Businesses are smart to jump on the Twitter bandwagon to diversify their ’social marketing portfolio’.
Before I get my hands dirty, for those of you who might not be familiar with Twitter, here’s a bullet list that will make you an expert.
- Twitter’s a free Web-based tool that lets its users constantly notify the world of “what are you doing now?”
- Users are limited to 140 characters, and can update Twitter from the web, from text messages, or from numerous applications and devices
- A user can have a public profile, or private, meaning that a user will have to approve their followers instead of making all “what are you doing?” updates public
- A user’s “followers” are the people who have elected to follow a user’s updates, so the followed user’s updates will appear on the follower’s timeline
- A timeline is a reverse chronological order of your and/or all your followees’ recent updates
- Updates are commonly referred to as “Tweets”
A standard approach to adding Twitter to your strategy typically looks like this.
- Create a Twitter account for your organization
- Publicize your twitter account to customers
- Regularly “tweet” about your company or related topics so your followers will see it
Before I go into specific ideas on how to leverage your Twitter account to the fullest, I recommend doing a little math and research to determine how much your Twitter account and its followers are worth to your company. It’d also be valuable to know how many followers you need in order for you campaign to be successful. I can’t figure this out for you, but here’s an example of how I’d look at it:
I’m a widget etailer, hoping to generate $100,000 annually through traffic derived through my Twitter account.
With an average sale of $100, that means I’ll need 1,000 transactions generated annually, originating from Twitter.
Since my website has a conversion rate of 5% (kind of high rate for online retail, but easier for the math at hand), I’ll need to bring 20,000 visits to my site annually originating from my twitter account.
On average, I think my Twitter followers will visit my site once every 2 months, meaning that each visitor is responsible for 6 visits a year. Since I need 20,000 visits from Twitter each year, 20k / 6 (# of visits per user) = I need 3,333 followers.
Since my total sales expectation is $100k, and I’ve decided that 12% of that can be devoted to marketing, I can devote $12k annually to my twitter campaign. (12k / 3,333 followers = $3.60 per follower)
Now my approach might not fit your business, and those numbers almost CERTAINLY will not, but it’s always good to know what something’s worth to you, and please excuse this run-on sentence.
Here are some ideas on how to extend a Twitter campaign.
Engage New Followers
The more interactive you make your campaign, the more interest you’re likely to garner from your followers. The idea is to not just let someone press the “follow” button on your account, and then wait to see your updates. You need to react to their act of good faith, just like you would with someone who’d signed up for your email list. “Hey thanks for following us!” Now, it’s best to assume that your followers are cynical, and know when they’re being talked to by a bot. If your strategy warrants a little time spent, make it personal. Have someone in-house spend 15 minutes a day sending personal Direct Messages to new followers, welcoming them to your Twitter world. Now, it’s easy to make this creepy, for example “hey, @jeffbcross. I looked at your timeline and saw that you and your brother are no longer speaking. Thanks for following us on Twitter!” Personalize at your discretion.
Follow Your Followers
Return the favor to your followers by following them. Check out their updates to make sure they’re a real person, and someone you’d genuinely like your brand to be following. A good example is Zappos.com CEO, who has 535,781 followers, and is following 410,928 people.
Make it Viral
Depending on your strategy and the primary people group you’re catering to, it might make sense to give something away to your subscribers. If my base were part of the “millenial” generation, I could probably even do something charitable to earn their good favor. “Thanks for following us. We’re going to give a can of beans to a local food bank in your honor.” Chances are, that person’s going to tell a few friends about following you on Twitter. Be careful not to obligate yourself to give away more beans than you can afford though ;).
Make it Unique
Most companies in the social marketing sphere have multiple social properties (Facebook page, YouTube profile, Twitter, a blog, etc). The key to a great social media strategy is to make each one uniquely integrated into the bigger picture of your brand. My point is, don’t make your Twitter account identical to your blog, don’t make your Facebook page identical to your twitter account, and don’t just copy and paste your email campaigns into twitter. Chances are, if your users really love your brand, they’re engaging you in multiple places. So, make sure what you’re giving to them is in line with the medium at hand. Your twitter account provides a great way to provide frequent updates, regarding your company, things in your industry, or anything that’s likely to be of interest to your followers. That said, it’s often appropriate and useful to syndicate content from your other properties.
Participate in the Conversation
When followers talk about you on Twitter, “@randomperson says: I’m confused by @jeffbcross blog at middlefloor.com”, respond. “@jeffbcross says: @randomperson, maybe it’s just over your head.”
Discounts
This idea isn’t brilliant, but offer incentives to your customers that make them glad they’re part of your twitter club. Send a Tweet out that says something like “Direct Message us for a 15% discount at our site, expires in 48 hours”