Approaching Twitter Users: Dancing the Fine Line Between Promotion and Spam

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I hadn’t expected a reply to a recent tweet post made regarding cupcakes. In a moment of good humor, considering my recent weight loss, I posted to my account a link to a news story about pastry giant Cinnabon branching into the cupcake business. Given my weakness for cupcakes and the potential damage they do to my diet, I let forth a curt vent (“Damn you, Cinnabon!) followed by the link. Later that day, to my shock, I received an @replay from the official Cinnabon Twitter.

Just goes to show, people with brands do monitor what is being said, even in jest, and may be inclined to follow-up. While many of us can page the likes of Conan O’Brien, Demi Moore, and the host of other celebrities and bigwigs using this social network, the odds of finding a reply or – gasp – a direct message may be slim. As a business using Twitter to market products and services, however, you have a golden opportunity to reach consumers who share their feedback, or else put out feelers for information relevant to your company. Succeeding in Twitter marketing involves not only tracking those people, but communicating in a manner that doesn’t come off like a hard sell.

Tracking on Twitter

As you monitor the performance of keywords that bring visitors to your main site, it would make sense to track those same phrases on Twitter to gauge overall interest in products and services relevant to your brand. Whether you cater to local or national markets, you have the means to search what people are tweeting without necessarily refreshing Twitter’s search engine. E-mail, web-based and desktop clients allow for ease of researching multiple key phrases, and many of them are free.

TweetDeck, a popular desktop client that can collect the feeds of multiple social media accounts, may be set up to run feeds of a specific nature. Simply add a new column to the screen and program a search. Choose the keywords, and watch the results.

To receive Twitter searches via e-mail, TweetBeep offers the means to track the activity you want to browse. Similar to Google Alerts, TweetBeep delivers the information directly to your inbox. This is handy tool to use if you want alerts sent to your phone.

The popular web-based program Monittor presents up to three real-time feeds of key searches. One advantage to Monittor is that is permits for geotargeting – you can search tweets within a specific distance of any city, and RSS capability allows you to aggregate the results into your favorite reader. Twitter itself offers a similar method of tracking in its widget functionality, where one can create an ongoing feed of trending tweets, though geographical parameters cannot be set.

Once you’ve determined how to find potential consumers and clients through Twitter, there comes the challenge of approaching them. Just because a Twitter user does not protect his/her feed from public view doesn’t necessarily mean an invite to relentless hustling. If you see an opportunity to recommend your products and services to somebody who appears to want them, you don’t want to give the impression that your Twitter account is used mainly to distribute ad copy.

Engage the tweeter first with a question for confirmation. Are they looking for what you have to sell…are the specific designs or benefits they want? Would they be interested in a discount if they ordered online? Can you answer any questions they might have? Don’t let the distance of a computer screen distract you from the fact that behind that Twitter avatar is a human being who is social, and may likely use Twitter to recommend you in the future.

Using widgets and search clients to help with leads can cut your Twitter research time significantly, giving you more time to perfect your social media skills.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.