Twitter is a great way to get more traffic and connect with your niche but only if you use it correctly. A lot of marketers jump on the Twitter bandwagon without having a plan in mind. You can burn a lot of bridges and lose a lot of followers if you act incorrectly. Set out on the right foot and you’ll be able to create a lot of traffic and sales for your business.
One of the major mistakes that marketers make on Twitter is that they forget about making connections. Twitter isn’t just a platform for you to yell about your offers. Many users treat it this way – and they end up suffering because of it. They try to get followers and then they end up disappointed when those followers don’t interact with them or respond to their audience.
What these marketers have failed to realize is that Twitter is about connections, not about advertising. Effective Twitter usage means that you connect with your audience in meaningful ways, earning their trust and building your business all at the same time.
It’s one thing to talk about making connections, but it’s another thing entirely to actually make them. If you’re stumped for ideas, here are five ways to connect and build the kind of relationships that sell.
1. Be a real person!
One of the first mistakes marketers make when using Twitter is to create a persona that is all about the keyword. This is when you’ll see user names like “BestAcneTreatment” or “FreeAffiliateTips.” Although it’s important to have a niche, it’s more important to be a person that others can connect with. You can always display you URL and keywords in your Twitter user description. Use your name, or a pseudonym, for your Twitter persona. It’s easier for people to connect with.
2. Offer practical and useful tips.
One of the best ways to get interest, and to get a lot of retweets, is to create helpful tips that you can tweet to your followers. Helpful advice like “Drinking more water can help reduce acne” is more likely to get attention than an outright sales pitch. Come up with a list of 10 to 20 retweetable tips that you can use each week for your Twitter list.
3. Respond to other people’s tweets.
Doing nothing but tweeting about yourself is a sure sign of a marketer that is using Twitter incorrectly. Watch to see what other people Tweet and participate in the community. Respond to other people’s tweets.
4. Ask questions.
There’s no better way to get people involved then to ask them questions. Once you’ve built up a rapport with your followers, conduct polls on Twitter and see what people have to say. This is a great way to show that you’re there for connections.
5. Retweet the posts of others.
If someone on your follower’s list has some great advice or an interesting Tweet, pass it along. Using the retweet function on Twitter is easy and effective. If you retweet the posts of others, they are more likely to retweet your posts – which increases your influences and gets you more exposure.
With these tips you’ll be able to have the influence you’re looking for while still remaining relatable.