Marketing On Twitter

If you're going to include Twitter as part of your Internet Marketing strategy then I think it's important that you first understand what Twitter is all about. The very first line of the Wikipedia definition for Twitter is -

Twitter is a Social Networking and Microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as Tweets.

The key word in that definition is "Social". When people go to Twitter they go there to socialize. Which means they go there to meet other people, talk about their day and what's going on in the world. People go to Twitter to exchange thoughts and feelings and recipes. They go there to talk about sports scores, the weather and celebrity gossip. People go to Twitter for millions of different reasons but they do NOT go to Twitter to buy stuff.

If your definition of marketing on Twitter means that you're sending out a series of Tweets all day long that each lead back to one of your sales pages then you're missing the whole point of including Twitter in your marketing plans. Your goal with Twitter is to sell yourself, not your products. And you can't accomplish this goal over night.

Let's look at what happens when a marketer socializes in the offline world. You, the marketer, meet up with your buddies at the local pub to kick back, throw a few darts, and catch up with what's been happening in your lives. You're socializing. You're not talking about selling anything at all.

During the course of the evening, you mention that the reason you're beating everyone at darts is because you just bought these really cool new darts at the local sporting goods store. You don't dwell on it. Someone simply says, "Dude! You're killin' us tonight. What's up with that?" And you reply, "Must be these new darts I got today." And that's it. You go back to your conversation about last night's ballgame. But the next day, two of your buddies go visit that sporting goods store and they each buy a new set of the darts you recommended.

Now you've probably been hanging out with these guys for years. And you've probably had zillions of conversations while you were throwing darts and some of them were probably even about darts. If you count up the number of words you've all spoken since you first met it would probably have so many zeroes you wouldn't even be able to name it. And after all this conversation 2 people went to buy some darts.

Now imagine walking into a room full of people you've never met, people who've never even heard of you, and standing in the middle of the room and shouting "Go to the sporting goods store and buy these darts." How many people do you think will listen to you and take your advice? None, I'm sure. In fact, they'll probably call security and have you carted away.

If you want to be effective, your Twitter marketing strategy has to begin with the word "Socialize" not "Sell". Twitter will not have an immediate effect on your sales. But, over time, as you develop your own social network of people who like and admire you for who you are, you will be able to mention those darts you're selling and some of those people will listen to you.

• Introduce yourself - Always remember to fill out your profile whenever you join any social network. When someone does take an interest in what you have to say, they're going to go to your profile to find out more about you. Let's face it. This is the internet we're talking about and they can't very well ask you face to face. So put your best foot forward in your profile. You never know who's looking.



• Be Polite - It's very easy to misconstrue a statement made in a Tweet. It's only 140 characters long and you can't actually see the person so that you could better judge their intent. Be careful how you word your Tweets and when you receive a Tweet that you find offensive, consider that you may just be taking it the wrong way and give that person the benefit of the doubt.



• Be a real person - In my opinion this is the most important advice I can give you. Be a real person in your Tweets. Do you go through your day spouting a motivational message every 15 minutes? And in between each motivational message do you tell people to visit a website and buy some Viagra? If you don't do that offline, why would you do it online?


The purpose of including Twitter in your marketing strategy is not so you can sell your product, it's so you can sell yourself first. If you wouldn't read your own Tweets, if you don't find them interesting and engaging, why would you expect anyone else to? Quit spamming up cyberspace with useless motivational quotes and send out real Tweets that tell people something about YOU.


• Join in the conversation - People are flattered when you respond to their Tweets. It means you've picked their Tweet out of all the thousands of Tweets you receive every day and you've taken an interest in what they have to say. Join in conversations and you'll get life long followers.



• Retweet - Retweet Tweets that you find interesting. It lets the people who are following you learn more about YOU and it shows the person who sent the original Tweet that you think they have something worth passing on. Again, flatter will get you everywhere.



• No selling - Quit worrying about selling when you're marketing on Twitter. If someone wants to hear your opinion on the best selling dog food in America, they'll ask for it. If they don't want to hear it, and that's all you talk about, they're going to quickly stop listening to you. If you develop a following of people who are interested in what you have to say, the selling will come later.

If you're going to include Marketing on Twitter in your strategy, then here are some things you need to be aware of:

• It Takes Time - There's not a single Internet Marketer out there who got rich over night marketing his products on Twitter. It's just not going to happen. It takes time to develop a large following and it takes time to develop a relationship with them. And you must develop a relationship with them before they're going to trust you enough to buy something from you.



• It Takes Work - In order to develop that large following you're going to have to send Tweets, answer Tweets, join in Tweeting conversations and Re-Tweet. A lot of marketers use automation programs to handle all of this but look at the Tweets you receive. Which Tweets do YOU pay attention to? Which links do YOU click on? Which Tweets do YOU reply to and which profiles do YOU click on? Most likely, you interact the most with the people who are sending you real, not automated, Tweets. You'll need to do the same if you want to develop those long lasting relationships.



• It Takes Dedication - Nobody expects you to be online and Tweeting 24 hours a day 7 days a week. But if you want to develop a strong following then you need to Tweet, on a regular basis, as often as possible.



• It Takes Strategy - Obviously your main goal for marketing on Twitter is to increase sales and we've already determined it's not going to happen over night. Still though, you want to keep that goal in mind and plan your Tweets accordingly. You know people don't want to see sales links in all of your Tweets but you do want to get them in there occasionally. Plan your Tweeting schedule.

You should send a variety of Tweets every day. Funny tweets, informative Tweets, Tweets about current events or celebrity gossip. Ask questions with your Tweets to help engage your readers. And only occasionally include a sales link.

If you plan each of the Tweets accordingly, you can gradually work your readers up to the point where, when you do send out that sales link, they'll be ready for it and they'll want to click on it because everything else you've sent them today has been worth the effort.