Grab Attention
Twitter is a way to announce a message quickly and to a large group of people. By using #hashtags, a business can have their tweet appear in an aggregate stream of everyone that has used the same #hashtag and those that are searching for the #hashtag. What is a #hashtag? They are similar to a tag or optimized keyword. Just about any word or phrase that is associated with your business or the subject of your tweet can become a #hashtag. It is important to note that random #hashtag use is ineffective. Take a few moments to see what topics are trending in #hashtags streams, apply those to your business then attach them to your tweet. This is a great way to attract potential customers along with keeping an eye on your competitors.

Instant Feedback
Twitter is one of the fastest ways to see what your customers are saying about your business. Everyone is talking about what restaurant they just visited and what product they just purchased. By searching your @username and any phrases that are associated with your business, you can see what people are saying in real time. This opens the door to delivering top-notch customer service. If a customer is dissatisfied and says they had an awful meal, the twitter account for that restaurant can offer an immediate reply and extend a positive resolution to the disgruntled customer. Likewise, if a customer gives a glowing review, the business can reply a word of gratitude, showing the customer that their opinion is highly valued.

Stay Ahead Of The Curve
Even if your primary demographic does not use Twitter on a frequent basis, a business should not ignore Twitter as not being important. Your competition is on Twitter. The easiest way to see what your competition is doing and how they are engaging with their customers will help you stay at the top of your industry. When a business sees what their competitors are saying and what their competitor’s customers are saying, they will discover ways to improve their own business. They will also receive reinforcement for what they are doing correctly. If your top competitor has many disgruntled customers due to a price increase, you will see that raising your prices may not be the most effective way to cut costs. Additionally, if the competitions customers are repeatedly asking for a specific product, your business can be ahead of the curve and offer that product before your competitors.

Twitter is an effective tool to both market your business and to keep tabs on the competition. Businesses can quickly ease the frustration of disgruntled customers or offer appreciation to satisfied customers. Businesses can also keep an eye on the competition. No matter how your business uses Twitter, the information gained by paying attention will prove valuable.

1. Take It Slow

Twitter is a powerful new tool, and provides amazing marketing opportunities. But don’t just jump down people’s throats all at once. You have to make friends first. If you move too quickly, they will un-follow you, which is exactly the opposite of what you want to happen.

Make friends with people, and engage them on a meaningful level, before you start trying to sell them things.

2. Build your Base

First and foremost, Twitter is a numbers game. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing War and Peace, one tweet at a time, if you don’t have any followers. Which begs the question – how do you get more followers. Building a substantial base of followers is primarily a matter of following other people, and interacting with the community.

To find other people to follow, just search for your interests with a hashtag (#) in front. Once you’re searching in your industry, find people who have a lot of followers within the industry. These are the thought leaders, the people whose tweets are most influential. Make sure that you’re following, and engaging with them.

Which leads into the second point. Engage with and interact with people as much as possible. Respond to people’s tweets, and re-post the good ones. People like it when you re-post their tweets, and they will respond in kind by following you and reposting your tweets.

3. Respect the signal/noise ratio

I understand that twitter is a social and personal tool in additional to being a business tool. Thus it’s inevitable that you’re going to have some tweets about what you’re cooking for dinner or the film that you just saw. In fact, Twitter’s creators reportedly envisioned it as a sequence of updates about users’ personal lives.

However, you should ascertain that a certain percentage of your tweets are actually providing value to your readers, and not just telling them about your life. The ratio of valuable tweets to total tweets is called the signal/noise ratio.

The ideal ratio varies from person to person, but if you find that you’re making your followers look at pictures of your dog every single day, you might want to scale back your noise a little bit.

4. Write Regularly

Nobody likes a lurker, and nowhere is this more true than on twitter. You don’t run the same risks of being thought weird as you do when standing against the wall at a party, but you do run the risks of being forgotten.

Ideally, you should post a couple of times per day. This isn’t as hard as it sounds, because twitter posts do not need to be very detailed. An interesting thought, a useful link, (nearly) anything goes.

If you do not tweet frequently enough, you will have almost no impact. You will just be sound in your listeners’ streams.

5. Use Common Etiquette

Although twitter is a brave new world is terms of social relationships, it does not mean that you can forgo common etiquette. If you are addressed directly, you should reply. If someone reposts your tweet, you should thank them or return the favor in kind. And lastly, do not talk about yourself too much. Link back to your own sites only occasionally.

It may sound quaint, but people will appreciate your etiquette in an age of spam, and you’ll see yourself more like, and more followed.

There are over 12 Million registered users of Twitter. There are over 70,000 applications designed for Twitter users. Twitter users are now sending 50 million tweets per day, which translates to an average of 600 tweets per second. So what is Twitter? Twitter is a combination of these various forms of communication, but its primary difference is that posts, or tweets, are restricted to 140 characters or less. As a Twitter user you can post updates, follow and view updates from other users, and send a public reply or private direct message to connect with another Twitterer.

One of the most important things I did when I set up my Twitter account was to post a pleasant picture of me. Since I was promoting a business, I used the business name so my customers could find me. Don’t use something very long or complicated, it makes it difficult to communicate with you if I can’t remember your name. I also put in my website URL in the profile, and a good summary of my interests. I added a few introductory tweets just to get things rolling, I didn’t want new followers to come and see a blank canvas.

Generally, I found the rule of thumb is that if I follow you, you’ll follow me back. I also quickly found that people really like it when you “re-tweet” their message, abbreviated by RT. It gives them credit for the original post, and you share that content with all of your followers. When I would re-tweet someone’s post once, they would notice. If I did it a second time, I had a friend. They were also much more likely to re-tweet my posts.    

So, what did I “tweet” about? Well, anything to distract them. Funny pet videos. Funny pet pictures. Pet news and information. Anything that I felt my followers would find valuable, and possibly re-tweet themselves. If it was something I could have a conversation about with my followers, it was worth a mention. I also asked lots of questions, and found that my followers were quick to answer them. Conversations (not the long drawn out ones meant for phone calls, the short ones) generally allowed for big groups of people to add their feelings or opinions. I got to know all the people that were talking to me on Twitter.

Where did I find people to follow? A few good sources is to search twitter for your keywords at search.twitter.com, twellow.com is a good resource to find others in your niche, and Twitdir.com is a good directory of the top people on Twitter. Surely they must be doing something right, so why not follow along?  I found all the big players in my market (the pet niche), followed them, and then followed their followers as well. You can see all their followers on their profile page by clicking on “followers”.

You can also find people that are local in proximity if you have a local business such as a pet sitter. Go to Twellow.com/twellowhood, and you will find people by location. Nearbytweets.com is another one you can use to find Twitter folks in your neighborhood. There are lots of “Tweetups” all over the United States where you can meet fellow Twitter users in person. Find them and meet them in person!

One of the best tools I found for Twitter is something called Tweetdeck. You can download the software for free at Tweetdeck.com. It organizes your follower’s tweets, people that reply back to you, direct messages to you, and even groups that you can organize by topic or even your favorite people on Twitter. I highly recommend using Tweetdeck, it will make your Twitter experience easier and it will make much more sense.

Most of all, have fun. Be believable and authentic. Don’t try to be someone you’re not, just be yourself and you will find a great community of other people in your niche that love what you do! It’s a great way to find business partners, vendors, customers, and others that share your interests. Try to dedicate at least 10 minutes each day to make a few posts and see what your followers are up to. You’ll be glad you did!

Michael Ayalon

Online Pet Marketing Specialist

516-690-PET1

Follow me on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/petwebdesigner

P.S. If you are struggling in your pet related business, it doesn’t have to be this way. I’ll help you personally: http://www.Petwebdesigner.com