What is Twitter?
If you’ve been hiding in a cave for the last two years, you might need to know that Twitter is a hugely popular microblogging service, with over 75 million users. Its rapid growth has made it both the poster child of the social media movement and the main target for social media sceptics.
Twitter critics argue, quite rightly, that many of the 75m are dormant users and much of the content is trivial. This is of course true, but Twitter proponents would argue that it is the freedom of users to share small, informal pieces of information in real time that has made it [for some] an extremely useful service.
The number of active users is lower than the headlines suggest, but the fact remains that an enormous amount of information is exchanged over Twitter and B2B marketers would be wrong to dismiss it, since it is a key area where business buyers seek information on the issues and products that are relevan to them.
Benefits of Twitter
It is free and easy to use
Very few social media channels charge for admission. But Twitter is not only free, it is also extremely easy to set up and use. Simply choose a name, enter a few details on the set up page and you are away.
It is open
Unlike many other platforms – such as LinkedIn and Facebook – that place great emphasis on users’ personal circle of connections, Twitter is very open. Nothing is hidden so you have immediate access to billions of pieces of information [although note that it is also possible to send private, direct messages over Twitter if you want to].
Twitter has also made its API open to developers, with the result that there are thousands of third-party applications available to enhance your Twitter experience. These range from client apps [eg Tweetdeck] that make it easier to use to various management and directory tools [Refollow, Twitpic, Twellow etc] that help you manage your content or your followers. This gives you enormous flexibility in how you manage your presence – and something that is not available on more closed platforms.
You can talk directly to customers
There are few formal introductions on Twitter. Millions of conversations start every minute and it is easy to engage with customers – just enter the conversation. A very important point, however, is that it is best not to sell directly. Talking to customers is not the same as pushing product.
You can distribute your content
One of the main uses of Twitter is dissemination of content, whether issue-based or product-based. But the two are quite different and used in different ways.
If you regularly produce issue-based content, such as blogs, whitepapers and videos, that are relevant and useful to your target audience [like this How To guide, for example], Twitter is a great way of distributing them. It is free and, if your content is good, your fellow Twitterers will help you distribute it – by ‘retweeting’ – for the greater good of all concerned.
Twitter can also be used to publicise offers and other product-based information. Dell has famously used it to offer great deals on its computers and there are hundreds of thousands of followers looking out for deals. But you need to be clear. The followers are there for bargains, not necessarily for your thoughts.
You can build targeted follower lists
Your Twitter presence is only as effective as your ‘follower base’ allows it to be. Every Twitter account collects followers – and the value of those followers to you as a business will correlate to the value of the information you ‘tweet’.
One way to build followers is to follow as many people as possible and bank on the fact that many will follow you back automatically. But this is a deeply flawed approach since you will amass a large following of followers who don’t care about your content, but who are following you so you follow them. It is a vicious circle that is only perpetuated because it costs nothing. Far better to focus on your content, which will gradually bring you to the attention of more relevant and committed followers who are actually useful to your business.
You can use an alias
This may sound like a curious benefit. But because Twitter allows you to use a ‘handle’ instead of a real name [which is not an option in Facebook or LinkedIn] you are able to maintain an identity that is corporate rather than personal. This means that it is not tied to one person, enabling a team of people to communicate through a single channel, reducing the reliance on one person. It is worth noting, however, that it is still crucial to talk as a person; corporate-speak doesn’t work on a network that is as informal as Twitter.
Your employees become your salespeople
Twitter is fast maturing into a business communications tool, used by professionals to make them more effective in their work. As such, your employees on Twitter become a living breathing endorsement of your brand online – assuming of course that they are behaving themselves.
Pitfalls of Twitter
You don’t own it
You may put hours of effort into building a Twitter following and developing a strategy for using it to communicate with customer and prospects. But remember that you own nothing. Twitter is a proprietary platform that can change the rules at any time. It is unlikely to do so, for fear of alienating its users but we shouldn’t forget who owns it.
It can be the thief of time
While this applies to many social media platforms, Twitter’s inherent openness makes it not only difficult to find what you want in such a vast pool of largely irrelevant material, but also offers a million distractions. It steals time.
From a business standpoint, it is sensible to commit fixed resources to the job of managing the Twitter accounts. Search for mentions once or twice a day and respond accordingly. And if you are ‘reaching out’ through Twitter, be disciplined about how long you spend doing it each day.
It can be a threat to your reputation
Such is the convenience of Twitter that irresponsible employees can leak information into the public domain that shouldn’t be there. Again, this is true of many social media platforms, but the ability of Twitter to spread bad news fast, combined with the [false] perception amongst users that it is too trivial to matter, means that unguarded comments are a real problem.
The answer lies in education, training and encouragement. This pitfall turns into a huge benefit once employees understand how to use it properly.
How to get started
1. Strategy
First decide on your strategy. Are you promoting offers? Or sharing content? Or building relationships? Or offering customer service?
2. Objectives
How will you know if you have been successful? Make sure targets are measured realistically, eg perhaps in terms of activity, number of comments, follower count etc. Measuring financial ROI will be important, but if you are starting out such considerations will simply get in the way. Just set a reasonable, measurable target and go get it.
3. Identities
What do you call your Twitter account [or accounts]? It may be a personal name, it may be a corporate identity that lots of people share. If you are considering multiple personal accounts, find a naming convention that works for everyone, much as you have done with email, eg JBS_Dave, JBS_Charlotte, JBS_DanB and so one. That way it helps remind people that it is your brand behind the [supposedly] positive messages.
4. Content – and guidelines
Put together a plan for the kind of content that you think is right for your brand. And the kinds of things you want to avoid.
5. Resources
Who is going to do this? The ideal is to have everyone joining in, but there may be some excellent reasons – perhaps business or political – for not doing so. Bear in mind that people have a way of expressing themselves and will probably and up doing it themselves.
6. Communicate!
Whether your use of Twitter is confined to certain departments or people, or encouraged amongst everyone, communicate your intent in the most enthusiastic way possible. You need people’s energy and this is not achieved by being coy about it.
7. Measure
Keep an eye on what is happening. Set up Google Alerts [which are very good at tracking Twitter comments]. Use Twitter search tools or, even better, use a client application like Tweetdeck where you can have a column dedicated to mentions of your business. More sophisticated monitoring tools are available [like our own monitoring service, for example], but if you are just starting out, this can wait.
Summary
It really does make sense to use Twitter – your competitors are almost certainly doing so – but be aware of the risks. The benefits outweigh them by a mile, but make sure you have a plan in place. Because Twitter requires no upfront investment, you may try the Trojan Mouse approach. Simply get started and aim for small objectives within a couple of weeks – then present this as a measure of progress to prove the likelihood of success if you adopt a wider implementation.
Either way, Twitter is currently a marketing must-have. Your only decision is how much you choose to embrace it…
