Twitter is the Internet’s newest media darling. Everyone from celebrities to the mainstream media has heard of Twitter. Twitter was used to communicate with the outside world in the Iranian Elections and Ashton Kutcher shared a photo of Demi Moore wearing her underwear. Internet Marketers should be salivating at the potential profit that can be made by millions of users worldwide tweeting.
Guess what? This is not your idea alone. Thousands of twitter trending worldwide marketers want to get their piece of the gold before it runs out. Most will fail. Twitter users have become more sophisticated, and less tolerant of obvious marketing. Make sure you don’t become a statistic. This article will give you the key required to properly mine Twitter in order to gain fame and fortune.
Twitter’s huge popularity, as with all social media, is built upon implicit trust. Twitter’s implicit trust is demonstrated by the fact that you can only DM (Twitter abbreviation for direct message) people who follow you. Twitter’s (truly brilliant) minds assumed that if someone trusted you enough for them to follow you that they would trust you to receive a direct message.
You probably think I’m saying that in order to be successful with Twitter, you need thousands or better yet, millions of followers. What makes my message different from those of the other Twitter gurus that recommend you buy an expensive tool from their affiliate links and mass follow strangers in hopes that they will follow you back, and Twitter won’t ban your profile? Don’t get me incorrect, having a legion of loyal Twitter followers is a great asset. However, many Twitter marketers don’t have this luxury when they first begin to use the Twitter system.
Twitter is a great marketing tool, but you need to take advantage of its viral nature. If you only have 100 fans, but each one of them has 100, then you can start a campaign. What about trust? You have to find out how you can reach the people who follow your followers. You need to build a bridge between you and the loyal minions who follow your followers.
To build trust and create a bridge, the best Twitter strategy is to encourage your website visitors to share your message with their followers. You can, for example, include a form in your blog or website that encourages visitors to tweet the message. Here is where creativity comes into play. Create a Tweet that is compelling with a subtle but effective call to action. Then, promise (and deliver) your visitor a free report, or discount coupon, after they retweet your message. Twitter contests are a popular way to promote your business. Your website visitor will agree to retweet the message in exchange for entering your contest. One company recently completed a contest where they gave away a Macbook every day for 10 days. This company’s tweets were trending higher than Michael Jackson’s death during the duration of the contest!
Even the most experienced Internet marketers tend to overlook this simple concept: viral marketing is a successful marketing strategy. You can trust your website or blog’s visitors. Your visitors’ Twitter followers trust them. Your visitors will be more likely to trust you and your message if they retweet it to their followers.
Twitter viral marketing has an additional benefit. Your visitor’s audience will follow you on their own volition if they are interested in your message. No coercion or prodding is required. You are not only able to fully utilize the viral nature of Twitter but also build up your important follower list for future efforts.