eSpire Marketing

Quality Vs. Quantity, that is the question that everyone is asking themselves when trying to start their Twitter campaigns for their respective businesses. I have worked with both and seen results with both, but I am here to tell you why having quality Twitter followers is far better than having a large quantity of them for your business.

What is your main motivation for starting a Twitter account anyway? Is it direct sales? For some of you it might be, but I would say for the majority of you, you want the opportunity to create opportunities for viral marketing and get the chance to be more connected to your customer base. Quantity might get you more direct sales, but with so many people in your feed at all times, it’s nearly impossible to pick out which of your twitter followers is actually a fan of yours, and actually cares about your product. If you have a refined list of people who truly care about your business, you will get the chance to really connect with these people, and turn them from a one time customer, into a lifetime customer.

What else can you get from a quality twitter following? As you’re connecting with these true fans you’ll get a chance to hear some of their stories, some of them will probably even let you know why they love your business so well. It’s the word of mouth marketing that you are really looking for right? There is nothing like it. Think about it, when you want to try a new restaurant in town, who do you go to? Generally, you ask your friends right? Well that’s what these quality twitter followers will give you, they will recommend you to their friends, and even better they will do it on a large social network in front of millions of users for everyone to see. Recommendations from other people are so valuable. Don’t you want to to get as much of it as you can for your business?

Like I said before I’ve seen great success with both types of Twitter marketing. It is really up to you to decide what you want. I will tell you that in my experience the quality followers will give your business a much more intimate relationship with your customers and that will help you tremendously. Test both theories for yourself though. If you start with one and find that you want to go another direction you can always change paths by refining your list later, or trying to go out and get as many people to follow you as possible.

While everyone else is concerned with Twitter unleashing their own business model, I know that all of you are more interested in how to create your own twitter business model and how to turn those followers into customers. Monetizing Twitter is not all that difficult of a task. Some will tell you it’s a game of averages, that you should get as many people to follow you as possible regardless of whether they are actually interested in you or not, and start trying to sell things to them. There is no denying that you will see some success with that approach, but by using that approach you will lose some of the added value that your followers can bring you. People who don’t care about you, aren’t going to retweet your posts, aren’t going to say good things about what you’re doing, and aren’t going to be engaged with you on a regular basis. So my suggestion is, that you build a following of people who actually do care about you and your product. While your numbers may not be as big as the next guys, the value of each of your followers, will be much higher.

Step 1:
Build you network of caring followers. Post about things only related to your topic. Follow only people who are interested in your topic, and engage with people who are interested in your topic. The ability to create your own little niche of sorts on twitter is one of it’s greatest features. Using search.twitter.com you can find people who are talking about topics that are related to your field and engage with them.

Step 2:
Engage these followers in some way. Whether that just be general comments, contests, or by posting news updates about your product you need to engage these people and let them know that they are important to you from the start. My favorite thing to do is a contest. They work EVERY time because there is always going to be a small niche of people who are just looking for free stuff.

Step 3:
Determine your Twitter sales approach. Twitter is a great tool for a lot of things. It can be used for customer service, blogging, or sales. If you are looking to make your Twitter account drive more sales for you you have to be sales oriented. Use it to post your sales and deals but also use it to help your customers out with any problems they might be having with your site.

Step 4:
Give people incentive to follow you on Twitter. This should be done whenever you are trying to get more of your customer or user base to engage with you on social media. Give them a discount code just for following you. It’ll make them feel like they are a part of something exclusive and special.

Step 5:
Announce that you are on Twitter. Put a twitter icon on your front page and link it to your twitter page. Blog about your Twitter account. Let people know that they can find you on Twitter and let them know that just for following you you’ll give them an exclusive discount code.

The best way to sell things online is to test new and creative ideas. I challenge all of you to try and push the boundaries of normal practices and put your own spin on them. These are more of guidelines to help you get started selling on Twitter than anything else. Take my ideas and give them your own creative boost. That is when you’ll be able to really take off with Twitter and your other social media campaigns.