Twitter Marketing

Simple Twitter marketing strategies and applicable tactics will enhance your online presence, attract ideal followers and grow your network.  Twitter has been around for many years and now has about 140 million users.  Even though I’ve been using Twitter since 2008, I learn something new every day.  During the past several weeks I’ve been putting together customized training for clients in the nonprofit sector and for a women’s networking group.  I know you can’t teach what you don’t know, and I didn’t realize how much I knew about Twitter until the questions were asked of me.  I teach / instruct my clients that social media has many layers to it.  One platform at a time, then build upon that foundation. One of the questions  I get asked over and over again is: “How can I grow my Twitter followers?” or “ I’m not sure how to act on Twitter, it seems so confusing to me”,  “I think Twitter is a waste of my time” and “How on earth will Twitter work me and my local business”?  Are these questions resonating with you?

Asking yourself The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How questions are a great way to start learning about why you want to use social media as a communication tool, primarily Twitter.

Once your profile on Twitter is created, Twitter will walk you through the stages on getting started with following people, and will even make suggestions.  You can search for people by industry, keywords, through the Twitter lists and possible other avenues, (I can’t remember if Twitter still uses your email accounts to find who in your network is on Twitter).

Let’s start with creating Lists.  I use Lists to organize my followers.  I realize that as my community grew, it would be difficult to stay in touch with all 19,000 followers.  I created lists under categories (Industries) like

  • Internet Marketing|SEO
  • PR
  • Social Media
  • Technology
  • Authors|Speakers|Coaches
  • Celebs

These are some of the names of my lists, but as I check my feeds each day, I attempt to follow and file under the appropriate lists.

The beauty of these lists is that you can add up to 20 Lists and file 500 people per list and people can subscribe to your lists.  Often you will learn that your Twitter profile has been added to a list. It’s quite a compliment to have your profile listed on someone’s list.

The other advantage of having lists is that the Twitter iPhone/iPad application makes it easy to toggle back and forth to read, retweet, engage and mention, so it makes it an exciting time on Twitter as I consume fresh, timely content, and can easily share it within my Twitter profile or send to Facebook.

The 3rd reason for lists is that you can also subscribe to other people’s lists and this is where you can view the members and follow them (and also file them under your own list)  If you’re too busy and believe me it’s time consuming to manage Twitter maintenance, just subscribe to other people’s lists and engage, share, read, and retweet from within those lists.

After you organize your Twitter with appropriate lists, you can then submit your profile to several directories. These directories are rich in terms of seeking and targeting ideal quality followers (with the exception of WeFollow) as well as GETTING FOUND by people who are searching for your products and services, hence containing a proper keyword description in your Twitter profile is important in order for you to get found online.

Twellow – is a large database and a valuable tool.

  • Create a profile first
  • Twellow will pull up people they suggest you follow (based on the keywords of your profile, so make sure your Twitter profile has distinct keywords)
  • Submit your profile to 10 categories
  • Search for people by LOCATION, Industry, Titles
    • This is a great tool for local business (restaurants, spas, doctors, dentists) to add local followers and then use Twitter and Foursquare to communicate specials, offers, etc.
  • Complete the advanced profile section – take advantage of the real estate here, enter keyword descriptions of your business, services, your brand; include all your social profiles

WeFollow – here you add your Twitter profile to “categories or tag words” Be careful though, a word like “coach” could pull in sports, teams, sports coach into your Twitter followers section, so be explicit in your keywords

TweetFind – here you can submit your business, and it’s worth paying for the upgrade $9.95 per year.

Listorious – submit your profile and lists (great platform to seek, target quality followers) and a great platform to follow other people’s list by categories or topics.

Twibs – submit your business, can add up to 4 keywords, Blog URL and Product page URL. It’s a directory and I encourage you to explore the additional tabs.

As you can see, Twitter can be used as a business development tool; you build on that foundation by submitting to lists and directories.  Schedule time each week to seek, target, and file your followers; set up strategic campaigns using smart hash-tags; read their tweets,comment, and ReTweet, then be Patient with the process of establishing a connection, fostering and nurturing a new relationship and watch how exciting your online world will be once you get the hang of it.

I invite you to share your Twitter strategies, ideas or questions on Ana Social Marketing Facebook Page and please follow me on my Twitter !