4 Tips for Start Selling through Twitter
If selling online is not easy at all, selling through social networks is even a more complex job, because we don’t have the needed previous experience in order to push the right keys. From all the possibilites, most merchants prefer Facebook as a social storefront just because Facebook offers the possibility of integrate a complete storefront that may generate sales. By the other hand, other Social Networks such as Twitter, doesn’t allow any kind of storefront integration, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot generate sales through that channel. Just review some tips to be able to use Twitter as a complimentary sales channel to your online storefront or business website.
Be concise on your Twitter profile
Your profile should state concisely what you do and what you sell. Don’t be ambiguous, be as clear as you can. Link your webpage, let it be your homepage or your blog, what is important is that you connect your twitter account with your business website. Some nice examples:
- @instabill_com: International payment processor helping online business grow with #ecommerce tips and the latest news stories. Check out our blog at http://blog.instabill.com
- @Shopify: A fully hosted e-commerce shopping cart provider preferred by over 20,000 stores worldwide. Quickly and easily create a beautiful online store with Shopify
- @KISSmetrics: Official KISSmetrics Twitter account. Our online software helps online business turn analytics into insights that guide decision-making and growth
Whether using a inspiring phrase or making it explicit, you should tell your followers what you can offer and what should they expect from your Twitter account. If you include a link directly to your business website, it’s better to design a specific landing page, where you can offer them a freebie or a discount in their purchase if you’re an ecommerce business. For instance, some big companies such as Dell, have embraced this concept with very good results.
Grow a Community Focused on Similar Interests
After you design your profile, you need to “get followers”, and start connecting with your potential targets. But Twitter, as any other social networking sites, is not about collecting followers. You connect with people and brands, so you must be of interest to them. Start analyzing what worries and concerns your target audience, and grow a community around those topics. Some examples:
- @ElasticPath is a digital commerce technology provider, so their target audience are ecommerce websites and professionals. They tweet a lot of stuff about ecommerce, online marketing and a lot of tips to increase your sales and conversions.
- @HarvardBooks is Harvard Square’s landmark indie bookstore, and they tweet about authors, books, and events they organize in their bookstore.
- If you’re an important brand, such as American Apparel, then probably your followers would want to know about your products, trends, etc.
And don’t forget that Twitter is an excellent customer service channel, to notify your users any incidence, or answer their questions and problems. A good example is @Rewinery, who are always answering comments, and a few days ago, had to notify their users they ran out of stock and could not make more sales that day (that means they’re doing great for being an startup).
Redirect your Followers to your Web
A blog is the best friend of Twitter, because it’s a perfect tool to connect twitter with your business website or ecommerce website. Use your blog to write about what concerns to your potential customers, and tweet your posts. You’ll be redirecting traffic to your website and allowing your followers to discover your business. If you sell attractive products, you should also tweet about them, or tweet about discounts, offers, or whatever may be interesting for your followers and is hosted in your website. You should take care about balancing comercial tweets, with informative content about your sector and news. If you only tweet about your products and offers, you may loose a lot of followers because your timeline would not be attractive to them.
Offer Something Interesting to your Followers
Try to offer your followers something interesting, and if it is possible, something they can’t get directly from your website. For example, you can create special coupon codes for your Twitter followers, so you can reward the users that are following you. If you are able to grow a twitter community of followers, then it would be easier for you to attract them to your website. And giving them something they will appreciate, it’s one of the more effective strategies for that.
