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Marketing On Twitter

Part 1: Introduction To Twitter

Twitter is a hot new social networking site. To learn about Twitter, go to Mashable, the "Social Media Guide" (www.mashable.com). This article is aimed at Twitter newbies. It will focus on using Twitter for business and marketing.

You may be familiar with other social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Members interact by posting messages on each other's pages. Twitter works the same way. Twitter members post short text messages (up to 140 characters) to their group of friends. Other friends respond, creating a circle of conversation.

As a Twitter member, you can send direct messages to other users, but only to those who "follow" your "tweets." One of your marketing goals on Twitter is to grow a list of interactive followers. If someone follows you on Twitter, it's considered good etiquette to follow them back (known as "re-following"). You can often establish a large list of followers just by following a lot of people.

On Twitter, re-following is good etiquette.

Twitter is searchable, so you can find people tweeting on just about every subject. When viewing Twitter search results, keep in mind you're seeing just fragments of a conversation. Twitter Search can be a good way to find people who share your interests.

twitter-searchTo get an idea of how Twitter works, do a Twitter search for "Etsy" or "Artfire," two artisan ecommerce websites. This search turns up a large number of artists selling their handcrafted wares online.

Despite its simplicity, Twitter has many applications. Celebrities use Twitter to communicate quickly with their fan base. (Ashton Kucher, from the TV show, "That 70's Show" has over 4 million followers on Twitter.) Politicians use it to get the vote out or poll their constituents. Businesses use Twitter to advertise new products and services. You can even set up a private list to use as your own company bulletin board.

To start using Twitter, go to www.twitter.com and create an account. Type some terms in the Search box. When you find a member whose posts interest you, follow that person. Chances are they'll follow you back. Twitter is a fun way to rub shoulders with the rich and famous.

Part 2: Getting Started On Twitter

The first step of a journey may be the most difficult. So let's get started. Go to Twitter.com, pick your user name, and create your account. On your Twitter home page (www.twitter.com/YourUserID), type a term in the search box and click on the search icon. Don't bother posting any messages (also called updates or tweets) yet. What you'll see are snippets of separate conversations from Twitter users.

At this point you can click on a Twitterer's user name or icon to visit their home page and see their latest updates. When you find a user whose tweets are interesting, go to their home page and click on the Follow button at the top of the page. Following a member allows their posts to appear on your home page. It also lets them send you direct messages via the Twitter messaging system.

You can use the Find People link at the top of Twitter pages to find interesting people to follow. Many businesses are also using Twitter. For example, typing in the words "Palo Alto" (my hometown) in Twitter's Find People search brings up links from Palo Alto Westin Hotel to Palo Alto Daily News. They're all using Twitter!

Although you can read other members' tweets by following them or using Search, at this point you still can't communicate directly with other Twitterers. As mentioned in Part 1, you can only contact members who follow you. In the next part of this series, we'll look at one of the most important Twitter topics: how to grow your follower list.

Note: Twitter Search can find members physically near you. Try using the following format:

near:"your town" within:5mi

Part 3: Growing Your Followers

On Twitter you can only communicate directly with users who "follow" your updates. When you post an update on Twitter (an update is a short message of up to 140 characters), your message appears on your followers' Twitter home page. You can also send direct messages to your followers via Twitter's messaging system.

Without followers, you can still publish updates and hope someone finds your messages via a keyword search. But you will be missing out on the essential conversational nature of Twitter. Therefore, especially for online marketers, growing your followers list is an important task.

At first glance, it seems pretty straightforward: the more followers, the better, right? But things are not that simple. As with a brick and mortar store, you don't just want traffic -- you want the right kind of traffic.

Growing your followers list is easy. Follow a bunch of people, and many of them will follow you back (a common practice, called "re-following" on Twitter). Follow ten thousand people, and three or four thousand of them will probably follow you back. There are a number of applications developed to help Twitter users manage their follower lists. Twitter discourages use of automated follow and unfollow tools as they dilute the personal networking experience.

If you are an online merchant, you'll want to dissociate yourself from opportunists and scammers who follow you just to get free advertising. Some Twitterers post constant spam. Prune those followers from your Twitter marketing account using the Block tool.

Unless you are a celebrity, your best approach to marketing on Twitter is to build a small "word-of-mouth" network of followers who will recommend your product to their friends. Online networking makes this super-easy because everyone can mail all of their friends by "retweeting" your updates! You can cross-post your messages to Facebook and give an RSS feed or podcast. Keep your network updated by posting friendly notes, links to pages of interest, ideas, news stories, personal updates, company news and new business promotions.

Hint: When you post links to websites, the URL can be very long. Since you're limited to 140 characters, use a URL-shortening service like TinyURL (www.tinyurl.com) to create a shortened url. You can customize your Tiny URL and even install their widget on your Bookmarks toolbar. The link http://tinyurl.com/foothillweb points to Foothill Web Design.

Part 4: Retweets and Mentions

On Twitter, retweeting is the coin of the realm.

One way you can promote your network on Twitter is by "retweeting," or reposting other members' tweets. Retweeting lets you share interesting content and also help out members of your network. To retweet a message, just hover your mouse over the message and click on the Retweet button. Everyone likes to have their tweets retweeted, and if you do this often enough, most tweople (Twitter users) will return the favor.

Twitter is a social networking tool, even when it's social networking used for business. The best way to experience Twitter is to become an active participant in your group. Publish useful content. Take the time to get to know people in your network.

A good way to get noticed on Twitter is by getting "mentioned." Another Twitter user can mention you by putting @YourUserName within their tweet, which creates a link back to your profile. The mention appears on the home pages of that user's followers. As above, mentioning others is a good way to get mentioned.

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Writing A Business Plan

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a document that helps you transform an idea into reality. Your business plan describes your business from a planning aspect: What will you sell? How will you market it? How will you make a profit? A business plan is an important tool to help you reach your goals.

Your business plan should give an overview of your business, your product, the current market environment, and most importantly, show how you will make a profit. Larger business plans may include an executive summary, integrated marketing plan and an appendix for supplementary material (charts and reports).

How is a business plan used?

You can emphasize different areas of your business plan, according to its purpose. One common use is when requesting a bank loan. If you intend to seek funding for your business, the numbers must add up in your plan! A business plan may also be used as an internal training document, strategic planning guide, or a way to keep track of business milestones.

How do I write a business plan?

Start with a good idea. Then collect the information you need to show how your business will make a profit. Consider all the costs involved with developing, producing and marketing your product.

Where do you want your business to be in three to five years? Use your business plan to map out realistic goals, with clearly identified keys to success.

Lots of help is available online. See the Small Business Administration's Business Planning online article: "Write A Business Plan" and BPlans.com (www.bplans.com) for free business plan examples.

Table of Contents

  1. Executive Summary
  2. Company Overview
    1. Business Name
    2. Management
    3. Mission Statement
    4. Long-Term Goals
  3. Product
    1. Product Description
    2. Market Segment
    3. Target Customer
  4. Environment
    1. Market Analysis
    2. Competition
    3. Other Factors
  5. Marketing
    1. Sales
    2. Advertising
    3. Branding
    4. Competitive Advantage
    5. Customer Service
  6. Financial Statements
    1. Balance Sheet
    2. Income Statement
    3. Statement of Cash Flows
  7. Appendix
    1. SWOT Analysis
Business Name

Choose a name that is short, easy to spell and identifies your type of business. If the "dot com" top-level domain (Internet name) for your business isn't available, consider using "dot biz" instead. The dot-biz domain is for ecommerce websites.

Your business name will perform better in searches if you include keywords. If your business is bike repair, call your business www.TomsBikeRepair.com or a name that contains the phrase "bike repair."

Management

Here you will define the responsibilities of the employees in your company. If your company is a sole proprietorship, you are the only employee, and all the responsibilities are yours. As your business grows, you may need to hire specialists to perform some jobs (accounting, sales, production, etc.)

Mission Statement

The mission statement describes your company's purpose. Your mission statement should answer these questions:

  1. Who uses the product?
  2. What are the benefits of the product?
  3. How does it work? (Or, how does the product provide the benefits?)

Example: "The mission of Chauncey's Pub is to serve the dining and entertainment needs of Bay Area residents by providing quality Cajun cooking, drinks, and great local live bands." This statement answers the questions, "Who uses the product?" (Bay Area residents), "What are the benefits?" (dining and entertainment needs served), and "How does it work?" (by providing meals and live music).

You can add to your mission statement, but it should contain at least that much information. Your mission statement can reflect internal goals. Starbucks Coffee's mission statement is ... "To inspire and nurture the human spirit." Starbucks' mission statement also describes its ethical and global responsibilities.

Long-Term Goals

It may be helpful to think of your business plan as a living document. It describes your values, your product, your team organization, and even your ideas for the future. In this section, describe your plans for growth. Where do you want your business to be in three to five years? Will you offer new products? Hire new staff? Conduct market research? Your goals should be realistically attainable and quantifiable, i.e., X number of sales within Y months, not simply "sell a lot of stuff."

In this way, your business plan is like a road map, laying out a direct route to your goals. One way of ensuring that you meet your goals is to identify intermediate steps or key milestones. By using key milestones you can break up complex tasks into simpler parts.

Product Description

In this section of your business plan, you'll describe your product. Keep in mind that someone reading your business plan (like a bank loan officer) might not be familiar with your product. Explain what the product is, what it does, how it's used, what it's made of, etc. Go beyond a basic description of physical characteristics. Explain your product's competitive advantages, and why it's better than your competitor's product.

Market Segment

Segmenting the market is a way of defining your product line and advertising according to customer demographics (age, income, interests, etc.). In other words, who uses your product? In order to focus the advertising message, certain demographics may be targeted. For example, even though most bathroom products are similar, they are marketed differently to men and women (strong for men, gentle for women).

Target Customer

Your "target customer" is someone who is likely to buy your product. The target customer is a (narrow) subset of the market segment. Imagine your target customer as someone walking down the street, cash in hand, looking to buy your product. Can you describe your target customer?

Market Analysis

Market analysis refers to your product's environment with respect to sales. What economic trends might affect your business? How are products like yours generally sold, and how are they received? Is this a growing sales channel, or a shrinking one? In this section, describe what external factors might influence your business, and how you will deal with those factors.

Competition

In planning your business, it's important to understand your competitors. What are they doing? How might they influence your business? What is working for them, and what isn't? Understanding your competitors' successes, while avoiding their mistakes, will help you increase sales and avoid mishaps. If you want to use your business plan to request financing, it's important to demonstrate an understanding of the market, your competitors, and to demonstrate that your product can compete with, if not best, the competition.

Other Factors

This is a general catch-all area where you can discuss environmental factors specific to your product. Are there special legal considerations? If you're importing products, are there special trade considerations? Might your product be affected by weather, politics or other hard-to-predict factors? Use this section to describe any important environmental considerations not listed elsewhere.

Sales

Sales is the contract you make with customers for goods or services rendered. Since this is where money changes hands, it's important to think about the transaction itself. How easy is it for the customer? Simplifying the checkout process and offering multiple payment methods help to increase sales. Payment services such as Paypal help merchants collect payment online.

Advertising

Advertising is the way you reach your customers. The current school of thought today is to use a "marketing mix" with analysis and research to follow-up. In other words, a traditional approach. The Internet does offer several natural benefits to advertisers. Services like these are free on the Internet:

  • Reach a global audience
  • Mass email marketing
  • Store stays open 24 hours a day to take orders
  • Social networking sites can be used to build client lists

Describe broad marketing strategies here* in addition to specific methods. You can even create a separate marketing plan to supplement your business plan.

In planning your advertising strategy, it's important to understand how your customers think. What websites do they visit? What types of Google searches do they do? Your market segment and target customer analyses help you understand what your customers are looking for.

(*Some new Internet marketing strategies have been developed by Chris Anderson, author of "The Long Tail" and "Free.")

Branding

Branding is the creation of a positive product identity. How will you create a favorable impression of your product? Many online sellers borrow the brand of the website where they sell ("... a seller on Amazon"). One important goal for your website is to create your own independent brand.

Competitive Advantage

Competitive advantage is the perception of your product as better than the competition. Some typical competitive advantages include reputation, experience, customer satisfaction (for an established company) or affordable, high-tech and innovative (for a new company).

Any way in which you compare favorably vs. the competition is a competitive advantage. Finding ways to maximize your advantages is part of strategic business planning. Competitive advantages are also used as part of an overall marketing mix (see Wikipedia, "Marketing Mix").

Customer Service

Customer service describes your daily interactions with your customers. How easily can customers reach you? Can they resolve grievances quickly? How promptly do you return emails and phone calls? When doing business on the Internet you should check and respond to emails at least once a day.