“Should we?” “Shouldn’t we?” The questions ringing around boardrooms and marketing dept’s desks across the world. If your business is deciding whether to free up staff time to develop a Social Media Strategy via Twitter, please answer the question one way or another… Yes or No.
The statistics are there for us all to see;
84% of Respondents in MarketingProfs’ Informal Survey Expect Their Company’s Use of Twitter to Increase in the Next Six Months
Businesses, like it or not, are jumping on the Twitter bandwagon by their droves. The reason? Twitter.com was the fastest-growing Web brand in May 2009, increasing 1,448 percent year over- year, from 1.2 million unique visitors in May 2008 to 18.2 million in 2009. That’s a lot of eyeballs for your marketing message.
Is the time right to launch your Social Media strategy starting Twitter?
Now, it’s all well and good that 84% of businesses expect to increase their use of Twitter before the end of the year, but what strategy is in place to make sure this isn’t simply a waste of time?
You’ve probably already heard about the Habitat “Twit scandal“ from May where a seemingly innocent ‘ploy’ to generate Twitter interest caused mass media coverage of an exceptionally poorly ‘executed strategy’.
So, ready to jump in the deep end and blow your competition to smithereens with a savvy groundbreaking plan? Or, are you going to run the gauntlet like a wide range of UK retail businesses, open your Twitter account, try and register your twitter.com/yourbusinessname ? Only then to find out its been taken by a chap in Sierra Leone so go the second best route twitter.com/yourbusinessname1. Once registered post something intriguing such as “Hello world, trying to figure out what this twitter stuff is all about“? Sounds ludicrous? Without mentioning names, there’s a scary amount of accounts already setup sat dormant, collecting virtual dust… but going unnoticed? This is where I feel companies WILL slip up if they don’t either decide to leave the twitter idea for the time being, or embrace the concept.
TWITTER PERFORMS EXCEPTIONALLY WELL ON GOOGLE.
Great you think? No, it really isn’t if you’ve set up an account that’s sat dormant. If a potential customer seeks your brand or business name through Google, up pops your Twitter.com/businessname1 account, “Great!” thinks your potential customer… off they click, and what do they find? It’s not looking so good no is it?
…and the wrong way of representing your business online!
the equivalent of web-based Chip Shop paper….
Before you’re even tempted to setup your Twitter account make sure you understand;
- The information you want to pass to your potential customers
- How to take that information and make it interesting to incentivise clickthru
- Provide an information service for your followers above and beyond what your competitors do
- Decide internally who is going to administer your account
- How are you going to track your clicks to begin understanding the success/failure of your account
- Your Twitter account is your face to the public, make sure it smiles back at the end user
- How to drive existing and potential customers to your Twitter account
- Devise how to track Social Media ‘noise’ to assure any PR glitches are minimised
- Communicate directly with your followers without sending them to sleep with repetitive messaging
- Add value to your overall marketing strategy, because if you don’t you’re simply wasting your time
Like any online communication, there’s a sense of “etiquette” that you must acquire before simply bombarding your followers with messages. It’s all a learning process for each business on Twitter, there’s no harm in trying new plans, developing new opportunities, but simply make sure you dive in knowing full well that Twitter is here to stay. It’s evolving each day and with the right strategy and time allowance, represents a fantastic opportunity for your business.
