How to use Twitter to grow your business

Can Twitter really help my business, or is a complete waste of precious time? This was the question I asked myself a few months ago.

Maybe you think the same?

When people I respect started singing the praises of Twitter, I decided to give it a try. At first, I do not understand. But after a while I was surprised by the level of access to high profile people who have succeeded.

This article demonstrates how to leverage best selling authors and professionals from Twitter to grow their businesses and ideas shows that you use to ensure the success of Twitter.

In fact, I have Twitter (and LinkedIn) the source of much of what you see here!
First, what is still Twitter?

"Twitter is instant messaging to the public," said talk show host and author Hugh Hewitt.

I think this is a good starting point. I've heard others call Twitter platform of micro-blogging.

This is what you need to know. According to the state of the Twittersphere report, each day new people join Twitter 5-10000. The total estimated cost of the main users of around 300 million euros. That's a lot of ways.

Twitter allows you to updates (called tweets) to post as often as you (and limited to 140 characters) want. If you follow others on Twitter, view your tweets. If you are, they see your tweets.

This is a constant flow of communication. The good news is that you can turn on or off as often as you like. Twitter also maintains a public register of all updates that can be exploited with Twitter Search.

Why high profile people use Twitter

Twitter is not just a fad. Evangelizing a very high level of awareness of people start Twitter, worth a closer look. This is what some of these gurus told me:

Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch identified three big advantages of Twitter: "(1) I have a good look when you ask me, (2) Let's be honest, get traffic, and (3) for people on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places. "

Tony Hsieh, Zappos.com CEO: "We have found that Twitter is a great way for us to connect personally with our employees and our customers, we use it, go to help build our brand, not the car. Direct sales . would be like asking, how to provide a phone number to translate customer service for new businesses, if they are mostly not related sales calls. In the long run helps Twitter repeat customers and word to-mouth to drive, but we do not find that the immediate increase in sales. "

Best-selling author David Meerman Scott said: "I personally linked to hundreds of people who would not otherwise, and I booked an interview on NPR and a major daily newspaper using Twitter."

Copyblogger, Brian Clark, said: "Twitter Search is a wonderful way to see this is to tell people about your products or services, for example, I will look for the hashtag # # genesiswp and woprdpress and people will ask . to questions about our part of the Genesis Design WordPress. response function I used to answer the question, which led to direct sales. In addition, awareness of my reply Genesis for others who follow me. It a form of constructive development. "

Be sure to check out this article from Business Week survey of 18 business leaders and how to use Twitter to help your business.
Practical ways Twitter can help your business

This is where it gets interesting. Many people do things very Innovating with Twitter. Here are some of their stories.

Twitter Plan

Cindy King, a specialist in international sales, has experienced a major boost to research by implementing a strategic plan for Twitter.

"After that the right people on Twitter was the key. There are very talented people to build relationships on Twitter. As I followed these builders of the online community, I realized that some of them are also great writers of response directly. They get their Twitter followers to take action, "said the king.

"The lights went out, and I spent a weekend making a tweet marketing plan and entered into the six weeks of tweets, 5 a day, using TweetLater. I used a mental map, the categories created, the time BUDurls various tweets and used, so they can monitor performance and improve my tweet plan next time. was a month ago, "said the king.

When King finds a spare minute between projects, connects to Twitter and see what people are talking. When she Tweets, about 90 percent of the time, it provides useful information and resources to his disciples. The remaining tweets are surveys and questions. Following this strategy, King saw an 800 percent increase in questions about his business after his campaign created Twitter.

Stand in front of high profile people

B2B editor Terri Rylander took a very different approach. At first I was very skeptical about Twitter. "I looked, but could not understand why people constantly sending messages about the size of a text message, unless you were a teenager. Twitter was for sending updates, they said. I have no time for updates and further that they worry that? "said Rylander.

Later, he met a fellow in your industry who has been using Twitter and suggested Rylander follow her on Twitter. "That's when I discovered Twitter as a business tool. I was in my particular niche for over 10 years and know who the players (even if I do not know). When it came to those who have been following on Twitter, not all were! It reads like a "Who's Who" list ".

Rylander joined Twitter and began following and interacting with people you respect. "Apart from a cold call on the phone or e-mail, I would never have the opportunity to get my name in front of vendors, industry analysts and industry experts. I had a series of conversations on Twitter, which also led to personal conversations. "

To stay ahead with the experts, provides links, respond to tweets, posts his thoughts and conversations for at least a couple of times a day.

Get traffic and leads

Pam O'Neil, VP of marketing at BreakingPoint said: "Twitter has replaced our PR agency as a large percentage of our fans are the press and analysts. A ZDNet writer wrote about us and set us on the basis something that Twitter and resulted in a large increase in Internet traffic and at least one agreement with a major provider of services. "

Mike Damphousse has said Green, "Twitter is new to us. That said, in a few weeks, we had a net increase in all types of traffic. In normal routes of entry, the number increased by 15% and two within the now limits opportunities for pipeline assets. It found an invaluable partner. also establish relations public relations, although contact tracing is a bit of a task. "

Are you starting to see the potential here?

Some tools to help your experience on Twitter

Twitter has a world of assistive technology applications available, you can use to get the most out of service for your business. Some of my favorites:

TwitterFox: This Firefox browser plugin lets you see the tweets in your web browser (in a popup menu). This is very convenient and eliminates the need to constantly go to Twitter.com.

TweetLater: This service allows you to program powerful tweets (as you plan for e-mails). Another important feature is the ability to receive email summaries of the key activity in the Tweetosphere. This allows you to participate in a conversation or track topics and trends.

Ping.fm: If you have accounts with many services such as LinkedIn and Facebook, this extraordinary site allows posting updates on all social media sites in one step.

Twitter to Facebook: If you're on Facebook, this application sends Twitter updates directly to Facebook status updates.

And if you're addicted to Twitter, here are some tips from one of the leading experts on Twitter. Chris Brogan says: "Most people who see Twitter the first time either plain get", or say, "Why bother? This is what people are missing. It is believed, read all the updates rolling on the screen of choice. Do not. Just let it roll past like a stream. "

So what are you waiting for? Check out Twitter and report your experience here.

Does Twitter have helped your business? If so, tell us your story.