Twitter is a social media channel that so many people don’t understand, but don’t underestimate it; it is a social stream that can certainly help build your business. Maybe not necessarily in the form of lead generation, but as a tool for market research and product knowledge, it can be extremely helpful.

Don’t get us wrong, there is also huge potential for you to gain sales and enquiry through this media, but it does take a little time and strategy. If you are going to have a Twitter account, it is important that you can invest into this campaign just as you would any other.

The team at Media Sound thought we would help you with some of the basics and get a better understanding of Twitter and how it can work for you. So here goes:

Who to Follow?
Think of who your core customers are? At Media Sound, we basically work for Australian businesses; so on Twitter, our strategy is to follow those businesses we think would find our services useful. They can see that I am following them, and they may choose to follow me back.

As a follower, I can read all their Tweets and find out more about their business, which gives us good inside information as to who they are, and how they operate. Great market research!

Replying to Tweets
When someone sends out a tweet, anyone who follows that person can reply to that Tweet – this is a great tool for building relationships and joining in on conversations.

@mentions
Want to give a shout out to one of your followers? Then you can do so by using @”username”. By putting the @ before the username will essentially act as a tag for them, and they will then be able to see their mention when they view their mention tab in Twitter. You are effectively giving your followers exposure, and building a relationship with them.

How Many Tweets per Day?
This is up to you? Realistically though, you only really need to send out about 3 – 5 tweets daily, and don’t make them all about you. Twitter is not a sales stream, so while you can use it to educate your followers, also use it as a means to give them valuable information that they will want to click through and read.

Also make sure to allow time to invest in Tweeting your followers. Twitter is all about building relationships.

Hashtags: What are they?
Everyone is talking about them, but what exactly is a hashtag? Basically, just like you can search people, you can also search terms that have a hashtag (#) in front of it. For instance, we would click on #telephoneonhold – and it will bring up all the tweets with this mention.

Remember, Twitter isn’t all about selling your product, it is about building brand awareness, but most importantly, it is about building relationships with your customers and listening to what they have to say also. Take the time to invest in reading their Tweets, and responding to them, and you will definitely see the advantages of Twitter and how it can help you.

While we are an audio advertising agency and specialise in the production of high quality radio commercials, television commercials, telephone message on hold programs and audio for basically any stream, we also have a very active social media presence. We would love you to come and be part of it. You’ll find us at www.twitter.com/media_sound.