Hi Guys, this is a guest post on Maynaseric.com by Ken Ramirez from Axsys Technology Group. Ken mentioned to me that he had a web presentation about social media earlier this week and I thought it was pretty awesome. In this post, Ken talks in depth about how to drive traffic to your own website harnessing the power of Twitter and how it can benefit your business. Enjoy!
In this post, I want to provide you with some information and tools about how you could be using Twitter (a social media website) to drive traffic to your own website. However, if this is the first time you’ve seen our company or my name, you’re probably wondering who we are, what we do, and why you should read and follow anything we have to say, so first, let me provide you a short paragraph or two of what we do.
About Us
I’ve been involved in the IT industry for more than 20 years as a developer and website designer, and have worked with technologies from C++ in the old days, to Java, and PHP in recent times. I’ve also written for many of the industry’s publications, include IBM developer works and Java Developer’s Journal (just to name a few). My company, Axsys Technology Group provides:
- Website design and development services
- Premium website hosting services
- E-Marketing services (including Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing)
So now that you know a little about me and my company, let’s get started with social media, Twitter, and how to drive traffic to your own website.
Advantages of Social Marketing
There are a number of advantages when it comes to marketing your website using Social Media Marketing (or SMM):
- You’re able to become a resource of others (including your potential customers) to use when they need answers. You potential customers want to go to the person that has the answers, an expert in the field. They want the expert in the field to provide the product or service for them.
- Since most social media websites provide you with the ability to upload or provide content and furthermore, make it available forever, it becomes searchable and discoverable. This places an large advantage on your side, by allowing others to find your website or company via the content that you’ve left behind on other social media websites.
- By strategically leaving some information around about your services or products, you also create buzz. Furthermore, if you have a few of your customers leave some feedback around on some of the social websites, you extend that buzz to their friends, family, and customers, and soon, they too become your customers.
- By connecting with your potential clients on these social websites, you tend to view their emotional feelings about certain things. You can then use that information to your advantage. Some clients wear their emotions on their sleeve (especially on Twitter). For example, if I know that someone I’m working with is very conservative from the things they write on their social websites about themselves, it gives me a better idea of what kind of website designs to present to them.
- As you land one or two clients from a social network, you quickly start to land more because those few clients will go back and spread the word about what a great job you did for them. Nothing spreads faster than the power of words on a social website, again, especially Twitter. It can make you or break you very easily.
- You’ll have a great platform for placing your branding and your company’s identity.
- You’ll also be able to reach outside of your own market by using the Internet to reach other cities, other states, and even other countries.
- Potential clients like to meet you and/or your employees before dealing with you. They like to get to know the people behind a company, before they deal with the company itself. Social websites allow them to do just that, so because what you post and what you write about.
- If you need a service or product from another business, it’s much easier to find them online using social websites. At the same time, it also presents a great way to spy on your competition and see what they’re up to.
- Essentially, social media websites help you to understand who your customers are and builds trust between you and your customers.
What Is Twitter?
In a nutshell, it allows you to answer the question:
“What Are You Doing?”
Twitter provides the means for “micro-blogging”. It’s considered micro-blogging for 2 reasons. One, you can only write your posts using 140 characters or less, and two, it’s more interactive and more often performed, than creating a post for a regular blog.
Twitter provides the means for others to follow you and read your micro-posts and allows you to follow those individuals that you find interesting and wish to learn more about. Some ask:
“Is this micro-blogging or micro-stalking?”
Either way, Twitter provides the platform for you to potentially connect with others and has the set of advantages that I listed out above.Many of you may have attended social gatherings, conferences, or business-to-business lead generation meetings where you’ve been able to connect with other businesses and/or potential customers to learn about their needs and to see how they might be able to use your services or purchase your products.
The problem with that platform is that you’re restricted by both location and time. You have to be there within a time-frame, and you have to be at a particular location. Once you arrive, you normally move from group to group to determine the best conversation to participate in. Once you find a conversation that you can contribute to, you spend some time waiting for the right opportunity to introduce your services or products to the other participants.
Using Twitter for business marketing, works very much the same way, except, you’re not restricted by either time or place. In fact, if done correctly, you can even jump into a conversation that may have started hours or even days ago. It’s kind of like a social gathering that never ends (even if you run out of things to say or add to the conversation). It also isn’t bound by location. You could be talking to three different people at the same time on three different continents.
The above presentation will provide you with answers to using Twitter for drive traffic to your website by following a few simple steps and rules. I have also provided you with a list of tools that you should be sure to check out and use.
Above all, be careful what you say on Twitter (especially if you use it for business), don’t just talk about yourself or your services. Don’t send auto-replies that simply advertise your products or services. Don’t brag about yourself; let others do the bragging for you. Be as helpful as possible and in return, your readers and potential clients will become dedicated followers.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I’ve known Ken and Axsys Tech Group for awhile now (I discovered him in the ‘social media realm’ – go figure) and this is a great “tutorial” on how to use social media for your brand. My advice, though, is that you engage in social media at your own risk, so its prudent to do it carefully. People don’t want to be sold to or preached at or incessantly pitched product information. Instead, they want to be engaged. They want people and brands with whom they interact to be sincere, genuine and even giving, in some instances.
People who jump onto social media platforms and start instantly selling often find themselves making no headway.
Bottom line, sometimes it helps to hire someone to help you who actually knows what they are doing. Maybe your brand is worth that!