How to market using Twitter Driving profits with 21st Century communications tools

People don’t realize Twitter’s power for marketing. They haven’t even conceptualized it yet. It is 21st Century communications. Most marketers are thinking 20th Century press releases, advertising or direct mail.

Yesterday I used Twitter to drive my daily blog traffic to a level it’s never seen. I had as many hits in one hour as I do on most full days.

I just heard a Wells Fargo ad saying the economy has changed. It hasn’t. There is an upheaval at the beginning of every century. In the 20th Century farm boys moved to the industrial Great Lakes, giving us Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Today, the office has moved to the laptop and Twitter. Marketing has changed, not the economy. You need buzz, not press releases.

The City of Phoenix won an All American City award. They used press releases. I didn’t hear about it until I was in City Hall and saw the poster. They had not created “buzz.”

Let me explain how you use Twitter to market. Say you’re DiMarzio and coming out with a new guitar pickup.

First, you send a blast to everyone following you. You go to your Web page you want people to visit, create a link, like http://tinyurl.com/mm8ysk (I’m using DiMarzio’s Super Distortion pickup because I have one on a guitar I built – better than any custom built Fender and I will discuss selling it, see it at http://guitarcollector.blogspot.com/).

I’m using Tiny Url to compress the link, because on Twitter you only have 140 characters and you want to make the most of them. I realize I’m a dinosaur and there’s more advanced tracking sites for compressing links. Use what you like.

This is the great thing. Measurement and tracking of marketing tools via the Internet have blossomed in the past six months.

So I’ve reached all my followers with my blast. Now I want to reach all those I’m following. Okay, Miley Cyrus or Ellen Degeneres are not going to care about my new guitar pickup. Adding them is going to piss them off and make you seem like a spammer. Yet Epiphone, who I do follow, will want to know.

So I do a short blast – New DiMarzio guitar pickup premiers 2day http://tinyurl.com/mm8ysk @epiphone @fender

A tip here. If you start your Tweet with @name it goes to that person, but you miss a broader Twitter audience. Go to the above paragraph to see how I did it. You want to incorporate key words that will be picked up by people doing a search on Twitter and key words that will get picked up by search engines. In a week you’ll see your Tweet on tons of Web sites for some reason.

Okay, done with who you follow, covered your followers now it is time to hunt big game. Think of this as television advertising. A waste of resources but you still do it. Ashton Kutcher has two-million followers. You go to a Web site that lists the top Twitter members. You’ll find it. I can’t do everything for you – or blow your nose. Some things you need to learn on your own – or pay me to do them for you.

Here’s where you do the blast to those with the most followers - New DiMarzio guitar pickup premiers 2day http://tinyurl.com/mm8ysk @aplusk @theellenshow @britneyspears @oprah. So you’ve done your equivalent of print, television and radio advertising. As I said before, you may upset these people, but they get so many of these they totally ignore Twitters. Yet those who follow will see it.

Now it is time to do your targeted marketing. Go to Twitter and do a search. We’ll use guitar.

Okay, lots of Guitar Hero references, but you look for things like this: egnateramps Zach says: I went to Guitar Center on a whim and treid out the Egnater 4100 full-stack. I immediately fell in love with the amp.

tastydiane @randomnicole I've got a beautiful Fender Jagstang in mint condition if you are in the market for a great guitar. http://tinyurl.com/yk3bx5

So you do your blast - New DiMarzio guitar pickup premiers 2day http://tinyurl.com/mm8ysk @tastydiane @randomnicole @egnateramps

Hopefully these new contacts will end up following you.

There’s tons of Twitter tools out there. So if you’re ignoring Twitter, consider that fact alone. Spend a little time searching them. One tool I use is blogsearch.google.com. I have found no other tool for searching blogs – which a normal search will not discover.

A few final last words. I have followers I need to use Yahoo’s babel fish with (again, I can’t do your work for you). Here’s how Epiphone handled it:

EpiphoneRT @ishibashimusic: 【石橋楽器店】Epiphone Marshallアンプセットにトランプが付いてきます http://bit.ly/KdUu5

She’s won the very first Marketing Sociologist award for her 21st Century marketing techniques. Let’s look: ashleytisdalehttp://twitpic.com/bx2gk - At the Today Show and we haven't even gone on yet, looks like my band hasn't gotten their beauty sleep

On this one, a word of warning. Always make sure your links work.

Please post a comment on your ways of using Twitter to market; or @phoenixrichard.