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We wrote recently about how up-and-coming social network Pinterest can drive traffic for businesses, gaining your business more exposure and subsequently increasing enquiries. Another great driver of traffic can be Twitter, which this post will examine from a marketing perspective.

Depending on the size and budget of your company, there are many different ways to approach marketing on Twitter. If you’re a multinational company with a lot of financial backing behind social media, you could consider a sponsored account, which costs a minimum of $5,000 per month.

If you don’t quite have that kind of financial muscle, but still want to get your business out there in the Twitterverse, don’t despair. There are plenty of bloggers, entrepreneurs and small businesses who have made a success of the Twitter platform.

The value of your Tweets really resides in your reach, and your reach is determined by the number of followers you have. Clearly, a tweet from Stephen Fry or Charlie Sheen is far more valuable than a tweet from the average Twitter user. Blogger Phil Bradley recounts how a retweet from Neil Gaiman (with 1.5 Million followers at the time) drove 40,000 people to his Flickr account in just one day, far surpassing any previous level of traffic on his profile.     

Although that sort of spike in traffic is certainly desirable, unfortunately it’s not sustainable. We can’t all rely on celebrity endorsement to drive traffic, certainly not on a regular basis. At Lucidity, we preach engagement as the key to any successful social media strategy, and we practice what we preach. Although it may seem like a lot of work, the best way to build a following on twitter is to actually converse with other users. The point of the platform is to be social, and that’s where you’ll find the most reward.

It’s all very well and good striving for a retweet from your favourite celebrity or posting about exclusive giveaways and offers, but that only goes so far. In order to build an engaged and responsive community around your Twitter feed, you have to put in the hours, talk to your fans and find out what they want. Case studies show that time and time again, companies who engage with followers and reward that engagement come out on top, and that’s because in those cases, the consumer has something to gain.

You must always bear in mind that anyone choosing to follow you on Twitter is voluntarily allowing you a ‘direct line’ to them, in the form of their Twitter news feed. Very few users will do this without incentive. You should use your Twitter feed to engage users, let them know you’re listening, and from time to time make exclusive offers for just your Twitter followers.

The bottom line is that if you make time for your followers, they will make time for you. Remember that a small, active and engaged community is far more valuable than a large passive audience.   

If you’d like to develop a new social strategy, or make changes to your existing strategy, feel free to contact us, or chat to us on Facebook or Twitter.