Can Twitter deliver an ROI for business users?
For me, the key is to determine what your own ROI is. And only then can you measure your performance against it and whether Twitter is relevant.
In my view, ROI can take many forms, here are just a few:
1. Sales leads
2. Confirmed orders
3. Branding
4. Research
There has been a lot written recently about Twitter for business, and can you make money from it. But most of that content focuses on Twitter driving physical transactions, for example, selling an eBook, or signing up to a new service. But Twitter, like all the other social networks that you care to mention, can do so much more for you and your business.
I know that it’s extremely unlikely that I will ever get a client through ecademy, let’s face it, there are not any channel marketing directors from technology companies on there. But that’s not why I use ecademy, for me it’s a virtual water cooler, I get to meet like minded individuals, discuss ideas and theories through the PMs or the blogs, and then get back to the non-virtual world of reality, refreshed and recharged.
Twitter can do the same. For me, it’s neat that I have a few followers, but again that’s not the real point. Twitter is a great research tool. One of our sites content is driven purely from Twitter, we find new site traffic via Twitter, and those Tweeters suggest and recommend new content that they want to see. That particular site led to us closing a very nice piece of business recently. We made no cold calls, no credentials pitch, no hard selling, our new client saw what were doing and immediately knew that they wanted to work with us. So, did Twitter deliver an order, a lead, some branding, or some research? Well, in this example I think it did all four things.
But what’s important for us, is not necessarily important for you, or anyone else. What is important is to understand what makes your business tick, and what a new client looks like, sounds like and acts like. Then you can make the decision as to whether Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook et al are the right types of communications channels for your business. If they are, then great, if not, go look for something else that will deliver you the right customers.
You don’t have to be on Twitter to be in business. You do have to be wherever your clients and prospects are.
Filed Under: Digital Marketing
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Hi David, I think your last paragraph sums it up completely.
I have had some ‘wins’ with Twitter having created a new client relationship and met a new top-level employee, but I would say that the effort of engagement is towards my personal brand, rather than for the business.
I am seeing many companies moving to platforms like Twitter and just trying to sell, creating the same one-way marketing message as usual. This goes against the whole collaborative approach of the medium IMO.
It’s about developing reputation and authority which can be carried on through to the sale, or brand awareness, as your example demonstrates.
Craig – I think you are right in that it’s about the personal brand for many of us. After all, people buy from people, especially when it’s come to a consultative sale like the agency business that both you and I are in.
But I think there is a space on sites like Twitter for brands.
Dell does a good job in using Twitter to post product offers and I suspect that their followers change frequently as people are in the market for a new PC and then leave the market once they have made a purchase.
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Thanks for the positive feedback. It seems like I have this conversation regarding Twitter for business more and more.
David