How to Use Twitter in a Marketing Campaign

Goofy as the name sounds, Twitter can be a seriously effective public relations tool for your business. But transforming 140 characters into PR success isn't as easy as it sounds.

Here are five tips to help you make sure your Twitter marketing campaign is a success.

1. Establish Your Web Presence First

Twitter is a conduit rather than a destination. One major reason to attract followers to your Twitter feed is to direct them to other worthwhile places such as your website or Facebook page. That may mean “retweeting” reports on a hot trend in your industry; steering followers to Facebook to get a discount code for your products; or perhaps sending people directly to your website to participate in a contest or a survey. Twitter is just one leg of a three-legged stool. Establish the other two legs, your company website and Facebook page, before using Twitter.

2. Develop a Long-Range Plan

Twitter is free, but it requires at least a three-year emotional investment to develop and maintain your audience. Be sure you can keep up the momentum for the long haul by developing a long-range plan. Remember, if you shut down and then try to open up again sometime later, people may not come back to follow you because they won’t want to be left hanging again.

3. Let Staffers Help

If you’re not comfortable tweeting yourself, you can have a junior staffer who is more Internet-savvy tweet for your company with supervision. The tweets can be written and approved in advance. That staffer should not masquerade as you or another top executive though. You might consider creating a profile for your brand and having the staffer write interesting tweets in the third person. The Twitter profiles of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are two great examples of this. Rather than seeing the word “I” in these tweets, you’re more likely to see wording such as, “Interesting photo of the 2011 subway plan” and a link to related information. One PR firm that specializes in food accounts, Cuttlefish Ink, created a communal Twitter account, named it @AppetiteForInk, and invited all of its staffers to keep it alive with tweets.

4. Maintain Dialogue

Once you start your Twitter conversation, be sure to keep it going or you’ll lose followers. Use Twitter to share links to the trends and news you follow during the normal course of doing business day to day. The downside is that once you open a dialogue, you’ll find out that not everyone loves your company. You may get complaints. But you must respond. Consider something along the lines of “XYZ business appreciates your comments. Here’s what we can do for you …” Since the viral growth of a negative post can be exponential, it’s best to make an extra effort to nip the problem in the bud. By the same token, if you do well by a customer, that viral communication can work for you. Cuttlefish founder, Shira Loyer, says everyone in the agency receives an alert when there is activity on @AppetiteForInk so they can respond quickly.

5. Focus on Others

It’s not just who follows you on Twitter, it’s who you follow. Following relevant people demonstrates you understand an industry or field. Remember not to be the bore at the party who talks only about himself. A general rule of thumb is one tweet about yourself to every nine that are not. Retweeting is a great option for sharing impressive observations made by others and for logging your concern for an issue or development. 

In her 16 years as a PR professional, Barbara Goldberg has helped clients in health care, alternative energy, and the performing arts tell their stories in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CBS News, ABCNews.com, and many other media outlets.