Your Business Should be in the Twitter Sandbox
As a business owner, I’m constantly looking for new ways to build awareness of my brand in a positive way. As a result, I have explored many of the different types of online marketing and am always on the lookout for a new spin on online marketing. With the wild success of Twitter as a communications platform, I started to ask some questions about how it can be used as a conversation between a brand and its customers:
- What does Twitter really mean to me, as a business owner?
- How can I utilize Twitter as an advertising medium without hurting my brand?
- Who is using Twitter, and how do I know they are the right audience?
These are all valid questions. The good thing about Twitter is that EVERYTHING is opt-in. If you don’t like the “tweets” from a certain person, then unsubscribe. Getting really annoyed with them? Hello Mr. Block Button. This is what makes Twitter a great system for an advertiser. Everything you are posting goes to direct subscribers of your Twitter feed. With that being said, let’s answer the first question.
What does Twitter mean to me, as a business owner?
With the ever-increasing expense and unreliability of CPM and CPC campaigns through Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, they can use (mostly) unstable algorithms and bidding systems. This in turn causes you to never really know how many clicks or impressions you are receiving that are truly relevant. Also, you have no clue what response is generated unless users 1. click the ad and 2. buy the product. However, with Twitter, there are a variety of ways to test marketing campaigns in order to determine what is most effective for your potential customers. And the best part is, it’s free.
For example, by using Twitter to test campaigns, it’s a no-cost way to generate buzz about a recently released product or a too-good-to-pass-up sale. Take a look at this ad:
This is a perfect example of taking a specific promotion, pushing it to Twitter, and testing the waters with a 20% OFF value proposition combined with a 48-hour time limit on the offer. Is this the best way to generate interest in the product? I’m not sure. But the best part about it is the advertisement was A. absolutely free and B. targeted to people that have opted-in to receive these product notifications. In addition, the advertiser is using affiliate-tracking software in order to know where the traffic came from so he can continue to improve the quality of his ad copy and promotion value with each tweet.
How can I utilize Twitter as an advertising medium without hurting my brand?
This is key to marketing your business online. Online advertising, when performed incorrectly, can sometimes hurt your brand, rather than help it. As for advertising within Twitter, people use Twitter to keep in touch with the world around them, whether that involves keeping in touch with friends, co-workers, news, events, jobs and so much more. They’re not using Twitter to have merciless spammers descend upon them with a flurry of hooks, lines, and sinkers. That’s what we have televisions for. By opting-in or “following” companies with Twitter accounts, they are looking for the latest industry news, good deals on great products, and to receive “insider” benefits, such as invites to your private beta for the cool web app you are testing.
Who is using Twitter, and how do I know they are the right audience?
This is where the beauty of Twitter really comes into play: it’s essentially a sandbox for testing viral online marketing campaigns. If one person sees value in your proposition, within hours it can be “tweeted” across the net. It’s a great way to test new product releases, product discounts, and even links to press releases or news about your business. It’s a great place to get feedback about your business, just search TweetScan for your business name and see what people are saying about it or your products. If your product sucks, they’ll make sure to tell you and their 20,000 followers. Just ask Michael Arrington, whose Comcast internet went down and he turned to Twitter to air his grievances with the cable company. Fortunately for Comcast, they monitor Twitter in an effort to keep their brand from suffering from the “Twitter Effect (not the good kind either).”
To recap, Twitter is a great tool for keeping in touch with your customers, testing out campaigns and messages, and in the process gaining a lot of followers, if you’re good at it. But beware, your brand can suffer from the “Twitter Effect” in two very different ways, so be careful with your approach to online marketing with Twitter.
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