I find it strange how it’s possible to go from having a difficult time grasping the concept of something, to finding endless ways to use it in a matter of a few months!

That’s exactly what happened to me when it came to Twitter.

I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised since I am involved in an industry where something we couldn’t possibly conceive one day … can change the world in that same few months.

Today I’d like to chat a little about how you can use Twitter to identify hot prospects and begin a conversation with them that can lead to the beginnings of a strong relationship. Not only that, but you can accomplish this without leaving your desk, and without even picking up your phone!

Step One – Identify Hot, Profitable Keywords

If you are new to the online world you might be saying to yourself,“HUH?!?!?  How the heck do I do that?”

The best way is to brainstorm to come up with a broad keyword that your buyers might type in to find you.

For example, if you are a website development company, and you checked the Google Keyword Tool , you’d find the keyword “Web Development” is searched for an average of 823,000 times per month.  That’s a pretty hot keyword as far as search volume, but also, the people who are using this keyword to search have commercial intent nearly 90% of the time.

It isn’t exclusively about search volume,  it’s much better to go afterhighly targeted buyers that are READY TO BUY.

Step Two –  Identify People with Needs

Now that you’ve identified your hot, profitable keyword, it’s time to find people who have needs related to this keyword.  Twitter has recently added a search box on the right hand side of your page when you login.

Once you are logged in all you have to do is enter your keyword inside quotations ( “web development” ) and click the little magnifying glass next to it.  Once you’ve done this you will be presented with “Real Time Results” with the most recent updates first.

Step Three – Listen to What They are Telling You

The next step is to review each result and quickly evaluate whether you can help them or not.  The beauty of this search feature is that there will constantly be new results coming in so this one search could keep you busy all day and you’ll never run out of people to help!

The system won’t automatically dump them onto your screen which is good.  Once you’ve pored through the most recent results you simply need to look at the top of your results and it will tell you how many new results have come in and click “refresh” to see them.

Step Four – Deliver VALUE and Don’t be That Guy (or Gal)

Remember PART ONE of this series where we talked about the sales person who attends the networking events and runs around the room “glad handing” everyone and cramming their business card in each person’s hand without allowing the person to say one word?

Don’t be that guy!

Evaluate each of the results you are presented and ask yourself,“What are they asking for and how can I help?” Their “Tweet” is an invitation to begin a conversation, not an invitation to apply some aggressive closing technique.

Using the Web Development example, you might want to create a report on “How to Plan for and Develop a Successful Website.” If you see they are thinking about developing a new site you might want to reply and send them a link to this FREE report. If they have a question about something to do with their website, perhaps you could answer their question.

Keep in mind that as you are replying to these people your replies are visible on your profile page, and the content could possibly show up when others are conducting searches of their own.  This will help you build credibility and display your expert knowledge within your industry.

Pete Brand is a businessman.

He created a successful distribution business throughout the United States, which grew to a network of 2,500 sales people, under his supervision. He also acquired substantial sales and marketing experience with a local telecom company, and helped them to become the number one distributor of the product they marketed.

He was introduced to the Internet in 1998 and was fascinated at the possibilities. Although he didn’t know how to design or program a website, he saw the incredible opportunities the Internet presented in reaching people around the world quickly and efficiently. This motivated Pete to start a website development company which has since helped hundreds of companies around the world create well over $100,000,000 in online revenue.

Pete has a passion for Internet marketing and teaching individuals and companies the exact ingredients required for starting and running a successful online business. His expertise covers both “business to business” and “business to consumer” areas of online marketing.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/how-to-use-twitter-for-sales-prospecting-944109.html

Heck, until recently I didn’t really understand the true power of Twitter so I figure this would be a good place to clear it all up.

For the purpose of this article let’s take a quick look at the Internet landscape and compare it to something we can all relate to … The city you live in right now.

Think about the parts of town where you go to find things to buy, whether it be a mall, a strip mall, or even the market where companies and individuals are all set up to sell their goods.

Is this really any different than the online stores which exist all over the Internet?  I don’t think so.

How about the plethora of newspapers you have to choose from.  The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, National Enquirer or even your local newspaper.

There are a minimum of 100 online news sites to every single newspaper that exists offline … and in most cases you can access this news for free without trudging across your front lawn to retrieve your paper from the bushes.  :)

What if you are looking to visit the “wrong side of the tracks” in your city…

Well you can find that online as well with the porn sites and other undesirable stuff online.

I’m sure you can see the parallels with all these on and offline comparisons, and you are probably still wondering, “Where does Twitter fit in?”

People who sign up for Twitter typically use their 140 character allotment to tell the world what they are doing and in some cases use a link that points to more detailed information.  As I mentioned in my previous article, “Confessions of a REFORMED Twitter Spammer” I began using Twitter the wrong way simply because I didn’t understand it.

Since those dark times I woke up when I heard an excellent offline comparison.  In that comparison I heard Twitter compared to a cocktail party.

Think back to that familiar time when you arrived at a networking cocktail party and watched that annoying salesperson bounce around from person to person filling everyone in on what they do and what type of business they are looking for, and after cramming their business card in each person’s hand, they leave and go on to the next person.

Most of the time this entire conversation lasts less than 15 seconds and they don’t even take the time to ask the person what they do, or even their name.

Would you ever contact this person?  I didn’t think so!

I was that person in the early days with my Twitter use.

I thought it was a tool for me to repeat the information I wanted to spread over and over so my prospective target would be sure to get the message.

Since I didn’t GET IT, I didn’t realize I was annoying people andgiving them every reason to ignore me.

Heck, who wants to be pestered over and over with the same message?

I believe the best way to use Twitter is to provide valuable information for the people you would like to reach.  Make sure when someone arrives at your Twitter profile page, they find relevant, useful information with links to more complete information.

You should give Twitter the same time and attention you do the content of your website … unless you don’t pay much attention to that either.

There are many other ways you can use Twitter for your business beside providing “content based” information.  Stay tuned this week for more real life examples of how to use Twitter for Your business.

Pete Brand is a businessman.

He created a successful distribution business throughout the United States, which grew to a network of 2,500 sales people, under his supervision. He also acquired substantial sales and marketing experience with a local telecom company, and helped them to become the number one distributor of the product they marketed.

He was introduced to the Internet in 1998 and was fascinated at the possibilities. Although he didn’t know how to design or program a website, he saw the incredible opportunities the Internet presented in reaching people around the world quickly and efficiently. This motivated Pete to start a website development company which has since helped hundreds of companies around the world create well over $100,000,000 in online revenue.

Pete has a passion for Internet marketing and teaching individuals and companies the exact ingredients required for starting and running a successful online business. His expertise covers both “business to business” and “business to consumer” areas of online marketing.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/how-to-use-twitter-for-your-business-944106.html

If you are anything like me you are probably of the mindset that the Internet has significantly lessened the level of customer loyalty that most companies are accustomed to.

The reason for this is consumers now have so many choices, they no longer have to rely on digging through the phone book or count on the right “interruption based” advertising message to create a “top of mind awareness” for when they are ready to make a buying decision.

Let’s face it … The Internet is here to stay!

We have a couple obvious choices. We can either hire the world’s greatest hackers and attempt to have them permanently destroy the Internet so it goes offline forever, or we can come up with creative ways to embrace this supposed “loyalty killer” and turn it into a “loyalty enabler.”

As Twitter continues to grow in popularity and more and more people get hooked on it as they have with Facebook, your potential to stay in front of your customers will increase tremendously.

Eleven percent of the population has already used Twitter and that number will continue to grow at a rapid rate in the coming months and years.

For the purpose of this article I’d like to focus on how a sports bar / restaurant could use Twitter to build customer loyalty and sales dollars at the same time.

Step One – Create a “Twitter-centric” Promotion

Let your customers know your restaurant is an active Twitter participant and that you’d love it if they followed you. If it happens to be Monday Night Football time invite your Twitter followers to send you a “Tweet” guessing the outcome of this week’s game. Let them know the person who gets the correct score will win a dinner for two. If the economy happens to be nipping at your profits, make sure you add some type of tie breaker so you don’t have to award too many free dinners.

Throughout the course of the game “Tweet” the scores as they occur so you can keep your followers abreast of the game. You may even want to point out those people who look like they are on track to win. Whatever you do make it fun and engage your “Followers.”

Step Two – Create Twitter Follower ONLY specials

Send out a daily “Tweet” that offers a special for your Twitter followersONLY. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. It could simply be 50% off on an appetizer. Just offer something and don’t be too cheap. What you’ll find is that the customers who initially began to follow you for the “Guess the Score” contest, will be excited that there is something else to look for from your restaurant’s tweets.

If you consistently “Tweet” these offers, you’ll find people will look out for your “Tweets” specifically and you may just give them a reason to fore-go grilling on the deck and stop by to enjoy your outdoor deck.

Step Three – Keep Your Followers Up to Date on Wait Times

How did you feel the last time you drove across town to visit your favorite restaurant only to find out the wait was 2 hours, or worse yet, they were completely booked for the evening?

I am guessing you weren’t too happy!

Well what if you could have opened up your smart phone, or logged onto your computer and found your favorite restaurant just “Tweeted” that there was a 30 minute wait? I am guessing you’d be much happier.

Could they have just called? Sure, but phone calls are boring and everyone LOVES new technology.

Step Four – Monitor the “Twitter-sphere”

You should always have a search window open on Twitter for your Company name. So many companies have no idea what people are saying about them and if they did, they could help correct a poor visitor experience by simply showing they care. This is something which might take you 30 seconds to do, and you could spend even less time passively monitoring the results.

Think about how you’d feel if you blew off some steam about a bad experience and within a few seconds you got a response back asking how that company could “make it right.” Most people would talk about that to many other people and the buzz created would be incredible!

There are many other ways to use Twitter to build customer loyalty and this is just one simple example. I challenge you to think creatively and figure out how to use this for your business. It doesn’t matter if you have a restaurant or a tool and die shop … Just be creative and YOU WILL WIN!

Pete Brand is a businessman.

He created a successful distribution business throughout the United States, which grew to a network of 2,500 sales people, under his supervision. He also acquired substantial sales and marketing experience with a local telecom company, and helped them to become the number one distributor of the product they marketed.

He was introduced to the Internet in 1998 and was fascinated at the possibilities. Although he didn’t know how to design or program a website, he saw the incredible opportunities the Internet presented in reaching people around the world quickly and efficiently. This motivated Pete to start a website development company which has since helped hundreds of companies around the world create well over $100,000,000 in online revenue.

Pete has a passion for Internet marketing and teaching individuals and companies the exact ingredients required for starting and running a successful online business. His expertise covers both “business to business” and “business to consumer” areas of online marketing.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/how-to-use-twitter-to-build-customer-loyalty-944117.html