Is Twitter Effective for B2B Marketing?

Let's test it out, shall we? Go to www.twitter.com/LaunchDoctor for my (brief) answer, and then come back to this forum for the details. (You can also sign up to Follow me on Twitter while you're there.)

Twitter seems to be the hottest social networking tool right now, and you can't get through an average day without hearing it in some conversation - at the office, at home, on TV. It seems that everyone's websites and email signatures now contain the "must-have" Twitter link. It's great for connecting up with people socially, but does it translate to business? More importantly, is this a good model for B2B marketing?

Who Is Using Twitter In the Business World?
I had heard that a lot of companies were starting to use Twitter, so I went to the Twitter site and did a quick search of a few companies. One of the problems with searching at Twitter is that you get a lot of posts where people are talking ABOUT the company, but they are not tweets BY the company, and sometimes companies will use a different Twitter name (such as IntelBlogs or Cisco_Insights) or even an individual employee's name. An advanced search at Twitter by company helped somewhat to find a few more. Then, I visited a few corporate websites to see if they posted a Twitter link anywhere on their site. Symantec and Qualcomm do not Twitter and there's no mention at their websites. Intel Twitters and at its website displays the most current posts. Cisco Twitters and has an invitation at its website to Follow them. Google, Intuit and Oracle do Twitter but there is no mention at their websites that I could find. Rather interesting results. Some companies promote their Twittering at their sites and do it regularly while others don't even bother. Makes you wonder what they're discussing in their marketing meetings.

Social Versus Business
Twitter was founded with the objective of getting people to communicate socially using short burst messages that respond to the question: what are you doing right now? In the beginnings of Twitter, these "tweets" were very personal or mundane, such as "I'm feeding my dog right now and he hates this vegetarian stuff and he's growling at me." Or: "Just went to visit my uncle in Milwaukee and found out he was having an affair with a stripper. Auntie's not pleased." Or: "Got out of the theater after seeing X-Men and it's so hot, hot, hot!" Now I ask you, do these tidbits sound like a vehicle for marketing business products and services? I thought not. However, Twitter (and people using it) evolved. People started using this platform in a different way: to share knowledge and recommendations and solutions to problems that DO have potential for those of us interested in spreading the word in a marketing sense. If you keep in mind that social networking is meant to build relationships, and that all business relationships (even B2B) involve person-to-person communication between humans in the respective companies, then it does translate. The only difference is that businesses don't communicate on Twitter, humans do, and those humans embody their company's philosophy and brand. That company representative has to play both roles: act for the company, and act as an interesting person conversing on Twitter.

A Three-Way Street
I believe it was Thomas Paine who wrote (and many corporate leaders said), "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way." That's kind of what you have to do on Twitter. Well, at least the Lead and Follow parts, anyway. Twitter doesn't work too well if you only use it for outbound sales pitches. You might be able to get away with that on your website, but Twitter only works when you have two-way (actually three-way) communication. You have to get people to Follow you. That means you have to Lead them by giving them helpful information, tips, humor, or advice that they can use to entice them to Follow. So you Lead first, and then they Follow you. But that's not all. You also have to Follow other people, and (hold your breath now) those people you Follow might actually be your COMPETITORS. Whoa, hold on, you say, why should I do that? Because people aren't going to Follow you unless you are a good sport and Follow other people (a third party related to your industry or market, who also might be a competitor). So, you ask, the people Following you might actually start Following other people instead? Yes, that could happen. But people may also keep Following you if they like your tweets (that sounds mildly indecent as written, but so be it).

If You're a Novelist and Not a Poet, You Might Have a Problem
A firm Twitter rule is that you have to be able to shrink your message down to just 140 characters. It's poetry, not a novel. For WORDY people like me, it's a challenge (my email recipients groan every time they see something in their Inbox from me, I'm sure.) So what do you do with this condensed format? Learn to write in phrases instead of complete sentences (think marketing slogans and taglines). Make a list of the keywords in your marketing messages and build phrases from those. Use the url-condensing service websites to put links in your tweets (like Tiny url and others). And last but not least, remember: you may have to live with forced brevity, but you can make up for it in volume! Do a whole series of tweets spaced out over a few minutes or hours.

Leveraging Twitter
The volume of tweets you produce means that there is more content online generated by you and your company. And you know what that means: improved search engine rankings. Search engines like Google will pick up new content more frequently, which will help your search engine rankings, which in turn will drive more traffic to your website over time (along with your link-backs within tweets that go to your website). If nothing else, Twitter can help expand your online presence.

Another Marketing Tool
Keeping the Twitter rules in mind, it's fairly easy to add Twitter to your marketing plan. Get started with Twitter by identifying an individual (or two) who can embody the company's message and brand and provide consistent conversational posts. Identify some individuals or companies that you'd like to Follow; these can be respected leaders in your industry, academic experts, editors, thought leaders, or anyone you think might complement your content.

If you already have a presence on Twitter, then keep offering useful information to your Followers in order to continue to build your brand and expand awareness of your company. During the launch phase, there are several ways to use Twitter as another communication vehicle in your arsenal. Create a tweet announcement on launch day, with a link-back to your launch press release at your website. Post upcoming launch events like tradeshows or press conferences and invite people to register and attend. Invite people to participate in webinars and online demos related to the launch. Post quotes from and links to press coverage. After the launch, post customer testimonials.

So The Answer Is: It Depends!
Whether Twitter will be effective for B2B marketing depends on your goal. If you want to use it as one more online avenue to promote your brand, yes, it can help. If you want to use Twitter to drive more traffic to your website, yes it can, as long as you link back to your site often in your tweets. If you want to use Twitter as the main marketing venue for a new product launch, I'd say no, it's not a primary solution. However, it is another useful online marketing tool to complement your website, your blogs, and your email communications. Think of it as an enhancement to your online networking presence. I do encourage you to try it, and assess its effectiveness using whatever metrics make sense (website traffic, search engine ranking, sales, turnout for marketing events.) Then come to Twitter.com/LaunchDoctor and let me know how you are doing. Maybe we can even Follow each other!

As for me and my Twitter presence, I plan to offer lots of continuing launch tips and advice, plus short excerpts from and links to my dozens of articles about launch from my website. But do come back here and visit, too. You are always welcome.

Happy Launching (and Twittering)
Catherine Kitcho
The Launch Doctor