Using Twitter to reach out to new clients

Twitter can be a fantastic marketing tool to reach out to new clients.

It was reported last year that Twitter had 100 million monthly active users of which 50% logged in every day.  It’s estimated that there are around 250 million tweets a day, which is 150 million more compared to January, 2011. IOS 5 directly integrates info the operating system to allow apps to use Twitter functionally. This has significantly boosted Twitter signup since it launched. It’s clear to see that there is an ocean of opportunity for any company looking to reach out to new potential clients.

I'll be providing tips on how to best penetrate the twitter market.

Select your audience

You should try to limit your scope to the demographic that you are trying to reach. For instance, Wendy’s Cakes would focus their efforts on marketing towards people who enjoy eating cakes. So their goal would be to find people/companies that fit their target audience and to start following them.  The key is to find people that influence your audience. Consider the following:

• Who people are talking to?
• What people are retweeting about?
• And who they ask for advice.

Take a look at about 10 of your followers on Twitter, study their actions in detail and consider the 3 points above.  Once you have identified these factors, you should use similar keywords and terms to your competitors in order to find like-minded people. 

How do they speak

It’s essential to see what people are saying about your company if anything, whether it’s good or bad.  Any feedback is useful feedback; it may be that people are simply asking for advice about your company and the products/service that you sell. The same analysis process should be used for your competitors, look to see if they are jumping in to influence any of these conversations.

Assess how your audience is talking, whether they are formal, informal or it may be that they are blending their language to be both.  It’s good to match the tone of the audience so that they can feel an instant connection with your company.  Look at the links/content that your company is sharing along with the terms and ideas that are getting them excited. Checking out hashtags and other ways that your audience connects with companies is also worthwhile in order to see if they have real traction or if they are spam.

If you struggling to know what to tweet, visit my blog how to use social media to optimise your marketing performance.

Your value on Twitter

Your company should define their objectives for what they want to achieve on Twitter. Is your company on Twitter:

• To improve sales.
• To increase your brand awareness and create a buzz around your company.
• To provide customer service.  This is a common use on Twitter.

 

It would also be useful to work out the worth for each of your followers to see which ones would be more likely to turn into prominent leads.   

Goals to track

Once your Twitter page is in full motion, the next step would be to track your performance. Metrics to consider tracking are ones that capture overall influence such as retweets, blog posts and clicks. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg, there are so many metrics that your company could consider including sales, email sign ups, @messages, direct messages and clicks.

Take a look at this fantastic twitter infographic from Touch agency (August 2011), to help provide you with a better understanding of the market that you are trying to tap into.

If you need help with your Facebook marketing strategy, take a look at my Using Facebook to reach out to new clients’ blog.