An Introduction to Social Media:

Social Media Marketing is an online marketing tactic that seeks to achieve branding and marketing communication goals through the participation in various social media networks such as Twitter, facebook, MySpace, Bebo and social web applications such as Digg, Flickr, YouTube and Stumble Upon etc. Social Media has turned the normal marketing process over. Contributors (suppliers/marketers) are found by consumers, contributing to brand messaging as opposed to only passively receiving communication from marketers.

Twitter:

Twitter has become a valuable tool for business use. There are so many opportunities to leverage its capabilities in a way that is relevant & provides value. The web has become vital to business particularly in certain markets such as tourism and business. Some would argue that twitter is the same – “be everywhere your customers expect you to be”. Increasingly, companies are considering whether an internal role is required to fulfil the need to keep content current on their websites and also to focus on their social media/blog content. Creating Media can fulfil that role based on a monthly retainer.

Raise awareness of companies / brands:

Through sharing information, rather than selling on Twitter (blatant selling is frowned Upon), you will become a higher sought out portal of knowledge. This will encourage people to look for your Tweets and then potentially visit your website for further information or even make direct contact. Twitter will raise awareness of your business and brand plus supplement any additional trade / e-marketing / PR that you have. Twitter is a place where people are searching for information and connections.

Increased traffic to your website:

This can be measured by analysing your website statistics through your chosen package i.e. Google Analytics or Web Stats.

Seo:

The next stage of Google SEO, Caffeine, is expected to include searches for sites that have a link to Social Media sites such as Twitter. The same is anticipated for the Microsoft search engine “Bing”. Why is it important for business? It can be an incredibly powerful marketing & community building tool with the ability to develop your brand, build relationships with your audience and provide a promotional medium that has the ability to go viral!

Twitter is a Broadcasting Service: Email, Instant Messaging and SMS are all direct messaging systems. You choose the person with whom you would like to communicate and you send them a direct message. Blogs are open broadcasting systems. When I publish a blog post, it will go directly to those people who have subscribed to the RSS feed but it is also available publicly. Twitter is rather like blogging with just an RSS feed. Consider this diagram: We have two people, Bob and Betty. Bob can follow Betty, Betty can follow Bob and if they both did that they would be following each other. That is literally all there is to the relationships between people in Twitter. It’s extremely simple and what it produces is a situation like this: The Process: Every time you send out a tweet, all your followers will see it. Unlike blogs, Twitter is a real time broadcasting medium. You update, it is broadcast to your followers, and then it is largely forgotten (but not quite!) When you first join Twitter you have no followers and you are not following anybody else so it can seem pretty lonely. I think this one of the reasons that some people just “don’t get it” when they first start. We at Creating Media have a solution to that situation – we set up your twitter site and get you followers then either run it for you or pass it across for you to run. Your small business should be using Twitter because:

1. Everyone else is doing it.
2. It is good to be seen to be part of Social Media (Web 2.0)…Using Twitter is evidence that your business is participating in this whole social media thing and obviously a “with-it” kind of outfit that people might be interested in doing business with. It’s just not enough to have a website anymore.
3. Twitter is a fast way to get your messages out anywhere and everywhere
4. Twitter will help you stay on top of your industry and/or market segment…Twitter lets you hear what other people are saying. Using http://searchtwitter.com Twitter Search you can find out what people are saying about a particular topic, enabling you to keep your ear to the ground about your company and the competition.
5. Twitter will help you refine your brand…By participating in Twitter (that is, using it to communicate with others, rather than just spamming product announcements) you can present and develop the kind of image that attracts your potential customers, and refine your brand. (Communication is a two-way thing.)
6. Twitter is a great networking tool…Being on Twitter will give you opportunities to meet and talk to oodles of people, some of whom you would never get the chance to talk to otherwise. And some of those people might be the very business contacts you’ve been seeking, people you want to start projects with, source product from or even hire.
7. And the most important reason your small business should use Twitter – because Twitter lets you engage your customers…Posting information about your products and/or services is the obvious use. But Twitter also gives you another channel for listening to and finding out about your customers – what they like or dislike about your company, how they feel about your brand, what suggestions they have for improvement, what their favourite products are and why… all kinds of nuggets that you can use to make your business more successful.

So there you have it. In a nutshell, Twitter can provide your business with yet another channel to inform and engage your current and potential customers – and every opportunity to do that is worth exploring. You will want to make sure, though, that you’re following the Twitter promotion rules for businesses. If you don’t use Twitter properly, you can end up being seen as a spammer and damaging your small business’ reputation. If you end up black listed then it’s very difficult to get back to just your starting point