social networking accounts (such as MySpace or Facebook), invite your followers to join you on those sites also.

10. Try testing different sales pitches. See if you receive more feedback by tweeting one pitch over the other.

Tips & Warnings

• Tweet regularly, but not with sales pitches. You do not want to appear spammy. Follow your followers. Engage in conversation with them. Respond to questions and inquiries.
• If you are reported as spam, Twitter administrators may deactivate your account.

References

• Twitter website
• Los Angeles Times story on automakers marketing on Twitter

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