Why You Should Be On Twitter, Part 2 of “Twitter, The WHAT, The WHY, The HOW”

Ok, let’s catch up here. Last week I posted the first part of this series, “What is Twitter.” That was really a primer for anyone who has heard of twitter but just was clueless to what exactly it is and a basic rundown of how to sign up and get started using it. For a lot of people, this first part was probably a little too basic, so anyone who has already signed up and begun to use it can just skip it, but if you have yet to sign onto the twitterverse and jump in, swing back to part 1 and take a look……….ok, now that you are all caught up, let’s bounce to the next part, where things start to get interesting, well, if you are a geek, into marketing, or have a business you will find it interesting. The rest of you can go look at internet porn or whatever.

Part 2, Why You Should Be Using Twitter, or Twitter, Not Just For Internet Stalkers!

Who Cares About Your Starbucks Latte Anyway?

As you venture into the social networking waters with twitter and start to follow friends you will notice quickly why it gets a bad wrap by some of the post-teen crowd. Lots of people who in real life aren’t very interesting are shockingly just as not interesting in cyberspace. It makes sense, a keyboard isn’t generally going to come with personality or sprout a sense of humor in someone. So after scrolling through some random posts about how hungry, how good their dunkin donuts coffee is, how bad rush hour traffic sucks, and stupid coworkers and bosses in the tweets of people you may marginally consider friends to begin with, you sit there and wonder “well, what’s the point of this anyway?” Let me be the first to admit, if this were all that twitter was I would be the first to agree. But no worries, this post will show you the tweet-light!

After this post you will understand how:

• Twitter functions as a rapid news source
• Twitter can help you gain exposure and act as a traffic stream to your website
• Twitter can act like a better version of email marketing
• Twitter can keep you up to date on happenings in you industry and competitors
• Twitter can help you manage your brand reputation
• Twitter can help you become an authority on a given subject or industry

Those are all some pretty great uses of twitter, and way more valuable than using it to let everyone know what kind of coffee you just had, wouldn’t ya say?

1) EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT, Before It Is Even Printed!!

In today’s world with minute by minute news coverage and the death of news media relics like newspapers, the speed with which we are getting news and information is being pushed faster and faster. Twitter and its simple premise has quickly overtaken internet giants like google in disseminating news headlines.

The combination of a simple yet quick delivery mechanism with the following of millions of people around the world is just the most efficient medium for spreading news fast. It is so good at this that all of the networks are scrambling to create a presence on twitter, with CNN set up with 45 twitter feeds alone!

2) Check Out My New Blog!! CLICK HERE!!!!

And here is where we start to dive into how twitter can help your marketing/branding/business. Everyone knows that you can have the best website in the world, the most and best content out there that people want and need, the cheapest prices, and tons of free stuff, but none of that matters if nobody can find you in the sea of internet flotsam and jetsam(look here for all the non-nautical readers) floating around out there. It is all about traffic in internet marketing, and while a lot of money can be spent to get quality traffic, twitter acts as a great low cost (or free if you do it yourself) way to get genuine quality traffic to your site. By using solid techniques ( which we will discuss in the next part of this series next week) and using twitter in some of the ways I describe below, you can generate lots of readers and followers that will click on links in your tweets and in your twitter profile that will lead them to wherever you want, including your blog or e-commerce site.

3) Email Marketing, Leave it To the Russian Spammers Slinging Magic Penis Enlargement Pills

Nobody can deny that since the invention and success of the internet, one of the biggest boons to business has been email. Of course we know that email is great for passing information and keeping in contact with people, but it also allows businesses to send out mass emails promoting their business, services, or products. It also is a great tool for sending out newsletters and informational messages on a mass scale for much less money and far less hassle than direct mail marketing and traditional print snail mail. But just like every other tech advancement that allows someone to reach more people faster and cheaper, it has brought in a lot of nefarious business practices, like spamming, to the point that the whole medium has taken a huge knock in its effectiveness. Well, twitter can act in some ways like email marketing, and as easy and cheap as email marketing is, twitter is even easier, faster, and cheaper! With twitter, you can quickly broadcast links to anywhere you want, and those broadcasts are instantaneous and free. By using some solid techniques and using twitter in the ways described here, you can be at the forefront of internet marketing with little-to-no cost. We will go into the nuts and bolts of this next week in the final part of this series.

4) Double-OH-TWEET, or Industrial Espionage, Sounds Hot!!

Twitter uses followers/following to build community networks and allow users to keep up to date with others (you should already know this and know how it works from reading part 1 of this series, you read that already right?). Now, in addition to your random friend’s musings about his miserable life, you can easily keep track of your industry, and have a great excuse for your boss when he catches you tweeting all day! Following colleagues both in your company and working for competitors allows you to stay up on what people are saying and doing in your industry and what your competitors are up to. We will go into ways to accomplish this next week.

Sometimes Any News Is NOT Good News!

An old PR saying say “Any news is good news.” Well, in the age of the internet and the long lasting effects of reviews and comments posted on the web, this is not always true anymore. A lot of businesses and brands are clueless to the chatter about them on the web. From websites, to blogs, to message board forums, people have lots of channels and opportunities to praise or trash your business or brand. Brand Management is a hot up-and-coming area of internet marketing consulting (which I can help you with by the way), and it is something that is very important. Frequently, by the time a business hears about all the negative chatter about them on the web, it is too late and the damage is done. Mindshare is important, and on the internet businesses and brands are much more susceptible to negative PR than in the real world, all it takes is a few well placed words with the wrong message to start the brush fire of negativity. Twitter is a great tool for tracking your name and your brand, allowing you the ability to rapidly respond to issues and rumors quickly.

Be The Master Of Your Domain

Knowledge is power, or at least the perception of knowledge, and nowhere is this more evident than on the internet. As a matter of fact, the blogoshere is FULL of dummies who have everyone fooled into thinking they are geniuses. I guess in a way even those dummies are pretty smart for figuring out how to fool everyone else and their perceptions. If you can build yourself up as an authority on a subject or niche, everything you say in regard to that subject is deemed as valuable. Twitter has sprouted a whole collection of authority figures and thought leaders, people who can shape the way others think or perceive a brand or business.

There you Have It

These are but a few of the reasons why you should care about twitter and why you should be using it (either yourself or through a consultant like me!) to establish, market, and promote yourself, your business, or your brand. Twitter is unique to social networks because it doesn’t really have any competitors for the core of what it is and what it can do. By this point if my blogs have done what they were supposed to do, you now see how it can be an extremely effective tool in your business toolbox.

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