twitter And Relationship Building For Future Revenue

Millions of twitter users are working out the kinks on how to turn twitter into an effective marketing tool. By applying a mix of traditional marketing techniques with twitter specific tactics it is possible to turn a potential time waster into a valuable revenue resource. As a side note, many of the researched principles noted in this article apply to blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networks.

The following steps are not a full marketing analysis but a number of key points where we’re seeing businesses miss out and find repeated disappointment in their social networking initiatives.

Determine If Your Audience Is On twitter Or Your Chosen Social Network

 

Take the time to identify if your current customers or potential clients are even on twitter or your chosen social network. Do not assume that “if you build it they will come”. Countless marketing campaigns have fallen apart and wasted time and money by not being in the right place with the right message.

For example if a restaurant advertises in the financial section of a newspaper/magazine they are quite likely to be disappointed with the results. If they switch sections and advertise in the food, lifestyle, or entertainment section results can increase significantly. Why? These sections attract open minded readers that are looking for lifestyle experiences. The financial section attracts readers that are primarily looking for news and monetary updates, they’re not in the mood for food.

Conduct a brief or extensive review with your clients to find out if they do have twitter or social network accounts and what they’re using that network for. Take the time to see if your ideal customer profile is on twitter. If you can find a sample size of 30-100 ideal prospects without a huge amount of effort then you have a statistical basis to know there will be more. If these numbers don’t add up you could be advertising in the ‘wrong section’ and wasting your time.

Know Your Target Audience And Their Needs

For any communication campaign to work it should be driven by not only what you want to say or sell but a good understanding of what your customer looks for and is valuable to them. Many organizations will have inferior results when they spend their time telling their market what they think is best about themselves. Turn this approach on its head; think about how your product/service solves problems; meets a need they’ll want to make a purchase for today or within a 3 month window; improves business / life; or helps save time or money compared to other options. Note: this analysis is usually far more extensive.

Take the time to plan out what you’re going to say rather than randomly generating content. We’re seeing business get highly disappointing results due to the lack of forethought before executing. Unlike traditional communication where advertising dollars are spent and the ads are highly scrutinized before printing and distributing, social media can be published quickly, at no cost, and with few or no check points before going live. Break the habit and put your messages through the same level of scrutiny.

Do something unconventional, plan your next 20 to100 tweets or messages in advance for your social network. There should be a clear pattern, brand image, and a variety of ways your message solves problems, gives valuable insights into what you offer, intrigues and differentiates you from competition. Ask yourself and others if the campaigns creates interest and is client-centric. Do your tweets, blog or posts keeping your audience coming back and looking for your next update? If the answer is no keep trying until you’ve got “wow” content. If you’re not at “wow” your clients won’t be either and it’s likely you’re wasting time doing anything at all.

Get Interactive And Build Relationships

One of the greatest strengths of twitter and social networks is the ability to do something marketers have desperately wanted to do for decades, build real time relationships. An organization that has a relationship with its prospects, parties of interest or clients is in a superior position compared to a company that sells widgets with nil involvement from its audience. 

A great example of this is the iPod brand. They don’t just sell an entertainment system they interact with their users in video, audio, art, discussions and much more. iPod also enables communities to discuss, compare and share. The result is a powerful brand loyalty where customers become sales agents, make repeat purchases and buy ancillary services.

If you’re too busy tweeting, blogging, and commenting in your social network about how good you are and why your services are the best you’re not opening your company to interaction and relationship building. AND HERE’S THE MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR kicker: start talking to individuals in the network on a one-to-one basis, especially those that have quality or extensive social networks themselves. If a genuine dialogue is created you gain not only that person/organization as a potentially loyal client but they will be quite likely tell their network about your company and advise their followers to take action.

How do you get started? Twitter allows for several ways to get interactive. You can send DM’s (direct messages) which are only visible to the receiver. We recommend this is the best way to start as it shows you’re interested in just that person versus their audience. Once rapport is established move to public responses, RT (retweet) their content and use #FollowFridays to recommend them to your network. Eventually move to other good networking principles and ask for their email, a phone number or a meeting.

With time you’ll be able to create an interaction model of what steps move prospects into clients. Keep track of the steps and the number of interactions so you can develop a conversion and sales model. Sigmund Freud once said, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result”. Take the time to learn what works and continuously improve it.

Be Realistic - Creating A Trustworthy Brand And Sales Takes Time

Lastly, like any other campaign, plan on taking time to make all of the above work. A lot of perception about social media has started off on the wrong foot by opportunist who are out to make a quick buck and sell you the latest fad. New product/service launches to new markets can take months or longer before they generate good traction. Once the market is interacting with what becomes an established business it becomes easier to launch new offers and see faster responses and shorter sales cycles.

In Summary – We See Big Changes Coming

twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, your blog, Ecademy, Plaxo and many more business networks offer huge value for maintaining relationships and creating new ones without traditional ad spend. We’re forecasting that in the next 18 months there will be shift in social media thinking as more businesses begin to apply marketing best practice to these forums and transition social networks into valuable interactive communication strategies.

Ready to get started with social media? We are actively reviewing how hundreds of companies are working with social media and continuously applying what we learn. Presently we are able to reach over a million professionals without spending one dollar in cash through our social media networks. To obtain the support of this author for articles, speaking or launching a social media program contact Andrew Ballenthin, President of Sol Solutions – 416.317.7313 andrew@solsolutions.ca.

Comments

[E.G. Sebastian]

Thanks for this post!

Great content that one can apply immediately to develop a great twitter account-building strategy that will ultimately result in generating some quality leads and ultimately sales...

Thanks!!!

[Ana Maria Santeiro]

very nice article.

[Lukeither]

This was a great article, I especially like the DM technique to build relationships. I'll need to do this more often and I'm attempting to build a network of business moms in the Atlanta area.

Thanks,
Lukeither Willingham, Web Master
Lukeither Multimedia & Design
http://www.lukeithermd.com

[Rowena Cherry]

Thanks for the info, Chad!

I suspect that ReTweeting is going to become a problem. A ReTweet is labeled RT, which immediately flags it as auto-generated.

Possibly, a good strategy is to have a home page on Twitter that communicates the promo message. I have a rotating .gif banner for one of my books, but then to make more than half of one's tweets real time, live, and in response to other users' topics.

Also, I suspect that teaming up works. A public conversation between two members accomplishes the same as RT, but doesn't look/read like a pitch.

http://www.twitter.com/rowenacherry

[Chad Rothschild]

Andrew,

Social Media is a great platform to create a two way dialogue. To determine content, determine what the bigger goal of your product & service solves and figure out what keeps your clients & prospects up at night and spend time researching and writing content around that.

Like you said, once you know what to talk about, then you have to determine what watering hole they are at and then hunt there. For Example, If you are hunting in the jungle and they are in savannah, then you will never cross paths.

I agree about the real time feedback as a huge advantage point. You dont have to wait for a long survey. You can do google alerts or just scan the social media for reactions or purposely send out polls.

Twitter is an awesome tool. You didnt really mention what I feel is the great thing about Twitter. The search function is awesome. I believe that Facebook is great for reaching old friend and Twitter is great for making new ones...

Chad Rothschild
@chad_rothschild
http://employeeandclientengagement.wordpress.com/

[Chuck]

Great help. Thanks.

Cheers.