Don’t Yell At Twitter Users!

The social media marketing company 360i recently reported in a study something that is not necessarily new, nor groundbreaking, but should give us cause for concern nevertheless. It seems that the majority of businesses are still getting it wrong when it comes to interacting with one of the best Internet marketing for small business assets that we have. The way that we interact is, according to this company, simply eye-opening.

In short, it’s amazing how business marketers are simply getting it wrong when it comes to interaction with Twitter users. Marketers, it seems, are marketing, while “tweeps” are simply chatting.

The whole concept behind social media marketing is that it is just that — social. The abuse of Twitter users evidenced by traditional marketing people reveals that they are simply trying to sell something in the incorrect environment. This is not welcome here and can cause an adverse reaction, if not careful. While 43% of all consumer tweets are devoted to conversations between users, only 16% of those tweets originated by marketers actually represent dialogue with consumers.

Researcher 360i found that “only 1% of ALL consumer tweets represent conversations directly with the brand.” To put it another way, you may be talking with your marketing hat on, but nobody’s listening, nor are they like to respond. Marketers, big business or small business proponents, are simply missing the point.

Twitter users live in a fantastic place to reveal thoughts, feelings, emotions and ideas as part of a huge melting pot. Just consider how much intelligence is out there about your business, strategy or niche and how you could gather it and use it intelligently. This is the way to use Twitter after all, to enable you to fine-tune your products or services accordingly.

Getting store visitors or clients to create some kind of feedback form is a very difficult proposition for the majority of small business owners. You have to go out of your way by writing some kind of considerable incentive to get them to do this. Welcome to Twitter as a giant feed back form. Just make sure that you are active, listening and learning and you will be able to compose your marketing strategies accordingly.

Some small business marketers simply use Twitter as an information gathering medium, placing the intelligence that they gather into the melting pot of ideas for business development and growth. They may compose very few “tweets,” but simply rely on the medium to gather ideas.

Social media is an integral part of Internet marketing for small business owners, one of the most powerful business tools you can get. Do not be tempted to misuse it or to use it incorrectly and always avoid a hard sell approach. By being patient and not yelling at your potential clients or prospects, you can get all the information that you need to know. It’s called reading between the lines!

Nigel Evans and Internet Marketing Future maintain a comprehensive, free information blog on this complex subject. Learn more about how to handle Twitter users and why you should seriously consider the idea for your online marketing program.