As a Calgary Web Design firm, we often discuss website marketing with our clients throughout a project – be it a website design project, an upgrade or a general site review. Many business owners we talk with have indeed heard of Twitter – potentially know that their customers use the technology to talk with friends, but many don’t understand the benefits of what Twitter can offer their businesses.

Twitter is what we call a web 2.0 technology which allows users to type in short messages, known as Tweets, up to 140 characters in length. These Tweets then go to a list of subscribers called ‘followers’ who are interested in hearing from you and can be re-Tweeted to their friends if it sounds of interest. These messages are short in nature and are accessed either at a users computer or directly their phone.

In today’s competitive marketplace, its more important than ever that your business stand out from your competition, be informative and build a community of loyal (and repeat) customers. Your customers also want to better identify with you, so its increasingly important that your customers get to learn and understand you better.

After all, what if your competition is informing customers (potentially your own customers) with better information, faster and encourages the sale before you have a chance to react?


So how would your business succeed more by using Twitter?

Your Calgary Web Design company will agree – information is key online and demonstrating your industry knowledge is key to gaining followers.  Keep posting relevant information to your industry and tie this in with your other marketing efforts – display the Twitter logo and your link on your website, print advertisement, in-store signage, mail-outs, etc.  You can also yourself follow industry-related sources on Twitter and re-Tweet messages that apply to your consumers to continually keep them informed.

As you continue to build your market base of Twitter followers, you can keep them informed of promotions which they might enjoy – or possibly highlight a promotion that applies only to them, with a link to your site as an incentive to come to your Calgary (or other) location.

Imagine sending out a message in the traditional sense – be it a sales message, promoting a new product or service, or perhaps hyping a limited time offer – typically involved doing a radio advertisement, a print flyer, signage at your location or perhaps a banner ad or highlight on your website.  You used to either spend a lot of money (with the hopes that it might reach your audience) or hope that your existing customers would return to your location/website to participate.

Now imagine if you had a legion of dedicated (and qualified) followers who are interested in hearing from you. They’ve already identified that they’re interested in learning from you more about your industry, so consider them a good positive lead in terms of being your customer.  Now imagine posting your sales message or highlighting a new product or service with a link straight to your website which they would get in real-time.  Now imagine if your Twitter follower re-Tweeted and forwarded this message to their friends, then onto their friends…  this would be the online marketing equivalent of friends favorably talking about your business to other friends with a click of a button.


Does Twitter actually work for business?

One online case study which is often referred to, is an example of coffee shop business (without a website) which used Twitter to double their clientele:
http://blog.mrtweet.com/twitter-to-go-how-one-local-coffee-shop-used-twitter-to-double-his-clientele

Things you can do to integrate Twitter into your business aspects to grow your online presence and results:

  • Use regular Tweets to demonstrate that you’re a leader of knowledge in your industry.
  • Broadcast a Twitter Promotion or promote an ongoing promotion linking to your site to encourage sales
  • Display your Tweets on your website or Blog to keep your audience that much more in-tune with industry news
  • Connect your Blog posts/feeds to Twitter to keep your audience up-to-date

One important thing about Twitter though which should be recognized – as with real world relationships with customers in your store, always be courteous to your users. If you only blast out sales promotions, your customer base will consider that to be spam and could stop following your Tweets.  It’s always good to mix up with both sales focuses as well as useful information for your audience.

Interested in learning more about Twitter and getting your business started? Contact your Calgary Web Design company today!