Even with all of the other big gun social media sites out there right now like Facebook and Pinterest … Twitter is still one of my favorite ways to connect with my target market and to build a relationship with them.  And there is a reason it is still one of my favorites … because it works.  Even with all the hype surrounding Pinterest as the new “have to use” social media site and Facebook portrayed as “taking over the world” … Twitter still has a huge impact and should not be ignored.  Not just for the media exposure available there but also for the mere fact that you can build a ultra large targeted following and literally connect with those people in seconds … the key to making it work is consistency and relationship building.

Here’s my 5 favorite ways to make sure you are being consistent and targeted with your Twitter time:

• Use twellow.com (Twitter’s yellow pages) to connect with powerful people in your industry, Twellow is a great place to research your target market on Twitter, it gives a short bio of each Twitter user registered there and also a summary of their Twitter activity including their category, bio, link to their website and number of followers
• Create Lists of the people you want to stay connected with so it is easy to follow what they are tweeting and easy to connect with them, categorize the lists by topic or interest
• Use Hootesuite to plan out your posts and monitor your account so that you can easily manage the “chaos” that is Twitter.  Twitter is a fast moving machine but using a system like Hootesuite can keep things in order for you and also save you time
• Set aside time each week to research and seek out new followers, consistency is key … I currently have over 30,000 followers on twitter and the reason I was able to do that is because I consistently take time each week to focus on building and following key people I want to connect with on Twitter (be proactive … don’t just wait for them to come to you … go out and network and connect)
• Build a relationship with your new followers daily, they key to any social media channel is the social aspect of it, in today’s social marketing world this is what makes it all work, people no longer want to deal with companies that don’t have a “Face” to them, they want to be able to talk with you, get to know you, learn to trust you …. the Know, Like, and Trust factor is huge.  (And ohhh how refreshing it is … I love that the world is coming back to relationships!)

When I talk to some of my clients about using Twitter they say  “I don’t use Twitter because it is too overwhelming” or it is “Too confusing and hard to sort out”, don’t fall into this trap and miss out on the great opportunities there to connect with your market.  The key to managing Twitter just like any other marketing system is using the right tools and systems to make it all make sense.

If you want more Twitter strategies make sure to check out my class I am offering next week:

My 10 step system to building 10,000 targeted Twitter followers in 90 days or less

Spend 2 hours with me and I’ll teach you everything you need to know to be successful with your Twitter marketing strategy!

To Your Success!

Kate Wilber

The Marketing Momma