Vivienne Neale is a social media manager
Vivienne Neale is a social media manager when she is not wearing a Sydney Opera House hat
Multi-directional Marketing turns advertising on its head
Social media has made sure of that. people are turning to Twitter and facebook et al to put a name, face and opinion to the brands that interest them and people who just might, any time soon.
If you are thinking of using Twitter to enhance your business, however small, then you need to consider a few things. Twitter is not unilateral. What I mean is the message doesn’t go one way.
[Tweet “Twitter is about personality. patience and persistence”]
In the past advertising was pretty straightforward. You planned your pitch then sorted your message whether that was promotional or a special offer or announcement an put it out to the media. Yes your ad was different if it appeared in print, tv, radio or billboards but essentially you were active and the receiver was passive. Consumers received the message and there response was to act or not act upon it. If a marketer convinces then an individual became a customer.
Occasionally you might see someone graffiti a response on a billboard, sometimes strap lines joined the everyday language, people took to wearing t-shirts and carrying promotional products but social media and the internet changes all that. Now people want dynamic relationships with business. [Tweet “Twitter should be an information exchange.”] If business refuses to acknowledge it then results will demonstrate the failure of non multi-directional marketing.
7 Ways to Use Twitter for multi-directional marketing purposes
1. Twitter is about networking. Your output should balance retweets, favouriting and engaging as well as promotional messages. Multi-directional marketing means you give. You shouldn’t always expect to receive. It also means your tweets don’t disappear without trace.
2.Think carefully about the tone you are going to adopt for your business. What you say on a personal account may sound wholly inappropriate when you are speaking as a business. Your comments help people to make their mind up about you. They quickly understand what your beliefs might be, where you are coming from, so be careful.
3. Try beginning a tweet with a question. That is literally setting up a dialogue, a multi directional marketing opening. It means you acknowledge there is an audience and are not using Twitter as a broadcast medium only. Think about your reaction to people who flood the twitter stream with tons of comments consecutively for example.
4. When you sell, don’t just broadcast, consider more subtle ways. ‘Check out my new….’ doesn’t give anyone a reason why. I don’t know you; I don’t have a relationship with you, you are not part of my community why would I check it out? [Tweet “Multi-directional marketing is not ‘me, me, me’ more ‘me and you’.”]
5. By all means hashtag and newsjack but ask yourself how you might react to your tweet. Does it seem purely opportunistic? Does your tweet add anything to the debate? Social media is not advertising in the conventional sense, however some may use it.
6. See Twitter and social media in general as a platform to demonstrate how knowledgeable you are about your job, service, product. Show how important your customers are to you. Respond to comments and actually try and connect with people meaningfully. It’s a case of getting to know people, liking one another and then building trust. Saying thank you is appropriate too on Twitter. [Tweet “It may be a fast-moving news stream but good manners make the tweet!”]
7. Consider real life conversations you have and think how they can be replicated online in a more multi-directional marketing format.
