Twitter has grown enormously in quite a short time. Over that time this social media tool has developed to include direct messaging and hashtags, and a wide variety of third-party software has been developed to help individuals manage their accounts more easily. Twitter is also a good way for you to generate new online business.
One of the best ways to utilize Twitter as a prospecting tool is to use the hashtags feature. Twitter is a noisy place and there is a lot going on; therefore, it can be hard to stay on top of everything in your news feed. Having the right conversation with the right audience is an essential part of social media engagement, but finding the right people can be hard. This is where hashtags come into play. They are particularly useful as they give an indication of how someone is thinking or feeling; by using this information, you can create a positive and emotional response with Twitter users.
The first stage in starting to find prospects is to use the relevant hashtags. There are almost as many hashtags as there are tweets, so it is important to research and discover which are the most relevant tags for your campaign. If you're a social media marketer writing articles on how to blog effectively, for example, you might search for hashtags such as #writersblock or #bloggingproblems. Simply putting these hashtags into the search function will bring up a list of relevant tweets.
In addition to searching out hashtags, specific tags can be monitored on a constant basis. Not all conversations will be valuable; however, by paying attention to a filtered Twitter feed, effective consumer engagement is made far easier. It is also vital, of course, to add value to a conversation instead of just bombarding people with sales talk. Marketing messages should not be pushed; instead, relevant information should be provided. A key point to remember is that any reply needs to be treated with care and to be sincerely helpful; if there is any hint of an impending sales pitch, users are likely to be put off straight away.
If you're having difficulty finding Twitter prospects, you should utilize the platform as a listening tool instead. By taking the time to discover what audiences want, you can respond positively and boost your brand in the process.
