Do You Need to be on Twitter?

This is an important question to consider as people have less and less time and resources to do more and more. After all, Twitter can take over your life if you're not careful. Is it REALLY necessary to have a presence?

Twitter. Image: Flickr user Danilo Ramos.

In a word, yes. Why? Let's do the numbers.

First, how many people are on Twitter?

• 13% of US online adults use Twitter.
• Half of those people are accessing Twitter using their mobile phones.
• 20.6 million US adults access Twitter at least once a month.
• 460K new accounts are created each day.
• 177 million Tweets sent daily.
• 77% of the top US companies have Twitter accounts, and 72% of all US companies are on Twitter.

Your Takeaway: Simply, a huge number of people are on Twitter. If you need to reach more people, it's worth a try to start talking to them, and more importantly, to see what they are talking about.

What kind of People are on Twitter?

Statistically, the person who is most likely to use Twitter is a female Latina in her 20s who attended college, lives in a city, and earns less than $30K annually, or $50 - $75K, though all kinds of people have Twitter accounts.

Your Takeaway: This means that if your product appeals to minority audiences (African-Americans are currently adopting Twitter at higher rates than other groups), this is a great way to reach them. You'll reach people at all income levels, and fairly educated users, some low-income, but others moving up in the world. If you'd like to reach people who are looking to save money, who like to follow the news, and who are interested in pop culture, Twitter is one place to find them.

What are people doing on Twitter?

Posting their own status updates, but also keeping in touch with friends, checking the news, using it for work-related needs, and for research.  About 25% of Twitter users check their accounts several times daily, from multiple devices, including their phones.

Your Takeaway: Once you've started posting to Twitter, make sure you include content that other people want to retweet and that you're meeting the needs of your followers. Are they following your feed because it helps them with their research or work, to save money, for entertainment, for news? Keep this in mind as you craft your posts.

How do I use Twitter?
I use Twitter to keep in touch with others in my industry and small business owners who are looking for guidance on marketing. My feed is a mix of retweets, replies, links, suggestions, and references to my blog. I have a modest, but growing following (thanks all). Click here to see my profile.

Stats thanks to the generous folks at Pew Internet and Hubspot.

How do you use Twitter? Please share.

Using Facebook to Drive Traffic to Your Store

Like most retailers, you've got a Facebook page. You put one up because you felt like you couldn't afford not to have one, and you were right.

Facebook. Photo: Flickr user Max-B

But having a Facebook presence is only the beginning. The Facebook page itself won't bring people into your store - you've got to turn it up a notch to really drive that traffic. What should you do to your page?

First, make it relevant.

Your fans want to know about your sales, specials, and upcoming events.

Second, make it engaging.

You can't spend all your time on Facebook selling - you'll turn people off. Try quizzes, contests, and questions to get people talking. Make sure you're checking back regularly to respond appropriately.

Third, make it trackable.

Use tools like Facebook Insights and Hootsuite to monitor your Facebook reach and engagement. You'll be able to see what kinds of posts generate the most comments, likes, and shares.

What are you doing on Facebook to make your presence known? Please share in the comments.

Related Posts

Why Social  Media Matters to Your Business

Three Ways to Drive Sales Today

News this Week: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

What should you be paying attention to this week?

Whether you agree with his politics or not, I hope you watched Thursday's speech by President Obama.

Photo: Flickr user Buggolo

There are a number of things to think about.

1) If you're a small employer, there's a proposed tax cut for hiring anyone who's been unemployed for six months or more.

2) For manufacturers, the President has proposed making it easier to export your products all over the world.

3) If you're a visionary, Obama wants to make getting patents quicker and simpler.

4) More controversially, the President has called upon the richest of the rich and the largest, most profitable corporations to "do their part" and pay more taxes.

5) For the rest of us, a proposed income tax cut should save most families about $1500 next year.

6) There was also a great marketing angle to this speech. Obama repeated the words "Pass this jobs bill" many times. "Pass this bill now," he said again and again. He clearly messaged what he wanted and why. We can all take a cue from that.

What does this mean for your business?

It's hard to say. Certainly, the Republicans will oppose the plan, but Obama has also employed some strong rhetorical strategy - according to the President, people who are against the American Jobs Act are against building infrastructure, supporting products that are made in the USA by Americans, business tax cuts, and shoring up our educational system so we can be more globally competitive. Watch for a Republican alternative plan building on the prebuttal they already released, coming ASAP.

It will be interesting to see what the American Jobs Act looks like in the end, and how it will be paid for.

What do you think?

We can't end this week without considering how September 11th has affected all of us, our families, our lives, and our businesses. We all have our own memories of that day, and this is a good time to reflect on how we can value each other more and appreciate each other's differences.

Confident Consumers and Consumer Confidence

The Consumer Confidence Index®, which had improved a bit in July to 59.2, was down sharply at the end of August, to a worrying 44.5 - a 14.7 point drop.

Pensive piggy bank. Photo: Flickr user Bradipo.

How does consumer confidence affect your business?

Consumers are feeling pinched by gas prices, which remain fairly high, and poor job prospects, which aren't getting any better. Consumers surveyed felt that the short term outlook wasn't improving, and this means they are going to be holding off on purchases.

Couple this with the fact that negative customer reviews now mean more than ever, and you've got a recipe for slow sales.

So what do you do?

It's up to you to make your customers feel more confident - enough to buy from you for the first time, or to buy again. There are a couple of things you should consider here.

1) What's your guarantee? Do you have a 100% satisfaction guarantee? Customers want to know that you'll stand behind your product.

2) What's your return policy? If people change their minds, is it easy and quick to send it back?

3) How are you dealing with any negative reviews and problems? If you're not addressing these issues, and letting people know you are, people will be looking for a brand that's more reliable.

4) Like Mom said, don't you catch more flies with honey? Now is a great time to thank your customers for sticking with you during this difficult time, and to offer them incentive to shop with you again.

What about you? How are you sticking it out in these days? Drop me a line or leave a note in the comments section.

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Dealing with Uncertainty

Four Ways to Keep Your Head Up in Tough Times

News this week: Daily Deals, Social Networks, Customer Reviews

What should you be paying attention to this week?

Photo: Tim Malone, www.timmalone.id.au.

Is the daily deal bubble bursting? Facebook and Yelp getting out of the daily deal business, Groupon traffic is down 50%. I agree with the folks at Mashable, who say that customers will always appreciate a great deal, but this concept has reached its saturation point in the US. (Mashable)

Your takeaway? Here are my two cents on the daily deal concept. While the trend isn't over and will continue to evolve in different ways, it's still important to make sure it's financially advantageous for you to participate. You can always do your own coupons to your own customer list without these deal sites if you want.

65% of American adult Internet users are on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center. This is up 4% from last year. The Baby Boomer generation is seeing the most significant growth, up 60% over last year. (Pew Internet)

Your takeaway: If you're not participating in at least one social network, it's time to try this out. You don't have to be on all of them, but test Facebook if you're consumer-oriented, or LinkedIn if you're B-to-B. Also, if your customer cohort is age 50+, you officially have to stop ignoring social media - your customers are on it and they'll be looking for you there.

Negative customer reviews growing more powerful, with 80% of consumers indicating that they've changed their mind due to negative reviews of a product which they were considering. On the flip side, 87% of consumers surveyed said that positive reviews helped them decide to make a purchase. (MediaPost)

Your takeaway: It's always a good idea to allow customers to review your product. If you do, make sure you also have the ability to respond publicly to poor reviews and resolve customer issues. Bad reviews can be overcome if you'll step up and make it right with those customers.

What's on your mind this week? Please share in the comments.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

News this Week: Business Continuity and Emergency Planning

What should you be paying attention to this week?

Forecasted path of Hurricane Irene. Image: The Weather Channel.

News this week here in DC was dominated by the East Coast Earthquake, Hurricane Irene, and Steve Jobs’ resignation from Apple. (all from Washington Post)

This is has certainly been an eventful week. What’s your takeaway?

As a business owner, you need both an evacuation plan and a shelter-in-place plan to keep everyone safe.

But you also need to consider business continuity planning.

Who will make the decision to close your business in due to natural disaster or another event? If you have employees in multiple locations, how will each be affected? How will buildings be secured in case of damage?

Where will customer service calls be routed if your call center must be closed? If critical employees are affected by the disaster, who will take over for them?

Will people be able to answer emails remotely even if your email server is damaged? Can phone calls be forwarded to employees at home?

If your server room is damaged, where are your files backed up? Are critical documents stored in fire-proof containers?

What does your insurance cover? What is not covered and must be protected in another way?

You can find more information on business continuity planning here:

If you run your business out of your home, your business should be part of your family’s home emergency and evacuation plan. If you don’t have one of those, click here to get started.

What does Steve Jobs’ unfortunate situation have to do with this?

Now is also a good time to identify critical employees (yourself included), and what to do if they can't work. If you have an emergency and can't work, who will take over? Consider some cross training and succession planning.

What's this action packed week got you thinking? Please share in the comments or drop me a line.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Low Cost Sales Channels

Last week, I wrote about using different sales channels to find better customers. I mentioned that it might  be a good idea to figure out which customers are the most costly to serve and the least profitable, and direct them to lower-cost channels.

This is only part of the story.

Adjust customer channels to find the right balance
of profitability. Photo: Flickr user Dustin.Askins.

Just because a customer is expensive to serve, doesn't mean that customer is the least valuable. In fact, customers who require a lot of time, energy, and money can certainly be very profitable customers.

The key, then, is aligning client profitability with the appropriate channel, or balancing profitability across channels.

How does this work?

I used to work for a large company that served customers in several different ways. There were low cost channels and high cost channels, and I think we did a pretty good job of aligning customers accordingly.

Our low-cost channels included web sales and telesales. It was inexpensive for our company to do business online and via our call centers, so, where possible, most customers were directed to one of these channels - "Just call or click," we'd say.

Our retail stores were medium-cost, because we were able to effectively bring in new customers this way, and sell them lots of profitable add-ons. Once we had these customers in the fold, they were encouraged to deal with their bills and any additional service they needed via lower-cost channels like web and telephone. In this way, we balanced channels so that high-value sales, like signing up for new service and purchasing equipment and accessories could happen in-store, and lower value activities, like address changes and billing questions, could be directed to lower-cost channels while still providing customers with great service.

Our highest-cost channels were what we referred to as "National Accounts." This included a sales force who called on businesses with multiple customers in-house. While it was expensive for us to maintain this sales force, provide them with the right equipment and tools, and send them all over their territories to meet with customers in-person, it was still profitable for us to serve customers this way since these were very high-value customers that provided a high rate of annual revenue.

So, what's the moral of the story?

Take a look at your channels, and make sure you're putting your energy in the right place. There's nothing wrong with a high-cost channel as long as you're getting a return on your investment.

How do you balance across channels and where are you realizing economies of scale? Need help doing this?  Let me know.

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How to Find Better Customers
Speaking of Channels, Do you Need a Mobile App?