How Twitter Can Uncover New Leads and Save You Tons on Market Research

By now, your business is probably using microblogging sites like Twitter to boost your company's online profile and stay connected with your existing customer base. If not, you should at least set up an account to secure your brand's identity. In addition, you should pay attention to another business advantage Twitter can offer.

Third party companies offering market analysis services and software charge dearly for this valuable information, but did you know a wealth of market knowledge can be gained for free by knowing how to extract the right information from Twitter?

The beauty of Twitter is that it offers results in real time, so it provides a snapshot of how the general public is feeling at that moment. If your business is in a competitive niche market, than you know consumer taste and public opinion can shift in a moments notice. Staying ahead of your competitors is the only way to stay profitable.

Twitter can alert brand managers of shifts in the market or changes in your company's overall reputation. Paying attention to posts on Twitter can help your business time the release of a product for maximum effectiveness by providing your potential customers with what they want, when they want it.

The first step to establishing your Twitter presence is to start using hashtags (#) before the keywords in your posts. This will allow people searching those words to have a better chance of finding you.

The second step to tapping Twitter's market analysis potential is to perform a targeted search of your business or product's most valuable keywords. Type the keyword into the search bar with the magnifying glass icon. When you hit return, a few tweets containing those keywords will appear. The number of people discussing these topics alone can give insight into the popularity of your niche. Use the advanced search function to filter your keywords further or only show results from specific regions.

Twitter also allows you to set up an RSS feed of queries, so once you perform a search you can subscribe to it and continue to receive results as new one's are added. There are also third party applications like Tweetdeck, Twubs, Feedbu
er, and Mr. Tweet that can do some of this work for you or help you make the most of the information you receive. Be wary of services and applications offering to get you tons of followers in a few days time. They will just net you a lot of spammy followers who will fill up your news feed with annoying advertisements unrelated to your business.

Read through the targeted tweets you've uncovered and try to locate potential partners or customers based on their use of the keyword phrases you searched for. Make a lead list of the people who are actively shopping vs. the one's who just seem curious. The nature of Twitter lends itself to separating these leads by people asking questions, the complainers, people with a need, and so forth. Create a separate list of potential business partners and top competitors. Twitter even allows you to save these lists of followers in a custom timeline by clicking the "New List" link and following the instructions.

Spend the most effort on your hot leads; the folks who are already begging for your business and just don't know where or how to get it. The first step is to follow these people and hope that they in turn follow you by expressing an interest in who they are.

You have two options for reaching out to them; you can reply to their post that first got your attention, or you can send them a short direct message. The direct message is less invasive since the results don't get posted on their profile. Keep your greeting friendly and always leave enough room to include a link to your website or blog. You may even want to give them your toll free number or offer them a special "Twitter discount" just for following you. Remember that Twitter is not the right environment for a hard sell; your goal at this point is to connect with leads who may buy from you in the future.

Once you have a good number of leads following you, invite them to actively be a part of your marketing development process. Are you about to post a new video or mail out a new brochure? Allow your Twitter followers to preview it first and offer an incentive for their feedback, like a coupon or free download.

Can't decide which version of an ad to run? Set up a poll on your blog, website or Facebook page and link to it from Twitter. This will not only keep your Twitter followers in the loop, but will drive traffic to your other online platforms as well.

Check your RSS reader daily to keep up on new prospects while continuing to develop the Twitter relationships you've already started. In a month's time you'll have a list of new leads, a convenient way to manage your company's reputation, and some interesting insight into your market.