Twitter - the hottest social marketing phenomenon or just a waste of your valuable time? Many people just don't get Twitter, to them its people just wasting their time sending meaningless messages into the ether, such as "I'm going out tonight" or "Shall I wear the green or the red shirt?" To some people that's all it is and all it will ever need to be.
But to the online marketer, it offers untold opportunities to interact with a potential new market.
If you are into internet marketing, and you are not using Twitter as one of your lead generation tools, you are missing out on a great resource which can drive traffic to your website, and best of all it's FREE and fun to use.
But how can I possibly use it to help me to market, I hear you say? Well, it's all about building relationships and trust, which, as I'm sure you already know, are two of the main criteria required when it comes to making lasting sales.
Doing this on Twitter is much the same as you would do on any social networking site.
First of all you need to follow people, and have people follow you.
When you are building your list, it makes sense to reply to people who have signed up to follow you, with a quick "thank you" message, and maybe asking a question about them.
This makes you seem like a regular person, rather than someone just desperately trying to sell them something.
Start conversations with people, send out interesting or funny articles, build relationships.
Don't use the hard sell, always only promoting your own deals, as this will only lead to you being un-followed very quickly, and therefore losing credibility, which is then so hard to regain.
What you are trying to achieve is to have people look at your other channels, such as Facebook and YouTube, and have them find out more about brand YOU.
As with the majority of sales, when the customer feels comfortable with the seller, they will, if offered correctly, invariably then buy something from them.
So, invite your followers to send you the details of their Facebook or YouTube accounts, whilst also sending them yours.
It's a percentage game, some of your followers will be curious and look for further information about you, and at this point a further percentage will click on your web site, allowing you to then capture their details as a potential customer.
From this simple process, you have generated yourself a free lead, and are on your way to building your list!