Twitter has received a tremendous amount of press in the last few months. It’s no wonder as many high profile people are now tweeting, from the likes of Lance Armstrong to CEOs of major companies. What is Twitter? Twitter is a micro-blogging site that lets its users type 140 character updates. Twitter makes it very easy for other twitter users to connect with one another and read each other’s updates. As a retailer, should you be using Tweeting? If you believe in marketing and communicating with your customers, the answer is likely yes.
Consider this: the CEO of Zappos.com (the largest online shoe retailer) has more than 373,000 people following him on Twitter. That’s a ton of people that he is able to get his brand in front of on a daily basis! Furthermore, it costs him nothing should he decide to send a brief marketing message to these Twitter Users. Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library Tv, has more than 184,000 people following his tweets.
If you are now entertaining the idea of setting up your own Twitter account, you’ll want to follow some simple guidelines:
1. Customize the look of your Twitter Page to include your branding.
2. Follow some popular people on Twitter to see why they are such. You will get some ideas as to what people find interesting.
3. Include a link to your Twitter page on your homepage.
4. Tweet at least 4 times a week, but preferably more.
5. If people follow you, it’s common courtesy to follow them.
6. Install a Twitter application on your mobile device (iPhone for example). This makes it easy to update your twitter status from anywhere.
7. Include links in your twitter updates when possible.
8. Make most of your status updates interesting and fun. If most tweets are interesting and fun, people will have a positive response to the occasional promotional tweet.
While it may sound like a lot of work to get going, it is really quite simple. Furthermore, updating your status doesn’t take long (after all, you only have 140 characters to work with). Like most forms of online marketing, a little effort can provide significant benefits.
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