Like most channels, Twitter has its good qualities and its flaws when it comes to marketing. Why don’t we look at a few from each category?
Reasons Twitter is Good for Marketing
- People can "opt in" to follow your Tweets, so your messages will be well targeted
- Social networks have taken over email in terms of popularity. Twitter is a very popular one.
- Twitter itself is growing rapidly
- Look at how Skittles.com grew its traffic by 1332% in one day by switching to a Tweet stream.
- Great channel for customer service if you keep up with it.
- One channel with which to announce news
- Lets you interact with the public while increasing brand awareness
- Real-time search is going to rise to demand
Reasons Twitter Could Be Better for Marketing
SEOBook author Aaron Wall ran an article back in January that does make some good points about ways marketing through Twitter is less than spectacular:
- There are so many messages coming through, it's hard to keep a loyal following (at least with having all your stuff read) the way you can with a blog.
- The high volume of messages also pushes messages down rapidly
- "If you dominate a channel and keep reaching the same people over and over again that does help provide social proof of value, but after seeing the same message 5 or 10 times it becomes noise."
- "Most people do not have automated mechanisms to dump their daily Tweets / Tweet links into their blog to provide trusted direct links"
- "People rarely use Twitter as a bookmarking service, so it is rarely worth searching into yesterday's content. The Twitter content is very zen-like...here today, gone today."
Wall does acknowledge that Twitter is still a nice complimentary tool for exposure. I would agree that it's probably not wise to rely solely on Twitter for your marketing efforts, but there are plenty of good reasons to incorporate it into your strategy. If anybody has more ideas as to why Twitter is either good or bad for marketing, please let us know in the comments.
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Comments
Twitter slap
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You have pointed out many points about twitter. I use twitter and have receive much traffic but how much of the comments do people really read I do wonder
Twitter stream
I agree with your post, expecially that it is not like a bookmarking site - however for me personally I use it to bookmark my thoughts that i can then go back over my tweets to catch ideas or links I've found but can't do anything with straight away.
A great thing for twitter to be able to do would be to allow you to download all of your tweets to tagable storage like email.
Anybody wanna develop that....
Bookmarking
Hi Nicky,
Do you know del.icio.us? This is a really good bookmarking website where you can sort your websites and links by keywords and write a description so you don't forget what the website or link you've marked is about. You also can see bookmarks of other people - a great tool!
Something new to try
Have not try Twitter yes, it's hard to follow up with all the Social Media, but I am sure it's worth the efort.
Its not a very steep learning curve
I was once very against twitter, thinking that it was pretty useless and would eventually disappear. I have, however, recently joined up to see what all the fuss is about and am loving the experience thus far.
The Twitter community is very friendly and helpful when you ask questions. Almost everyone is open to conversations about whatever topic you are interested in and many times offer to extend their hand to help "Off" the twitter network.
One major issue I do see is scummy Internet Marketers trying to plant their affiliate links. Many of them trying to get you to sign up to "free laptops" or something like that.
I guess as long as brands understand that Twitter is a place for conversation and not just a place to market their products, they should be fine. Remember, Listen to your consumers and Communicate on their level.
Social "Business" Use
Twitter is still new to me, can't believe I just got around to using it. But, never the less it's dare I say.. Priceless? Why some may ask?
Well, it's not cause we've increased sales. Yes, it has increased a few come from it. But, it's the interaction that one would never have had if we did not choose to follow who we thought were interesting people.
The DM's ( direct messages ) kinda like emails for those who have not used Twitter. Kinda feels like your the reporter next to the red carpet as the star's walk by they stop and give you a quick interview.
Just about everyone has replied, some take days as they are busy and you need to wait at least a week. If not, then move on. Also, don't follow anyone who does not communicate back. Don't block, but don't follow. Your limited to 2,000 you can follow.
OMG don't SPAM with DM's the people who follow you. I block them instantly no questions asked! Also, those they have the gift of gab and tweet "what your doing now" like every 5 mins or provide breaking news I normally unfollow as it's distracting or I'm all ready following CNN or whatever.
Using for business is like going to a chamber of commerce mixer. Your not there to sell your products, but you are, but your really not. It's to meet people, mingle like a party and pass out cards ( follow ) then if they follow back chances are they either liked what you said or your site. Don't attack them with messages. Let them come to you and when they do treat it like kid gloves.. they do not know or trust you. So, you're still a stranger kinda sorta.
Anyway I hope different parts of my post are helpful to some.
Thanks for placing this article is was a pleasure to read.
Snerdey
Follow me on Twitter!
http://www.twitter.com/snerdey
Social media is a great way
Social media is a great way to have a conversation with your market and make and mange connections with prospects, customers, bloggers and other influencers. But for a CEO, the typical routes to social media can be hard.
Re: Limited to 2,000 You Can Follow
I am a bit confused. Fist of all I didn't have any idea you were limited to 2,000 you can follow on twitter. I followed somone last night that had over 22,000 people / business he was following.
Perhaps I got a hold of one of the "Big Wigs" on Twitter?
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