偶看新闻隐蔽工程谁组织验收:How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business — Copyblogger
来源：百度文库 编辑：偶看新闻 时间：2024/07/04 18:55:17
Can Twitteractually help my business or is it a complete waste of my valuabletime? This was the very question I asked myself only a few months back.
Perhaps you’ve pondered the same?
When people I respect started singing the praises of Twitter, Idecided to give it a go. At first I just didn’t get it. However, aftera short while I was shocked at the level of access to high profileindividuals I was able to achieve.
This article reveals how bestselling authors and businessprofessionals use Twitter to grow their businesses and reveals ideasyou can employ to achieve Twitter success.
In fact, I used Twitter (and LinkedIn) to source much of what you see here!
First, What is Twitter Again?
“Twitter is instant messaging made available to the public,” stated talk show host and author Hugh Hewitt.
I think that’s a fair starting point. I’ve heard others call Twitter a micro-blogging platform.
Here’s what you need to know. According to the State of the Twitterspherereport, each day 5 to 10 thousand new people join Twitter. Currentestimates of total users top out around 5 million. That’s a lot ofopportunity.
Twitter allows you to post updates (called Tweets) as often as youwant (and limited to 140 characters). When you follow other people onTwitter, you see their tweets. When they follow you, they see yourtweets.
It’s a constant stream of communication. The good news is you canturn it on or off as often as you like. Twitter also keeps a publicrecord of all updates, which can be mined with Twitter Search.
Why High-Profile People Use Twitter
Twitter is not just a fad. When very high profile folks beginevangelizing Twitter, it’s worth closer examination. Here’s what someof those gurus told me:
Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantschidentified three big advantages of Twitter, “(1) I get great insightwhen I ask questions, (2) let’s face it, I get traffic and (3) peopleon Twitter spread my thoughts to new places.”
Tony Hsieh,CEO of Zappos.com said, “We’ve found that Twitter has been a great wayfor us to connect on a more personal level with our employees andcustomers. We use it to help build our brand, not drive direct sales.It’d be like asking how does providing a telephone number for customerservice translate into new business when they are mostlynon-sales-related calls. In the long term, Twitter helps drive repeatcustomers and word of mouth, but we’re not looking to it as a way ofdriving immediate sales.”
Bestselling author David Meerman Scottsaid, “I have personally connected with hundreds of people I otherwisewouldn’t have, and I booked an interview on NPR and a big dailynewspaper using Twitter.”
Copyblogger’s own Brian Clarksaid, “Twitter Search is an amazing way to see what people are sayingabout your products or services. For example, I’ll do searches for Thesis Themeand people will be asking questions about our WordPress Theme. I’ll usethe reply function to answer the question, which has led to directsales. Plus, my answer creates awareness of Thesis for others thatfollow me. It’s a form of constructive promotion.”
Be sure to check out this Business Week article that surveyed 18 CEOs and how they’re using Twitter to help their businesses.
Practical Ways Twitter Can Help Your Business
This is where it gets interesting. A lot of people are doing somevery innovate things with Twitter. Here’s some of their stories.
The Twitter Plan
Cindy King, an international sales specialist, saw a huge boost in business inquires by implementing a strategic Twitter plan.
“Following the right people on Twitter was key. There are somepeople very gifted at building relationships on Twitter. As I followedthese online community builders, I realized that some of them are alsoexcellent direct response copywriters. They get their Twitter followersto take action,” said King.
“Light bulbs went off, and I spent a weekend putting together atweet marketing plan and entered in 6 weeks worth of tweets, 5 a day,using TweetLater. I used a mindmap, created categories, varied times on tweets and used BUDurls so I could track results and improve my tweet plan the next time around. That was a month ago,” explained King.
When King finds a spare minute between projects, she logs intoTwitter and watches what folks are talking about. When she Tweets,about 90 percent of the time she presents useful information andresources to her followers. The remaining tweets are surveys andquestions. Following this strategy, King saw an 800 percent increase ininquiries about her business after she setup her Twitter campaign.
Getting In Front of High Profile People
B2B copywriter Terri Rylandertook a much different approach. At first she was very skeptical ofTwitter. “I looked at it but couldn’t figure out why people wouldcontinually send out messages about the size of a text message, unlessthey were a teenager. Twitter was for sending updates they said. Idon’t have time for updates, and besides, who would care?” saidRylander.
She later came across a peer in her industry that was using Twitterand suggested Rylander follow her on Twitter. “That’s when I discoveredTwitter as a business tool. I’ve been in my particular niche for over10 years and know who the players are (though they don’t know me). WhenI checked who she was following on Twitter, there they all were! Itread like a “Who’s Who” list.”
Rylander joined Twitter and began following and interacting with thepeople she respected. “Other than a cold call on the phone or e-mail, Iwould never have the chance to get my name in front of vendors,industry analysts, and industry experts. I’ve had a number of Twitterconversations that have also led to personal conversations.”
To stay top of mind with experts, she offers interesting links,responds to tweets, and posts her thoughts for conversation at least afew times a day.
Getting Traffic and Leads
Pam O’Neil,VP of Marketing at BreakingPoint said, “Twitter has all but replacedour PR agency as a large percentage of our followers are press andanalysts. A writer for ZDNet wrote about us and linked to us based onsomething we tweeted and that resulted in a huge spike in web trafficand at least one deal with a major service provider.”
Mike Damphousseof Green Leads said, “Twitter is new to us. That said, in a few shortweeks we’ve had definite increase in all sorts of traffic. Out of thenormal inbound leads, the number has increased 15% and two of theinbounds are now active pipeline opportunities. We’ve found oneextremely valuable partner relationship. We are also building PRrelationships, although finding the contacts is a bit of a chore.”
Are you beginning to see the potential here?
A Few Tools to Help Your Twitter Experience
Twitter has a whole world of available support applications you canemploy to gain the most of the service for your business. Here’s a fewof my favorites:
TwitterFox:This Firefox web browser plugin allows you to view Tweets within yourweb browser (in a popup menu). This is very handy and eliminates theneed to constantly go to Twitter.com.
TweetLater:This powerful service allows you to schedule tweets (much like youwould schedule emails). Another very powerful feature is the ability toreceive email digests of keyword activity in the Tweetosphere. Thisallows you to join a conversation or track topics and trends.
Ping.fm:If you have accounts with many services, such as LinkedIn and Facebook,this amazing site allows you to post updates across ALL of your socialmedia sites in one single step.
Twitter for Facebook: If you are on Facebook, this application forwards your Twitter updates directly to Facebook as status updates.
And just in case you get addicted to Twitter, here’s some advice from one of the leading authorities on Twitter. Chris Brogansays, “Most people who see Twitter the first time either flat-out ‘getit,’ or they say, ‘why bother?’ Here’s what people miss. They believeone should read every single update that rolls across your screen ofchoice. Don’t. Just let it roll past like a stream.”
So what are you waiting for? Go check out Twitter and report back here with your experience.
Has Twitter already helped your business? If so, tell us your story.
About the Author: Michael Stelzner is thebestselling author of Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers andKeep Them Engaged. You can follow Michael here on Twitter or check out his latest project here.
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