August 1st, 2010 by Susie

Although the wonders of Twitter are not universally acknowledged, the social media networking site is informative, interesting, addictive and, most importantly, very popular. Hence any online firm interested in social media marketing (SMM) should weigh up whether or not a Twitter campaign is suitable for addressing its specific needs. It seems clear now that Twitter is much more than an entertaining bandwagon, but that does not necessarily imply that a particular business should use it as part of their marketing campaign.

Users of the net are increasingly using the new social media. Humans are social animals, so this should not surprise us. The best way of tapping into this development is dependent on the nature of the site concerned. At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk all our SMM campaigns are tailored to the unique requirements of our clients. ‘One size fits all’ campaigns often fail to reach their target audiences.

Twitter can be awkward to engage with. Following its etiquette is essential if a campaign is to be successful. Nobody appreciates being bombarded with direct messages of a commercial nature. Nor are most users favourably impressed by tweets which are purely promotional. They want insights, they want information and they want fun.

The task of marketers has been made more difficult by Twitter’s decision to no-follow outbound links, but this obstacle does not make campaigns poor ideas. It simply means that campaigns have to be conducted with greater subtlety and shrewdness. Links may no longer be available, but relationships with potential consumers are still on the table.

One of the best reasons for using Twitter is that target audiences are out there in established groups. If, for example, you are behind a new literary blog, people who like reading are huddled together. Tweeting can alert readers to your presence and can inform them of blog posts. Giving them literary titbits such as poetry, authors’ birthdays and writing chat other than what is featured on your blog can help get your readers involved. It may be the quality of the blog itself which engages with readers, but your tweeting and retweeting will help bring them in.

While target audiences are out there to be sought on Twitter, it is also possible that your campaign could be used to make your site more popular to groups that you had not envisaged reaching. Twitter is populated by people of all ages. If you have started a literary blog, you may have thought that it was aimed at readers in their twenties, thirties and forties. Advertising on the site may reflect the target demographic. Once you start tweeting you may find that users of all ages become interested in your offer. Thus adjusting the contents may be the next step.

Twitter is not only becoming a useful marketing device in certain economic sectors, it is also transforming the sector of search. The real-time results facilitated by Twitter have demonstrated to the ‘search world’ that users appreciate this type of thing. The mighty Google has perceived that real-time search is becoming more and more important. Thus the major search engines are likely to go further down this road.

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