Marketing Your Business with Twitter

Twitter is a free, social networking service which offers a new-age way to enhance brand recognition and build relationships with your prospects and customers. Twitter enables users to micro-blog, or communicate through small, quick spurts of content and reach thousands of people every day.

Here are few tips on how to use Twitter as part of your online marketing strategy.

Create a list of topics for posting before you get started. The more you plan out your endeavor, the more you'll benefit from marketing on Twitter.

Follow your competitors. Your competitors will have already sought out a similar target audience you want to reach, which enables you to catch up quickly. You can also track your competitors' marketing tactics and messaging.

Make a commitment to Twitter before starting. Twitter requires constant involvement and timely follow-up. Without this, Twitter loses its credibility. Successful Twitter marketing also requires intelligent message writing. With only 140 characters at your disposal, choosing the right message and responses is crucial to your success.

Strengthen your brand image. Create an interesting profile by posting photos and information about your company. Be sure to seek out people, companies and groups that you are interested in on a personal level, too, even if they are unlikely to use your services. This helps create a personality for your company, which can help make you seem more accessible and friendly.

Participation is key. Users must be willing to participate in online conversations and communicate with other businesses, consumers, and individuals. Not only can you share your industry knowledge, but it gives you the opportunity to spread the word about your business and share something about yourself with the rest of the community.

Inform people of new products and services offered by your company. The Twitter community is a great way to stay on top of industry news, as well as promote your new products and services. However, don't to make product or service promotions the sole focus of your Twitter account. Twitter is a social network, not a medium for spamming. Be sure to post only meaningful, relevant content that readers will look forward to reading.

Drive traffic to your web site. You can add links to your website, blog or press releases, which is also a great way to increase your company's exposure.

Promote events. If your company is throwing an event or attending a conference, you can tweet (create a status update or post) about it to generate interest in the event. Pre-networking can add value to the relationships you then create in person.

Create unique ways to interact with readers. Engage others in your field by asking thoughtful questions, request feedback on your products, take polls, and facilitate conversation.

Follow relevant Twitter feeds. The owner of a feed will be notified when you follow their feeds, creating awareness and building traffic for your own company as well.

Use it as a back-up form of communication. Twitter is a reliable tool for communicating with customers if your website or email servers go down.

Read feedback about your company without a formal survey. If you search for your company’s name using twitter search, it will return all the tweets where people mention the terms you search for. This is a great way to gain insight on opinions behind the scenes.
Whether you are selling a product or a service, or want to make your company’s name more visible, Twitter is an advantageous way to attract interest in what your company is all about. If you’re looking for other ideas on how to communicate with your prospects and customers, stop by today! We’d love to show you examples of marketing materials that will create a significant impact on your business.

Key Points for Writing A Letter To The Editor

Arguing your position in the written form.

Be polite. Respect the people you're talking about, even if you disagree with their political position. Comment on actions more than personalities.

Be specific. If you're commenting on an article in the paper, mention the day and page number of the article. If you're commenting on a specific political position or speech, restate it briefly. Don't assume the reader knows what you're talking about: Tell them.

Stick to one topic. Deal with one issue, article or speech in one letter.

Use facts and figures to back up your arguments. Quote other experts who commented on the same subject, especially if the news article did not mention them.

State your qualifications, if useful to the letter. Example: "I've been a teacher for 15 years, and Jane Doe's plan to invest in childhood education excellence is good because in my experience..."

Be concise. Short letters are more likely to be printed than lengthy screeds.

Be original. Don't sound like everyone else. Use your own voice.

Share your opinion on how to resolve the issue in a considerate, non-derisive manner.

Call for action by readers. Let people know what they can do to get involved.

Be positive when appropriate. Don't hesitate to send a complimentary letter to the newspaper for a good editorial or story.

Read your letter out loud. Does it sound good? Does it make sense?

Send the letter to more than one newspaper, if appropriate. Smaller papers print letters too.

Save a copy. Just in case they edit it, you'll know exactly how it was changed.

Include all the necessary information about yourself that the newspaper asks for. When sending e-mail, this means your city and telephone number. When sending a letter by mail, make sure it's typed (or legible) with your full return address as well as phone number and signature. This is for your protection, so others can't sign your name to their letter.

The above information was gathered from online sources including romm.org

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Delivering an Effective Elevator Speech

 

What is an elevator speech?

A short 30-60 second description of who you are and what you/your company does.

Why?

To serve as a good introduction to others and create and interest and/or opportunity to talk more and obtain business.

When & Where?

Anywhere the opportunity arises – at trade shows, conventions, meetings, networking events, and of course even in the elevator.

Key Components:

Make it concise and easy to understand - people don’t buy what they don’t comprehend. Don’t use jargon, or “buzz words;” it is important to be clear about what you and your company does. You must demonstrate a confidence in what you do and show that you can solve a problem or satisfy a need for their business that they can’t find elsewhere.

Key Goals:

Your main objective is to communication the core message of your business while intriguing the listener. From this interest, you want to stimulate a conversation that will create opportunities to pursue business. If successful, you will have earned the opportunity to continue the conversation in detail at another time.

No great elevator speech happens on the fly. Think carefully about what you want to represent and then practice, practice, practice!

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