Doing Business on Twitter
Twitter is a social marketing tool and many internet marketers are trying to build a following and use it as a lead and prospect generator. Who can blame them - it is a fast growing phenomenon that is the buzz in the internet marketing world.
Twitter allows you to 'tweet' 140 characters at a time and describe 'what you are doing?' With this the savvy internet marketer who is running an internet business can advertise their website and their wares online for free.
Once you have sufficient followers you can run surveys to determine what people think of web site, your wares or your tweets. Twitter also allows you to capture the latest trends in the market, or politics, sport or whatever.
This is a new kind of social marketing that is short, sharp and very quick. You need to be savvy to use twitter though because it is an art to get people to not just follow you but trust and admire you enough to want to examine and eventually purchase your products.
To begin with you will need a twitter account and to do this you will need to go to twitter and sign up. Create a username that you won't forget and one that has some meaning to your business and business plan or other purpose.
Once logged in it is important that you fill in the details in your profile. Experts suggest that you should put your life story or some personal information here that makes you human and not just put information about your business venture. You want people to find you attractive so that they want to relate and follow you.
Next you should join some groups of people who are engaging in similar business as you are. If you are into green energy then do a keyword search on green energy and find out who is tweeting about this subject. Once you have established that these people are indeed in the same niche as you, follow them and they will see from your profile and business link that you are talking the same talk and they will follow you back.
Many people have an automated following and only find out who they are following when they come to cull some of their followers during housework.
You can also choose the background for your site and add some photos to make it all personal and inviting. Many business people set up a free gift for people that follow them and this is a great time to give away some of those free links that you have been storing up and wondering what to do with them.
The most important thing that you need to remember is that you are not trying to sell a product or sell your business but you are selling yourself. You are selling your personality, humour and passion. This is what people will follow.
Once you have done all this then you should post some comments to the groups that you have joined and make sure that they are relevant and well thought out. You are trying to get status as someone that is knowledgeable and expert in your area. If you get comments back that are a bit challenging remember to be polite and not snap back with off the cuff remarks as this will surely loose you credibility.
It is important that you respond to people who make comments to your tweets. This will open up conversation and this in turn develops trust and demonstrates a willingness on your part to be open and honest with people. Once you get to this stage with people then you add them to your friends list as they are now in communication with you. A lot of people think that the process of getting followers is a random activity and they subsequently follow anyone just to get the numbers. This is the same mentality as getting heaps of un-targeted traffic to your site. People come and visit but they are not interested in your product and so they don't stay long and all you get is another dead lead. Make sure that people that re-tweet you or comment on your tweets are rewarded by becoming part of an elite few who have earned the right to be on your followers list.
You are now ready to start becoming more active on Twitter. Once you have identified some groups that are discussing topics relevant to your niche then you should send direct messages to some of the writers and praise them for their input and knowledge. Thank them for the website that they directed you too and acknowledge them as being leaders in the group. Set a target of doing this with 5 - 10 group members each day. This will again give you credibility and give you good presence in the group.
Finally it is important to mix group members with your other group members and so demonstrate that you have a varied eclectic passion for the subject matter that holds the group together. This can be done by inviting some group members from one group to an activity or webinar that is being held within another group.
There are many tools that can be used on Twitter and if there is interest in this article then I will write about some of these and what you can expect to get out of them for your business. Remember though what you are trying to do is add value to your relationships with your followers. You are not selling a business or just amassing random followers in the hope that you will get a few that are interested in your business venture.
Stephen Farrington
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