They need to market the business, make sure customers are happy, ensure products and services are being produced and delivered on time and on budget, amongst dozens of other tasks.37 Ways to Use Twitter for Business

There are many things that may seem urgent and important, but these can distract you from doing those things that are not urgent but are important that can be lost in the noise and activity of the day to day “busy-ness”.

So how do you set priorities and determine what is important for your focus and time?
What is Important?

The US President Eisenhower’s quote sums it up well. “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important”.  Stephen Covey the author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” developed and popularized this with a matrix that provides busy people with a framework and tool to prioritize their time.

Stephen Coveys time management matrix

Twitter can be both a distraction and an interruption but is also an important tool for planning, marketing and networking for business.

So How Can You Use Twitter for Business?

In a previous post “How to Create Credibility and Trust on Twitter“, I highlighted the importance of combining the use of Twitter with blogging to create a social media content marketing “Synergy” with substance.

These Twitter tips and tactics for business should be read in that context. It also important to keep in mind that creating a “Strategy for Twitter” is also valuable and essential.

Networking

This is never urgent but it is important as people like doing business with people. Networking with the right people will bring you medium to long term strategic business.

1.     Find bloggers and authorities in your industry and follow them on Twitter and see what they tweet about and what content they link to
2.     From this content look at what content you can create to tweet and blog about for your own  blog
3.     Retweet their content regularly not just once whether it is a tweet or from their blog
4.     If they are local, ask to catch up for a coffee
5.     Request an interview via Twitter and record the interview on video or if that is not possible use a list of questions that you can turn into a written blog post Q & A interview format.
6.     Publish that interview on your blog and then promote it on Twitter. I can almost guarantee you that they will then promote it to their networks
7.     Promote them on Twitter with referrals recommending them
8.     Use Twitter’s private “Direct Message” channel (DM) to connect with influential bloggers and influencers as you may find they respond to that better than an email.

Remember it is not about asking them for a favour, it is about how you can help them with no expectation of anything in return

Research

Research keeps you ahead of the curve and is never urgent but often ignored or forgotten.

1.     Put search items into Twitter using key words that are imporatant in your industry or niche. You will find out what is happening globally!
2.     Search on Twitter to see what is being said about and by your competitors
3.     Put your brand name into Twitter to find out what is being said about you in real time
4.     Use # Tags to search on Twitter that will keep you updated on key terms that are vital in your industry. A great tool to do this quickly is hashtags.org
5.     Use “Advanced Twitter Search” (this provides the capability of doing local searches with a certain mile radius) to keep an eye on news and events locally in your city or region.
6.     Discover trends using Twitter with tools such as Monitter.com which even allows you the capability to narrow the search to a particular geographic location.
7.     Tweet links to your surveys on Facebook, blogs or website

Twitter will deliver real time updates and research on your industry that will surprise you

Marketing

Twitter is capable of delivering information, content and marketing messages globally and locally to your particular niche. Twitter should be integrated and embedded on as many of your online properties as possible.

1.     Increasing your Twitter followers is the foundation to your Twitter marketing efforts. This should be done in a focused manner by following people in your category using the Twitter “Yellow Pages” tool Twellow.com. Another app that I have found useful to follow the followers of top bloggers in your industry is Tweepi.com
2.     Run special deals and promotions on Twitter that you can use to drive traffic or move slow moving stock (exanple Dell)
3.     Announce an event on Twitter
4.     Include retweet buttons on your content areas of your website and blog that makes it easy for people to share your content
5.     Integrate Twitter into Facebook
6.     Load the Twitter app on LinkedIn
7.     Seek sponsors for an event or contest
8.     Promote your blog posts on Twitter
9.     Use # tags at your events to crowd source online mobile marketing
10.     Include Twitter ID on all your offline and online marketing material
11.     Automate relevant tweets that span 24 hours so your global customers can receive it in their time zone. SocialOomph.com professional edition can do this both as a once off and as recurring tweets.
12.     Tweet special Twitter only coupons so you can track the success of your Twitter marketing efforts

Share on twitter constantly and make it easy and frictionless for people to retweet your brand. Marketing is about being everywhere. Allow and enable the social network power of “World of Mouth” !!

Personal Branding

Position yourself as an expert within your company and industry. Personal branding synergizes your corporate brand. A personal Twitter account and blog can enhance both you and your company.

1.     Help solve other people’s problems by answering questions on Twitter
2.     Tweet  links to your blog posts that answer problems and provides tip, tactics and ideas
3.     Tweet links to your Powerpoint presentations on Slideshare
4.     Tweet links to presentations recorded on Video and posted to YouTube
5.     If you are speaking at an event, tweet about it prior to the conference
6.     Include a link to your personal blog on your personal Twitter account
7.     Share photos on Twitter that validate your speaking at events and conferences, this will aid and enhance your credibility visually. Twitpic makes this easy and convenient to do on Twitter

Customer Service

Customer service is the the “ultimate” marketing tool as great customer service delivers those all important referrals that take you from compete to collaborate.

1.     Improve customer service (A good case study on this is “ Zappos” an online shoe retailer)  by picking up conversations about your company that you might not be aware
2.     Respond quickly to any problem tweets on your Twitter account to shut down any impending service or potentially damaging PR disasters.
3.     Check your Twitter account regularly and respond to questions and comments in a timely fashion

What is worth also keeping in mind is that Twitter is now embedded in the Apple’s iPhone native menu along with text messages with the announcement of the new Apple  iPhone 4s with its new mobile iOS5 operating system.

So Twitter is about to be a native app in all of Apples new mobile products and will lead to Twitter becoming more viral and embedded in an increasingly social web.

How do you use Twitter for your business? Look forward to hearing your stories!

Jeff Bullas Blog