Is Twitter part of your social media marketing strategy?
With over 500 million users today on Twitter, it is a must have tool for driving buzz, leads and customers to your business.
To get started on Twitter, check out our post on how to get your business set up on Twitter as well as our cheat sheet for basic Twitter concepts and lingo.
Businesses around the world use Twitter in interesting ways to help them communicate effectively with their customers. For instance, many businesses use Twitter as an effective way to address customer complaints and deliver timely and useful customer service. Businesses such as UPS and Nike are well known for their effective use of customer support on Twitter.
Using Twitter for customer support can be useful for resolving complaints quickly and for even reducing your overall customer support spend. Be sure to use a conversational, approachable/friendly tone in your interactions with customers. By giving customers timely answers to their requests, you stand the chance of making them happy and loyal fans who are passionate enough to spread the word about your business to their friends and followers.
We had earlier blogged about the importance of having a brand identity for your business. Twitter is also great way to develop a consistent brand voice that matches your brand identity and that can help you increase your number of fans and customers.
Many renown large brands have also been known to use Twitter creatively to get their fans excited about their brand and products. Take Oreo Cookies for example. During the 2013 Super Bowl XLVII blackout in the United States this year, the Oreo Cookies social media team quickly jumped on the opportunity to engage with their fans using a culturally relevant topic that many of their fans and customers on Twitter were talking about. They tweeted the image below:
This simple effective message resulted in over 15,000 retweets and over 6,000 favorites from their fans and followers and Twitter. You don’t have to use a straight jacket message to engage with your Twitter followers. You too can get creative and drive more buzz, leads and sales for your business.
Some businesses also use Twitter to offer sales, promotions and discounts to their brands by creating “Twitter only” promos. For instance, you can offer a special discount on a certain day of the week by tweeting out a discount code to your followers. Check out the promotion below sent out by computer technology company, Dell.
You don’t have to be a big company like Dell to use Twitter effectively for offering discounts and promotions to your customers. All you have to do is think creatively about a special or sale that your customers will be excited about and share that promotion with your Twitter followers. You will be surprised about the impact it can have on your business.
Do you know of other creative ways in which businesses are using Twitter to communicate with their customers? Share some of them with us below and don’t forget to use some of the tips above to start engaging with your followers on Twitter!