You may be wondering what has everyone’s hearts aflutter about Twitter, but it’s one of the fastest growing social networks available. Twitter lets you do a few very important things in reaching potential customers.
For one thing, Twitter is rapid communication, which means you can answer questions that people have. Let’s say you sell a lawn care service, working with organic products, and avoiding harsh chemicals. You could set up a search column on your Twitter client that looks for specific terms like “weeds” and “lawn.” Then, when someone tweets that they’re having problems with weeds in their lawn, you can tell them how to fix it, either steering them toward a blog post or article on the subject, or even answering the question directly.
You can also share some of your regular information about the different factors of lawn care and lawn maintenance throughout the season. By regularly blogging about it, you can educate potential customers about what they can be doing themselves and when they should involve a professional. It’s not enough to just write blog posts. You need a way to promote them. By building up a network of homeowners in your local area, you can share your information with them. They’ll learn from you, learn to trust you, and call you when they need that professional help.
Of course, there will be times when people aren’t happy with the results they’re getting, and they’ll complain about it on Twitter. The problem is, those complaints are public, and your customer’s entire Twitter network could see what they’ve posted. You can let it go and call the person privately to solve the problem, but that still leaves their original complaint out there. Or you can contact them directly via Twitter, solve the problem (even if it’s asking if you can call them), and other people can see the effort you’ve made. This goes a long way in helping spread your customer service skills via word of mouth.
You can also use these same techniques to see if people are complaining about your competition too, and then contacting those unhappy customers to see if you can solve their problems in the meantime.
Twitter can serve a number of functions for a business: sales, marketing, promotion, customer service, and even competitive intelligence.
About the author: Duncan Alney is the president and founder of Firebelly Marketing. He is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, and photographer, and he’s working on his first social media marketing book, which will be out in late 2012. Duncan has lived on 3 continents and in 5 countries, but is proud to call Indianapolis home.
Sian Phillips said on June 6, 2012
I find Twitter invaluable for contacts, networking, and gaining business. Most importantly, people need to engage with their customers and potential customers. Thanks for sharing on BizSugar.com.
Duncan Alney said on June 6, 2012
Thanks Sian. If Facebook is the ocean, then Twitter is the wave. Twitter can be an invaluable tool for lead generation and customer engagement!
Naeem Gul said on June 9, 2012
Power seems to be coming in the hands which are good on dealing with customers via social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc. We must get ourselves prepared for a new future. Thanks for creating awareness among the people about it.
Duncan Alney said on June 13, 2012
You’re welcome, Naaem. Yes, this is indeed a revolution happening at the grassroots level. Power to the people!
Chris said on August 25, 2012
Want to do Twitter for my business.
Duncan Alney said on August 25, 2012
Excellent Chris! Go for it!
Graystone said on August 25, 2012
Let’s communicate . . . passionately.
Patricia Sullivan said on August 26, 2012
What am I doing wrong? I could use help. I am moving nowhere fast on Twitter?
Duncan Alney said on August 27, 2012
@Graystone – Yes I agree, but within a framework of goals and metrics!!! Set your goal and then work from there WITH passion! GO!!!
@Patricia – Can you share what you’re doing, so I can give you contextual feedback?
G. Williams said on August 27, 2012
Interesting subject. We planned to re-launch our website next month and are looking to use Twitter and LinkedIn as part of our marketing, promotion and customer services tools. Can you advise if using third party services to manage our social media will help since we are just launching our loyalty healthcare reward and gift card program?
Thanks.
Duncan Alney said on August 27, 2012
@G. Williams – Working with limited info here – so bear with me. Depending on the size and capabilities of your internal team, sure go ahead and outsource. Pick a firm based on their capabilities and experience. Provide the firm with your goals (and metrics if you have them) and let the firm come up with the strategies and work to accomplish them. Be sure to look for soft (leading to outcomes) and hard (outcomes) metrics. Also use an integrated approach – traditional, web, email, and social marketing for the best impact. B2B and B2C will have different approaches. Hope this helps.