Supreme search engine, Google, announced they will be showing tweets in their search results, recognizing social media giant, Twitter, for its overwhelming consumer interest. Twitter’s explosive growth (surpassing 27 million in October ’09) indicates that businesses need to get acquainted with yet another powerful internet marketing channel. So how do you leverage Twitter to improve your business ROI (return of investment), website visibility, and traffic?
In layman’s terms, Twitter is much like other Social Media websites. You create a profile, affiliate with like consumers, and communicate (tweet) by listing short posts (less than 140 characters). If other Twitter consumers like your message, they can “follow” you, and re-post your tweets, exposing you to their followers. The ability to effectively create a large consumer audience will eventually draw more traffic to your social media page, and business website. So, where do you start?
Step 1- Define your Social Media Personality by defining the following (in order):
o Consumer Demographics – age, sex, race, socio-economic status, location, etc.
o Common interests – Create assumptions about your target audience; their purchasing trends, likes and dislikes, affiliations, associations, etc. If you aren’t sure, run a focus group comprising of actual consumers.
o Once you create a consumer profile, design your social media personality. Whether you are the well versed educator, the comedic entertainer, or the gifted scientist, stick with your decision & be consistent.
Step 2 - Like most internet marketing material, successful Twitter campaigns rely on technically establishing authority through consistent research of effective keywords and links. Your Twitter profile and content is indexed by Google, and will enhance your visibility. Optimize your 140 character tweet with as many keywords associated with your business and consumer needs. Incorporating links that compliment your social media personality & tweets will increase traffic to your twitter profile & company website.
Step 3 – Engage in social media networking. Create tweets that followers will re-post, known as “re-tweeting”
To effectively market your online business, you need to create a balance between using keywords, and creating attractive tweets. If you are too aggressive, you’ll lose credibility. With utmost patience, construct your social media personality, technically optimize your tweets, and deliver messages that demand consumer interest. Happy tweeting!
