Twitter for Marketing: Yay or Nay // Telekinetic Marketing

GT
843 days ago

Hello, TM Team:

What do you think about Twitter? Do you use it for marketing purposes?

If so, how is it going? Does it produce traffic for you? How well does that traffic convert to sales?

If you do not use it for marketing, why not?

I hear people praising Twitter as a networking resource and marketing boon (and usually, they are trying to sell my their "Twitter system").

And I hear people who say Twitter has proven (to them) to be useless as a marketing resource.

For me, I haven't received a lot of traffic from Twitter, and little of the traffic I have received has converted, if any. However, I am still building my presence on Twitter (three profiles), and I'm looking at it more as a promotional tool — just one more way to get my "face" and my name out there in some of the social circles.

What about you?

Karen Blundell

Karen Blundell
832 days ago

I have a very small following on Twitter so I don't get a significant amount of traffic from it. Whether I will in future, remains to be seen.

Sal

Sal
832 days ago

I have just short of 2,000 followers - and I'm sure some are autmated. I don't look for followers, just follow back when someone follows me. I see some traffic when I post a link - see some conversion even though not much, but I do more socializing right now than advertising, although I do throw a link up now and again. Just have been too busy to even put tweets on delayed submission right now. Some weeks I work it more than others. This week I've barely glanced at it.

GT

GT
828 days ago

Hello, TMers! Thanks for the insight. As mentioned, I use Twitter as a promotional tool - one more way to get my face and name(s) out there. I'm slowly building up my Following and Followers on each of my (now FOUR!) profiles. I'm taking the long view: in a year or two, I'll have tens of thousands of followers and maybe THEN it will be a useful marketing and sales tool.

Also, my Internet Marketing business is in transition (is it ever NOT in transition?) and I believe I will have a better handle on marketing later this year, plus I will have better offers and/or services to promote at that time.

For me, it's all about preparing for the future. Kind of like saving pennies that eventually compound into dollars.

Dan C. Rinnert

Dan C. Rinnert
828 days ago

For me, Twitter is comparable to Google in terms of bringing traffic to my site.

I have gotten sales because of Twitter. But only through soft selling. I don't know that I've had any through direct promotion.

GT

GT
828 days ago

Hi, Dan: Good input. Soft selling is definitely a more Social Network-friendly way to approach it. How do you go about doing that? What do you tweet that is soft sell, but seems to get the job done?

By the way, TMers. Anybody interested in joining our Twitter Directory (and engaging in more Twitter discussion), please pop over to the Social Networking Support Group. When there, look for the Twitter group.

Dan C. Rinnert

Dan C. Rinnert
828 days ago

Soft selling is definitely a more Social Network-friendly way to approach it. How do you go about doing that? What do you tweet that is soft sell, but seems to get the job done?

It's mainly through building awareness. You connect with people that are in your niche, and then you just interact. You don't worry about selling at all. You just stay in their minds so that when they decide they need what you're selling, they will think of you over someone else.

To an extent, I think it depends on your niche and target audience. Some report having success doing the Twitter equivalent of standing on the street corner with a sign saying "$5 Car Wash" or something. But, that doesn't work in every niche. In a lot of niches, I think it will just annoy people if you're just tweeting "Buy my stuff" all the time. They'll remember you, but not necessarily in a good way.

The country club approach is what I think works best in general for social networking. You just, more or less, hang out. You talk about normal things. Everyone will know what you do, but you don't make a point of talking about it continuously. You can bring it up naturally in conversation. If someone talks about some strange customer that came into their sandwich shop, you can relate with some strange customer that wanted your eBook for free. Stuff like that where you're not pushing anyone to buy, but letting them know what you sell.