Image c/o BrianSolis.com

In a recent post, I talked about what not to do when marketing on Twitter. The general rule of thumb is to avoid being annoying, spammy or insincere. Twitter is a social media tool, emphasis on the word social. You have to learn to think outside the box if you’re going to successfully use Twitter in your marketing plans because the rules of traditional media don’t apply.

Now that you’ve been preemptively scolded about what not to do on Twitter, it’s only fair to talk about marketing strategies that do work.

Marketing on Twitter: What To Do

Put Faces On Your Company. It’s a good idea to have corporate Twitter accounts for official announcements, product releases and industry news. But some of the Twitter marketing that has worked best on me, as a consumer, has come from Twitter accounts of employees (check out our own @LifeTipsLady, @LifeTipsEditor, @LifeTipsBooks, @LifeTipsTech, @ByronWhite, and @WaynePL). My local paper, the Orlando Sentinel, has dozens of their reporters tweeting. I’ve built genuine relationships with a few of them and feel like I have a personal connection to the newspaper’s brand now. I also follow the personal account of a marketing exec at Ford and have enjoyed teasing him on Twitter about how cute he is (he really is). When I have a question about news in the auto industry, I go to @ScottMonty first.

Use Hashtags Wisely. A Twitter hashtag tells users that a tweet is part of a larger conversation. It looks like this: #subject. Smart Twitter marketing will use them to peak interest and create a Twitter buzz. If you’re developing a Twitter marketing campaign, think about what hashtags you want associated with your company or campaign and make sure everyone knows exactly what hashtag to use. It should be short and intuitive as opposed to cute. I participated in a Nintendo marketing campaign that used the hashtag #NintendoEnthused. It’s too long and I misspell it half the time I use it. A better alternative might have been #wiifit or #wiiparty.

Have A Good Product. This seems like a no-brainer, but my fellow Twitter users and I often joke that it’s a step a lot of companies skip. If you have a great product and you target the right Twitter users to try it out, they will talk about it. My favorite example of this is the Yummie Tummie product. It’s shapewear and it’s fantastic. I know for a fact that several of my Twitter followers have become fans (and customers) after hearing me rave about the product on Twitter.

Set Clear Goals. A lot of companies seem to wade into the social media marketing waters with absolutely no idea of what they’re hoping to accomplish. They’ve been told they should do it, so they do. Marketing on Twitter should be approached with specific goals just like any other marketing campaign. Are you trying to build brand awareness or increase sales of a specific product over a set period of time? Have you figured out what you’ll use to measure your results?

Marketing on Twitter and other social media sites is still a fairly new concept and there will be a certain amount of trial and error involved in getting it right. Remember to consult actual users of the site at least as often as you consult other marketers to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t.

Britt Reints is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments. WriterAccess is powered by ideaLaunch, a full service content marketing agency serving hundreds of clients and thousands of writers since 2000.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Content Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.