Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Harness The Power Of Twitter For Local Marketing

CM Comment: Yes another article on Twitter, but this one is relevant because it references Luxor's use of this service.

March 9, 2009, summarized from Search Engine Land -- The Twitter social networking and micro-blogging service was launched only two years ago, but it's rocketing up in usage numbers quickly, and it seems likely to turn red-hot. Many companies are rapidly cluing into the promotional value, but smaller businesses appear slow to hop on the bandwagon. Here are a few tips on leveraging Twitter to help your locally-oriented business.

As oft pointed-out among search marketers, Twitter links do not pass "link juice"-that is, they don't transfer PageRank value from Twitter to linked-to sites. Even though links in Twitter are not followed, there still could be some small value in real ranking terms, according to the theory that "citations" or "references" appear to sometimes help improve rankings in local search. So, at the very least, it's a good idea to claim a profile in Twitter and link back to your business site. But, the larger value of Twitter to your company may be in terms of audience engagement and as a communication vehicle, if you learn to use Twitter effectively.

If your business is something people seek out frequently, like an entertainment venue or restaurant, then consider monitoring Twitter mentions containing apropos keyword phrases and send replies recommending your place to them. Use Twitter Search for this.

Also, keep a pulse on how many of your types of business are in Twitter. If a user gets inundated with dozens of recommendations from businesses for such a query, they're likely to get irritated.
Here are some tips I have for ways that you might be able to use Twitter to find and engage with customers:

- Send instant coupons. Empty restaurant? Tweet out a small discount offer for the next hour and fill the place up!

- How about Tweet coupons based upon the customer showing you that they've retweeted the offer out to their list of followers? ("Retweeting" = "forwarding" to other Tweeters). This encourages a viral behavior.

- Entertainment venues-tweet out the week's events!

Not to be outdone, the Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas is tweeting entertainment tix and lodging promo codes. Perhaps they're just slightly edgy/risky in the icon they use for their Twitter profile, though - could it be an actual picture of Brandie, their "Interactive Marketing Ninja," in that revealing bikini?

Full story at: http://tinyurl.com/cueqvy

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