There’s no denying Twitter’s reach with the masses and it’s propensity for getting the word out about something. Of course, I’m not referring to the mindless banter about which some folks choose to “tweet,” such as the ones that find a deep-seated need to tell you how many green M&M’s they found in the bag. Rather, what we’re going to talk about here is the “social-communications” version of Twitter, and how it makes Twitter productive as a promotional tool for pointing to interesting things you’ve found on the web, as well as a tool for building credibility and influence.
When evaluating Twitter as a marketing strategy, think about it from a personal brand building and networking standpoint. The key is not to look at micro-blogging as individual posts, but think of the overall impressions and value that can be created over time. Twitter allows you 140 character entries and each entry can be treated as a seed of an idea for an overall objective. Yes, it’s tempting to post something just to get it off your chest, and that’s fine if it’s done in a non-marketing context. But if you’re promoting yourself or a client, you need to consider an overall objective, and keep in mind that decisions are made on the kinds of personal info, links to useful resources and promotional items that you post.
Like the “slow and steady” philosophy of the tortoise and the hare fable, over time, you’ll build a “footprint” and identify within the Twitter community. You’ll build your followers trust. And that footprint will be far more effective if you keep overall objectives in mind, rather than random information.
Effective marketing on Twitter requires a little thought, as well as a little bit of experience. Indeed, knowing how you shouldn’t use Twitter for Internet marketing is as important as knowing what you should do.
Here are 4 primary things you should avoid from your friends at Dale Carnegie Training of Edmonton:
1) Don’t tweet every little event in your life or concerning your business. For one thing, everybody does it, and you’re not going to draw any attention if you do what everyone else does. For another, nobody cares. Plus, you have to realize that if you tweet every little thing in your life or business, people are going to stop noticing you after a while. Save your personal tweets for a group of people that already know you, and are genuinely interested in what you’re doing all day.
2) Don’t just tweet affiliate links. If you or your clients are in the pet niche, tweet about new ASPCA news, or a new brand of organic cat food that you’ve developed an affiliate link for, or the latest findings in how our favorite furry friends see colors. In other words—provide valuable content! If you just go around tweeting affiliate links to every pet product you can think of, people will label you as someone just interested in making money and you’re not going to make any sales. On the other hand if you first give people a reason to follow you by being interesting—say, tweeting about a new ASPCA building or scientific finding—and then tweet about a new product, you’ll find a lot more folks willing to trust your advice and promotion.
3) Don’t use a product image for your profile picture. Aside from the fact that this is in extremely bad taste, it’s actually a step worse than micro-blogging only about new products: The former is posting spam; the latter IS spam! Avoid this at all costs. It’s a cardinal sin of Internet marketing on Twitter just like it is everywhere else.
4) Don’t use profanity. Yes, most of us are adults and we can handle those nasty four-letter words, but each tweet you make is going to be only a few words overall. It’s neither classy nor mature to blurt out curse words in that narrow span. Some Internet marketers seem to think this makes them look cool. It doesn’t. Don’t do it.
Have fun exploring Twitter’s unique opportunities for the enhancement & expansion of traditional marketing and social media marketing campaigns. See what new ways you can come up with to use Twitter to its full advantage!
This post brought to you by the good folks at Dale Carnegie of Edmonton. We would love to connect with you on Facebook!
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