Are you using Twitter every day to increase your revenues? How about to get more traffic to your blog?
Last week I got a $600 order from a person who found me through Twitter. She had read a message that was re-tweeted from a follower who included a link to my website. I had never heard of this person before, but they liked something I said and followed the trail back to my Content for Coaches site.
The problem with new tools like Twitter is that most businesses don't understand how to use them quite yet, which encourages the contrarians to say things like, "Oh, it's just a fad; yes, but there's no way to measure the ROI; what a waste of time."
I'm no expert on the use of social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, but I use them daily. I can't afford not to because they are a major source of traffic to my blogs.
SMTM = Show Me the Money
I believe in the "show me the money" school of marketing. I also place trust in research studies that are done properly. Fortunately, Business.com just released a revealing survey of 2,948 respondants, the Business Social Media Benchmarking Survey.
Newt Barrett on Content Marketing Today does a great job explaining these business trends and writes about it on his blog. Or, you can go directly to the survey, Business.com.
Here are the top four benchmarks to measure social media success on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook:
- Website traffic
- Product feedback
- Lead generation
- Revenue
Heck, I don't even have a category for social media and it's not likely I'll create one because there are too many categories here on this old blog. But you can't have a content marketing strategy without including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
The KISS School of Marketing
I also subscribe to "Keep It Simple, Sweetie." While I believe you should be "everywhere" on the Web, I'm only one person, plus a few VA's. Thank goodness there are automatic services (they really are magic!) that feed your blog posts into all your other accounts. If you aren't using TwitterFeed, or Ping.fm, you should.
Although you must "be there," it's really your blog posts that must be there. I may visit Twitter 2-3 times a day when I have time, but some days I don't. And I might not visit Facebook or LinkedIn but weekly. But it looks like I'm there all the time, because I post on 2-3 blogs and they are fed into my accounts.
It depends on where you want to spend your marketing time. Where do you need to put your energy?
Twitter is starting a feature called Lists. Before that, you needed to use additional programs like TweetLater and TweetDeck to keep track of key topics and favorite people. With lists, you'll save more time and get more value from this powerful site.
According to Nielsen Online, Twitter alone grew 1,382% year-over-year in February, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month.
Where it this all going? Harvard Business Publishing writes about it here:
Six Social Media Trends for 2010
Five Mind-Blowing Web Stats You Should Know
Twitter's Business Model: Brilliant, or Non-Existent?
Is this all too much for the self-employed professional who wants to have a strong online presence? Me thinks not. Challenging, yes. Manageable, certainly.
The Spaghetti School
When I started out online ten years ago, like a kid with a new toy, I jumped on all the next new shiny objects. I belonged to the Spaghetti school of marketing: I'd throw up a bunch of stuff and see what sticks.
I made a lot of mistakes. You can benefit from them. Find what works for you, and focus on learning to use it in ways that are simple and time-saving.
Here's an example: You don't have to learn everything there is to know about video and video sharing sites. Get a web cam, or a Flip video. Plug it in. Turn it on. Get an account on YouTube. Upload a short video clip. Copy and paste the YouTube embed code into your blog. Click publish.
Huh? It doesn't get any easier. Really. Trust me, I'm one of the original "techno-idiots." Oh, excuse me, now that I'm "older" and qualify for senior status, I'm calling myself a "technold-fart." Or maybe a computer geekster… or a senior netizen?
Hey, I'm still kickin' and can out-twit some of you young kids…
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