A big part of web development is marketing… Getting your work and your ideas out there. A lot of people have chosen to go viral, marketing on social networking services. Twitter, specifically, has grown to be quite a large network for marketers. I’m going to try and help make sure you don’t end up following thousands of random users and getting nothing in return.
As a Twitter user, I’ve seen tons of marketers trying to get my attention. As a consumer, I’ve shot almost all of them down. I use Twitter every day, and I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the marketing on Twitter is very annoying. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re interested in using the social networking platform for your own marketing endeavours… How can we make sure you’re successful?
Let’s start off with what you shouldn’t do.
Don’t
- Spam
While spamming may seem to be effective, in that it gets your message or product seen by a large amount of people, it’s just annoying. Most people will disregard it, or even go as far as to block you. It’s a nuisance, and nobody will pay attention.
- Mass-follow
When I get a new follower, the first thing I check is the ratio of follows to followers. If an account follows 50,000 people, but only has a few hundred followers, I know right off the bat it’s some marketing scheme and I don’t even look any further.
Don't let this happen to you.
- Be annoying
Simple as that. Oftentimes I’ll get people who I’ve never talked to randomly reply to a tweet that vaguely mentions a product or service similar to their own, with them telling me to try theirs out. I’m not on Twitter to have products shoved down my throat, and it won’t sit well with most people.
Do
- Be casual
Don’t make it seem like you’re there to just sell the product… Sure, you can tweet links to it and whatnot, but also be a friendly face… Reply to people. Converse. Take part in the Twitter community, and you will be better received.
- Unfollow people often
It’s a simple fact in life (I think) — twitter users are expendable. As soon as one of them is of no use to you, whether they ignore your replies or barely tweet or what have you, unfollow them. This will help keep your follows to followers ratio more realistic and less market-ey. After all, it’s not personal — it’s just business.
- Link to your site from your profile
This one’s simple enough, but I feel the need to include it… Set your product or service’s website as your site on Twitter. This will include a link to it right on your profile page. Oftentimes when I’m deciding whether or not to follow somebody, I check their website out. This will help get you more hits and more potential customers.
Conclusion
Twitter is definitely a great platform to use to get your product or service out there, but you have to be careful. This is a very fragile environment… Treat it with care, and you will reap the rewards.
4 Comments on "Marketing on Twitter: Do’s and Don’ts"
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Starting new to twitter may be frustrating but when you truly utilize it as the powerful marketing tool it can be it will certainly pay off in the long run. I believe twitter is a fantastic way to drive traffic to your site.
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