Friday, May 02, 2008

Top 10 Marketing Applications of Twitter


Twitter is not just for telling people you just ate a sandwich. There are limitless applications for Twitter. Here are the top 10 marketing applications of Twitter.

1. Instant Focus Group
Jason Calacanis uses his 23,000 plus followers to find out what they think. He will shoot out a question about what people think about a Mahalo's site design or who should be the next host of Mahalo daily and lets the community share their ideas and thoughts.

2. Giveaways
You can ask or pay a top twitterer to giveaway some of your products for free. Jason Calicanis often gives away the GPS Dash, which made me wonder what it was.

3. Advertising on the Homepage
You can set an image as your avatar or in the background of your Twitter homepage. If you can get your brand on a top Twitterer's homepage it can build brand awareness.

4. Spread a Message
Twitter is the ultimate catalyst for word of mouth. If something remarkable came out like the recent rumor that AT&T will offer a subsidized iPhone for $200 with a 2 year plan, it will spread through Twitter like wildfire. With a lot of people having mobile access to Twitter via SMS, they can quickly and easily spread interesting news.

5. Market Research
By texting Track, followed by a keyword (e.g. track Obama), you can get immediate updates whenever someone in the Twittersphere says the keyword. For instance if you are Nike, you can monitor what people are saying about your brand.

6. Endorsements
If Britney Spears or Paris Hilton started using Twitter, their followers would be in the hundreds of thousands if not millions globally. If you could get a high profile individual with many devout followers, they might influence people in favor of your brand.

7. Provide Valuable Content
If you provide valuable and useful content people will give you their attention. A company Twitter could provide useful information and updates, it will build good will for the brand. A brand that has passionate followers like Apple, would have many followers.

8. Direct Leads to Your Website
You can direct people to products on your website where they can convert to customers. Linking to your site can even possibly give you some added SEO value.

9. Communicate with Customers
Company leadership can speak to customers at a intimate level by Twittering. This could also build good will for consumers who often view corporations as soulless entities.

10. Have a Conversation
Twitter allows you to reply to what someone says, so you can have a conversation about virtually anything from the lives of consumers to issues in society or just whatever you think is cool.

Can you add any marketing applications to this list?

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