How Startup Businesses Can Take Advantage of Twitter

Startup, local and small businesses alike are all embracing marketing on social networks with zest. For the past couple of years, signups on Twitter and Facebook has been increasing. This is because business owners look at these platforms as a way to market their products and services freely. Although the method in doing so may be tricky and not easy to do, it is well worth the shot once you start reaping the benefits of your hard work.

The attraction on social media is strong because of its user-friendliness, low entry barriers and low cost. And although Facebook is a very popular platform, Twitter has also seen a huge growth in local business owners that are signing up in order to develop the awareness for their products and services, including their brands.

If you are thinking about giving Twitter a try, here are some important tips that you should know:

1. Select a good name handle. This could be the name of your business, yourself or an abbreviation of your company or even a combination. Make people recognize you easily and start connecting your products or services to your business. Have your Twitter handle placed on your website, business cards, and letterheads and email signatures. Avoid using names that are made up or just plain random without having anything to do with your business.

2. Set a realistic goal in Twitter. A good example is aiding you in your position towards your customers; improve communication with prospects, direct articles, event announcements or other content within your website.

3. Give it your best shot. Having a Twitter account will let you create profile that has high visibility in the Internet, which is why you should not blow it up. There are many profiles today that have useless information included or have no profile at all, while others are looking like a pack of keywords. Do not follow the mistakes of these people. Put information on your account such as your company, interests and what you are able to offer to your customers.

4. Avoid tweeting pointlessly. You should focus in providing informational tweets that are useful to your followers. Have your products or services in your website promoted instead or direct someone’s content as useful source of information. Focus on providing your followers with specialized knowledge that is related to your industry.

5. Browse the platform. One of the best ways in order to get ideas for your tweets and find followers that are potential customers is to do a Twitter Search. This is a very effective feature in Twitter that is helpful and free. You may also search for tweets that have your company name mentioned in it. Remember, it is possible to be choosy in Twitter but always make sure that you follow back people who follow your business.

6. Utilizing the platform for networking. The idea of handing out business cards to customers or clients is almost over. What marketers are doing these days is handing out their Twitter handles and collecting those from important people. A lot of people are already displaying them in their signage and name badges.

Reasons To Socialize Your Business

 Small and medium-sized businesses don’t need social networks to survive but if you want your business to have an edge, socializing does help. I can think of different reasons why you should socialize your business. Each of them will grant your business a huge advantage over the rest.

Build brand awareness
 

Brand awareness goes beyond people’s knowledge of your business name and logo. It also entails how people associate your brand to the products you sell or the services you provide. Generally speaking, you want your brand to be known for providing high-quality products and services. Engaging in social networks can help spread brand awareness across people who encounter your business for the first time. Satisfied customers who interact with your social networks can also help in spreading word about your company, large or small. Their positive feedback is going to leave a good impression on possible customers.
 

Free advertising

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are also means to advertise your business cost-free. Its viral, user-friendly and world wide.

 

Identify your market
 

Social media can help business owners determine which populations are actually interested in the products and services they provide. Even though businesses target particular niches and markets, social media can help them find out if they targeted the right people or if they need to make adjustments in the business strategies they use. Furthermore, social media may be used as research tools for coming up with new products and services. Conduct surveys among your existing database of followers and figure out what they need and want from your business.

 

Build the trust of your customers

Socializing can also help build the trust of customers in your business. However, it doesn’t always work this way. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to manage your social networking accounts by responding to customers who leave comments or send you messages. Not replying to them will actually cost you their trust. Apart from responding to complaints and disappointed customers, regularly interact with customers by starting conversations. Remember to keep your statements professional and be careful with what you say. One wrong message can damage the reputation of your business.
 

Drive traffic to your website
 

Businesses who own websites can use social media to drive traffic towards them. From there, customers can find out more about your business (brand awareness) and possibly avail your products and services online. Driving traffic to your business website can also increase your Google Page Rank and Alexa Rank, both of which are important in assessing the relevance of your website. Together, these ranks can help your company website appear in the first page of search engines.

 

Increase your profit

With the help of effective social media marketing, your business will get more customers. The more customers you have, the more profit you’ll gain.

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Why an Increasing Number of Doctors is Using Social Media

There have been a lot of physicians today who are doing follow ups on their patients using modern ways of communications like social media. Whether testing their patients regarding health messages, keeping track of disease trends, communicating with patients through email or identifying new medical problems, these technology-inclined doctors seem to be increasing nowadays.

As far as they are all concerned, the numbers given are not that high as of yet. There are still a lot of doctors who rely on paper and pen when prescribing meds or other agendas related to their patients and are more comfortable communicating with each other when using technology. Yet acquiring information coming from the top public health agencies in the nation up to the smaller medical clinics, it has been discovered that many patients want to spend more than just a 15-minute visit in the office and callbacks from their physicians at the end of the day.

Away from the high tech hubs of the East Coast and Silicon Valley, the pediatrician from Kansas City Natasha Burgert provides tips on rearing up children in her blog, Twitter and Facebook pages, as well as answers the questions of patients through text and email messages.

She stated that the tools that she use are all embedded within her normal work day and that she does all of these in between the checkups that she gets. Burgert said that it is much easier for her to send an email or show a blog post to a patient than it is for her to call them. The pediatrician mentioned that this is what the physicians of the old school usually do, allocating some time before the day ends to return calls to their patients.

Burgert has just received an email from her patient recently which was coming from a new mother who was asking how to wean her 2 year old child using a pacifier. In just a few clicks of the index finger, the pediatrician was able to share a blog post which provides tips on how to handle this topic.

A mother of two young daughters who are patients of Burgert, Sarah Hartley, stated that she finds it practical to have e-access with her doctor, with emails even late at night getting a response quickly. She said that it is very useful and helpful at the same time, that most parents will get concerned regarding a lot of things which may not be that big of a deal to be scheduling a personal appointment. Hartley said that it also gives her fast reassurances from her doctor which will ease off her worries the next day.

At 36 years old, Burgert does not charge her patients for communications via the virtual world, yet there are some doctors who do. She just stated that this way of communication only enhances the personal contact but in no way does it replace office visits with patients.

She said that most of her colleagues look at her and shake their heads whenever she tells them what she does. These doctors do not understand the use of these tools which is why they do this, but the doctor believes the upcoming generation that will be coming behind her will think this to be much more common.

Dr. Steven Nissen, a cardiologist from the Cleveland Clinic, comes from an older generation but has started to work with e-technology and mentions that he is a member of the Twitterati. Yet with the help of staffs from the clinic, the cardiologist who was in his 60s was able to lead a live chat in Twitter regarding topics such as cholesterol problems and heart failure and found the experience to be exhilarating.

The doctor stated that this different way of communication opens up an opportunity to talk to an audience which can be located anywhere in the world regarding heart health. He said that the downside in this is that it is challenging for physicians because the messages that they provide to interested people are not conducive in just a few characters. Nissen said that asking him a question regarding heart health will give the asker a five minute answer at least.

But with a lot of young people today that are facing obesity, which is one of the factors that contribute to having heart problems, Nissen believes that Twitter will be an effective way in reaching his target audience and he even plans to utilize the platform even more. He thinks it is great if he is able to get through the people that need to hear his message.

Acknowledging the benefits in using social media today, the American Medical Association however warns the doctors to put an emphasis in protecting the privacy of their patients and also to keep appropriate boundaries between them.

During a case that has been publicized, the state disciplinary board has just reprimanded Rhode Island emergency medicine physician Alexandra Thran for being unprofessional last year and has also fined her at least $500. This was after she has made comments on her page in Facebook about an injury of one of her patients. Although Thran did not mention any names, some people were able to figure out the identity. The doctor declined to respond to the requests for her to give comment.

The number of doctors who are using virtual and social media communication has been expected to increase under the Accountable Care Act. This act encourages the documenting of health records as well as exchanges electronically of health information to be made.

There was a study that was published online last March which found about 60 percent of public health departments of the state are using Twitter or other social media networks in order to send out information to people rather than communicate with patients.

Through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spreads their messages in these social websites. The other services that it features involve 12 texts per month which includes automatic tips when it comes to obesity prevention and healthy eating advice. CDC has over 2 million followers on its social media websites as of today.

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Comparison of Life Before Social Media and Today

How Social Media Is To People?

People living in this so called “information era” has already embraced the importance of social media to their daily lives. Who would never recognize Facebook or Twitter? Many for sure have browsed over and over again their favorite videos via content communities like that of YouTube or perhaps consulted the Wikipedia for some undefined words or phrases. Social Media this day has become more and more natural.

With all these technologies and more of it to come in the coming years, has anyone ever thought how life was when all these stuffs that we now usually do, did not exist? As for people who have seen the transition of simple living to a more edgy and convenient style that we are today, life before wasn’t that complicated.

What is Life Before Social Media

Before, students and professionals would buy magazines, encyclopedias or newspapers to get the latest news or have the freshest digest for a research project. Today, there are e-magazines that are free to browse and read, the latest news is way fresher than on print and encyclopedias are now turned to Wikipedia.

Before, being connected to someone distant from you would mean mailing letters and handling it to Mr. Postman or a telegram for a faster delivery of message. Today, communication is within reach with Facebook’s chat and video calls and emails.

Before, stardom means auditioning or being scouted from unlikely places. Today, the road to becoming a star is easier with just a minute or an hour upload of recorded singing, acting or dancing videos. Before, sharing pictures would mean sending it via mail to let other see it, today, picture sharing is just a single click away.

Before, expressing thoughts and feelings are sometimes hindered and are forever silenced. Today, anyone can put a shout-out in their status in Facebook, Twitter or any social networking sites.

Before, playing would mean getting outside your house and actually play. Today, playing may be done virtually like that in the World of Warcraft.

How Social Media Help People In Their Lives

The technological era has indeed changed the world for better. Social media has allowed anyone to reach audiences be it big or small. It has made almost everything accessible as it is free to use for the public. It doesn’t require special skills for one to use it; it just needs a little navigation and a bit of orientation for one to utilize it. Social media’s immediacy is only a matter of seconds or minutes. Social media may change, revise or even remove any contents that may be deemed inappropriate or outdated. Social media is an open arena where people get to freely express emotions, ideas, products, buy and sell goods and services.

While it is undeniably true that social media has brought distance closer, more convenience for our daily lives, more edgy and sophisticated. But if you were to choose, which way of living would you prefer? The simpler or the much convenient but complicated?

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3 Professional Tips on Social Media for Small Businesses

Are you new in social media marketing but would want to grow your small business by leaps and bounds? A few experts have shared their hottest social media tips which they personally prefer when they are doing their thing. 

Here are the pieces of advice from some of these experts which will help take your small business to the next level!

Showing Them You Are Real

Start using the social website Facebook in order to show your customers, clients and prospects that you are real. Although providing the occasional industry tip, link to a new blog or a new article piece, this is just so common nowadays that almost everyone else is doing it. Instead, why not show them how you are a real person by posting updates on interests that you are passionate about?

If you love to read, share quotes on something that will be insightful to readers. If you love cooking, post pictures of your latest masterpieces. Whichever you choose to show your passion to your followers, try to keep things interesting, different and humorous. It is also important to be original here.

Select One Social Network and Stick to It

Trying to be active on all of the social networks and putting in effort that is half-hearted will not give you the results that you are looking for. That is why it is recommended that you should let your small business pick a social network that will provide them with the highest amount of audience that they can give. Using tools such as the advertising platform of Facebook, LinkedIn’s search and Follower Wonk will let you assess this.

Lead Generate with Facebook

Many ways in order to grow your marketing list are available and one of these is by building an opt-in strategy through your Facebook page. Try to keep it simple by using iFrames in order to create your personalized welcome tab. This tab is where you can do the 2-step process which will be called a “reveal tab”.

The first step is to include a call to action which will encourage prospects to Like the page and become a fan. Once the person becomes a fan and has liked your page, you should offer them a valuable gift in exchange for their email and name. This model will help increase your fan base and will also grow your lead list as well.

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How Partnerships Through Social Media Works

Social media continues to play important roles for the success of every online marketing campaign. Companies that do not promote their business goods and services in social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook do not have an edge against competitors. This is because they do not get the perks that social media has to offer marketing, but also due to the fact that the business does not have any influence in what other companies or people are saying about them online.

Even though these websites are the top trending social media marketing places to go for, they are not enough anymore unfortunately. One of the ways in order to establish an innovative and successful marketing campaign online is by building relationships with the niche audiences. These audiences though can be targeted easily at social networking websites that are focused in using a specific theme. There are many of these theme-specific networking communities available for gays, women, parents, blacks and even movie lovers.

Since there are a lot of these social networking sites nowadays, this means that a company which does their research thoroughly will find their target customers eventually. Things such as what they are marketing and how they market them will not matter anymore. A lot of people may question about the advantages that social media marketing has to offer but there are just many factors that convince people in the long run.

One of the benefits that social media has to offer is giving a company the visibility they need online. The content of the company will come out in various online platforms which are solely based on how the elements of the partnership are made. Elements such as the development of a profile for the product, customization of homepages, participating in a newsletter or email marketing are some of the aspects that help promote the company.

Another advantage that social media has to offer is that it allows targeted marketing to be engaged in. Once a social networking website has been identified to suit the target audience profile, it will be safe to assume that the members within this online community will more likely respond to the product or brand of the company. The presence of the company profile will not be seen as intrusive by other members of the community as long as proper etiquette is being followed.

Engaging in partnerships through social media is a great way to improve brand management in the future. As the company starts to build their relationship with target customers, they will know that the company is truly interested in learning about them and giving them what they need. For web savvy audiences, it is a big plus for companies to let them know that they understand the ins and outs of digital media.

These partnerships also do not cost a lot. A social networking community may be willing to trade opportunities with the company wherein they will endorse the product while the company promotes the social network in their campaign. The company can save money on advertising if these types of deals are made with the social networking sites.

Deciding on building partnerships through social media is not a bad idea but certain things should be noted before delving in. One thing is that not every social networking site out there is the right choice for companies. It is important that marketers conduct thorough research on the site beforehand, gathering data such as the amount of unique visitors and community members registered. The reputation of the networking site is also important as companies would not want to be affiliated with ones that have a bad image.

Top 5 Advanced Twitter Tips for Small Businesses

                           

Now that you have gotten your small business running and you have already mastered the basics when it comes to social networking, what’s do you need to do next in order to move to the next level? Below are tips which will help improve your marketing mastery when using the social networking website Twitter.

1. Connect with followers. You can make new friends in Twitter by following them. Using a tool such as FollowerWonk will allow users to find people whom they share the same interests, location or related to the competition. Following them and making light conversation is the way to form relationships with people online. It is not advised to sell or talk about the products or services that the company has to offer right away.

2. Tweet scheduling. Checking on Twitter has already been a daily routine for most people nowadays. People usually do this as the first thing in the morning, after they have had their lunch or later on in the afternoon. That is why having tweets scheduled when you know the right time that the audience will be present is an excellent plan. Scheduling in Twitter means that a person simply chooses the times within a day where they will be hanging around for a conversation or using tools such as HootSuite to help in tweeting automatically instead of manually. Whichever technique you prefer to use, it is important to interact with people who are following you during the times when they are waiting to be interacted with.

3. Sharing news topics. If you are subscribed to RSS feeds or blogs, you can share at least one content piece that you have read for the day which has made you analyze or bring out emotions from yourself. For those who are not yet subscribed, feed readers like Google Reader will help people stay updated with their favorite blogs and will always have content that is worthy to be shared with their audience even in the wireless Internet world.

4. Find out about your audience. Knowing who your target audience is in Twitter is very important because it will help you decide on what information or content to share in which they will be interested in. If most of the people in your audiences are already experts in a particular field or industry, tweeting about beginner How Tos or tutorials is something that you do not want to do. You also would not like to go over their heads too far by talking about advanced techniques on a topic that they have just begun learning about. If you take the time in developing a user profile that is ideal for your audience, it will help you share information that will be more relevant to them and will keep them interested in you as well.

5. Start being helpful. During your free time, do some searches in Twitter for problems that people are discussing and which your company can be a solution for. Sharing resources or a relevant link that will help them with their problem is a good idea. If you do not have an answer regarding their problem, you can have their message re-tweeted to see if anyone can help. 

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