By D’Arcy Rahming
The final tweet by Pope Benedict XVI before retiring was: “Thank you for your love and support. May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives.” What a beautiful message that went out instantly to the millions who followed him. A direct message from a spiritual leader illustrates the power of Twitter. So how can you use Twitter to send out the message of your product or service to your clients and prospective clients?
Due to the rise of the smart phone, Twitter is growing. Now, at first glance, Twitter may seem useless as a marketing tool. The basic idea is that you follow people with similar interests or, more importantly, you get them to follow you. Then you send them a message on their interest. You can send texts, links to photos, links to other articles and even links to videos.
As you can imagine, as a marketer it is difficult to sell anything in 140 characters. So Twitter works best with lead generation advertising. That is, it grabs your attention and you have to go somewhere to get more information. So you have to have a very strong headline that generates curiosity.
Additionally, Twitter can be quite confusing to implement while building a brand, due to three classic problems: It’s hard to control the message of your page, your important tweets can get buried and, as a brand, tweets can seem a little disconnected. So there are a number of tools, such as Twylar, that help you to manage your marketing through Twitter.
In the old days people used to write classified ads. In many ways, Twitter is a modern version of these ads. The difference is that the message is more directed to a specific user. So the key thing with Twitter is to build a list of followers. Building a list of followers can be achieved by following opinion leaders in your field of interest. Then follow the people who are following them. Then ask for them to follow you back. My mastermind group friends recommend Tweetadder, although I have not used that program myself.
Finally, all marketing tweets must have a strong call to action. Such as calling a phone number, going to a link etc. In many ways, Twitter is just another medium in which to engage your client. Your message can be replied to directly, and you can get great feedback from existing and potential clients. Since Twitter is how a growing number of people like to receive their news, marketers should not overlook this form of social media.
NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, the retail, health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://darcyrahming.com
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