There is no doubt about it, 2009 was the year that Twitter came into its own. It was everywhere. Suddenly the social network found itself transformed from a niche tool used to network and share idea among geeks to one of the biggest buzz words of the year. You couldn’t turn on the local news without there being shown random people’s “Tweets” about everything happening. Even Oprah made an account. The perception has quickly become that if your company or organization is not on Twitter you are falling behind. Twitter has reached critical mass.
So where does that leave us now and what does it mean for your organization? It’s important to remember that just because a social media tool is widely popular it still needs to fit into your organization’s marketing strategy. One of the main reasons a lot of social media initiatives fail is because tools like Twitter are utilized without a good strategy to back them up.
When using social media to engage with the consumer it’s always important to take a step back and ask yourself what your end goal is. Why are we here? What purpose does being on Twitter serve us? Remember, the end goal is to not have thousands of followers, it’s to have thousands of targeted followers who will engage in a two way communication with you and receive a real benefit from your interactions.
Your real ROI is achieved when those who are passionate about your brand find you and have a connection. One thousand followers who care about your brand and are truly engaged are worth 10,000 who are not. These followers are the ones who will Retweet you, participate in your promotions and spread the word about you.
Twitter is an amazing tool, but it’s just that, a tool. At the end of the day it takes creativity, forward thinking and an ability to take a step back and look at the big picture to make Social Media marketing work.
Not so different then any other successful marketing effort, really…