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One of my favorite aspects of Twitter is the instant impact and response of the platform. I love being able to have conversation with so many people, build new relationships and I love seeing the instant return on the investment of my time when people walk in the door because of my tweets. With an integrated strategy of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Email, I am able to get information out about Nectar Tasting Room activities and the nectarMEDIA classes without spending money on other advertising outlets.

“The investment of my time building relationships on Twitter easily is the best use of my marketing budget.”

OH TWITTER HOW I LOVE THEE

I often hear some doubters / haters talk about their dislike of Twitter. Many still don’t “get” the 2nd largest social network. In my opinion, if you’re not tweeting, you’re missing out on the two single best forms of marketing, 1) Word of Mouth and 2) Relationship Building / Networking. As the culture continues to jet forward into this social evolution of marketing, active tweeting businesses will continue to see returns.

Below are three things to focus on when tweeting:

1. Add Value

Your twitter feed is only as good as the content in it. There is a lot of noise and useless tweets out there. The way to stand out is to add value through content you create, content you share, and the quality interactions you have with people. Don’t just be a push marketer, engage and have conversation. This conversation is what will solidify relationships and keep you top of mind with people when they make word of mouth referrals.

2. Listen

More often than not there is more value in listening than talking. “Listening” to people’s tweets will not only teach you the way to tweet, you will learn about your city, products, services, interests, and what people are up to.

You can “listen” just by typing specific words into the top of Twitter’s search bar. Want to listen to things about your city? Type “Spokane” into the search bar. Want to meet other wine lovers or learn about wine, type “Wine” into the search bar. Want to listen to what folks are saying about the World Champion Seattle Seahawks? Try the hashtag #gohawks.

Here is a real world example of the ROI (return on investment) of listening: I follow (listen) to the conversations in Spokane. I saw a tweet from someone saying “Driving through #Spokane on my way to #LasVegas. I hear they have a Total Wine. #excited.” Obviously a wine lover. I responded to the tweet with, “If you love wine, stop by Nectar. We have 5 Washington wineries that share the space. Open until 10pm.” Not only did the guy stop in, he bought some wine. The ROI of my listening was $50 or so.

In debriefing with the client accounts we manage, each one has seen an increase in various areas as a result of listening and engaging on Twitter. Regardless of the metric they are tracking they are seeing more calls, more customers, more web visits and more awareness.

3. Size doesn’t matter

It’s not the size of your Twitter following that matters, it is the quality of your interactions and the quality of your followers. Any idiot can amass a lot of followers with just a few tricks but are they relevant followers that will become brand evangelists?

Let’s just say you only had one Twitter follower and that follower was Lady Gaga. She has 41 million followers. You tweeted something of value and she re-tweeted it, you would have a potential reach of 41 million. That’s quite the exposure.

Real world example: nectarMEDIA recently managed the KickStarter campaign for a puppy related project launch. The inventor was a 14 year old budding entrepreneur. Obviously, the twitter account we created and managed started with zero followers. By participating in conversation with people in #Spokane, the account and project got on the radar of a local news organization. From there, the news story was picked up by a Seattle affiliate and then from there the product and it’s young entrepreneur was featured on the Nightly News with Brian Williams. I firmly believe that those chain of events started with a tweet and our interaction with quality followers.

If you are not actively using Twitter, we strongly encourage you to join the conversation. Don’t do it to sell more widgets, do it to build more relationships. You’ll see the payoff by adding value to your followers tweet stream and that will result in the payoff.

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