Posted on March 17th, 2016 by David Taplin
Twitter is synonymous with social interaction and engaging audiences you may never have been able to reach out to otherwise, however it is also a very powerful business tool that should be seen as an integral part of any business marketing strategy.
Used in the right way Twitter can not only engage potential clients but also spur them into an action of your choosing.
What needs to be understood when it comes to using Twitter for business is that it is not, and has never been designed with the intent of being used as a hard-sell tool. It is all about bonding and communicating with people on their level, it’s about building relationships on a P2P level (Person to Person) as opposed to a B2B (Business to Business) or B2C (Business to Consumer). Twitter should be a tool handled with care, but in the right hands can be an effective business tool.
Here are just some of the ways in which Twitter can be used to generate business without the hard sell.
1) Don’t under Estimate the Hashtag
Hashtags when used correctly can be a very powerful tool to reach out to new, or desired audiences. The use of relevant and purposeful hashtags can fast-track your posts being noticed and increase the possibility of it being shared with the most relevant audience. You don’t need to go mad with the hashtags, but a few select, relevant ones will go a long way to engaging many more potential clients.
2) Go Fishing
When we say go fishing we mean you can sit there and wait for people to respond to your posts and tweets or you can go and actively look for business and people to engage with. For example if you are selling shoes, maybe you could do a search on anyone that has written or hash tagged for ‘I need a new pair of shoes’ or ‘Men’s Shoes’ or ‘new shoes’. This way you can pro-actively enter into discussions, threads and posts relevant to your business or product.
3) There is a time & place for Sales
As mentioned above, Twitter is not meant to be used as a hard-sell tool and users will get frustrated and turned off by any attempt to aggressively of frequently sell to them. Yes if you are running a business to do need to promote your products, but this should be done in a phased and friendly way. Building the bond is far more important than promoting your sales pitch.
4) Be Different
There is a hell of a lot of content, imagery, videos and general ‘noise’ out there on the internet and this is growing at a rapid rate. So it is worth really thinking about what makes you different from others and in what way you would lure potential customers in. It’s worth asking yourself at the outset, what makes you stand out from the crowd?
5) Engage, Engage !!
If you want to get your business name and brand out there, it’s far better to be pro-active and engage with people and posts as opposed to reactive or just plain invisible. By engaging in the correct manor online to others tweets, comments and opinions you can really start to make a name for yourself. In fact that’s all some people are brought in to do, comment, re-post and generally ‘get amongst’ other communities and conversations.
If you would like to understand more about how to use and generate business via Twitter them please get in touch with us.
