Twitter Marketing for Small Businesses

If you’re a small business struggling in the current economic climate you probably don’t have masses of money to invest in marketing your skills and services. So now might be a good time to explore what social media marketing in the form of Twitter can do for you.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing means using online tools like blogs, Twitter, LinedIn, Facebook and YouTube for marketing, public relations and customer service ventures.

As a praxis, social media marketing is so new that bloggers, PR and (so-called) social media experts often disagree about what it entails; however, by looking at how you can use a tool like Twitter, I’m going to illustrate some of the things you could be doing that may well help you forge better connections with customers and build your brand.

Tweet Specials, Deals or Special Offers

If you’re a store or restaurant/café that regularly has special offers, you can tweet these and potentially reach a large audience of followers. For example, if you’re a café or lunch restaurant in Stockholm, why not start tweeting your daily specials. Or offer 10% off lunch to the first person to tweet a review of your new desert?

The idea is not to just continually interrupt the stream of tweets with offers and “adverts”; talk to people. Engage. For example, even if you’re a café in Stockholm, you could recommend the view from Mosebacke to a tourist tweeting “What’s on in Stockholm today?”

Yes, they might ignore it. But they might check it out, check you out and tell their friends about it. Plus there’s always the chance someone else will read your tweet too.

The most helpful Stockholm café on Twitter could well be the one winning new fans!

Build Relationships with Bloggers

Blogging is pretty ubiquitous nowadays with bloggers covering most industries and cities. By following bloggers in your area you can use Twitter to help build an online relationship, sharing news, tips and tricks with them.

Good (or bad) coverage from a blogger can send traffic and thus potential customers your way.

On twitter, the best way to win over bloggers is to reach out to them. Respond to questions; try and help them with problems. For example, imagine a major blogger tweeted: “I’m sick of my hosting service and looking to move” and your team stepped in with a perfect package and first rate service. There are no guarantees, of course, but there’s a good chance the blogger, used to communicating with her/his audience on a daily basis, will mention your service in public. A “I really recommend Hosting Company X + link to your site” could mean more business for you. Low and behold, by connecting across the network you will have engaged in social media marketing!

Monitor Your Business / Brand on Twitter

People are increasingly sharing their experiences with companies and the services / products they supply online. You need to know what people are saying about you. And if they’re not talking about you, what are they saying about your competitors? Have they got a stronger foothold in the market than you?
Twitter Search makes it easy to track your brand. You simply set up a search for your keyword(s) and watch what people are saying. Then it’s up to you to get involved.

Takeaways

The key to using Twitter for small business marketing is to think of it as a cocktail party. You’ll meet lots of people for a fleeting moment and each meeting is a chance for you to tell them about your company. Of course, you need to do this in a way that makes you appear genuine and brings value to people’s lives.

How else could businesses use Twitter ?

Follow Jon Buscall on Twitter.

Image:FlickrCC

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2. Crisis Management with Twitter
3. More Small Businesses Try Social Media
4. Direct Marketing with Twitter is a Turn Off
5. Sweden Embraces Twitter