This post is for everyone who is wondering what to do with Twitter and how to leverage it as a marketing tool for your startup brand. Twitter is about conversations with real people. How can a brand invade the space and hope for followers of its brand.

Follow and you Shall be Followed
While experimenting with Twitter on my first attempt at getting scores of followers for a website, I did the usual thing and followed around 400 users. A quick analysis revealed that around 8-10% returned the favour and I was delighted.

Twitter Spam
Its only when you get a taste of your own medicine, do you realise your folly. When my personal profile got followed by another brand, I immediately viewed the act with suspicion. A click on their profile displayed a dismal following to follower ratio and you realise that at some level this is twitter's method of spamming you. Somehow you know that the website has no genuine interest in you and is following you in the hope of you following them.

Do your research
Search for twitter conversations on Summize (update: acquired by Twitter) which match what you have to sell. Just imagine what would people write about if they were remotely interested in your service.

A fashion site, would look for people who have talked about their latest purchases of what constitutes fahion in the land. Unfortunately I am not into fashion and can't give any great examples :).

If I were Nike I would seach for keywords like running, basketball, cricket, football etc. and follow those who seem to be inclined towards sport. Hope you get the drift

Add those with few followers
Those with fewer followers are more likely to notice an additional follower and reciprocate, compared to a guy who has no clue why so many people are following him.

Twit Ban
Add people but be sure to ban them soon after if they don't bother following you. There has to be a conscious attempt prune the non followers to try and attract new followers. The key is to keep a high ratio of followers to following at all times.

Content Please
Give people a reason to follow you. Update them on relevant content, news about your brand, ask questions, conduct surveys, free samples, sneak peeks etc. Make sure they interact and stay engaged. After all Twitter is just a great huge conversation

 

Success on Twitter cannot happen overnight. Take it easy and you will have long term successful Twitter presence.

Let me know if you have tried something and it has worked.

Follow Ishwar on Twitter

 

 

Image Courtesy : ComicBase

This post is a result of an interesting discussion with Nithya of Muziboo fame. Muziboo is a young startup, which reaches out to the musician in everyone. Finally there is a space which goes beyond encouraging just young bands to encouraging individuals interested in music. More on Muziboo in another post

This network is based on common interests in music, and not necessarily on an existent friend network. In such a situation, it is not necessary that you know an individual on the site in person, but you might still want to be updated on new music or live events planned by the musician.

To remain updated there are really 3 options that Muziboo can provide - "Add as Friend (like Facebook), Follow (like in Twitter) or Become a Fan (like in Stumbleupon)

Add as friend seeks reciprocation. Becoming a fan keeps one on a higher pedestal vs the other in the relationship unless they are mutual fans. Follow also implies keeping one on a higher pedestal but just doesn't seem as extreme as fan. Add as a friend seeks to strengthen bonds, while the others allow weak bonds to co exist.

Which one do you think is most appropriate for Muziboo? If you used this platform and found a cool musician which option would you choose to connect and why?

Well I seem to be in the mood to pit competing thought processes against one another. The last post on Technology vs Story was on startups who build technology thats superior, instead of focusing on positioning their brand such that it becomes easy for a consumer to tell a story about them.

This one is on social media and how to build a brand which uses them. The internet has always been about interactivity and relevance. An ad doesn't get your attention because they slapped it bang in the middle of an interesting article or while you were watching a really funny video.

Correction, attention is certainly got, in fact the company has probably just incurred your wrath!!

Facebook, Myspace and the likes know that companies love the easy way out. So they sell highly targeted ad space to companies. Undoubtedly companies see value since they have never been able to target their communication as precisely as this with traditional media .

But, we are just extrapolating traditional advertising meant for non interactive medium in a medium which is all about interactivity and engagement.

This calls for new thinking and different content  that engages you, provides value, makes you laugh or is just cool, and in turn begs to be forwarded using social media. The medium could be social networks or social bookmarks.

Content could be anything from articles, one liners, jokes, digs at competition, pictures, audio, video, applications or games.

Do you as a company want to buy eyeballs or earn them. One costs you money, the other makes you think creatively on how you would like to engage the consumer.

Surely brand engagement is what everyone dreams about. If you have done something on Social Media to benefit your company, startup or brand, do let us know