Twitter is hot. In 2009 they received more then 20 million new visitors to their website. You can use Twitter for several purposes in your company, internal and external. It is an ideal tool for connecting with your customers all around the world and learn about the things they like or dislike about you.
I will give you a couple of useful ideas about how you too can use Twitter for your own business. But don’t make the fault of starting immediately promoting your product when you like to build a large crowd of followers. It will not happen.
Be smart, offer help first and the money will follow later. People decide to follow you on Twitter, because they want to find out what you have to say. As soon as they have experienced that you are sincere about helping them with their problems and challenges, you will get noticed and they recommend you to others. Don’t make the mistake to start immediately talking about what great products you have on offer. Very soon you will find yourself shouting in cyberspace without an audience. You have the skills and knowledge to help people, never hesitate to do just that. It builds your respect and trust level, others will recommend you, which gives you a greater number of followers. Sooner or later they want to know more about what your company has to offer.
The relationship goes first. People buy from people they like, know and trust. Join a topic group and learn more about what your customers really want. They will share their problems and you may able to offer a product that is the solution they want. You can use Twitter Search to find users of your product or those from your competitors. Over time you can build the identity of being knowledgeable and approachable. This helps you to secure you a bigger spot in the marketplace.
Share your knowledge as an expert. Announce free workshops, seminars or of course webinars. Inform your followers about how they can join, when it will take place and any other requirements and join in by tweeting about it. Or send them a link to your presentations and video’s so they watch when they like. In these presentations you can deal with problems that customer service regularly has to deal with or share tips about the usage of your product. Share efficiently and broadcast links and headlines that can drive traffic to your website.
Keep staff informed. Twitter is great for the collaboration between staff and management. You can use it to save time and money. It eliminates long emails and calls. Tweeting will discipline everyone to keep their messages short and to the point. Inform others what you are doing so your colleagues know better what kind of work you do within the company.
Promotion and marketing. Twitter enables you to create more interest for your company, the products and also drive more traffic to your website. You can send Tweets around about special deals, discounts, samples and free coupons. It will be accepted by people after you have build up a relationship with them.
Brand loyalty. You can use Twitter as one of the tools to stay in direct contact with your audience. Some of them are potential customers, so it is up too you to make them familiar with everything your company has to offer. Use it often and you can obtain a lot of useful information about your market. It can even help to detect new niches for your company to exploit.
Dealing with unsatisfied customers. Only the bold dare to face customer complaints in the open. It makes other people aware of the way you deal with complaints and what steps you are willing to take to turn the disgruntled customer into a loyal advocate for life. Clients can give you their opinion and they will not hesitate to tell you where there is still room for improvement.
Spy on your competition. By reading the tweets of your greatest competitors, you will be well informed about what takes place there. You will hear much earlier about new products, projects and special offers. It enables to adapt your marketing strategy much faster, and not after you read their newest add in the magazines. And when they make mistakes, you will read that too. It may help you to prevent to just the same.
Twitter is a great tool to interact with others. Be original, fresh and interesting and soon you will have many followers. They are primarily interested in you, but will not make a fuss when you later on introduce your company. Twitter enables you to turn your conversations into profit.
Marcelo Quijanios is a research journalist. He has researched how to get more followers on Twitter to boost your sales. Visit his webpage now to get the Twitter profit tool Genesis Rocket. It helps you to generate 1000 new followers per week.