The most important thing businesses miss about Twitter is that it is NOT another marketing platform. A marketing platform is somewhere you can broadcast your services and offerings. You can use Twitter this way, feel good about how many followers you are gaining daily by just following them, and then spam them with advertisements offering specials and deals. But you’re missing the boat.
Remember how much you hate salespeople? Heck, salespeople hate salespeople! They’re intrusive, bullheaded, and just want to talk about what they’re selling… You don’t want to come across this way on Twitter—and it is super easy to come across like that. Here’s why:
As with blogging (see more on Blogging here), Twitter is about sharing on an ongoing basis. The micro-blogging with only 160 characters is deceptively easy. But the ease of sharing makes the snippets of information even more interruptive. It is hard for followers to pick through the threads, even with its new Lists feature. So, if you do capture people’s attentions, you will turn them off even more so by being sales-y.
Second, there are too many marketers on Twitter, getting hyped and excited, tweeting and direct messaging followers with links and offerings. They treat their followers like a mindless audience and automate an uploaded, hourly tweet. They have thousands of followers who don’t care, and follow thousands more. By becoming one of those marketers, you are not giving people what they want, which is the number 1 rule on the Internet, in the Information Age, where the competition is fierce. Don’t play that kind of numbers game.
Here’s what Twitter can do for you. As with blogging, Twitter can work in tandem to help you stay in touch with your customers/clients and stay human. Giving what people want requires you to find out what people want. On Twitter, the ability to listen by keyword is priceless. Use the automated keyword search tool, if you must automate something.
By listening, you turn this into a research tool. By responding, you turn a tweet into a dialogue—an appreciated one, not an intrusion. By answering and giving the most value, you become a valued voice.
This takes time. This is not an overnight success pitch that a lot of “experts” will give you. However, through this kind of organic, human approach, you can build a following of people who really care and believe in your branding, and in you.
Don’t miss the boat!
To your success and more to come on Social Media Optimization.
