eCommerce Blog

Jury’s still out as to whether all the Twitter hype is just that–hype–or a trend that’s here to stay. Only time will tell.

I’ve been twittering now for a few weeks, and I can definitely see its charm (I love the challenge of saying something interesting in 140 characters). I’m seeing great networking possibilities. When I joined, I did a search on “copywriters” and then “novelists” (which is what I am in my night life) and was able to “follow” all sorts of interesting people with similar interests, many of whom are now following me (I was very excited when I discovered one of my favorite writers–Susan Orlean–is on Twitter). I usually begin my weekday tweets with a poll question geared towards my fellow writers, and I’m starting to sense that my followers are getting used to my questions (which more and more people are “replying” to) and that they may even look forward to them.

But enough of that. Let’s get focused and think about eCommerce sites. Imagine having 10,000 or even 1,000 “followers” (customers or potential customers) to whom you instantly and unobtrusively can tweet about a product. And this contact with your customers is FREE? Methinks you’re starting to see the benefit.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let me first provide some guidance on what Twitter is and how it works.

Twitter Primer

What is Twitter? Basically, it’s a tool that allows you to broadcast 140-character updates (called “tweets”) about you, your life, your business, etc. to anyone who has decided to follow you. Obviously, the more followers you have, the wider your reach. You have the tweets delivered to your IM client or–as many people do–their iPhones or Blackberries via text messages.

I’m sure many of you are familiar with Twitter, so I’m not going to go on and on about how to use it or what the different symbols, such as @ and #, mean. Instead, I’m going to link you to Jennifer Laycock’s brilliant three-part series on Twitter: what it is, how to set it up, how to use it, etc. If you’re not familiar with Twitter at all, read Jen’s articles and then come back to this post. (Or if you’re a visual person, here’s a great video called “Twitter in Plain English.)

Why Twitter and eCommerce Were Made for Each Other

Email marketing is a common way for eCommerce sites to stay in front of customers. But what if you had an “instantaneous” way to stay in front of customers–something that didn’t require overly done marketing copy, or image layout, or the need for three+ layers of approval?

That’s what Twitter offers. Unlike email newsletters, which can be sent to anyone with an email account (e.g. like my mother, who still doesn’t know how to send or open attachments), people who embrace Twitter already “get” the Internet. They more than likely understand texting and IMing. If the person agrees to “follow” you, they’re already a “qualified” prospect or a loyal repeat customer (and marketing studies say time and time again that it costs more money to get new customers than it does to keep existing ones). So if you can directly reach a loyal following of 10,000, 1000, even 100 people–for free–wouldn’t you do it? Of course you would.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Create a Twitter account. It’s free.
2. Have a clear call-out on your website that you’re now on Twitter and invite people to follow you.
3. Follow those who follow you. (I was all kinds of excited when DunkinDonuts started following me after I followed it.)
4. For registration sign-up, always ask if the person has a Twitter account, and if yes, include a link so the person can follow you.
5. In all electronic communications (e.g. order confirmations), include a link to your Twitter page.
6. Learn proper Tweetiquette (again, refer to the article link at the beginning of this post).
7. For eCommerce sites, only tweet when you have something worthwhile to say (i.e. to promote or sell–companies like Staples does this well), but try to get out at least one tweet a day (I reserve the right to change this recommendation once I’ve experienced Twitter longer). However, if you position yourself as a person (like a customer care rep) from your eCommerce company, make sure you interact with customers, answer their questions, comment on their tweets. See my example about ComcastCares below.

Here are Some Ways eCommerce Sites Could Use Twitter.

• Perfect for pushing lingering inventory. Let’s say your online store sells cool, funky baby clothes. Instead of having to create an email blast to “push” inventory at the end of the season with a special sale, all you have to do is tweet about it. You’ll save time and money on things like copywriting and layout and design, plus you reach a dedicated audience of followers AND you avoid the whole spam issue since people just ignore tweets that don’t interest them.
• Perfect for marketing pushes. Maybe your busiest season is Christmas. Imagine creating a three-month marketing strategy where you tweet daily (three months out) about different products that make the perfect gift. The only cost? The time it takes to create your three-month plan and the time it takes to write the 140-character tweets.
• Get instant survey results. Maybe you’re considering a new line of products, but you don’t know if the product line will resonate with customers. Or maybe you’re wondering which color pallette your customers prefer when it comes to a particular product (info that would help guide you on what to order). Tweet about it and ask for feedback from your customers. I’m finding that people are much more likely to answer a straightforward poll question delivered via Twitter because it’s a low-time investment to respond. Your customers can only respond with 140 characters (which means your poll question should just focus one question). Customers tend to appreciate companies that value their opinions.
• Improve your customer service. One model to follow is ComcastCares: http://twitter.com/comcastcares I don’t know if Frank Eliason sleeps. But I do know that he’s put a human face on a company that often (and perhaps rightly so at times) gets a bad rap when it comes to customer service.
• Perfect for recruiting people to sign up for your e-newsletter. Talk about “reverse” marketing. The day before you send out an e-newsletter, tweet about it and include a link where people can sign up. What a great way to easily increase your distribution list numbers.
• Find like-minded vendors, suppliers, etc. Again, Twitter is a great networking tool. Do you need a new distributor/warehouse in the Northeast? If you tweet about your needs, you’ll get qualified leads/ideas.

Keep in mind that–like all social media–it can be a time suck. Either dedicate certain times of the day to things like Twitter or have someone on your staff whose job it is to monitor things like Twitter, Facebook, your blog, etc.

Happy tweeting! 

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 10:38 am and is filed under Online Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.