How Can You Use Twitter to Market Your Business and Website?

Twitter Marketing and your Business-How can you use Twitter to benefit your Business?

Twitter is different than social networks in general. It is for conversations, sharing information, context, content, and a lot of different things. It is often called the "Human Seismograph" because, at any moment, you can see what has our attention, and that information is broken down by geography and interests. Entrepreneurs use Twitter to help mold their business strategy as well as market their business.

Twitter and Marketing

With so much focus on Facebook, it seems that Twitter has somehow become the forgotten social network. But Twitter is still thriving. It is pervasive and has evolved into an information network, rather than a social network. Smart marketers are utilizing Twitter to the maximum capacity. This article will show you how.

Inbound and Outbound Marketing with Twitter

Twitter is both an inbound and outbound tool for marketing.

As a tool for marketers, it is a wonderful way to learn intelligence, focus groups and trends, which in-turn provides you the opportunities to apply those insights to design more informed strategies. As a tool for marketers, it is both an in-bound an out-bound tool. Inbound meaning it is a wonderful way to gain intelligence and then implement those insights into more informed strategies.

Further, inbound marketing is about having someone who is in charge of listening and trend analysis. Shared interests and trends, specifically what type of conversations people are having, are very valuable for informing companies and brands at national and local levels.

Outbound marketing engagement strategies include content marketing and getting your content out to your followers. Outbound marketing includes engagement strategies. Twitter is an excellent way to market your content, provide content to your followers and build a community through content marketing.

Content Marketing Tips

If you are in the business of creating content, if you are a blogger or you manage a blog, you must know that first impressions are essential. When creating content for Tweets, pay attention to these tips. You can spend hours slaving over an article, however, if you do not follow these tips your article might never be seen.

When people see your article for the first time, a person is making a quick decision, literally in a matter of seconds, as to whether or not they want to continue to read your article. The first couple of sentences need to be very short and your paragraphs need to be very short. Start out with asking a question and then summarize what the article is about and what benefit the article will have for the reader.

1. Very short sentences and paragraphs
2. Ask questions to frame the article
3. Introduce what the article is going to be about. Long introductions are like a brick wall and stop many readers from reading the rest of the article.

When someone reads your introduction, you want the reader to be motivated to take time out of their day and read the rest of the article.

A carefully organized, planned and well-written library of articles can be a gold mine to a Twitter marketer, but only if that content is read. By creating tweets with links to your content, you not only provide valuable information to your Twitter followers, but you also funnel followers into your blog or website. Twitter is a way to introduce your business to the Twitter community, and links in your tweets are the vehicle at which you allow those followers to find your website or blog.

Twitter Statistics and its Evolution

There are 175 million tweets daily and 20% of Americans who are using the web are also using Twitter with 8% of those people active on Twitter every day. Twitter has become an extension of our public conversation at which people are finding value. Twitter is something very new and very dynamic. Although it may not be for everybody, it is evolving and people are using it more and more as a communication outlet, such as texting. Even people that do not tweet, are listening and watching trends on Twitter. It's greatest value is that it is a platform for shared experiences-what you are doing, what you are eating, what you are witnessing. It is a very human network, engaging and live network. News no longer breaks, it tweets!

Twitter is still in its infancy, but it is well on its way. People are using Twitter, but not as many of those people are affected by Twitter. It wasn't that long ago where broadcast networks did not want you to tweeting about their events live because that would ruin tune-in, and they wanted people to see the content on the television screen, for example. But in time, television producers and marketing executives learned that when they use tweets to talk about exciting moments and if they could design more "tweet-able" moments, it meant that they could actually drive tune-in because people would want to see what everyone was talking about.

Multi-media and Twitter

Twitter used to be about only text, but now Twitter has the ability to integrate images and video into tweets. The multi-media aspect on Twitter illustrates that Twitter is a platform for shared experiences and as such, you realize that experiences are not limited to text, but rather they are a sensation. Text is a natural way to share something but with others; a visualization of that moment makes more impact. People appreciate the tweet more if you combine all of the above (text, images or video) or two of the above and mix it up over time. So, multi-media in tweets actually means that the person creating the tweets is assuming the role of a producer or a publisher. You need to be thoughtful about what you are creating because you have an audience who has their own audience. If you are not engaging, if you are dry, if you are not putting much heart and soul into it, you get what you deserve. People will un-follow you and stop re-tweeting your content and responding. The more you share, you more thoughtful you are-you can create a community that is unique and inspiring, which in-turn motivates you to create tweets that are more insightful and more engaging. People appreciate it. Twitter is real-time. It is sensational and dynamic.

Twitter for Business

Other than just scheduling tweets to go out at random times using like a buffer app, some businesses are managing their Twitter campaigns differently. There is no one answer to Twitter for marketing. Large companies can have hundreds and hundreds of Twitter accounts with too many channels with no standards in engagement. Many companies treat Twitter as a strategic platform play. They started with some branding questions. What are we trying to do here? What is the story we are trying to tell? What is your business focusing on in the coming year?

Twitter channels that are evolving include sub-brands. In other words, large companies have many different Twitter accounts, each with their own purpose. In order to maximize the potential of each Twitter account, marketers need to realize what Twitter followers expect. They expect entertainment, customer service, and engagement. Each brand needs to develop a strategy around each of these initiatives that works its way from the top down and the bottom up.

Personal uses of Twitter

Individuals use Twitter to listen. What are people asking? What are people talking about? What are people frustrated about? What are people asking? Use these informational pieces to inspire content development strategies and source topics that you can present to prospects and clients. Then share back to your followers. This makes your followers realize that you are listening. Also, by sharing other people's content, you can share content that you stumble upon or content that you have found that addresses people's needs. Marketers tend to look at followers and re-tweet so they can look at reach, but residence is more powerful to look at. For example, how long would a tweet or a social object stay alive in a twitter stream? The best tweets can last an hour but most last only a few minutes before they fizzle out. If you manage your Twitter campaigns successfully, you have a greater impact because your followers know that when you share something, it is going to be very profound and helpful, entertainment or funny. If you regularly publish value and regularly have conversations, it affects your ability to resonate, which is good for business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Stephanie_Rosendahl/223042

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chairman of Twitter, Inc., said that the definition of Twitter was "a short burst of inconsequential information," and "chirps from birds," which was exactly what Twitter was. But instead of just chirping, the micro-blogging social network service has become one of the biggest buzzes in 2009, capturing countless media headlines and stirring up conversations worldwide.

Apart from Twitter, the economy is also a main topic this year. While companies find their customers are spending much less money during the economic downturn, they turn to Twitter to help build their brands, promote their products or services, and keep in touch with both loyal and potential customers.

So how do companies use Twitter to build their brands? To answer that, let us first learn some facts about Twitter.

Twitter, founded in 2006, is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as "tweets". Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers, known as "followers". The three-year-old Twitter, whose popularity is still proliferating as we speak, is already the third most popular social networking site in the world behind Facebook and Myspace.

Twitter is different from other social networking services because users do not need to send requests and get approved before they can follow others. A simple click is enough for a Twitterer to follow or unfollow any other Twitter users, who may be a celebrity, a politician, a company or an individual. Not only can users send private Direct Messages (DM) to a follower, they can also send public replies to whomever they want in the Twitter-verse. Because Twitter is text-based in nature, users must post pictures or videos through URL links, which enables Twitter's interface to stay simple and clean. Even though Twitter does not and will not put any advertisement on its website, it is still a free service, which means businesses do not need to pay a dime to promote themselves and communicate with tens of millions of potential customers.

Labbrand believes that brand equity includes brand strength and brand stature. While brand strength is determined by brand differentiation and brand relevance, brand stature is determined by brand esteem and brand knowledge. Twitter can help a brand build up these four pillars of brand equity through different dimensions of interaction between a brand and its stakeholders. We will address four examples to illustrate the point. While the brands cited in the rest of this article may satisfy all four criteria, we will only use one brand example to highlight each measure.

Differentiation under the Communication and Design Dimension

Businesses strive to make their brands unique. Differentiation is strongly associated with a brand's communication and design. Given the proximity that Twitter provides, twittering is undoubtedly a highly unique way for companies to communicate with customers. However, this advantage may not last for long due to Twitter's fast growth, because when the majority of brands have their own Twitter pages the fact that a brand has a Twitter page will no longer be unique. At least for the time being, however, Twitter can contribute to brand differentiation. JetBlue Airways, an American low-cost airline, has differentiated its brand through Twitter communication. Since problems with flights can cause a lot of headaches, JetBlue has set up a service where customers can complain about flight problems directly to airline staff via Twitter. It is no wonder JetBlue has already attracted more than 1.1 million followers since the launch of its Twitter page in the spring of 2007. Today its account is often cited as an example of smart corporate twittering. Using Twitter to create an efficient customer service communication platform will contribute to JetBlue's differentiation and overall brand equity.

Relevance under the Market and Consumers Dimension

Brand relevance is a measure of appropriateness and relates to a brand's appeal. Relevance both drives and reflects consumer choice. Relevance basically answers the question of why consumers choose to buy a particular product. It can be called the cornerstone of a brand. For companies new and old, including small businesses, how to make their brand relevant is often difficult in a highly competitive market with diverse and demanding consumer groups. Yet, Twitter can give a brand the chance to build relevance and even loyalty among today's consumers.

Teusner Wines, a boutique winery in Australia's Barossa Valley, has only three employees, but its Twitter account (@Teusnerwine) has nearly 6,000 followers. Dave Brookes, Teusner Wines' one-man sales and marketing department, believes that using Twitter is more about building relationships with existing and potential customers than selling products. Brookes sends friendly messages to those who are talking about Teusner Wines on Twitter. After keeping casual, relaxed exchanges with followers and avoiding product promotions, Brooke saw more people coming to the winery for tours and an increase in traffic to its website. Even though shipping restrictions prevent Teusner Wines from selling directly to individuals outside Australia, a number of people from United States and Canada have asked where they can find Teusner Wines at stores and restaurants near them, demonstrating that these potential consumers find the brand highly relevant. Moreover, Twitter users might like a brand and consider it relevant simply because it uses Twitter.

Esteem under the Products and Services Dimension

Differentiation and relevance are still not enough to build a successful brand. Eventually, customers need to decide whether or not they will purchase the product or service, and how much they like the brand. Since Twitter as well as other social media are strongly interactive, they are always linked to the esteem dimension of a brand. American Apparel (@americanapparel) has more than 40,000 Twitter followers. One of the United States's largest clothing manufacturer's unique ad campaigns was inspired by one of its own Twitter followers. American Apparel received a DM from a freelance photographer (Ryan Marshal @ThePanicRoom) chronicling his wife's pregnancy with week-by-week photos of the mother-to-be in American Apparel clothing. The company liked the photo series so much that they used the images as the basis for an ad campaign showing cute and comfy looks for expectant moms. American Apparel also set up its ad on Marchal's blog (pacingthepanicroom.com). They ran a unique banner ad for baby clothes, and the blog became one of American Apparel's top performing sites for online ads.

As you can see, Twitter helped drive American Apparel's product promotion decisions, and at the same time demonstrated the brand's proximity to their customers, thereby building esteem.

Internal Effects - Esteem & Knowledge under the Culture and Behavior Dimension

Thus far we have discussed external brand interactions; however, Twitter can also enhance interactions between employees and the companies that they work for. This means Twitter also has internal effects on a business and their internal brands.

Just like a twittering company would appeal to its twittering customers, it will also appeal to its twittering employees. It works the other way around too; some companies test applicants' ability to use twitter when recruiting new employees, since Twitter is considered to be a vital tool by many marketers.

As for knowledge, it measures whether there is a true understanding of what a brand stands for. No one knows better about what a brand stands for than its own top executives who get to decide what their brands mean. Normally, only a few privileged employees could directly interact with their top executives, but Twitter can help to change this. For instance, Zappos.com's CEO Tony Hsieh is in charge of the electronic commerce company's Twitter account (@zappos), which has nearly 1.2 million followers. Not only can customers contact Hsieh via Twitter, so can Zappos.com's employees. Hsieh constantly writes his thoughts on business and Zappo as a brand like "Good businesses figure out how to continuously add value. Great businesses figure out how to continuously multiply value," and "When your work is an extension of who you really are deep down inside, it's no longer a job or a career. It's a calling," so that employees can better understand the brand and better serve customers. By building esteem and knowledge internally, Zappos will build a stronger and more valuable brand overall. (In July 2009, Amazon.com Inc. announced it will purchase Zappos.com, and the deal is expected to go through in the fall. It will be interesting to see if this acquisition will affect Zappos Twitter account!)

Conclusion

From the above exploration of Twitter, we can see that Twitter does have the potential to help businesses build brand equity. However, we are sure that the most effective way has not yet been discovered. The new-born Twitter leaves businesses a huge space to explore, innovate, and experiment with the most effective ways to twitter up brand equities.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Vladimir_Djurovic/254367

How to Increase Your Twitter Followers?

What's the big idea about having Twitter followers?? This is a question I asked myself for quite some time. What purpose does a big list of Twitter followers serve? How do you increase the number of your followers?

All these are questions asked by users as well as business owners who would like to use Twitter as a professional marketing platform.

We all want to increase our Twitter followers of course. We all want people to read our updates. As a matter of fact, it's not difficult to build an outstanding profile; however, what you need is to understand how to do all this. What matters the most is not how you tweet or what you say on your updates, but what is important is who you actually are and how you use Twitter.

There are so many articles out there on how to grow your Twitter followers. Many of them teach you how to provide value in your tweets so that you can increase your followers.

My idea is: you don't need a million followers to promote your business online. Why? Because if you look at the list of Twitter users with the most followers you will that almost everyone on that list is a celebrity. Those people did not build their lists from scratch on Twitter! No way! These celebrities have been building their audience for years before Twitter became popular! So when they go onto Twitter, they automatically built a long list of followers because they were already famous!

Now, you may be wondering: why shouldn't I try to get millions of followers like those celebrities?

I am not saying you shouldn't get millions. What I am trying to say here is what you need are quality followers. In other words: you don't need every Tom, Dick and Harry to follow you on Twitter; you need people who are in your niche, people who are interested in the product or service you are offering. Does it make sense now?

This does not mean that can't build a targeted Twitter list unless you are rich and famous. No. As I mentioned earlier, it is not about what you tweet, but it's about how you use Twitter. So it's about quality.

In my opinion, there is no right or wrong way to use Twitter. But here are a few examples of things I use myself and that might help you get more followers:

Treat your Twitter profile as if it were your website or blog:

What's the use of having a blog or a website if nobody is visiting them? That is why we strive day and night to drive traffic to our websites and blogs, right?

Well, what would you think if I told you that you should treat your Twitter profile as if it were your website or blog? In other words, you should attract traffic to your Twitter profile just the exact same way you would do for your website or blog. So the more traffic you drive to your Twitter profile, the more followers you will have.

But again, as I mentioned before: QUALITY! So the more targeted, the better it is for you!

This sounds like everyone knows it. However, many people unfortunately overlook this very important detail. Instead, they concentrate on less important things like the frequency of Twitter usage.

But as I mentioned earlier, it is HOW you use Twitter. So the key is sending traffic to your profile.

When fishing, when you want to catch as many fish as possible, you use a large net and spread it as far as you can, right? Likewise, when you want to build your Twitter profile you should keep working on sending visitors to your profile.

With that in mind, you want to offer some sort of incentive. Why would someone visit your blog or website? They are looking for freebies. Why would someone follow you on Twitter? What's in it for your visitors? Apart from your friends and relatives, if someone wants to follow you on Twitter, they will most definitely expect some kind of incentive in return. So just the same way you offer free giveaways on your blog and website, you should think of doing the same thing on your Twitter! It could be anything: a free report, a case study, a list of tips, anything really. As long as your visitor/ follower will benefit from it in some way.

Now the fun part: how would you attract traffic to your Twitter profile?

I will give you a few pointers that have been working for me:

• Make a cool nice looking banner ad (or have it made) and post it on your blog, website, forums etc. to attract visitors to your profile. 
• Include links to your Twitter profile from your blogs and forum threads. 
• Always include your Twitter profile link in your forum signatures.
• If possible, have your blog show your Twitter updates on the side of the page. Some blogs allow that like blogspot.com (Google) 
• Learn to pitch Twitter influences with articles relevant to your visitors' interests. 
• Once you build up a relationship with your followers, ask them to recommend your profile to their friends and other users and offer to do the same for them.

There is another way to increase your Twitter followers which is simply to follow other users on Twitter. But you must be very careful with this as you might get reported as a spammer.

Let's discuss this method in detail:

This method has worked for many people when Twitter was "the new thing". Nowadays, people are more aware of spammers and many tools; such as Twitter Blacklist have been developed to help Twitter users chase spammers away.

Most Twitter users don't appreciate it when you simply follow them for the purpose of broadcasting your updates without building a relationship with them.

My advice to you: if you want to build a large list of Twitter followers, start by creating a presence online. Give advice, offer free giveaways, tips, tutorials, etc. Be active on your blog. Be consistent about giving new and updated information. Share your knowledge online. Then people will start following you without you asking them. Because by that time, you have already built up credibility online; therefore, people will start subscribing to your blog and follow you on Twitter because you offer value and because they know you're the real deal.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Houda_Mataame/281868

Twitter Demystified For Business Users

Twitter is the current top "hot property" on the Web, but its popularity and how to use it has mystified many business owners. Many people think that they want to, or should be using Twitter, but simply do not understand the platform, its use, or its place in building web exposure. This article will demystify Twitter and help you to learn how to use it in the workplace and to promote your business.

First, I have to say that I had been confused on how to use Twitter to benefit my own business until I downloaded TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a desktop application that allows you to review and post status updates on Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. I consider it a "must have" application for anyone who wants to make sense of Twitter. TweetDeck allows you to sort the people you follow on Twitter into groups, allows you to limit the number of Tweets (Twitter micro posts) to be shown at any one time, and also allows you to remove all Tweets you have seen with one click. Additionally, using TweetDeck, finally a Twitter search on a topic makes sense.

Since using TweetDeck, I have had a much better Twitter experience. As a Twitter newbie, visiting your own Twitter home page is intimidating; it consists of post after post from people who you are following, who you may not know much about, and it just seems like a huge volume of content. To get started effectively first group the people who actually have something interesting to say on TweetDeck and voila, you have a powerful tool that keeps you at the forefront of what is happening in your industry and on the Web.

So how do you get started with Twitter? Well the first thing is to start on Twitter yourself to understand what you like to read, who you like to follow, and to clearly identify what you like about Twitter. For me, it boils down to this: I like to follow people in my industry who say something of value, who provide a link to a new application or point me to an interesting new article, video, or blog site that I should review but may have never have found myself. Based on what I like, and the people who I find interesting to read, I now write my Twitter posts using this same formula to grow my own Twitter audience.

What I also like about Twitter is that the people who I follow also know how to show their true personality in their Tweets. Ye,s I do like to know what Danny Sullivan (famous search engine marketing guru) ate for lunch, but better yet is the link to the video he thought was funny. I love following Ashton Kutcher (movie star married to Demi Moore who just hit 1 million Twitter followers in April). Man, that guy is really funny and is having a ball with Twitter. His posts are great and he has just earned the status of the user with the most followers. This is why you can't hire someone to "Ghost Twitter" for you. It's about showing the real you - you can't fake that!

So how can you use Twitter for business? Twitter is an excellent tool for linking and this is the real value for businesses. By using Twitter to point people to content on your website, articles you have written either on or off your website, or by linking to a service you want to highlight, you drive traffic. On top of that, Google actually indexes Twitter and so your Twitter page can appear in the organic search results so make sure your bio is well thought out. Don't waste time using Twitter to point to blog posts, use TwitterFeed to post your blog posts directly onto Twitter. If you have a blog or website, you'll get new Twitter followers by posting your TwitterFeed right onto your web pages. People who may not have known your Twitter ID can simply click the bottom "follow me link" and start following you on Twitter.

What's important to be successful in using Twitter is to identify what you personally like about this new media and then deliver the same type of things that you like back to your own followers - work to provide value not drivel! So you've got to play with Twitter and learn how to use it first before you can really become successful with it for your business.

So how do you get followers? Well, I started by following everyone (who I found by doing a Twitter search) who had the last name McCord. Then I searched for web design, search engine optimization, and pay per click. Any site profile that looked good, I clicked to follow the writer. It was that easy. Many times people who you follow yourself will choose to follow you. That's how you initially build up your Twitter base. Over time you will start to identify your "Twitter voice" and refine the type of Twitter presence you want to have by changing your content style and the things that you Tweet about. As you refine your presence, you will build a following.

Another cool Twitter use is that you can reply to any of your followers by simply putting an @ in front of their Twitter ID. For example to send something to my attention use @mccordweb at the very front of your Twitter posting and click enter. Just remember that this post is seen by all followers on my site and on your Twitter site. If you need a more private exchange, go to the direct message link on the Twitter.com site and select a follower by Twitter ID name and send your message from there. This note will be private. If you are using TweetDeck you can click on a follower's Twitter ID icon and then select to send a direct message or @reply to them. TweetDeck will automatically insert the correct syntax for you in the Tweet.

For many businesses the ability for users to communicate with top management using Twitter is an invaluable resource. This one-to-one exchange allows a company principal to keep tabs on customer viewpoints, concerns, and interests. As a Twitter reply or direct mail does not use email and does not require a response, this is a great way to tap into social networking to test new ideas and to ask for user feedback. For example, if you have a new software product ask your Twitter followers for feedback on a specific feature, or provide a link to your beta version for their testing.

How you use Twitter is all about your personal business needs. The best advice that I can offer to you is that you need to use Twitter a bit yourself first to understand the medium and to find out what you like to read best using Twitter. Then, create your own Twitter network sharing information that you find interesting and have some fun.

Currently I am following 204 people and 183 people are following me on Twitter. Personally I find Twitter great fun and a very cool way to find out first what's happening in the world before you see it on TV, read it on the Web, or see it in the newspaper. That's the real power of Twitter; you share, you find out, and you know, all by a person-to-person exchange of information.

For those of you clicking in from my e-newsletter the rest of the content on Twitter applications and uses follows.

Below are some of the Twitter applications that I like and use regularly for my business.

Twuffer - I love this one, it is a Twitter post scheduler. Some people feel that Twuffer defeats the immediacy of Twitter posts or Tweets, but I like it as I will schedule Tweets on days that I am not blogging to keep my followers advised of things I find important. It is easy to use, allows you to Tweet ahead, and lets you select a posting schedule by day and time. If you are pushing content on a service or product this is an excellent tool to use. Set your Tweets up one week or one month at a time and feed your content to readers in addition to your regular Tweets. Make sure to use http://www.TinyUrl.com to change any long URLs you point to in the Tweet to a Twitter-friendly short version to save space.

Twitter Feed - This is another one of my top favorites. TwitterFeed allows me to show my blog posts from "The Web Authority" directly onto Twitter. It also allows me to post my Tweets back on my blog (by installing a widget) in my blog template - very cool cross interaction! I pick up many Twitter followers with this technique. Readers come to visit my blog and then choose to follow me on Twitter.

Twitter Grader - This one is a vanity application that allows you to see where you stack up against other Twitter users. Twitter Grader measures the power of a Twitter user based on followers, number of updates, and posting frequency.

TweetBeep - With this application, you can manage your online Twitter reputation. Alerts will be emailed to you whenever a Twitter user Tweets about your business, name, or domain. You select the alert criteria and what to watch for using TweetBeep. This is great for a business that is concerned about branding and online identity. PR professionals should make sure to use this tool to watch for comments about their clients.

Twitoria - Clean up your Twitter followers by finding out which people never use Twitter or post infrequently so you can delete them right from the Twitoria interface.

Qwitter - If you want to know when someone stops following you, sign up for this service. Actually, this can be an excellent tool to find out what a reader hated that you posted about and caused them to "chop" you, so you can fine tune your message. If you get a flood of drops after a Tweet, it allows you to learn that people don't like a certain type of Tweet - instant feedback at an anonymous level!

One big thing about Twitter that I have not even mentioned yet but is actually one of Twitter's best features is the ability to text-in Tweets from your mobile phone. Although you can't easily link to great content typically on the fly like this, the ability to connect with others without being tethered to a computer is an opportunity to show the "real you". Maybe your followers do want to know what you are eating for lunch or about a seminar you just attended, just be kind and don't vomit out Twitter spam using your Blackberry on meaningless drivel.

You can easily set up the ability to receive text messages from your Twitter account to your cell or Blackberry, but be careful as you may be inundated if you have a large following. I would recommend receiving Twitter updates via text message to your cell only from a small group. For example if you have a project team, set up a Twitter account for each member to allow them to post just to this small unique circle of team members. The value to track and interact with each other at anytime and anywhere using Twitter by computer or by cell phone adds real value for work groups and teams - particularly team managers. Twitter even allows you to make this type of group private.

Another feature of Twitter is the ability to add hashtags in front of keywords in your Tweets to help with sorting to allow others to find your important content. For example if you wanted to Tweet about a recent earthquake in LA you would use #laearthquake in the front of your Tweet. By using hashtags you enable Twitter to return your information for topic searches on newsworthy Tweets. You can visit Hashtags.org for more information on the current hot hashtags that are in use for today so you can follow, add to the topic, or create your own. For example in Twitter World, Fridays are the day you post with #followfriday and enter in the Twitter IDs you want to recommend to others. You would be amazed at the cool new people you can follow and interact with from recommendations of the people you follow.

In conclusion, Twitter is one of the hottest new mediums to arrive on the Internet scene since Facebook. Although it is not exactly "new", Twitter has just recently become very high profile. If you are in business, Twitter definitely warrants your attention. Not only is it a very smart new tool to use in your marketing arsenal, but I think that the more you use it you will grow to love it and find it fun to use. The ways that you can use Twitter are endless: for teams, for family members, for business networking, to stay at the forefront of news, to promote yourself and your services, and to just have fun connecting with others online. Just remember you can't really make sense of Twitter for business without using TweetDeck or another similar aggregating and sorting application. 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2295721

Why Should Businesses Use Twitter?

If you do not yet have an account on Twitter, you must. It is the most growing and widely visited networking site and is becoming more famous as the days are going by. According to a research conducted by StatisticBrain.com, Twitter has 135,000 fresh sign-ups everyday while more than 9000 tweets are made each second. Currently, Twitter has more than 554,750,000 users.

Why should you follow statistics like these? That is because it could be of a real advantage to your business and besides 

Twitter is absolutely free!

Businesses can use Twitter as a very effective social media tool for marketing. These days, businesses are beginning to realize the importance of Twitter and its true potential.

Businesses can use it to:

• Talk to clients
• Introduce new services or products
• Advertise existing products
• Keep a check on competitors
• Do brand building
• Gain new clients
• Improve and develop the business

The Benefits Of Using Twitter For Businesses

Twitter is an amazing platform and everyone should be making use of it. The following are the reasons why businesses must be Twitter friendly:

No Monetary Investment

It only costs effort and time with Twitter. It is absolutely free and anyone can sign up for it, let it be a business or an individual. Business owners must not miss the chance to create a Twitter account.

Information

All networking sites are well known for information they provide to their users. They keep users up to date with all, which is going around in the world. The same goes for Twitter. Businesses can keep their clients updated about business events, offers and any other information, which the clients need, through Twitter.

Customer care can also be ensured through Twitter. Businesses can reply to the issues faced by clients and their solutions. Clients always appreciate recognition and after sales service.

Create Stronger Bonds With Clients

Businesses can use Twitter to create a much more personal bond with customers, which is important in developing brand loyalty amongst clients. This enables customers to have a bond of trust with the company, which is a long-term investment towards gaining more customers.

Gaining New Clients

Along with communicating with the existing customers, Twitter can also help businesses to gain new clients. This article would further explain how that would be possible.

Link To Other Websites

Online marketing consists of several channels. Twitter is the choice of many businesses for their online promotion because they can redirect their followers to the host website of the company, Facebook profiles, YouTube channels and blogs. This creates a chain of clients going over different platforms resulting in more effective promotion of the business.

Keeping A Check On The Competitors

It is more important for a business to have a Twitter account because its competitor might already be using it. If businesses do not avail this opportunity, it means they are giving their competitors the chance to grab their potential and existing clients. So, you really need to keep a check on your competitors and it is really possible through Twitter.

You can also get information about your competitors through twitter. For example, your competitor's marketing strategies, upcoming events and special offers. Your business can position itself according to this information and plan on making a successful counter attack.

Targeting The Tweets

Businesses must know their target audience and hence, their tweets must not be for everyone. They should be targeted towards the people the business is catering. You simply cannot target everyone so do not commit that mistake.

Businesses must have client centric marketing strategies and they must focus on their target audience or the people who are most likely to buy their products or services.

For instance, if you sell cosmetics then you should market to the audience who will be interested to buy your product. Promoting it to the people who do not belong to your target audience will be an utter waste of time and hard work.

Once you know who your target audience is you must know how to create and structure tweets in order to target and engage with the audience you are catering.

Marketing Strategies To Get More Sales On Twitter

There are several marketing strategies that a business can use. The main incentive is to get users to your corporate website through Twitter. The following are some strategies that a business can use.

Using Hashtags

This is very important to give a popular tag to your tweet so that more and more people can view it. Hashtags are really helpful to get potential clients to view your tweet. They basically use a keyword through which the users of Twitter search. Hence, people looking for similar keywords can end up at your tweet and you can promote your products and services to them.

Building Up A Following

When you set up your Twitter account, your first aim would be to get the maximum number of followers. Keep in the mind the advice given to you earlier in this article; only focus on getting your potential clients as followers and do not waste your time attracting people who will not be interested in what you have to offer. Your basic aim of creating a Twitter account should be to have a following, which represents a certain segment of your buyers. If you need any kind of assistance or additional help in this matter, you can get in touch with us and we will offer our help to you.

Inviting Fans From Other Channels

If you have accounts and fans from other networking websites such as YouTube, Facebook or Pinterest you can invite them to your Twitter page in order to increase your followers. Inviting your current fan base to an additional networking site will increase your hold on your current customers and will enable you to get a hold of newer ones as well.

Stalk The Pages Your Followers Like

This is probably one of the finest promotion strategies that any company can follow. Following pages and accounts that serve your target segment will keep you updated with the happenings of your niche and then you can adapt your promotional activities accordingly. For that a bit of stalking is required on your part. You can keep a check on the pages your followers are following and keep yourself updated with the likes and dislikes of your target audience.

Re-tweet Request

Many businesses might feel shy or embarrassed to ask their followers to forward their tweet to their friends and family by re-tweeting. They do not need to be shy anymore because everyone is doing it on Twitter and now it is totally acceptable. However, you need to know how and when to do it. If you start doing it too often you might seem desperate for re-tweets, so do not do it every now and then. Also, do not ask your followers for a re-tweet in a cheesy manner.

How to ask them for a re-tweet depends on what kind of people you are serving and having an understanding of your target audience will help you out in this. Ask for re-tweets for specific reasons, for example if you have a 50% off sale coming up, you can ask your followers to re-tweet that to create awareness among people. If your tweet is providing some useful information, your followers will not have problem re-tweeting it. The power of this function is immense. Let us say for an example, that you manage to get 300 re-tweets and each of your followers have 80 followers then you can imagine the number of people your tweet could get across to.

External Links

You can do marketing on Twitter through both internally and externally. For instance, you can use Twitter to target your followers and talk to them directly. However, you can also redirect your twitter followers to external pages like your Facebook profile, YouTube channel, corporate website, Pinterest account etc.

Having A Twitter Schedule

No one likes a boring page and that is probably the last thing you would want on Twitter. What you post on your Twitter account is extremely important and will have a lot of influence of the popularity of your page. Businesses should schedule and plan their tweets. You can take inspiration of big brands in the management of their Twitter accounts and try to duplicate those strategies. The research would definitely require some patience and hard work but it would be worthwhile. Having a good visibility to your twitter followers is extremely essential. If you over flood your followers with meaningless tweets which do not provide value nor information, your twitter page will definitely be a failure. You do not want that to happen to your page and hence you need to keep your tweets as interesting and engaging to your target audience as you possibly could.

Focusing On Quality While Tweeting

If your tweets will not interest your followers, your page would lose attention. If your tweets are nonsensical and pointless, or if you over flood your followers with too much posts, your page will most likely be un-followed and you will start losing customers.

As mentioned in this article earlier, creating tweets for special sales and offers to keep your clients informed is great, but that is not the only topic you can make tweets about. There are more things you can tweet about other than discounts.

All social networking websites including Twitter are a great way to connect with your clients and have their feedback on how well you are doing. People love to give their personal opinions and this is a great way to keep them engaged with your business. You can ask your followers to give their opinion on a certain product or service. If you ask questions, you will most likely be getting answers. This will create customer engagement and will also enable you to have valuable information that you can work on to improve the way you work.

You can also include contests in your Twitter page by using hashtags. Contests are known to increase customer engagement. You can also host photo contests and ask your followers to submit pictures in order to participate in the contest. You can keep small gifts or vouchers as prizes for the winners.

For example, recently a Spanish restaurant, La Tasca, based in the UK created a photo contest on Twitter and had a prize of a £50 voucher. Clients were asked to send in pictures of La Tasca's Tapas. Many other businesses have created similar contests. It increases the interaction on the Twitter page and it is very easy for the customers to participate in such events as well. It just needs a few seconds to upload a picture through a Smartphone these days.

Small businesses should research and get inspired by the marketing moves of the giants. This will give them insight and motivation to move further. Social media of today has an incredible power if it is used in the right way. The techniques and strategies mentioned in this article are just for the beginners. There is a lot more that could be done via Twitter!

We hope that our article has motivated you to have you own Twitter business page. We have already emphasized a lot on this earlier that even if you do not choose to be on Twitter, your competitors definitely will. You have to be on Twitter to retain customers from going to your competitors.

We are packed with several techniques and tricks that you can use of Twitter for the ultimate business promotion. We are here to offer any kind of help and assistance to the people who need it.

It is always better to let the professionals do their work. You can take a shot at creating your own business Twitter page as well but it would be more likely not to get noticed by anyone. Besides, it will take you a lot of time to figure out how you should be using it for your benefit. You can save your efforts, energy and time by letting us train you on how to use Twitter to its maximum advantage.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8143020

A Beginner's Guide To Twitter

Twitter is a social network with some similarities to other social networking sites like Facebook.

It can be accessed on a computer via twitter.com, or on a smartphone via the Twitter app. Twitter could also be described as a "micro-blogging" service. Users can compose short messages called "tweets" which are published and shared with the world.

When you log-in to your Twitter account the first thing you will see is your Twitter feed - an ever-updating list of Tweets from other people.

People use Twitter to keep up-to-date with current affairs, events, and the activities of their favourite celebrities. It's constantly updated and changing, and gives users the feeling of being 'on-the-pulse' - breaking news is often mentioned on Twitter before it appears anywhere else.

Think of it like a constant waterfall of information, where users can decide exactly who they want that information to come from. Twitter is also highly interactive - anybody can write a tweet and respond to the tweets of others.

Differences between Twitter and Facebook

If you are familiar with Facebook (as a lot of people are), there will be some things in Twitter that will seem familiar - you have a profile picture, you can post 'updates', you can see the activity of other people and you can connect and communicate with others. There will also be things that are different and may take a bit of getting used to - a few of these differences are listed below:

Everything is public

Unlike Facebook, everything you publish on Twitter is public and can be viewed by anyone in the world. Although it's possible to make your account private, people generally use Twitter to broadcast their thoughts, opinions and news to the world. It isn't really designed for one-on-one, personal communication.

You don't have 'friends'

You can follow any other Twitter user, without needing their permission or approval. This does not necessarily indicate that you know each other or that you are friends in real life - many people use Twitter to follow their favourite celebrities or brands.

Tweets are short

Twitter is not the place for lengthy stories or updates. Your tweets are limited to a maximum length of 140 characters, which encourages short, snappy messages and updates.

If you have something long to say you can simply use Twitter to share a link to content on your website or elsewhere on the web. Bloggers, journalists and news websites will often use Twitter to make their followers aware of a new story or article on their website.

Who uses Twitter?

Twitter has 250 million active users around the world (according to their corporate website) and around 70% of them use Twitter on their mobile. Although this pales in comparison to Facebook (who claim to have over 1 billion active users), Twitter users are younger, more diverse, and more willing to interact their favourite brands. According to this report Twitter is most popular amongst 18-29-year-olds.

Learning the lingo

Twitter does use quite a lot of jargon which can initially seem a little confusing.

Twitter have an excellent glossary over on their website with a comprehensive list of Twitter-related phrases. We have picked out some of the most important terms below, along with an explanation for each one.

Tweet

A short message (limited to 140 characters) that is published on Twitter. Tweets can contain text and images.

Hashtags (#)

A hashtag (represented by a # symbol) is used to denote a particular topic or theme of conversation, for example #Football, #news or #funny. You can click on a hashtag and see a list of tweets that contain the same hashtag. If a particular hashtag is being used by a large number of people, it is said to be "trending".

Follow and Unfollow

If you "follow" another Twitter account, their Tweets will appear in your Twitter Feed (see below). You can also choose to "unfollow" people.

Twitter Feed

A stream of tweets from people who you follow. Your feed is arranged in chronological order (I.e. newest tweets are at the top) and is constantly being updated as people publish new tweets. This is the main part of Twitter and the first thing you see when you log in.

Twitter Handle

Your unique Twitter username. Handles are preceded by an @ symbol. For example the BBC use the handle @BBC

Mention

If you want to communicate with another Twitter user, you simply include their Twitter Handle in your Tweet. They will then be notified that you have mentioned them. You can carry out a conversation or discussion with another user by 'mentioning' each other in your tweets (but do bear in mind that your conversation is completely open to the public).

Reply

You can respond to a tweet by clicking the small "reply" button next to it. Your reply will begin with the other persons username.

Retweet (RT)

If somebody enjoys your tweet, they can share it with their own followers. This is known as "retweeting". Twitter will notify you when one of your tweets has been retweeted.

Direct message (DM)

Although Twitter is public, you can send a private message to another user (rather like an email). This is called a "direct message". These messages are also limited to 140 characters, and you can only direct message somebody who follows you.

Lists

If you follow a lot of people, you can organise them into different lists. These could include things like friends, celebrities, news, jobs and so on.

Getting started with Twitter

The best way to get to grips with Twitter is to simply dive in and get your hands dirty. It may look a little daunting if you've never used it before, but fear not! The Twitter website does a good job of holding your hand and telling you what to do next - including choosing a username, finding interesting people to follow and writing your first tweet.

To create an account all you need is an email address. To sign up, either go to twitter.com or download the Twitter app for your phone or tablet and follow the instructions.

Using Twitter for your business

Many brands and companies have a Twitter profile, and it's not uncommon for bigger companies to employ a specialist person to manage their Twitter account. The BBC, the prime minister and even the Queen all have an official Twitter presence.

Twitter can potentially give you an audience of thousands and an opportunity to interact with your customers in a way that simply can't be done with traditional forms of advertising. But it's also a double-edged sword that can sometimes go horribly wrong.

You can't be a control freak

As a business, you can't go in and simply blurt-out advertising messages like you would on TV or in print. You have to be prepared for a potential backlash of scrutiny, sarcastic comebacks and ridicule - especially if you run a large or sometimes-unpopular business. Because unlike traditional advertising, on Twitter you are not in complete control - you share the power with your audience. This can be scary, but if you do it right it can be used to brilliant effect.

Take a look at the Innocent Drinks Twitter account as a fantastic example of a company who understand their audience and are willing to interact with them.

Managing your company Twitter account can be fun, and if done right can actually help you increase sales. If you feel confident enough and you can commit enough time to it, then by all means get in there and do it!

There will be some who don't feel they have enough experience, time or technical knowledge to manage their own social media presence. If you are one of those people then you may want to consider outsourcing. Zeven Digital specialize is SEO for small businesses, including social media management. 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8541731

How to Use Blogs As an Online Promotion Tool

Although rubbished earlier as being nothing more than vehicles for people to channel their frustrations and daily ramblings, blogs today are an indispensable tool for the marketer and growing business. Your blog can say a lot about you, your company, and the products you offer because they serve as extensions of your brand's or product's personality (in the case of businesses) or as extensions of yourself (private blogs).

Blogs are a force to reckon with when it comes to online promotion, case in point - Lifehacker, and what it has done for thousands of previously never-heard-of-but-now-oh-so-popular programs such as Rainmeter.

Read the following to help mold a positive perception of your offerings and to communicate with the very people who will matter most to your business:

§ Generate traffic to your blog: 

Blogs do get picked up by search engines, but that in itself takes some time for them to do so; not to mention that you may end up disappointed after Googling your blog and seeing it on the 53rd page of the search results. It is essential that you pull all the right stops in getting all the blog index websites like Technorati and good ol' Google to pick up keywords and meta tags contained for quicker indexing.

Use SEO websites to get those search engines pick up your posts and updates to grab more eyeballs. Also add Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter buttons to your blog to get more folks interested.

§ Email and RSS: 

A blog is worth nothing if it does not include an email subscription and RSS feed feature. Both allow existing as well as potential customers to keep in touch with you, ask you questions and get the opportunity to check out what they've missed via an RSS feed reader or just simply viewing your blog posts in their mailbox. It cannot be stressed how important connecting with your target audience, being approachable and generating goodwill is for your business.

§ Grab some attention: 

Give away free samples to frequent visitors. Also, conduct contests and special 'promos'. These would serve as 'test runs' to actually gain valuable feedback and suggestions from people who are willing to try out your product. Go 'out there' and let people gauge whether there is any room for improvement.

Conduct polls, post video demonstrations and add rating features to your blog. Start Q&A sessions, post an FAQ link that directs them to your website and resolve doubts by taking part in discussions. Individuals are spending their valuable time in visiting and checking out your space, so treat them like you would any 'expert' and be open to new ideas and inputs so you can use this first hand information to boost your sales.

§ Complement your blog with Twitter: 

Use Twitter updates to send multiple, concise messages to the community and make announcements, post new offers, send online coupons and give people real time updates about your business.

§ Blog advertising: 

If you don't have the time or inclination to be bothered with a blog, use the platform to advertise your product. Most research findings have shown blog readers and visitors to be an important part of niche markets; a huge majority are well read people and users of 'new products'. This is an opportunity for you to tap into this segment and substantially broaden your market base.

It would be a great thing if you also utilized the web's most popular blogging tools to become an efficient blogger. Remember, blogging is about PR as well, so don't overlook the platform when it comes to crisis management and reinforcement of a positive image for you and your business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Carrie_Langstroth/379885