by tradesmeninsights | Jun 25, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Twitter
Beyond those who have signed up for your blog and those that reach you through organic searches, here are two ways I drive people to my blog.
1. Twitter. One of the applications, Tweetlater, allows you to pre-program when and what you want to tweet. I schedule tweets every hour during the business day and have got tremendous action. Twitter is by far my best source for page views.
2. LinkedIn Groups. One of the great advantages of LinkedIn, in my opinion, is that it’s more of a business site and you can join groups of like-minded folks. For example, I belong to the Industrial Marketing Mavens, E-Marketing Association and Sustainable Construction Groups. Each week I go up and post what I think is a relative subject to that audience under the news section. I get great feedback from them. I also use the group’s discussion option to get feedback on questions or issues.
We even put together a media schedule so we know what’s tweeting when and what posts were put onto LinkedIn. This gives us another way of monitoring what’s bringing in the best results.
These are some ways I try to maximize my posts. I’d like to hear yours.
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by tradesmeninsights | Jun 15, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Twitter
B-to-B marketers are having a hard time figuring out the best way to use Twitter. If they understand that the people who are following them are obviously interested in them and their products, they’ve already pre-qualified themselves. Twitter has become my number-one source of activity to my blog.
Here are 5 ways I recommend using Twitter in a B-to-B setting:
- Share product and technical information: By putting up new product info, technical and other harder to obtain info on Twitter, you’re allowing tradesmen to keep up to date on information without distractions for search engines or even your web site.
- Drive people to your blog: One main objective is to get them to your blog, and Twitter is an ideal way of doing that. We use TweetLater to send out posts hourly during the business day. Our traffic has increased substantially since we started using this, and our followers have also increased.
- Keep up on competitors as well as what people are saying about you: We use Twitter Search as the tool to keep us informed. It’s fast and easy, much like Google Alerts. Wouldn’t you like to know who’s talking about buying something from your competitor?
- Share solutions for specific applications: Manufacturers can do everything from quick tips for tradesmen in the field, to best practices on how to get the most productivity in certain applications.
- Creating buzz at trade shows: This is relatively new, but is a great way to talk about the latest new widget at XYZ’s booth, and you really should stop by booth #2459. Obviously for this to work, you need to have a number of followers in that industry who are probably at the show. Even if they aren’t, you will have peaked their curiosity enough for them to look on your blog or web for more info on the product.
These are my top 5 ways…what are yours?
Here are a few more posts about Twitter that may be of interest to you:
Using Twitter in Customer Service
Use Twitter to Grow Your Brand
Twitter Search Benefits B-to-B Marketers
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 10, 2009 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Twitter
Twittering is truly becoming one of the most important ways to share content in the social media arena. Beyond the obvious 140 characters limitation, there was no way to share images (a picture is worth a 1000 words). Since Twitter doesn’t have an application for this, third party vendors have come up with options for us that work on Twitter.
I recently read a post by Josh Catone, 5 ways to share images on Twitter, that I thought was both interesting and insightful on his part. He outlines our options and gives an overview of each of his examples. Here are some highlights of his 5 ways:
- Via a Twitter image sharing service
- Via SMS or Email
- Via Brightkite or FriendFeed
- Via Skitch
- Via an Encoded Tweet
Obviously, image sharing is the next logical step for Twitter and will probably drive more Tweets because of it.
If you’re already into images, I’d like to hear which one you prefer.
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 9, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Twitter
Twitter is certainly the hot topic in the social media scene. Corporate executives, editors, financial analysts and community leaders, to mention a few, are all participating. From a PR standpoint, there’s great opportunity, but don’t get caught up with the thought that here’s another avenue we can use to pitch editors or analysts. Instead, think of it as a way to bring up awareness and start the process of building long-term relationships. Used correctly, Twitter can give you an advantage in the marketplace. Here are some tips on how to get involved:
- Sign up. To participate, you need to jump in. Signing up is easy.
- Identify Friends. You’ll want to find people with similar interests to follow and be followed. After you’ve found new friends, look at their lists and start following some of their followers.
- Following/Followers. With Twitter, you not only want to follow, but be followed. When someone goes to your Twitter account, they’ll look first at how many people are following you. This brings up your credibility. It’s important that if someone follows you that you should follow them back. Twitter has some automated programs that will do that for you, and also will unfollow those who quit following you.
- Listen. One of the most important aspects of all social media is listening. When you start, just watch what people are saying about you, your products or competition (use Twitter Search and put in key words).
- Jump in and start Tweeting. Once you feel comfortable, start talking. If you see an interesting post or article, link to it. When people respond or retweet your message, be sure to acknowledge them.
- Improve your writing skills. With a 140 character limit, you’re going to soon find out how to choose your words carefully, which is not a bad thing. Make your tweets clear and concise.
By using these tips, you should be off to a good start tweeting your way through life.
Here are a few more posts about Twitter that you might find interesting:
5 Tips for b-to-b marketers to get the most from Twitter
A guide to micro-blogging for the b-to-b marketers
Use Twitter to grow your b-to-b brands
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 1, 2009 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Twitter
I’m sure we all have stories of customer service experiences both good and bad. I’d bet you’ve had more bad than good experiences though. For manufacturers who sell to the professional tradesmen, these are even more challenging. Think about it for a minute, when do these guys have questions/problems? Usually it’s on a job site or out in the shop where they may or may not have access to a computer. If they do call, they may be on hold for what seems like an eternity and still not get an answer to their question.
You need to think outside the box. Twitter is an ideal tool to service your customers. Customer service departments are supposed to solve problems, reinforce a positive brand experience and not cost you an arm and leg to support.
- While phone calls may solve the problem, wait times do not. Twitter is almost instantaneous and can help solve most problems quickly.
- Brand experience. Great customer service gets talked about and can lead to more sales.
- Economical. Using Twitter often takes less time thus saving money.
Once you have an understanding of how Twitter can work, you can also easily track and monitor what people are saying about your brand.
Tweetbeep-Keeps track of contractor conversations that mention you.
Monitter-Lets you monitor the Twitter world for a set of key words and watches what people are saying about you.
Let contractors know how to know you’re there. Ask users to follow you on Twitter. Place a button on your web site in the customer service section so they know they can contact you in another manner.
Respond quickly and transparently. When you find a tradesman complaining about an issue, @reply them asking if you can help. If the problem is sensitive or the customer is highly upset, you can either direct a message to them or give them a quick way to contact you directly (direct line or your email).
Be engaged in the conversations. Twitter is a conversational platform. Contractors like to talk. This is an opportunity to build your brand.
Be authentic. Contractors are no dummies and if you try to pull the wool over their eyes, it will come back to bite you.
Twitter and social media are helping the way customer service is done. Think outside the box. Wouldn’t you want to be the first in your line of work to offer this as an optional customer service tool?
