Do you really need to Twitter?

Posted: 18 Jul 09 at 00:07

There's growing pressure for businesses to take to Twitter to expand their marketing efforts. Why? Well, there's a suggestion that it's a low-cost way to enhance a brand in a world where budgets are tightening. And that there's potentially a huge audience out there ripe and ready to receive your messages, runs the argument. Mostly, though, I suspect, there's a belief that you should use it simply because it's there. All those people, chattering away – surely there must be a useful thing to harness it to sell more product?

Twitter is just the latest in a whole range of social media that we are advised to use for (subtle) campaigning, such as Facebook, MySpace et al, as well as the more overtly professional communities such as LinkedIn and Ecademy. Contributing regularly to all these communities, not to mention writing a twice-weekly blog, is going to be massively time-consuming. Is the value of tweeting worth the time expended?

A study from Marketingprofs, covered by BizReport, argues that Twitter isn't a social medium at all, but is being used by people trying to find information in a timely way. Therefore anyone using Twitter for marketing should be providing information that is timely, pertinent and provides useful information. Special offers are a good example. Companies who provide this sort of information are more likely to develop a loyal following than those who spread random and irrelevant information around the network.

There is also an argument that listening on Twitter is an important activity. If there are people out there talking about your brand, then you need to know – especially if they are making complaints. With the speed that conversation travels around the network, being able to answer criticisms, or at least let people know that you're aware, is very good PR.

On the downside, Twitter has not yet settled down into a stable community. Nielson reports on its blog that more than 60% of US users fail to return the next month. If that's true, trying to build up a community of followers for your brand is going to be tough. Every message you put out on Twitter is going to have to appeal to new and established readers.

That said, Forrester has found that 91% of North American and European technology decision-makers use social media, with 69% claiming they are using it for business purposes. Forrester believes that if you're a B2B marketeer and you're not using social media, you are late. Precisely because these tools are still immature, they give you the chance to stand out. Integrate social marketing with your more traditional approaches, says Forrester.

 If you have the time or the resources, there are interesting reasons to get tweeting. If you're a large corporate with a brand to protect, Twitter is important. If you're a small business, you'll need to invest time in learning and conversing, but if you think it's for you, it's here. Karen Purves at Havemoreclients offers a guide to getting started.

Tags: twitter, seo, the web

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