Superpower 4
Build referrals
Twitter is an absolute boon for referral marketing, where word-of-mouth recommendations are simple, short, and fast, with the capacity to spread exponentially through user accounts and followers.
The best way to get a referral is to have someone on Twitter publicly recommend and talk about your product. This is an automatic endorsement to that person's Twitter followers, and therefore the message gets passed on to a community of like-minded people.
There are a few simple ways of ensuring that your brand or product gets discussed:
- Proactively seek out people talking about (or having conversations that relate to) your brand, product, or service. Reach out to them with a comment, a word of thanks, or a helpful suggestion. It's not easy to tell whether a Twitter user would feel comfortable with someone tweeting them out of the blue, but some will appreciate it and be happy to be noticed. Maintain a respectful distance, always be polite, and provide assistance whenever possible.
- Be sure to nurture and cultivate relationships with key influencers. Twitter celebrities with staggeringly large follower accounts are bombarded with requests and tweets everyday. Although getting a shout-out from one of them might be the ultimate coup, it could be just as useful to target the niche influencers with lower follower counts but substantial authority in their field of interest.
- Follow up, follow up, follow up. Once a user has tried out or purchased your product, or had their complaint or question resolved, send a follow-up tweet to keep in touch. If it's hard to keep track, set up a system for automatic follow-up such as Future Tweets, which allows you to schedule tweets for a future date and time.
- Provide opportunities for your followers to mention your product. Tweet interesting content of value that will encourage them to retweet and share it. Providing the occasional give-away, discount, or swag will definitely get a public and enthusiastic endorsement from the lucky follower.
These four basic tenets of Twitter marketing can become incredibly effective superpowers if managed the right way. Of course, all superpowers have their limitations. They won't matter if your audience -- your own personal Metropolis -- isn't even on Twitter. So before getting started, carry out a Twitter audit: Is a significant portion of your customer base present and active on Twitter? Do these include key influencers with large and engaged follower counts? Do you see potential for developing relationships and expanding your customer base?
If yes, be sure to take full advantage of Twitter's various superpowers to enhance your brand image and your customers' user experience. Feel free to experiment, but always be honest and authentic. Have fun connecting with your customers and watching the rewards pour in.
Madhuri Shekar is a freelance writer and new media research intern at Sony Pictures Television.
On Twitter? Follow Shekar at @madhuri567. Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.
