Tweet Tweet, Tweet-a-dee-lee-da-lee eet

Promote by Tweeting

By Shannan DuShane
May 13, 2013

Lately I’ve been approached by a lot of my clients asking the question – “how does twitter work for my industry and how can I use it to promote my products and services, I see people utilizing it but don’t think it is for me?”
This is a great question because many business owners never take into account that twitter can actually reach more of your target audience than Facebook some of the time.  Facebook is great and you have your marketing tools, paid ads and graph searches and such but unless someone finds your page, stumbles over it on a friend’s page or the page is suggested to you, or you are a fortune 500 company that people seek it out, it probably won’t be found automatically like a search engine.  Now Facebook and Twitter do have some similarities and I do not suggest one over the other, my solid marketing belief is that you need to use both in conjunction to each other to support your marketing efforts.

Twitter is a micro blogging community based across the world, basically you can broadcast short burst messages to the world, several times a day, week, month, ect… You have to post more often than other social media platforms and you can repurpose content each month if needed due to the high rate of feeds (links) that come through.  This is where most people get frustrated, they don’t want to write more original content…you don’t have too; this is where you filter and feed the content you already wrote for your blog, guest blogs, websites, articles, ect., at different times of the day and days of the week to make sure that you are covering all of your hot posting times to get in front of your audience.

As with both Facebook and Twitter you can use paid promoted ads as a benefit to select a more specific audience.  By “tweeting” your latest blog article or website promotion, a discount of services or coupon for a product the more your post will go viral and that is where you want it to go, if you keep it to yourself you are not helping your marketing initiatives.  

Today's goal try TWEETING you might like it (unlike green eggs and ham) And if you are completely busy like any other business professional you might want to look into using a management service such as Hootsuite to help manage your time and full social media efforts.

Shannan DuShane is an independent blogger, marketing specialist and graphic designer in the Grand Rapids area. She is a social media specialist, marketing enthusiast, and network fanatic. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter,Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+ FourSquare  Instagram

Hot Marketing Tips

Marketing Strategies: What’s Hot & What’s Not

By Shannan DuShane

May 11, 2013
    

Tip #1 Socialize

Social media is about connecting and generating awareness with your niche: customers, potentials, critics, and people who are interested in what you do. It is all about building rapports and networking, not selling, although that does come as a result.

Listen. Learn. Listen. Listen Again. Identify your ideal clients and find them on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn, and start following them! Spend weeks listening to them; you’ll be amazed what they will tell you about their concerns, their ideal products, and their current frustrations. It’s a great way to get open honest market research.

Stay tuned for more marketing tips.



Shannan DuShane is an independent blogger, marketing specialist and graphic designer in the Grand Rapids area. She is a social media specialist, marketing enthusiast, and network fanatic. Feel free to connect with Shannan on Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, Instagram and Google+

Networking Habits

Developing Awesome Networking Habits

By Shannan DuShane

May 10, 2013

Everyone has a different perspective on effective marketing and sales techniques but there are a few standardized habits that everyone should know and pursue, no matter who you and what industry you are in, if you have been in sales for 1 year or 10 years; all of these methods will pertain to your business. 

Make it a point to contact a few new people per day whether via email, phone, written letter, or at a networking event; when you extend out of your comfort zone and influence new people every week, that would be over 300 new contacts or more per year. Now we all know that about 1 in every 10 people might get back to you, the point is that they you are visible to them and they now know you are there for assistance if needed.

Now is the time to follow up with your new contacts, but remember there are good and bad times to start following up. Normally when you call a contact or email them you are expecting some sort of recognition of that email or phone call to be the next step for an invitation to meet one to one to pursue further business transactions. This doesn’t always pan out. Remember that everyone is business and don’t take it personally, and don’t bug them repeatedly if you don’t hear back from them. Let them know that you would enjoy to getting to know them better and would like to know if it was ok to add them to your mailing list.  This will ensure that you stay at the forefront of their thoughts.

Rejection or Dismissal of your method is nothing new, this happens all of the time, I’ve been in sales for over 6 years and I almost come to expect the hesitation and rejection of the notion of a sale, this is a very healthy and positive outlook on being in a marketing and sales position, this will teach you that maybe there are different methods of getting consumer and different industry’s attention; besides everyone is busy and you are not the only one trying to get their attention.

Different methods of grasping their attention can be of the utmost importance, not every business owner or ceo will take to the first method of introduction unless they sought you out first.  Just remember you didn’t fail, you just need to get out there and be as visible as you can without being a pest. If you’ve already called them, try following up with an email or written letter and leave it there for them to take the next step.  Follow up in a month or so and leave it alone. 

Shannan DuShane is an independent blogger and graphic designer and a Marketing Director for the past 12 years. She is a social strategist, marketing enthusiast, internet specialist, and networking fanatic. You can normally find Shannan at numerous local networking events and conventions, or at sporting events and with her family. 

Feel free to connect with Shannan on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.