Twitter: The Hottest Social Marketing Phenomenon Or Just A Waste Of Your Precious Time?

A lot of people just don’t understand Twitter, for them it’s just wasting their time sending meaningless messages into the ether, like “I’m going out tonight” or “Should I wear the green shirt or the red one?”.

For some people, that is all it is and all it will ever need to be. But for the online seller, it even offers opportunities to interact with a potential new market. If you’re into internet marketing and aren’t using Twitter as one of your lead generation tools, you’re missing out on a great resource that can drive traffic to your website and best of all, it’s FREE and fun to use.

But how can I use it to help me market, I hear you say?

Well, it’s about building relationships and trust, which, as I’m sure you already know, are two of the main criteria needed when it comes to making lasting sales. Doing this on Twitter is much like what you would do on any social networking site. First of all, you need to follow people and get people to follow you. When you’re building your list, it makes sense to respond to people who have signed up to follow you, with a quick “thank you” message and perhaps asking a question about them. This makes you seem like a normal person, rather than someone desperately trying to sell them something.

Start conversations with people, send interesting or funny articles, build relationships. Don’t use the hard sell, always only promote your own offers as this will only lead to you being unfollowed very quickly and therefore losing credibility which is then so hard to regain.

What you’re trying to do is get people to look at your other channels, like Facebook and YouTube, and find out more about the YOU brand. As with most sales, when the customer is comfortable with the salesperson, if offered correctly, they will invariably buy something from you.

Therefore, invite your followers to send you their Facebook or YouTube account data at the same time you send them yours. It’s a percentage game, some of your followers will be curious and seek more information about you, at which point an additional percentage will click through to your website, allowing you to capture their details as a potential customer. From this simple process, you’ve generated a free lead and are on your way to building your list!