The social media marketing company 360i recently reported in a study something that is not necessarily new, nor groundbreaking, but should give us cause for concern nevertheless. It seems that the majority of businesses are still getting it wrong when it comes to interacting with one of the best Internet marketing for small business assets that we have. The way that we interact is, according to this company, simply eye-opening.
Business marketers need to go back to the drawing board when it comes to interaction with Twitter users. They are simply missing the boat, not doing it correctly and trying to apply old, conventional methods to this new medium. People who engage on Twitter are mostly interested in chatting, but marketers are simply trying to market.
The abuse of Twitter users really reveals the whole concept behind social media marketing. Remember that people engage in social media to be just that, social. It’s not the place to sell them something and it has proven to instill an adverse reaction. Trying to hard sell is likely to be counterproductive for your organization. 43% of all consumer tweets represent conversations between users, while conversely 16% of marketers’ tweets actually represent active dialogues with customers.
Researcher 360i found that “only 1% of ALL consumer tweets represent conversations directly with the brand.” To put it another way, you may be talking with your marketing hat on, but nobody’s listening, nor are they like to respond. Marketers, big business or small business proponents, are simply missing the point.
Twitter users live in a fantastic place to reveal thoughts, feelings, emotions and ideas as part of a huge melting pot. Just consider how much intelligence is out there about your business, strategy or niche and how you could gather it and use it intelligently. This is the way to use Twitter after all, to enable you to fine-tune your products or services accordingly.
Small business owners know how difficult it can be to get store visitors or clients to fill in some kind of feedback form and you almost always have to incentivize them in one way or another to get them to do so. Consider Twitter users to be compiling a giant feedback form. You simply need to look and listen and then compose your responses accordingly.
Some small business marketers simply use Twitter as an information gathering medium, placing the intelligence that they gather into the melting pot of ideas for business development and growth. They may compose very few “tweets,” but simply rely on the medium to gather ideas.
Internet marketing for small business relies on social media as a very important element. This is one of the best business tools you can find and should not be used incorrectly to try and hard sell. All you need to do is be patient, not yell at your prospects or clients and read between the lines to get all the information that you need.
Click on the hyperlink to find out more about Internet marketing for small business. Nigel Evans and Internet Marketing Future maintain a comprehensive, free information blog on this complex subject. Learn more about how to handle Twitter users and why you should actively consider the approach for your online marketing program.