In the history of social media, customers are finding that today’s channels offer the most popular way to communicate and connect with people online. Increasingly, shoppers turn to social media channels to look for advice, suggestions and reviews of products and providers. And because of Twitter’s open-forum platform, it is a great way to solicit input outside of a normal circle of friends and followers.
“This gives businesses a unique opportunity to turn Tweets into customers,” says Bernard Perrine, CEO and co-founder of SocialCentiv, a software-based marketing tool that helps businesses find customers on Twitter. “People who Tweet about something they want or need are looking for businesses to provide information, options and discounts. In fact, businesses that actively search for and directly reply to those consumers have a higher probability of ringing up a sale.”
For example, owners who hustle business on Twitter using SocialCentiv have found that they can respond to 30-50 leads per hour. And others have generated more than 40 customers per month by devoting just 10-15 minutes a day replying to Tweets that the software flagged based on keywords and location.
Sales vs. Engagement
The difference between engaging in relevant conversation on Twitter and random, high-pressure sales methods is perhaps the same experience you might get walking through a mall.
“It’s the difference between being accosted from someone at a kiosk wanting to demo a miracle hair product and walking into a beauty store looking for a recommendation on a hair care product,” says Perrine. “The first situation is ‘pushy’ because you have no need for that hair product at that given time. The latter is appreciated and helpful, because you were actively seeking a much-needed solution provided by the business."
Why Switch from Facebook to Twitter?
Many business owners use Facebook to engage with their customers socially – in fact, 94 percent of marketers, according to a recent report (SocialMediaExaminer). Contrast that with the 83 percent on Twitter. Why the difference? Perrine says Facebook has an intuitive ad platform that makes it easy for marketers to push information out to their target customer’s news feeds.
But Twitter has a lot of advantages:
• Twitter’s community is more active. More than 100 million daily active Twitter users post 500 million Tweets a day, according to a www.sec.gov filing. That means the average Twitter user posts five times a day, compared to Facebook users who post less than once a day (kissmetrics.com).
• Twitter reaches a different demographic. While the over 25 crowd is growing on Facebook (Time), teens are abandoning the channel for platforms, like Twitter, where their parents and their parents’ friends aren’t watching every move.
• Twitter gives you more for your money. Twitter drives more clicks than Facebook (MarketingProfs) and routinely outperforms Facebook ads (Wall Street Journal).
One SocialCentiv sports retailer says his early engagement attempts on Facebook only took him so far. “I only reached a small circle of people who already knew about us. SocialCentiv gives me the ability to reach outside my circle. Instead of broadcasting my business, I listen to who’s talking and find out what they need. There is a strong purchase intent to the conversations, and that’s an easy sale,” he says.
About SocialCentiv
In August 2014, HipLogiq integrated its portfolio of Twitter marketing applications under a single product line, SocialCentiv. Now, businesses can visit SocialCentiv.com and find a user-friendly, do-it-yourself Twitter marketing tool that makes it easy to create a campaign that tracks keywords and reaches relevant consumers with greater precision by targeting local Tweets. You can be part of the most relevant Tweets as they happen, spot opportunities first, and make a name for yourself with SocialCentiv.
Since May 2013, SocialCentiv has received $12M in two rounds of funding. For more information, go to www.socialcentiv.com like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
For more information, contact Karen Carrera, TrizCom, 972-207-1935, karen@trizcom.com or @kjcarrera.
