Using Twitter for Business

Are there Twitter Business Tactics that work? Let’s find out…

I often get questions from clients about if and when and why they should use Twitter in business? Answers: Yes. Now. To listen and connect. Will they lose control? Answer: Sometimes you have to let go for a bit in order to get a better hold. I am going to give you some specific examples here.

I’ve been taking “Inbound Marketing University” courses (recommended), and a recent one was with Laura Fitton, co-author of Twitter for Dummies, and @Pistachio on Twitter. I’ve added her to our Cabal list of Content and Connection Cycle Marketers on Twitter  – click and follow the list for some great, SEO, SMM insights.

Why would a business use Twitter even if most customers are not there yet? Great Question. Fitton, listed a number of great reasons in her webinar, including SEO, listening to your industry and market, and even using it for internal brainstorming and team building. And listening is very important. Most good CRMs like SalesForce.com, SugarCRM, and Batchbook are building in Twitter modules. Using Batchbook, which I recommend for companies of 5-50 people, I can see what a prospect has been tweeting about right on their record page — very valuable “listening” for consultative selling.

Above is a screenshot from Batchbook CRM for a client record where the client’s Twitter stream and LinkedIN Social information are visible — an excellent sales tool.

But are the big brands using Twitter for business? Yes.  ComCast famously uses it for customer service.  Starbucks puts out promotional messages.  Even Walmart has a Twitter homepage.  And, check out the Zappos Twitter home page.    These are pages built at their home site to feature who’s doing the tweeting, and provide visitors with an entre into the conversation — a recommended tactic.

How do you prove to the boss that Twitter is worth it? One of our services provides custom Google Analytics with actionable advice, and so we look at Social Media and track visitors from Twitter.com and other Social sites through to $ value conversion goals for a direct link to ROI.  Using this tactic you can find out exactly the conversion value (visitors coming from Twitter and “converting” to a prospect, lead, or customer) of your Social Media Visitors.  It’s more difficult to calculate “Brand Awareness”, but that’s another benefit of Twitter visibility.

Still another way to show value is the “ripple” message extension factor — how far your tweets go via retweeting. I recently wrote a post here about “Why Content is King No More“, and the tool TweetReach.com (go try it) shows it reached 6,119 people via Twitter:

Above, Tweet Reach reports on the ripple effect of my post, who retweeted it, what they said, and gives links to their Twitter pages.

Ok… you get the idea. Now get started. Wait — who should you follow? Well, that’s my last tip. There are a lot of great helpful applications for Twitter, and one that’s very appropriate for this answer is: Mr. Tweet.

Mr. Tweet suggests people to follow: Mr. Tweet isa powerful connection application that learns about you as it goes, recommending people, and conversations as you recommend friends and build your network:

Mr. Tweet offers you a simple but powerful tool to build your network the smart way on Twitter.

We’ll review more twitter business strategies and tactics in posts to come, and remember that we offer a Twitter-Pro marketing package to help you focus on the best methods for your business.