October 20, 2009

Using Twitter to sell more stuff

social-media-marketingIf you’re like most business owners, you’re interested in selling more stuff.  Lately, you may have heard that Twitter is a great way to sell more stuff. However, if you’re not aware of the “why” behind marketing in general – it can be easy to begin viewing Twitter – and other social media tools –  as a form of marketing magic.

Without knowing the “why”  you might be tempted to to view Twitter as “social media marketing magic” instead of viewing Twitter as a great way to deliver a short timely messages quickly and effectively to a group of people who’ve asked for this information.

An example of the “magical” fantasy style of thinking is a local business owner who wants to use Twitter to sell more of the stuff he sells – cars.

His logic is flawless.   Dell computers uses Twitter very effectively to sell more stuff. This local business owners reads about Dell’s success and wants to harness the same “social media magic” so he can sell more “stuff” too.  What could be easier?

Unfortunately, there’s a disconnect. Dell sells refurbished computers via a dedicated Twitter feed.   Dell employees don’t “tweet” what they had for breakfast – they tweet the latest deals. Dell’s target audience is online – and they’re already using Twitter.  So all Dell had to do was set up a Twitter account – and spread the word that if you wanted access to great bargains – follow them at Twitter and VIOLA –  Dell is selling more computers using Twitter.

So the question at hand isn’t, “Can we make Twitter work to help us sell more stuff?”  It can obviously do so.   The real question is “HOW can we make Twitter work to sell more stuff?”

Which is the essential question we’re asking of ALL forms of media – whether it’s social media marketing or traditional media tools.

Of COURSE we CAN make Twitter “work” to sell more of just about anything – from cd’s to cars.  However, it’s more than just a question of “how do I use Twitter?”  Instead, it needs to be a question of “How do I COMMUNICATE with prospective customers/ clients?”

Let’s take the case of the car dealer who wants to use social media tools – Twitter in this case – to sell more cars.

The first step in crafting a social media marketing strategy with Twitter would begin by building a foundation of LOCAL Twitter followers – local residents who are actively car shopping and who want to be notified of special deals.  With this in mind, you’d be surprised how often people FORGET that the WWW stands for WORLD wide web.   Ten thousand Twitter followers in the UK won’t do a car dealership in Southern Florida much good.  So the first “key” is to be sure to build a Twitter following of the “right” people.

The “right” Twitter followers

Just as in direct mail – the “magic is in the list” – in Twitter – the magic in using Twitter for marketing is in attracting the “right” followers.  Once again – it’s better to have 100 Twitter followers who respond than 10K who are not responsive.

Who are the “right” followers?  Well, to use “traditional “marketing terms –  they’re also known as your “target” audience.  For the car dealer – they’re local people who are – or who anticipate – being in the market for a new or used car.

Once you’ve  defined your target audience – and created a Twitter profile which explains what followers can expect.  (This is where a custom Twitter background come in handy.)

The uses of Twitter for a car dealership are truly exciting.  A dealership could tweet about

  • price reductions  and sales
  • rebates
  • recent trade ins
  • used cars scheduled to go to auction

The list of possibilities goes on and on – however you may notice that the “topics” here aren’t much different than the “topics” covered in traditional  or “old school” media advertising.

When it comes to using Twitter to sell more stuff – the  real “root” question is:

How are we already CONNECTING and COMMUNICATING with our prospective customers/clients?

The same message that “works” via other media will probably also “work” well with Twitter. As a matter of fact, once you’ve established that you’ve built a foundation of the “right” Twitter followers – you can begin using Twitter to “test” your marketing messages BEFORE you use them in “traditional” marketing or advertising campaigns.

THIS is why real marketing professionals get jazzed about Twitter.  Instead of going to the time and expense of creating a split test mailing to test two possible headlines – Twitter allows a quick easy and EFFECTIVE way of testing those headlines instantly.

Twitter gets frustrating as a marketing tool when you don’t have a clear target audience and a clear marketing message to deliver to that target audience.   Then again – that is when ALL marketing and advertising gets frustrating for businesses of ALL sizes. 🙂

Filed Under: Bleeding Edge Tagged With: , , ,
January 5, 2009

Twitter Bug on the Loose

I got a personal email from a well respected blogger which was weird. It was weird that this blogger would be emailing little ol ME – and then the email itself was weird.

The email said something along the line of that he had found a picture of me and I should click on the link. Being the modest sort – I clicked without thinking. When I clicked (something I normally don’t do – but this is a RESPECTED blogger) – it was obviously a phishing attempt trying to get my Twitter information. Thank goodness it was obvious what was going on. Some phishing attempts are top rate – this one wasn’t.

Remember, it’s only paranoia is they’re NOT out to get you and it’s obvious that someone is out to get you and acquire your Twitter login information. I didn’t think much of it until this morning when I read Chris Brogan’s Log Into Twitter And Change Your Password.

Ignore the email if you get it. If you get one from me – let me know. Change your Twitter password in the meantime.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: ,
December 26, 2008

Twitterpated by Twitter

“Twitter is stupid.”  Before you lash out at me for that line – you should know that I didn’t say that.   Laura Fitton of Pistachio said it in her Twitter for Business keynote at Webcom Montreal, November 2008.  Laura is an EXPERT on Twitter and makes her living speaking on and educating business owners about the Twitter phenomenon so she should know! 🙂

I recently wrote about  how important it is to overcome doubt because sometimes when you’re starting a business a “stupid” idea can turn into a run away success.  Twitter is a GREAT example of a “stupid” idea that has become quite a success story.

Twitter may be “stupid” – but it’s a growing phenomenon. I wouldn’t go so far to say it’s a necessary evil – even though it appears to have been an important part of the Hitler regime:

I remember when I first signed up for Twitter – and quickly forgot about it.  I couldn’t imagine why anyone would CARE what I was doing!   A few weeks ago – I placed the widget in my sidebar and started to make an effort to “tweet” and to follow others.  The more I use Twitter – the more I can see how important it is to stay “connected”.

Because I’ve been twitterpated by Twitter, posts like Kalena’s 16 Must Have Tools for Twitter Users and  Twitter – Social Media’s Hidden Gem are now catching my eye.  Because of Twitter, I’ve discovered Darren Rowse’s TwiTip blog which is a blog devoted to all things Twitter.

The thing about Twitter is that it really is like blogging -which is why it’s called “micro blogging”.  Like Blogging, Twitter is incredibly easy to use while at the same time being very difficult to master.  If there’s just ONE blog post you read about Twitter – make it Liz Strauss’ 25 Traits of Twitter Users.  Liz writes:

Certain signs and characteristics seem to show in the folks who live the social media culture. Certain value and actions make people who care about having relationships and conversation before transactions easy to spot.

It’s a must read because, as Liz’s post points out – not everyone “gets” Twitter.  Despite what you may have read in the latest “get rich sitting on your ass” email newsletter, signing up for Twitter is NOT going to get you tens of thousands of visitors to your blog and it isn’t going to put money in the bank for you.

If you use Twitter to brag about how many followers you have – or you just blast Tweets about your latest blog post – then you won’t find Twitter to be a rewarding experience.

Twitter is a communication tool.

I’ll say it again – Twitter is JUST ANOTHER communication tool.   There are other Twitter-like micro blogging applications that are competing with Twitter.  Over at Splitbrain they’ve said goodbye to Twitter and hello to a new micro blogging communication tool.  Does this mean Twitter is a business failure?  Of course not.  It means that someone had an idea about how to make Twitter better.   (Remember this as you’re going through the steps to starting a small business. Can you do it better, faster, cheaper? Then maybe you should!)

One thing I will say for any start up that tries to make Twitter BETTER,  they will benefit from the fact that Twitter “broke ground” with micro-blogging.  It’s taken a couple of years for people to figure out what Twitter was good for and for Twitter to “catch on”.  Anyone who can make a better version of Twitter will have to thank Twitter founders for going through the arduous process of educating the masses over the last two years on the benefits of micro-blogging.

Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it. Over 100 years ago there was another communication tool hitting the scene – the telephone.  It might surprise you to learn that people yawned when they heard about the telephone just like I yawned when I first heard of Twitter.

There’s a story that says the early telephone sales force wasn’t greeted with enthusiast demand when they first began selling their new fangled communication tool.  The story goes that the single most effective “sales spiel” used to “sell” the new way of communicating was to tell people that the telephone made it so they could talk to their neighbors without getting dressed to go outside.  It wasn’t until that “benefit” was communicated to prospects that the telephone began to “catch on” as a communication tool.

Ah – the first tale in the never ending saga of being human in the age of the electronic mob.

Wikipedia reports that “Twitter had by one measure over 3 million accounts and, by another, well over 5 million visitors in September 2008, a fivefold increase in a month.”  I’m seeing other evidence of a groundswell around Twitter as well.

I use the Google Keyword Tool plug in to check for keywords when I begin a post.  (It’s something I recommend you do and cover in more detail in my 8 Week Power Blog Launch course.)  So, as I began this post, I went to check on what’s happening in Googleland around the term “Twitter”.  What I saw was the average search around the term “Twitter” is in the 550K range.  However last month (in November)  that number skyrocketed to 1.2 MILLION searches.    Yet more evidence that people are twitterpated by Twitter!

However, there’s another reason why Twitter is becoming the latest bell of the ball.  See, Twitter promises free and easy communication with a mob of people  Since communication is the foundation of advertising and marketing – well the appeal is obvious.

Advertising and marketing are simply communicating what it is your business can do for people to a mob of people.

Since Twitter is “free” and “easy to use” that makes it a “Free – easy to use marketing tool”.  VIOLA!  A small business owners favorite marketing combo – free + easy!  This is why when a new means of “communication” comes down the path, it doesn’t take long for the marketing “gurus” to line up and announce that the SUREFIRE KEY to making untold riches is to simply utilizing the new method of mass communication.

Oh but here’s the “reality check” in the Twitter as the surefire path to riches scheme–  If you don’t have anything to say – and you don’t know who you’re talking to – then Twitter won’t do much in the way of your marketing or your business.  As a matter of fact, unless you’re a major company (like Dell) whose customers follow you just so they’ll know about the latest sale – you won’t find that using Twitter will put any cash directly into your pocket.

However, if part of your job description is that you have your finger “on the pulse” and to be “in the know” then Twitter is an indispensable tool.  Since being “in the know” is an essential part of every blogger’s job description – that’s why Twitter is important for bloggers.

Are you twitterpated by Twitter?  If so -why?  If not – why not?

Filed Under: Web Terms Defined Tagged With: , ,
September 23, 2008

It’s Like Christmas in September: Building Trust Through Blogging

It’s like Christmas morning here today – except it’s the kind of Christmas morning where all your presents are from sadistic narcissists.  When spending the holidays with sadistic narcissistic relatives, you don’t make any sudden moves, you make sure not to take your eyes off of your valuables (or relatives) and most importantly, you don’t have high expectations of what is contained within the packages addressed to you.

My first “present” to arrive today was an actual old fashioned CHAIN LETTER via snail mail! A real live CHAIN LETTER! I mean, I’d heard about chain letters when I was a kid but to actually receive one in my mail box at the end of my driveway – well I just never imagined it would happen to me!

I knew there was something fishy about the letter. It was addressed to my husband, but the return address was of someone I don’t know. Could it be that my husband has another family in Kansas? Perhaps he has a secret identity? As I began to open the mystery letter, a thought flashed through my mind- “Nobody sends anthrax through the mail anymore, do they?” I held my breath as I carefully opened the letter.

Turns out my husband isn’t a spy nor is he leading a double life.  So much for my drama fix for the day.  The envelope contained 4 pages sloppily stapled together.  It lead with, “I’m a retired attorney, so you can trust me.”

I haven’t laughed that hard in YEARS!

When I was able to stand upright again – I wiped the tears from my eyes and kept reading.  The gist of the letter is that you send $1 to each of the 6 names on the list with the request to “ADD ME TO YOUR LIST”.  By paying $1 to add your name to the list, it’s not illegal – according to the letter.  Why would he lie?  After all, he’s a trusted retired attorney!

They say laughter is the best medicine and I’m about to overdose!

It’s official.  The scammers are leaving the internet and going back to snail mail.  WHEW!  I knew if we all kept ignoring those spam emails that eventually they’d leave.  (By the way, the 30% of you who CLICK are encouraging them to stay!!!)

It wouldn’t be Christmas with just one present, so I then went to my email and got a message from a client.

“Is this legitimate and/or do you know anything about this?”

The attached email is typical.

Would you like to earn auto-pilot commissions every time you post to your blog? And at the same time use the Power of Twitter to drive massive amounts of traffic to your blog.

Notice the key elements in this pitch:

  • auto-pilot – aka get something for nothing
  • the power of Twitter – a “magic” program you’ve heard lots about but probably aren’t using
  • massive amounts of traffic- because all you need for your blog to succeed is massive traffic.

Why is it that every one of these programs begins with

“Here’s a no fail, no learning required, minimal time and effort on your part way to achieve massive traffic to your blog!”

Unfortunately, it’s human nature.

I told my client I’d check it out for her and I learned a lot.

First, I didn’t know that the Butterfly Marketing stuff was still being used.  The whole “OTO” thing is a thing of beauty.   It’s a great way to automate the “impending doom” close on the web.   However, when you’ve been burned before, you usually aren’t anxious to put your hand on the stove again.

Here’s the deal for those of you who don’t know the “system” behind Butterfly Marketing.

Offer an attractive free resource via a squeeze page.  (Squeeze page:  where there are only two options – sign up or leave.  You don’t let them “learn more” by surfing the site – they either want the freebie or they don’t.)

Then, when visitors sign up to receive the free resource, they are taken to a page that offers you a ONE TIME OFFER (OTO).  The page is programmed to display only once, so if they click away, they are “robbed” of the opportunity to purchase this amazing product/service.

In this case, they’re selling you a program to create WordPress plug ins even if you know nothing about coding.  You may not know PHP from CSS, but with this system you can create your own WordPress plug in.

Once the sucker – ahem, buyer has clicked away from that appealing offer, you offer another resource – again letting them know that this offer will go away just like the last one did.

“Aren’t you sorry you let the last one go?  If you’re smart, you’ll jump on this chance.”

They’re serious.  They want your money.  Buy something NOW!

If you’re a total tightwad, you’ll say no again because by now all you want is to get to the free resource you were promised.

VIOLA!  You arrive.  It’s a pretty stark page though.  The most prominent feature of the page is that you are offered an opportunity to earn AFFILIATE COMMISSIONS if you’ll promote this program to your friends, family and website visitors. Just because you were too smart to buy doesn’t mean your chump friends and family won’t.

Oh, and there’s your promised freebie – a WordPress plug in that will automatically “tweet” your Twitter account.  I’ve got to confess, at this point, I’m worried about installing this on a blog I care about.  These people haven’t done ANYTHING to gain my trust.  Am I jeapordizing my blog AND my twitter account by using this?

We live in a world where it’s hard to TRUST anyone these days.  The other morning, I was listening to a local radio show where they were talking about a video they saw on YouTube.  The topic of discussion – was the video “real”.  Despite video evidence, they were still unsure whether or not this phenomemnon was true.

We live in a world where you can’t believe your eyes or your ears.  The Bejing Olympics was full of fakes – from fireworks to birth certificates.  If you live in the US, you’re being bombarded by political propaganda disguised as “news”.  What’s real?  What’s fake?  What can you trust?

One of the drums I pound frequently here is that your blog is a GREAT way to build trust with potential clients and customers.  It’s hard to “fake” your expertise over the course of a few hundred blog posts.

How do you use your blog to create trust with your readers?

Filed Under: Blog, Building Trust with Blogs, Testimonials Build Trust Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
May 9, 2008

Do You Twitter? Do You Need to Twitter?

I forget when I first heard of Twitter, but I signed up and quickly lost interest.  With a 140 character limit, I could not IMAGINE why anyone would care about how I spent the mundane parts of my day.

Rewriting the htaccess file for yet another client as I trudge through the endless process of updating their WordPress installation to the most

Oops… no more room.  Maybe I’m just too chatty to use Twitter.

Most importantly, I couldn’t imagine getting anything of importance DONE if I tried to Twitter about it.

My closest Twitter moment was when the Space Shuttle had to be rerouted on it’s landing and passed over my house.  The sonic boom was incredible and once I’d met and talked with my neighbors about it, I went in and posted probably the only “relevant” Twitter post of my Twitter career.

Not only have I not been able to get “into” Twitter… I just haven’t been able to get inspired to “follow” anyone else’s Twitter.  I know that when I say, “I just don’t have time”… it usually means I can’t see any reason to do it.

There… I admitted it.  Twitter just doesn’t strike me as a productive use of my time.

I ignored Twitter and Twitter ignored me.  Then came the SXSW 2008 conference and top bloggers began Twittering about what was going on and suddenly, everyone wants to talk about Twitter.

I’m reminded of the scene from Zoolander:

Mugatu: SHUT UP! Enough already, Ballstein! Who cares about Derek Zoolander anyway? The man has only one look, for Christ’s sake! Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigra? They’re the same face! Doesn’t anybody notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

My feelings exactly regarding Twitter.  Micro-blogging!  WTF?  Blogging restricted to 140 characters or less… WHY?  Please… someone… tell me… WHY?

When you promote your Twitter… Are you saying, “Hey, I’ve plenty of time to micro blog about nothing… follow me on Twitter.”

(HORROR!!! I just logged into my Twitter account and I have followers!!!  WTF?   I had to have my password emailed to me as a reminder because it’s been so long since I’ve used it!)

Thankfully, I’m not alone.  Mark posted “Twitter is Stupid” over at Courtney Tuttle’s Internet Marketing School.  Since he broke the ice, I don’t feel nearly so alone.  Mark writes:

A noteworthy blogger talks about how he loves twitter, but then he disclosed his traffic sources: Google – 42%. Twitter – 1.87%. I think that pretty much tells the story.

Go build some links.

Thank you Mark!!!

I truly thought I was the only one…. I truly thought maybe someone had been slipping crazy pills into my morning coffee.

As for the limited number of Twitter followers… sorry to disappoint you with the lack of updates in my life.  Rewriting htaccess files just isn’t that glamorous.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing Magic Tagged With: ,