Agencies are missing an opportunity to grow their business by neglecting the power of Twitter.
My consultancy business has been built through the use of social media. I practice what I preach. The strategies, tactics and tools that I recommend to you are the ones that have built my business internationally. My program that has also been refined by having been implemented in over 125 agencies in the US, Canada and the UK.
The leading traffic generator for my blog through the years has been Twitter.
Twitter’s audience has skyrocketed and continues to grow in popularity and importance in both the consumer and corporate worlds. It has evolved into an important component of brand marketing. Twitter is also a place to generate agency new business. It is a powerful prospective client networking tool if used correctly.
- In 2009, there will be 18 million US adults who access Twitter at least monthly.
- Twitter is the fastest growing social network in the world, increasing by 1,928% from June 2008 to Jun 2009.
- Twitter reached the 50 million unique visitor mark in July 2009.
- If Twitter’s current growth rate keeps up, they could be at 100 million members by the end of 2010.
There are a number of Twitter tools that will allow you to take advantage of Twitter’s growth for ad agency new business:
I have published hundreds of blog posts. I’m able to easily repurpose that content. Posts that are over 2 to 3 years old continue to generate traffic to my blog. To save time repurposing content I use a tool called Social Oomph. This tool allows me to schedule the day/time for each of my posts to be published through my Twitter account, @michaelgass and Ashley Cox, my administrative assistant who maintains my other account, @fuellines .
Once a post is inputed into SocialOomph, the recurrence feature allows you to set the day/time and frequency of publishing a post through your Twitter account. You can set recurrences from hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly. I’m currently using it to post to my Twitter accounts a post every hour, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. I change up my schedule quarterly and rotate in the higher traffic posts into Twitter’s prime-time, from 11 am to 3 pm.
Note: I’ve been able to measure what is and what isn’t acceptable to the majority of followers using additional metric tools such as SocialToo that help me maintain the proper balance. The repurpose content also has to be resource type content, the kind that is helpful to the intended audience. It isn’t about your capabilities, a sales pitch within 140 characters.
I also use a new tool called TweetAdder, an inexpensive software program, to primarily find and follow prospects for clients. This tool allows me to grow a network of targeted followers. The more followers a client has, the more their content can become viral and generate traffic to their blog, the “gateway” to their agency. Early social media adopters and leaders like Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan – 97,563), Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki – 170,000) have amassed a huge following. Mashable’s CEO, Pete Cashmore, (@mashable) has an incredible following of 1,459,481, which keeps him among the top Retweeted users.
TweetAdder allows you to find and follow by searching for Tweet keywords (i.e. environmental, moms, healthcare), by bio keyword (i.e. CEO, CMO, etc), or by location. This tool also allows you to follow the followers of another user. For instance, if I were looking for B-to-B prospects I would could follow everyone who is following @btobmagazine or if my prospective clients were hospitals I could follow those following Twitter accounts such as the @mayoclinic.
A new tool that was just recently introduced is TweetML. TweepML is a simple format to make it easy for you to organize your Twitter prospective client lists. Share your lists internally to allow staff to monitor and network with prospective clients. You can also use it to create your own lists of Twitter accounts to follow, whether they are agency related or interests related (i.e. if you target audience was into environmental marketing, you could provide a list of the best environmental Twitter accounts to fllow).
This is a sampling of Twitter prospective account lists that I’ve created using TweetML.
- Ad Agency New Business (resource list for ad agencies)
- Airlines (transportation prospects)
- Banks (financial prospects)
- Convention Visitors Bureau – CVBs (tourism prospects)
- Hospitals (healthcare prospects)
Use Google search to find existing lists and organize them through TweetML. Here are 20 different lists of prospective clients using Twitter.
- Breweries on Twitter
- Charities and Non Profits on Twitter
- Colleges, Universities and Educators on Twitter (Top 100)
- Consumer Brands on Twitter
- C Suite Executives on Twitter
- CVBs on Twitter
- Drug Companies that use Twitter
- Education
- Food/Specialty Products on Twitter
- Home Builders on Twitter
- Hotels using Twitter
- Industrial Manufacturers on Twitter
- Legal Professionals on Twitter
- Retailers on Twitter (229 stores)
- Travel and Recreation on Twitter
- Video Game Companies on Twitter
- Top CMOs on Twitter
- 183 CEOs on Twitter
- 278 Companies on Twitter
- The 100 Most Mentioned Brands on Twitter
Create your agency’s own list of Twitter accounts made up of your best target audience.
Here are 19 additional Twitter articles, specifically for ad agencies that can help you take advantage of Twitter’s growth for new business:
- How to Generate Traffic to Your Ad Agency’s Blog with Repeat Tweets
- Twitter 101 for Ad Agency New Business
- Ad Agencies: Useful In-Depth Data on How Twitter is Being Used
- Study: Fortune 100 companies using Twitter more than any other social media platform
- A Simple Twitter Formula for Ad Agency New Business
- Ad Agencies: 5 Ways to Find Prospects on Twitter
- 5 Ways I Use Twitter to Help Ad Agency New Business
- Edward Boches, CCO for the Mullen Agency: What Twitter Can Do For You
- Ad Agency CEOs Should Use Twitter
- Twitter Traffic Explosion Being Led By 45-54 Year Olds
- 3 Ways Twitter Can Make You A Better Writer
- Tweetlater A Great Ad Agency New Business Tool
- Ad Agencies: Top 10 Articles for Twitter Search
- A Twitter Business Model Contest is Won by an Ad Agency
- Socially Benefitting from My Twitter Habits
- Today’s Top 10 Twitter Post for Ad Agency New Business
- List of C Suite Executives Using Twitter
- Top 5 Twitter Tools for Ad Agency New Business
- Promoting Your Ad Agency Using Twitter?
Thanks a lot for this article and tons of good ideas.
On the OOpmh, aren’t you afraid of people blocking you if you flood them with tweet ? Isn’t this the major risk for twitter i.e most of its traffic generated by bots and not by human
Best
You have to gauge your community to see what is acceptable. I find that if a post is generated only once a week that its fine. You have to realize the way people are reading (more like scanning) Twitter for resource material. As long as it is not self promotional and truly valuable articles of interest this has worked for more than a year for me.
Twitter has updated and refined their rules. You will need to be aware of the changes. Tweetlater and TweetAdder are still excellent tools for increasing traffic to your blog. Just be sure to follow the ratio’s that are outlined by Twitter.
Check this link for the updates: http://help.twitter.com/forums/26257/entries/18311
I just received this note in an email and thought I would share it along with my response:
Michael,
This Twitter stuff may work in the ad business, but as far as my real estate PR world, it is an absolute ridiculous proposition! The day a big real estate client tells me he has purchased a building or sold a shopping center via Twitter is when I decide I no longer want to be in the marketing/public relations upscale imaging side of real estate.
I for one consider some of these new social media propositions like Twitter, Face book and Bogs just what they are — bs! Have you seen the commercial with the young people on the porch with their dad and mom talking about something while dad is sitting down and “twitting” a message “he is now sitting on the porch?” Complete bs, that’s all the majority of this stuff is. Good luck with Twitting in the ad business. I am flexible and may someday change my mind, but for now, no way!
My Response:
I fully agree. Twitter is a ridiculous proposition IF it is used alone.
My approach to social media tools like Twitter has been from the beginning, how to use them for new business. Twitter alone is bullshit for new business. But I found that if I couple it with my blog, use some of tools like TweetAdder, and Tweetlater, it becomes a great new business tool.
But again, I’m not reliant on Twitter alone, it has to be an integrated approach. SEO is a big part, so is my email newsletter and a great email data base. But I have been able to monetize Twitter for new business.
Great tips, better resources, teaching an old dog new tips… priceless.
Bob, thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you are finding my material helpful. Please share any ways that I can improve.