Finding Your Audience
Companies used to be able to find their audience with a look at their customer base, maybe peeking at the competition and folks could figure out their customer demographics: male, 40-50, likes sports, watches sports 5.5 hours a week.
That's dead now. That same audience now is just as likely to be on hulu.com rather than CBS, satellite tv rather than NBC, and using DV-R to scoot past commercials. Never mind cable, YouTube, and iphone. Then there's blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, and of course Twitter
40 Million Unique Users on Twitter
Your audience is on Twitter and if you're lucky they are talking about you on Twitter. Or at the very least and most likely, they are talking about your industry/sector/product.
- Define business goals
Twitter is a tool that can amplify what you want to say or do. So define that first - Listen
If your customers or potential customers are talking about competitors, listen. If they are complaining about you, listen. If they're sharing their experiences, listen. Once you get in the habit of listening, you'll find a Twitter-path. - Customer Service
Comcast has a full-on customer service page on Twitter for instant customer sevice, live and in public. Zappos is putting a human face to an entirely web-based store. Going back to Part 1, they are building trust and moving themselves from "me" to "we". - Learn
Boost Mobile found out on Twitter that the shortcodes weren't working. The complaints weren't coming into the call centers, but the complaints were loud and specific on Twitter. Companies that aren't listening for their names are missing an opportunity to build relationship. - Add metrics
Most likely with the help of a Social Media Specialist, layer some metrics and learn how you are influencing your sales, your image and your brand.
