The Tweet Pit » Twitter Articles

Twitter As a Marketing Tool

TweetPit — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:51:27 +0000

Using twitter as a marketing tool is a topic of some debate in the marketing world. I have read many articles in favor of this technique and equally as many against it. This article is not about the pros and cons of using twitter, it is about how to effectively use twitter as a marketing tool in today’s fast pace world.

In writing this article, I am assuming that you have at least some previous knowledge of twitter or are already using it to market your brand to the world. So let’s really dive into twitter and break it down so we can all understand how to successfully use it.

Don’t get caught up in a numbers game. The quality of your message and the quality of your followers is much more important to your brand than just having thousands of followers. What do I mean about quality of your message? In using twitter, is important to provide your followers with useful and insightful information that directly correlates to your brand’s message while providing something your followers can hopefully retweet. You want them to look forward to reading your posts.

Twitter is not just status updates! Twitter is a venue where you can express your brand or yourself in way to captivate and socially interact with your followers. Twitter, in essence, is about building online relationships with your followers. If you’re boring and just keep retweeting a sales pitch or a generic message your website followers will have no desire to interact with you. People ultimately have the need to be taken seriously and to feel important. By tweeting relevant, useful, interesting information your followers are provided with something to talk about which makes them the center of attention. All this results in your tweets being retweeted by fellow users, your message reaching more people, and directly that in essence turns in to more follows and more traffic to your website, blog, or whatever you are trying to promote.

In order to develop interesting tweets, you need to ask yourself some important questions. Who is my target demographic? What other interests do they have? What other companies are they likely to be following? What topics interest them? After you have identified these questions, along with others you add yourself, you can start directly targeting these groups on twitter.

Now that we have identified the group or groups we want to target, how do we go about implementing a plan of action to gain followers?

One of the greatest features of twitter is the pound sign feature. For example, say one of my target groups has an interest in going green or in sustainability practices. I would use the search bar and enter the pound sign followed by key words in order to see if other people are tweeting about the same issues I plan to tweet about. (#green, #eco, #sustainability… etc.) After entering these fields in the search bar you will be directed to a real time list of twitter users tweeting about these same issues. After you locate the appropriate pound sign lists it is important to include these “#topics” into your tweets whenever possible because in doing so a hyperlink will be created for your “#topics” and then put you directly into the real time list you just searched for.

Now that we know how to find users tweeting about the same issues as we are let’s talk a little about tweet frequency. This is a two edged sword. Tweet too much and other users will view it as spam, tweet too little and people with stop following you because you are of no benefit to them. It is important to update everyday but in my opinion you really shouldn’t update over seven times in any given day. Make sure you get at least one tweet in there. In regards to content, just try and follow the guidelines I laid out before. You know your demographic better than I do but try to be creative and provide real-time links to articles related to the general context of your message.

One thing twitter users hate is long URL’s. It reduces an already small character limit and it is just plain annoying to avid twitter users. One great site to shorten URL’s to a few characters instead of a massive ugly looking link is http://tinyurl.com. You just copy and paste your desired URL into the box they provide and it shortens the URL down immensely so your followers can focus on your message not your ugly URL making your overall profile much more aesthetically pleasing.

Another great technique to find interesting people to follow and then hopefully in return gain followers is to look at who is following your competitors. Go to their twitter, click on followers, and then follow anyone that looks like they could potentially be interested in what you have to offer.

Starting new to twitter can be daunting but when you truly utilize it as the powerful marketing tool it can be it will pay off in the long run. I believe twitter is a great way to drive traffic to your website, and reach your target demographic very easily. By implementing these few steps in just a week I was almost over 100 followers, am on nine lists, and have driven a decent amount of traffic to my own website all for free. Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool if you know how to use it.

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Colin Harper is a student and entrepreneur with a passion for self betterment. He owns Elon Apparel, an organic clothing company and loves to share his insights on life with everyone he comes in contact with. http://elonapparel.com/Similar Posts:

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Twitter As an Instrument For Increasing Brand Loyalty

TweetPit — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:45:16 +0000

For years internet use has consistently been on the rise. This development has lead consumers to take their own initiative when contacting and interacting with companies and brands. In addition to company websites, communities and blogs, in which consumers can exchange information and experiences about a product, are becoming increasingly significant.

With the emergence of Twitter the spread of information between users has experienced an even stronger dynamic. Messages are distributed at neck-break speed and even attract a high attention particularly on journalistic homepages; a comprehensive control for positive or negative information is hardly possible. While in the USA not just big players, the likes of Starbucks, Dell or Southwest Airlines, are using the micro-blogging service to get in touch with their customers, companies in Germany still seem to treat Twitter as strange stepchild. Use of this communication solution by the companies is situated easily in the lower six-figure range. Not completely to be outdone by new and meaningful communication tools, German DAX-companies and large brand manufacturers do set good examples by “twittering” amongst their important target groups.

The potential of Twitter for companies

o Attention in the online-world

o Distribution of news

o Communication

o Execution of viral marketing campaigns

o Nurturing of reputation

o Source of current trends

Twitter as a brand ambassador

The use of Twitter as a medium of company marketing begs the questions regarding the effectiveness of the method. Why is such an offer attractive to users? And what is the added value for companies? Basically, Twitter is a suitable medium to care for communities with regards to a random subject so that companies and their brands also realize a profit. The strategy consultancy 2hm & Associates together with the Marketing I Professorship of the University of Mainz delved into the issue whether a commitment to Twitter increases brand loyalty. To this end a comprehensive online-survey of Twitter users in the field of different automotive brands was duly executed.

Entertainment and interaction lead to brand commitment

The study shows that a brand presence on Twitter, as in the case of the AUDI brand, has an effect on emotional brand commitment; that is the psychological consumer loyalty attached to the brand. Owing to the speed at which the concept moves, and the minimal lifespan of messages, the information value of a Twitter note plays no significant role (the average “half life” of a Tweet is two to five minutes). Based upon this short time period they do not serve as well-founded information sources. On the other hand, in the case of AUDI, the entertainment value of a Tweet has very high impact. One explanation lies in the user interaction with different Tweets which spark inspirations, clues or ideas. The reciprocal character and the consequent vibrancy of Twitter create an association network. Within this network a game is developed which increases the entertainment value for the user; especially notable for users with a passion for automobiles and are interested to be in touch with the company and particularly with their brand company. In the case of AUDI the impact of Twitter is exceptionally noteworthy. To what extent, or whether at all, a Twitter presence may increase brand loyalty is for each company and brand to seriously examine.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hans_HerrmannSimilar Posts:

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Twitter Tools For Wordpress

TweetPit — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:16:55 +0000

Like caramel and chocolate, some things just go well together and nothing epitomizes this sentiment more than integrating the social network juggernaut Twitter with the blogging software giant WordPress. There are a number of Twitter tools on the market that, when combined with WordPress, will turn your blog into a marketing magnet that attracts readers and followers.

Here are a few free Twitter tools you can integrate easily on your WordPress blog to optimize your social networking activities.

1. Twitter Tools – This WordPress Twitter plugin provides a couple of cool and useful functions. The main one is the ability to automatically tweet your blog posts to your Twitter account. Other options include using Bit.ly to shorten URLs, add hashtags to the tweets and to post a daily or weekly digest of your Twitter tweets on your blog.

2. Tweet This Plugin – This WordPress Twitter plugin adds a Retweet button to each blog post so visitors can easily tweet your posts through their Twitter accounts. You can also set the plugin to automatically shorten URLs and to send new and upcoming blog posts to your Twitter account. The nice thing about this plugin is it keeps track of how many people retweeted your post using the button so you can see at a glance how popular the article is.

3. TwitterLink Comments – The producers of CommentLuv also created a WordPress Twitter plugin that allows a commenter to add a link to their Twitter profile each time they leave a comment. Let’s face, if people see they can get an extra link that will promote their projects, they will usually leave a comment.

4. Twitter Widget – Twitter Widget by TwitterCounter is not a specific WordPress plugin but it might be nice to have on a blog. This widget tracks Twitter users who most frequently visit your blog. This is nice for creating a sense of community and for rewarding active users with a little publicity.

5. WordPress Greetbox – This isn’t a Twitter tool per se but it still is a great plugin. This tool detects where your visitor came from and greets them with a personal message that you define in the admin panel. So for example, if your visitor came to your blog by clicking a link on Twitter, they will be greeted with a custom message that says something like, “Hi Twitter user, thanks for stopping by my blog”. This is great for personally welcoming people to your home on the net.

There are many more Twitter tools for WordPress that you can use to create community and to help you manage your social networking. You are only limited by your creativity and imagination.

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Stacy Kinney is an Internet Network Marketing and Social Media coach. She teaches the most effective methods for lead generation on the internet today. For more tips and tools that will give your business the boost it needs to compete effectively in the marketplace visit http://RockYourBusinessOnline.com | Follow Stacy on TwitterSimilar Posts:

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