A World Class Networking Platform: Twitter!
Twitter is an absolutely fantastic online business tool, and it has, on quite a few occasions, staggered somewhat under the weight of its incredible growth – and sometimes, when a world wide news break occurs, “tweeters” from across the globe leap forward and crash their servers. It’s tough to think of anything that has had such an awesome growth curve as this up and coming social networking platform. Twitter didn’t even exist at the start of 2006, yet now it’s widely considered to be the 25th most important website in the world by numerous visitors, and it currently has many millions of very active fans.
Twitter does break the usual trends somewhat, insofar as anything to do with social networking has an established “trend” of course. Twitter allows you to post messages, either through a web portal or on your mobile phone, letting everyone know what you think, where you are or what you’re doing. Your message is restricted to 140 characters or less, so it’s always succinct. You have the choice of picking who you want to interact with, and who you want to see – known as “followers” or “following” in the domain of Twitter.
At this still early point of its development, Twitter doesn’t really have any kind of online business model in place. You can quickly sign up and start “tweeting” your message at no cost whatsoever. Marketers take a good look at the viral capabilities afforded by the service and start to salivate. Opportunities await those who seek to harness its power.
Twitter is perfect for communicating business news or interacting with your friends and family. You can send a message directly from your mobile phone using one of the currently available applications, without even having to visit a computer. It’s difficult to estimate the actual number of users because of the fluid nature of the platform, but many experts do caution that the number of avid users, or those who actively follow and get followed, represents a very small proportion of the total user base.
Even though the actual number of really active users might be only a few percent of the total users, the Twitter platform can still be seen as having really great marketing potential. Internet marketers should choose to solicit their followers with caution. Whatever your niche may be, the first thing which you should do is to find other experts who are particularly active “tweeters”. You can do this by using a simple search within the program. Once you find these experts, take a constructive look at their list of followers, as your job is to try and add friends or followers to your Twitter feed in a concerted and sensible way.
As it appears that the vast majority of members do not actively keep up with Twitter, it follows that there is no point in adding followers without trying to qualify them. If you can readily see that the follower in question has a fairly active list of individuals who he or she is following and, in turn, is being followed by, then they’re definitely good potential targets for you to go after.
Work toward building a list of followers by first following people who you suspect might have an interest in your specific products or services. If you’ve properly qualified them and you discover that they’ve followed you in return, then you’re on your way.
While you may include your information in the profile provided by Twitter, experts recommend that you also design some kind of banner or template instead of using a regular wallpaper background. This should also contain your branding, logo and a catchy message of some kind – it’s something all serious marketers maintain.
Just as with any other kind of Internet marketing or website development, stay clear of spamming and keep your messages relevant, informative and entertaining as well. There is a time and a place for you to include your marketing message, and you must always do this in a subtle way. Happy Tweeting!
Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, an Executive Virtual Assistant who assists businesses and individuals with achieving their professional goals. Want to find out more about online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Now!
