Direct marketing via Twitter - Business Lounge

It?s just one part of an overall marketing mix, but thanks to its reach and its unique power to efficiently communicate and share ideas, Twitter can no longer be ignored.

Twitter is about microblogging or short messaging. It involves posts of no more than 140 characters, communications that are quick to read and easy to digest. Known as ?tweets?, these messages sound like harmless ? even trivial ? fun, but they have been known to bring about mass change, alter the outcomes of presidential elections and build or destroy brand loyalty. People take Twitter very seriously.

Brigid Shute is managing director of Epitome Media, a company that works with businesses to provide marketing solutions with a focus on social media. Her clients range from sole traders to multi-nationals, which is fitting because Twitter works equally well for both ? marketing budgets mean little in the Twitterverse.

?Twitter can be used in isolation or as part of a larger campaign,? explains Shute. ?It can reach a huge number of people who are all interested in the topic. But there are several guidelines that must be followed.?

Such a powerful tool can be dangerous and destructive in inexperienced hands, says Shute, so she recommends experimenting with it initially in a safe online environment.

?Simply get on and have a go, but start by setting up an account and simply listen to what people are saying,? she says. ?You don?t have to be the one doing the talking; you can just absorb what?s happening around you.?

Shute gives her five most important guidelines for Twitter success.

1. Quality output. Are your tweets useful or interesting or entertaining? People don?t care what you had for breakfast.
2. Understand who it is that you?re representing. In other words,
   are you speaking as an individual or are you speaking as the
   voice of a brand?
3. Don?t obsess over numbers of followers. Instead, seek a quality list, as you might with mail-based direct marketing. If your list of followers is a good one then they will re-tweet your comments to their own followers. It will also reduce the less meaningful ?noise?.
4. Remember that Twitter is a two-way communications channel. You will need to respond to people, regularly refresh your own comments and react to content.
5. Engage in an ongoing relationship ? don?t sell. Twitter can make you a trusted source and therefore will put you and your business top of mind in a purchase decision.

?Twitter is about engagement, not stalking,? adds Shute. ?It?s not about selling without understanding or talking without communicating.

?One of the biggest mistakes a business can make on Twitter is to directly sell. It is instead about engagement, about pure feedback, about two-way communication and about the sharing of information. You should feel as if you, too, have learned something when you use Twitter.?

Finally, recommends Shute, look into some of the readily available applications that have been developed to help users manage their Twitter feeds, such as TweetDeck or HootSuite. Anything that can simplify the business of communication while helping remove the distractions is a valuable tool.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and the interviewees, and not of Australia Post.

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