Twitter. It’s ridiculous, right? The distractions of visiting a website to provide updates to your “followers” about where you are and what you’re doing. Sounds like such a waste of time!
But alas, I beg to differ. From what I’m learning, it’s one of a variety of really effective vehicles to achieve business goals. Developing interaction, relationships and rapport with your audience can lead directly to increased sales.
In the case of Twitter, Facebook and others, your customers can get to know you in a way that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. And the more they do, the more inclined they’ll be to work with you. In fact, studies on consumer behavior confirm that familiarity alone causes positive feelings, greater confidence and could just be what tips an “iffey” consumer toward being a committed purchaser.
Recognizing the value of online social networks and leveraging your followers, friends, or whatever term is used for “network” within your favorite social site, we at StartupNation are trying to help you take advantage of this social networking phenomenon in the StartupNation Home-Based 100.
Here’s how: We’re providing “widgets” for contestants that allow you to conveniently place these graphically pleasing elements on your various pages within social sites where you have a presence. They come with “vote for me” buttons and are designed to help you foster participation and support among your audience. They add a fun factor, interest level, and interactivity that creates a stronger dynamic between you and audience members.
And you can drive a ton of traffic. We’re seeing that very thing happen.
Here’s how to dip your toe in the water. When you enter your business in the competition, and complete your profile (after receiving your confirmation email), you can select from among a variety of widgets (like those shown in the jpegs below) and place them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, your blog, your emails and website and a host of other social networking services in just a few clicks.
Here are examples of the widgets (though these are just screenshots, not the functioning widgets):
It’s part of our job (and mission) to equip you with the assets–and the knowledge–of how to leverage trends and opportunities to your advantage. Experimenting with these widgets is just another way StartupNation is trying to help you succeed.
It’s a fast-moving world. Be careful about jumping to conclusions about seemingly berserk things like Twitter. With an open mind, and some clear insights and examples about how value can be created, you might actually conclude that Twitterers actually aren’t twits.
