Hey, notice something a little different? Copyblogger has a brand-new design, courtesy of our wonderful colleague, Rafal Tomal. Not only...
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We’ve been talking about this for a few weeks now, and we’ve just published our Content Confidence Checklist, a small...
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Twitter can be used for pretty much anything. You can launch a political campaign, start a non-profit hashtag movement, spy on your competitor, track down your long lost friend… it is a world of opportunities on a single open platform.
It is no surprise that people have been turning to it for professional uses over the years. Prospecting is one that has been a little controversial, with some claiming it is too quick and cluttered to build long-lasting business relationships.
I disagree; Twitter is a great tool for sales prospects and building leads, either on a B2C or B2B basis, if you know how to utilize it. Here are nine tips to help you do so.
This is the basic step but it’s so often overlooked. People you interact with on Twitter are your leads. People your competitors are interacting with can also be your leads.
Once you start recording and organizing these leads, you’ll see a lot more ROI from your Twitter activities. No need to invest in an expensive customer relationship management software. You can have great results with free tools. This free CRM platform from Hubspot is a great option to organize your social media leads.
Hashtags are going to be your number one resource in finding prospects. The tricky part is discovering which ones to watch, because while some are obvious, others aren’t so much.
There is this awesome list by MarketerGizmo that has every single marketing based hashtag you could want, and it is a great place to start. Here are also marketing Twitter charts that will connect you to relevant prospects. You will want to get more creative, by search out targets and seeing what they tend to use, then branching from there. But that list will give you some solid leads.
Once you know what hashtags to use, it is time to begin tracking them. A social media dashboard is crucial for this, so you can get alerts or see all mentions in a single place. I have used several in the past, including Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, and both are pretty good.
There is nothing I hate more than someone who approaches me as a prospect and it is super obvious that the only thing they are looking to do is sell to me. It makes them seem like a spam bot, and I am not going to waste my time on a programmed advertisement.
You will find that most people feel this way. The only tried and true method of breaking through to a prospect on social media is to engage them in a genuine way. You have to add something to the conversation, give them a reason to take notice and interact.
Twitter is one of the best platforms for this, because it is open and people are expecting to engage. Just make sure you are giving them something to engage with.
Obviously your competitors are looking for prospects just like you are, and are probably having their own success. Since you work within the same industry, you are both going after the same kind of targets.
By looking at who they have managed to capture (and just seeing who it is they are wanting to get in the first place), you can start making a list of potentials yourself. You may even narrow down a new pool to fish from.
Live events are obviously a great way to find prospects, especially conventions meant to connect industry participants with one another on a professional level. If you want to find those events, Twitter is a great place to keep an eye out.
Announcements are common, and you can find hashtags to popular events using a database like Twubs.
Often people will just straight up ask for recommendations on services, products or companies. You can watch for those using your social media dashboard, so you are alerted when they do. Just have it watch for combinations of things like “recommend [Subject]” or “Anyone know [Subject]”.
You can swoop in and save the day.
Everyone on social media wants followers, but they don’t spend nearly enough time community building. Guess what? That is a HUGE mistake, especially for anyone who is hoping to find prospects.
An active and dedicated community gives you an introduction to these targets and ensures you will never be going in cold.
Influencers are everything on Twitter. Some celebrities have created careers more on their Twitter profiles than anything else. So you should never underestimate the power they hold, especially when prospecting.
Just imagine having an influencer with 100k followers on your side, promoting you or your brand. Then imagine going to your targets and being able to say, “Me and BIG SHOT INFLUENCER PERSON actually discuss it here [link].”
The more influencers you have behind you, the more impressive it looks. Better yet, why not work to become an influencer yourself?
Social prospecting is becoming more and more popular, and Twitter is a great place for it. The open nature of the platform gives you more access than Facebook, and it is more populated than Google Plus or LinkedIn.
Have any tips you think should be added to the list? Let us know in the comments!
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If there were such a thing as the Ten Commandments of Marketing, “You are not your audience” would likely make the top five. And for good reason: Generally, it’s solid advice. “You are not your audience” reminds us to question assumptions and never stop learning about the people we aim to persuade. But I have
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Traditionally, proofreading is a separate task from editing. And I still treat the two as different activities. However, the creative benefits of a consistent proofreading process surpass the classic definition of proofreading. Modern content marketers can take advantage of proofreading to avoid the all-too-common extremes of caring too little or too much about your content.
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We all have checklists on the mind lately, gearing up for the release of the small but mighty Content Confidence Checklist (look for it in the next week or so). It’s got us thinking about processes and lists to improve our creative output. On Monday, Stefanie Flaxman gave us the Meticulous Blogger’s 12-Step Publishing Checklist,
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Good old Google. They do like to keep life interesting for web publishers. You may have heard rumblings about a recent update that wreaked havoc on a lot of “your money or your life” sites — the ones that talk about health, fitness, finances, or happiness. That update appeared to look at the credibility of
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There is something both tragicomic and cathartic about trying to assume the dispositions of incredibly successful and prolific authors when you’re staring at a blank page. But what better way to procrastinate than to live vicariously through the habits and productivity secrets of renowned writers of yore. A brief tour of the scribe Hall of
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After I deglamorized good ideas, I started thinking about other topics to dissect. Content quality quickly came to mind. So, for a change, this post is not about creating content. It’s about all the care behind the scenes that makes great content possible. Let’s look at 12 important steps meticulous bloggers consistently follow when they
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There are a lot of reasons why I dislike the term content marketing, but the most important one is that it’s vague. Are we talking about a YouTube “let’s play” gaming video? A clever tweet from a big brand? Or maybe a blog post or podcast episode? Because that word content is there, the content
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OK, I’m just going to say it. In today’s world, publishing second-rate content is a total waste of time. There’s no point in contributing to the growing pile of mediocrity. It wastes your time, and, worse, it wastes your audience’s time. Sometimes I’ll see a marketer complaining that: “I spent two years doing all of
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I never realized just how important it was to connect content with business goals until I had a particular conversation with a client. The client, excited to get started on blog content together, had a running list of topics for me to cover. But then something strange happened. When I asked for background information on
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When you run a content marketing platform, you’ll get other types of messages from your audience in addition to blog comments. You’ll get emails. Many people have a love/hate relationship with email. When it’s good, it’s really good — but when it’s bad, managing your inbox feels like a huge waste of time. But like
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Okay, maybe not “ruthlessly.” But we all have lots of things we need to get done, and that means we need smart strategies to work efficiently — without compromising quality. This week, we shared some adjustments you can make to your systems that will help you kick your productivity into a higher gear. If we’re
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In the last few years, content marketing has become the marketing approach that all the cool kids are supposed to be doing. Coca-Cola is doing it, IKEA is doing it, Copyblogger has been doing and talking about it for more than 10 years now. So it’s a no-brainer, right? Except, uhhhh, what is it exactly,
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When I sat down to write this post, I drew a blank. I knew what I wanted to write about, but the words just weren’t there. My head was empty — a smooth, cavernous zilch. So I answered some emails. And then I went to the gym. After the gym, I headed for a coffee
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I think the best way to introduce the topic of this post is to remind you that my favorite word is No. At the risk of sounding no-fun, I like rules. If you’re in a position to set rules for any given situation, they can help you reach solutions to issues faster and avoid future
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Sometimes, we’re fearless with our writing and content. We know what we want to say, and we pour it onto the page with passion and courage. Other times … not so much. Nerves or a lack of confidence can keep you from publishing excellent work. This week, we’ve got three resources that will get more
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Recently, a writing student asked me about the dilemma of keeping to a publishing schedule, even when you can see all of the flaws in your own writing. How can we publish content every week, or even every month, when we still have so much to learn? Most of us run into this sometimes —
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