Twitter has many fans amongst marketers. After an initial spurt of cynicism, even old-school marketers have found their way to the Twitter classroom.
There are of course many reasons why marketers should use Twitter as a marketing tool. Of all the varied reasons, the one that is much overlooked is market research. Social media has redefined the way products and services are marketed. With marketing research forming the cornerstone of any successful marketing or business plan, marketers can and should consider using social media like Twitter as a key part of their marketing research strategy.
Although social media is a relatively new medium, social platforms such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter offer marketers the ability to not only gain mass exposure for their brands, but to conduct extensive market research at no cost.
Twitter encourages users to post messages on what they are currently doing, their views about products and services and just about anything else they can think of. So, if you have a product and people are talking (tweeting) about it, the chances are that knowledge of your product and your competitors could be widespread.
Ask questions of your followers. What do they think of your product? What do they think of competing products? What about the price? You can test every aspect of your marketing mix in this way, all for free.
Yes, thousands could be instantly exposed to your new product or service too. You can spread your messages to a global audience in a matter of minutes.
Keep contributing
The more you contribute to the Twitter Universe (the ‘twitterverse’) by means of useful messages, the more people that will read what you have to say. In other words, the more you give, the more you will receive.
As with every strategy, there are a number of do’s and don’ts for when you begin communication with the Twitterverse. Your ‘fan base’ (called followers) on Twitter needs to be interested in what you have to say, or at least interested enough to take part in surveys. Therefore, posting regular, interesting, useful or humorous updates and feedback is essential.
Keeping Twitter followers interested or entertained is of course a whole other subject but don’t worry, it is easy when you know how and the process can even be automated.
Respect your followers
Followers will trust you more once you’re in regular contact with them. So, do this diligently or else kiss your ‘twits’ goodbye. Also, you need to answer any questions they might have, in a timely and polite manner. Do not try to answer a question with a sales pitch. After all, you are gaining a lot of market research from them, so be grateful. By all means sow the seeds now, you will reap the rewards later.
The answers to your marketing research questions can be found in the tweets of your followers. You will quickly get to know exactly how they perceive your product or service, what they like and dislike about it.
Links aren’t the only answer
In your enthusiasm to gain marketing knowledge, don’t make the mistake of merely posting links or offers on Twitter. Followers don’t usually take a liking to this, and will treat it the same way they do with unsolicited emails. That’s right, straight into their spam box.
Content has always been king, so make sure that is what you treat your followers too, good quality, useful content.
Article submitted by Bryan Farrow publisher of a top selling
twitter marketing guide and owner of a twitter blog filled with tips including how to
get more twitter followers
