From entrepreneurs to businesses large and small and even politicians, most people are tweeting nowadays and there is good reason for it. Twitter is one of the best social media platforms for business marketing. Whether you have already signed up, or are just pondering the idea, you should first consider the following 10 points.
1. Domain Squatting
Is your brand name taken on Twitter? The best idea is to register your business name as your Twitter username. The faster you secure your company name the better, even if you aren’t planning on using your account immediately. Try to avoid underscores and numbers which look unprofessional and cause unnecessary complications.
2. Tracking Brand Mentions
Is anybody already talking about your company? Once you’ve secured your username you need to find out if anyone is already discussing your company. The easiest and most thorough way to check this is to do a quick search at search.twitter.com. You can also set up continuous brand monitoring at tweetbeep.com. This site offers a free basic service which allows you to set up alerts for phrases and receive updates when they are found in tweets.
3. Relevant Topic Mentions
Are topics relevant to your business being tweeted about? For shop owners this could mean posts about product reviews, for web hosting companies it might be problems with website uptime. Whatever your business topic, these are vital opportunities for you to respond and be a resource. You’ll be surprised how easily people will connect with you when they are receiving alerts for specific terms.
4. Your Target Geographical Market
Where are your target customers located and what are they tweeting about? Twitter has the added bonus of allowing you to narrow down your search to specific areas, meaning you can find out what people in any given city, region or local area are saying about your company. Having a clear idea of your target reach will allow you to make the most of these search options available. Ask yourself if you want to connect with a small radius around your company base or a global network of customers.
5. Finding Prospective Clients
How can you find your potential followers? With the possibility of reaching anybody in the world with a single 140 character tweet, it isn’t difficult to track down your target audience. Click on usernames and read profile pages, links and tweets. These will quickly give you a clear idea of the person’s interests, making it easy to target potential buyers. Another good way to connect with your target audience is to use twitter directories such as wefollow.com.
6. Competitiveness
How competitive is your business? Your use of twitter will depend on the type of business you are in. It could serve as a competitive advantage to keep you one step ahead of the game, or it could be used as a defence strategy where you sneakily spy on others to find out what’s hot in your industry. Whether your competitors are offering high value discount coupons or reviewing products on sale in your shop, it is vital that you undertake competitve research to find out what’s going on in the world of tweets.
7. Sales Procedures
How involved is the purchase decision in your field? If you work in IT for example, there is a high level of complexity with regard to understanding the procedures and technologies involved. In this case, when a problem occurs it is not only visible to the customer, but also to everyone they know. This means that IT companies need to focus on ensuring prospective customers feel comfortable with their business. Other companies will find that it isn’t necessary to carry out as much online research because they earn customer trust in person.
8. Customer Sales
How valuable is it for you to stay top of mind? Again, this will vary depending on your business. If for instance, you are a web hosting company, customers will make regular hosting renewals either monthly or annually.
9. Acquisition Or Retention
Where should you place your focus? It is a good idea to ask your customers if they have a Twitter account and suggest they use it to keep in touch with you. This is particularly beneficial if the majority of your business comes from existing customers. However, if you are continually on the lookout for new clients, you need to consider the other factors mentioned here more carefully.
10. Tools And Availability
Is it worth your time and effort? Firstly, you need to find out if your customers are using Twitter and then ask yourself if you have the resources to reach them. Even if you discover that they are all registered and awaiting your arrival, you’ll be wasting your time if you haven’t done the basic research on how to market your business successfully using social media. If you have the funding available, you could always consider hiring somebody to train you in tweeting, or just run your Twitter program for you.
Ultimately, you may decide to throw caution to the wind, jump in feet first and test out tweeting today. After all, most others are just learning as they go in the new world of social media. If on the other hand, you’d prefer to hold off and do some more research first, there is no harm in signing up with your company username and going back to it when you feel more confident.
