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.

Using social media to optimise your online marketing performance

Social Media is a great way for companies to drive their marketing activities and to optimise their online performance.

It’s all gone social

Social media has led to a fundamental shift in communication, reshaping the way that companies interact with companies. It’s having a great impact on everyday life and companies are continuing to embrace it in order to increase their online presence, engage with customers and to build business.

It’s a mistaken belief that you can simply setup a Facebook and Twitter account, post a few status updates and then bobs your uncle, customers are flocking to your site to purchase your products/services. Only if it was that easy, the fact of the matter is that it can be very difficult to see though a social media strategy with many underestimating the time and effort required to succeed in the digital space.

We believe that all companies should know the fundamentals when building their social network and that’s why we are going to offer you essential tips for running your prime social channels:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Blog
• YouTube

Facebook

Companies should setup a welcome section for its fan page. This will let people know what they can expect from following your brand. It helps to increase signups, your conversion ratings and your ROI. A great landing page with a clear call to action can help your company to save money on advertising costs.

The more likes and diverse comments that the company gets on an update, the more people’s walls and homepages they are shown on, which in turn gives greater exposure to your company. Facebook is a great way to engage with your audience by posting questions, contests, sharing photos or videos and sharing content that will make someone want to keep coming back to the page. It is a great way to drive interactions with your audience.

Google Plus

Using similar tactics to that of Facebook for Google Plus would be an effective way of increasing your presence on that platform. Google Plus was launched last year to compete with Facebook and remains a relatively new social platform with no set guidelines on how to best optimise your marketing performance using this channel. A few quick tips to get you started are:

• To share your blog info on your profile.
• To use strategic keywords and phrases in your status updates, as Google Plus is more open to searching and will allow you to rank higher in traditional Google searches.
• To write unique engaging content for status updates.
• To upload relevant and captivating pictures/videos.
• To make sure that your profile is open to search.
• To use circles to communicate with potential clients, media and prospects. For example you can create a circle for prospective clients and then provide them with industry news, media, and case studies and so on to suit them.
• To use Google Plus hangouts, where you can chat live on video from your computer or mobile device with up to 10 people.

Twitter

When using Twitter, companies should look to share insightful content around their industry and to engage with smart people on subjects that are most meaningful to the company. It is important to build relationships first and then to promote your content.

Spread links that can be retweeted by your audience, whilst retweeting yourself. If you are wondering how to shorten links so that you have more space to comment, simply visit www.bitly.com enter the URL and your link will be shortened to copy and paste. When tweeting it’s good to include the company’s blog post links but it’s more important to comment on other peoples’ tweets. By promoting others over yourself, the company’s twitter following will grow and there is the chance to engage people whilst driving them back to your blog.

The @ feauture is a good way to reply to your audience when you can. In addition, links should not always be about the organisation’s business topic, it’s good to mix it up by having fun every so often and as a result steady traffic should role in.

Blogging

For many companies blogs are their focal point of their online marketing operation. It is an opportunity for them to establish its identity and directly communicate with those interested in the company’s services. However it’s no longer enough just to write content on a consistent basis. There is so much competition in every niche online nowadays that you have to stand out from the crowd and be unique. To do this it is essential to write compelling content, be an authentic representation within your field and interact with your community as much as possible. Everything you do has to be about the reader in order to serve their needs. Adding media such as pictures and videos can help increase interest in your blog.

It is essential to build up relationships with other bloggers, ways to do this include:

• Content promotion off the blog.
• Commenting on other blogs.
• Quickly responding to comments made on the company’s blog.
• Automatic distribution and syndication.
• Repurposing of content.
• Encouraging social popularity.

These are all ways of building relationships. In the long term after building relationships, there is an opportunity to ask other bloggers to write in return for writing about their products and services.

YouTube

YouTube can be a great way to be entertaining whilst also being informative about your company’s products/services. It’s an effective method of marketing, using your visual creative input rather than relying primarily on written content. Videos on your YouTube channel could include:

• Advice guides for products/services.
• Client testimonials.
• A company background.
• Past, present and future projects.
• Product overview.

After Google, YouTube is the second most popular search engine. It is a useful platform to help build your brand.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn can be a valuable source to network with others in your industry. Essentially, it’s an effective way for working professionals to explore business opportunities with each other. However, LinkedIn can also be a useful source for enticing traffic. Adding links on your LinkedIn profile and email footer can prove to be very effective in building traffic. It would also be positive to post links to social media and blog sites.

To find out how companies are using social media to spearhead their multichannel marketing strategies, visit my multichannel marketing blog.

Here is a great post from the social media top dogs themselves at Mashable, explaining the key behaviours required to succeed in your strategy.

Burglars using social media to target victims

A survey conducted by security firm Friedland suggests that most burglars are using social media to plan their crimes.

Google Street View is playing a pivotal role in burglars’ crimes. Three quarters of burglars convicted in the past year, admitted that the site was essential in their planning. Google Street View allows you to zoom in on individual houses with burglars using it to gauge security and potential break in routes.

Facebook and Twitter are also being used by criminals. Users posting updates can unwittingly let robbers know about expensive new purchases such as HD televisions or times and dates for when they are out.

In addition to using social media, a fifth of burglars said that they observed homeowners daily routine before carrying out their raids. The survey indicated that the average home burglary took 10 minutes to commit. Furthermore, burglars are said to net on average up to £500 with the majority targeting cash, electrical goods and jewellery, whilst there are those who target documents such as passports.

Only a quarter of burglars said that guard dogs put them off, however 60% stated that they would be discouraged by targeting homes they knew had security alarms.

Convicted burglar, Richard Taylor, said:

“We’re living in the age of the digital criminal and people are taking advantage of social media to access information about would-be victims.”

“We’ll tell them even when we're going away on holidays. We will let them know that we’re not in. We’re inviting them round to our house.”

Expert at Friedland, Jonathan Lim said:

“Taking simple measures, including cutting back trees and shrubs to remove potential hiding places and installing simple alarm systems are all good, cost-effective deterrents that all homeowners can implement to remove their home from the target list.”

One in three UK companies block social media

According to research conducted by Clearswift, up to a third of companies block employees from accessing social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter.

The internet security firm revealed that there was growing fears about internet security. These fears were down to recent high profile hacking incidents, such as the loss of customer data from the Sony Network.

Chief operating officer at Clearswift, Andrew Wyatt observed:

“It is clear that we have seen some significant changes in attitude towards social media use in the last 12 months. Businesses have reacted to the series of high-profile data leaks and have become increasingly nervous about its usage from the workplace”

“Social networking sites often have little to do with data-loss incidents, but they have become guilty by association, because they are seen as having an impact on a company’s brand,” he added.

The number of companies in the UK blocking social media has increased by a fifth in the past year, as 53% of managers indentify social media as an issue for concern. Banks have for many years had blocking policies in place to prevent employees from accessing social networks, it now seems that a number of other industries are following suit.

Moneysupermarket.com has always had a relaxed approach to employees accessing social networks, but they are now looking to implement guidelines for staff to use social media. At the Anglo-Dutch energy company, Royal Dutch Shell, employees are not blocked access from Facebook, however if employees choose to access the site, they are reminded with a pop-up screen not to use personal sites during work hours.

On a global scale, a fifth of companies block their employees from accessing social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Last year, German car manufacturer, Porsche, banned their employees from using social media channels due to their fear of industrial espionage. Although farfetched, firms have become very wary of social media and the potential threat that it can have upon their companies.

91% of companies had become so concerned about data loss that it was stopping them from adopting new technologies, according to Mr Wyatt. He warned that moves to block social media channels could suppress innovation and alienate employees who rely on social media to communicate. If companies were to introduce stricter policies on social networking, 18% of employees said that they would feel demotivated as a result, while 19% said that they would simply work around the rules and 4% would think about leaving!

Ironically, at the same time as restricting staff using social media, companies are looking to increase their social media presence for corporate communications. 31% of UK companies have stated that they are looking to further invest in this area over the coming year. Social media is having a great impact upon everyday life and companies are continuing to embrace it in order to increase their online presence, engage with customers and to build business. Tesco for instance, has over 15,000 followers on their twitter pages and the company’s PR team maintains several Facebook pages for the company, including their main page which has up to 330,000 likes.

Exciting iPhone app helps you to discover new films

The iPhone app “Can’t Wait” sends new film trailers to your phone, allows you to share your favourites and reminds you when the film is going to be released in cinemas. This innovative idea has paved the way for social movie discovery and keeps film fans up to date with the latest releases.

Most of us get excited when we hear about a new film that we can’t wait to see at the cinema. Can’t Wait is the perfect app to trigger that excitement and to find out about the latest flicks. By connecting to Facebook or Twitter to create an account, you can access the app to watch the latest movie trailers. If there is a particular film that gets you buzzing, there is the option to click on the “Can’t Wait” button to share the activity with your social network friends. The application will then send you a reminder for when the film will be released and give you the option to buy tickets.

Co-Founder Eric Florenzano says:

“We want to send you new trailers … help show you what your friends are watching and remind you when movies come out.”

“People want reminders for the movies they’re excited about seeing.”

There are those of you that may be thinking that this app is no different to Flixter or other film focused apps; however Florenzano states that Can’t Wait is uniquely focused upon building excitement:

“If you look at all apps out there, they’re all about what’s out right now,”

“It’s a useful thing … they’re totally tailored for when you’re in the mood to see a movie. What we’re trying to do is be all about what’s coming up … it’s a fundamentally different experience.”

Can’t Wait has a slick, simple and user friendly interface. The app sources its trailers from YouTube, an effective strategy to avoid licensing costs and one that keeps it dependent on YouTube’s API. This can at times be a liability as a broken YouTube API can lead to app users not being able to access trailers for several hours at a time.

Florenzano believes that the app expands beyond movies and into consumer electronics and video games. Can’t Wait receives a percentage of ticket sales purchased via their app and sees further opportunities to make money in featuring studio trailers, offering group discounts and video game pre-orders.

Trends on Twitter

Lab42 conducted a survey asking 500 Twitter users how they use the service, who they follow and why. Findings were broken down into a captivating infographic, which has some great insights.

70% of Twitter users access the site on a daily basis with 37% accessing Twitter multiple times a day. Out of the 70% that use the site on a daily basis, 42% tweet more than once a day, nearly double of those 23% who tweet on a daily basis. This portrays the addictive nature of Twitter to tweet on a regular basis and how the majority of users are lured in for the long haul.

Interestingly, only 16% of Twitter users accessed Twitter from their mobile application. I expected that most users would access the site using the web, however I thought that there would be a hell of a lot more users who would take advantage of using the mobile app whilst on the go.

Many Twitter users follow brands with 31% of them at least following 1-5 and unsurprisingly the majority (66%) follow them to try and get discounts. Brands are going out of their way like never before to take advantage of the opportunities presented by social media and entice customers. Offering discounts and the chance to participate in contests via social media, increases traffic to their main sites and in effect their profits. Last year, Sony offered 1,600 Twitter followers the chance to build a customised Sony Vaio laptop and get a 10% discount for the product. Considering that the social media campaign was fairly covert, it worked wonders for Sony as they reported an increase in Sony Vaio sales from Twitter in that period of $1.5 million.

Taking into account that pop star Lady Gaga has more followers than the American president Barrack Obama, perhaps shows that the majority of Twitter users are of a younger generation. This can be backed up with the stats that 27% follow SnOOki, a star from the hit MTV US reality TV series Jersey Shore.

Is Twitter pointless?

Ricky Gervais has quit Twitter, branding the network site as pointless and the adults that use it as "undignified". Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging service that allows users to send and receive messages called "tweets". Since its creation in 2006, the website has gained plaudits and popularity worldwide as an information network keeping everyone up to date with what is happening in the world.

The reason for the famous British comedian quitting Twitter is that he just didn’t "get it". He understood it being used as a fun networking device for teenagers, but felt that it was a bit undignified for adults to be using it, in particular celebrities who seem to be showing off using the networking site. He is the latest in a long line of celebrities who have stopped tweeting, including the likes of Miley Cyrus who exclaimed that Twitter should be "banned from the universe".

I do agree to a certain extent with Ricky Gervais that Twitter can be pointless, in terms of people, famous or otherwise posting updates on what they have been doing. I mean who really cares if Jonathan Ross for instance posts a tweet saying that he’s just had breakfast and a cup of coffee, I certainly don’t! However the point that the likes of Ricky Gervais and Miley Cyrus seem to be missing is that Twitter is much more than just that and the networking site can be used in a greater breadth than just tweeting lifestyle updates.

Twitter has actively played a part in campaigning, education, emergencies, politics and many more fields. During the 2008 Mumbai attacks eyewitnesses sent an estimated 80 tweets every 5 seconds. Twitter users on the ground helped compile a list of the dead and injured. Furthermore, users sent out vital information such as emergency phone numbers and locations of hospital needing blood donations. CNN went as far to call this "the day that social media appeared to come of age" since many different groups made significant use of Twitter to gather news and coordinate responses. In June 2009, following allegations of fraud in the Iranian presidential election, protesters used Twitter as a rallying tool and as a method of communication with the outside world after the government blocked several other modes of communication.

These examples show Twitter‘s vital contribution in everyday life, as a vital information networking tool. In Public Relations, Twitter is becoming an ever important communication device for businesses and government to promote their work effectively. Democratic president Barrack Obama effectively used the site for publicity in the 2008 US presidential campaign to his advantage, showing that Twitter is an essential PR tool in reaching a wider audience.

So, is Twitter pointless...no it isn’t!