Twitter for business marketing is an important topic and one about which many people are still in the dark. Before we go any further, it is important that you understand the value of Twitter for marketing your business.
Key statistics:
As of the end of September 2010, Twitter had over 150 million active users with between 60 and 70 million people logging on each and every day. That is a huge market opportunity, if you know how to use it right. Almost every target market is represented on Twitter, and almost every business should be using it.
A recent article on the website Mashable shared an amazing piece of information regarding twitter traffic. Using the example of Kim Kardashian and her Twitter account, the article shared how, currently, 20 % of the traffic to her website comes from Google, and 19.3 percent comes directly from Twitter. That is incredible, and essentially means that if you are not using twitter for business marketing, you are leaving a ton of potential traffic for your website on the table. In a short time it is likely that she will be getting even more twitter traffic than she is getting traffic from Google. So could you.
Considering how much more challenging it is to rank on Google than it is to open a free account and learn how to use twitter for business marketing, it seems that you’d be at least as well served by the latter as by spending a lot of time and resources working on your website’s search engine optimization (SEO).
What to do now:
If you don’t already have an account on Twitter, go there immediately and get your personal name as your account. Some people think it’s better to use your business name, and if you have a huge brand, that may be true, otherwise, you want to be a person, an individual on Twitter. As you learn more about using twitter for business marketing, you’ll understand the value of having your account be your name.
Set up your photo, bio and link to your website:
You need to go into the settings area of your Twitter account and put in a photo of yourself, not your business’ logo. Studies have shown that 70% of the reason people follow or friend someone on social media sites like Twitter is due to “a friendly smile.” Your picture should be professional and welcoming. If you don’t have professional headshots, schedule a photo shoot as soon as you can, and, in the meantime, use a good shot that represents you well.
Then, write a short bio in a personal and intriguing way (you only have 160 characters), you want people to learn a little bit about you, your interests and your business. Again, keep it friendly and inviting and a little bit personal – not all business.
Finally, make sure to include your website link in the ‘Web’ link field in the settings of your account. It’s amazing how many people miss this little step – and miss out on a huge number of people clicking through and viewing their site to learn more. I regularly click on people’s website links to learn more about them, and have actually made purchases and signed up for mailing lists directly from those clicks. Other people do too.
Start Tweeting:
If you’re not sure what to tweet about as you start to use twitter for business marketing, think about sharing information that will be interesting to your followers and prospects. Create content that answers their biggest questions about what you do and what you offer, whether it’s a product or a service. You can also share links to what I like to call ‘complimentary content’ – information that would interest your prospects because it relates to their interest in you. An example of this would be someone who sells wedding rings sharing information about fun wedding ‘save the date’ cards, interesting honeymoon ideas and great wedding favors. It’s not directly related to wedding rings, but will support and be interesting to the people following them.