In what ways do you use Twitter for marketing?

I was recently at a meeting of people who sell craft items online, which is what my wife does, and there was a lot of talk about marketing via Twitter. So I thought I'd ask my fellow hypnothinkers how they use Twitter to promote their businesses.

James

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Permalink Reply by Licentious Maladay on August 17, 2010 at 7:14pm

One of the ways I use Twitter to make connections is to search for topics that interest me and follow the thought leaders I find in those areas. Often they will follow me back, or at least look at my tweets to see if I interest them.

I don't attempt to sell directly to them. Instead I get to know them via their tweets and direct messages. If the conversation is compelling enough, it can jump from Twitter to the real world.

Lic

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Permalink Reply by Craig Eubanks on August 18, 2010 at 7:17am

Twitter is one of the latest "shiny thing" fads in Internet Marketing. Shiny things tend to distract business owners from proven effective principles and strategies of direct response marketing.

Don't waste your time with twitter as a marketing tool. I know people with lists of 100,000+ who will tell you it's no way to make money. To put it bluntly they would say Twitter sucks. And I agree.

There are many reasons why, especially for a business like hypnotherapy. My main reason is I have tested it and tested it and the response rates are pathetically low.

Unless you are a retail store that tweets coupons, or a celebrity, it's a bad way to market your services. Even for those guys it's only one "channel" in an overall marketing strategy.

Focus on doing 2-step lead generation, build a list of interested prospects, and develop a relationship with them so they trust you and believe what you do will solve their problem. Then make them an irresistible offer through email (or even better direct mail).

Email marketing is where you should focus your time. The ROI on it blows twitter away. Both in terms of time and money.

Cheers,

Craig Eubanks
HypnosisMarketingTips.com

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Permalink Reply by Marc Carlin on August 18, 2010 at 8:19am

Twitter can be a waste of time. I wouldn't throw it all away though. When I write an article, or post, or put some other piece of content on the web, if I can, I will set up an automatic posting to twitter where that content is. Any content I put on the web, I try to attach some way for people to join my opt in list for further info. And then, as Craig says, use email to stay in touch with them and let them know what I'm doing.

I've been tracking my responses from all sources and facebook on my last promotion has yielded the best opt ins. I think I got only one opt in from twitter, but I didn't have to do anything but set up the automatic post option. So in that case it was a good ROI.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh Cole on August 18, 2010 at 10:55am

Twitter is a good idea gone terribly wrong for Hypnotherapists. I think Craig Hit the nail on the head, it's a shiny toy that wastes time. As I go forward I begin to realize that there are some really succesful people on Hypnothoughts ... as well as other social media I participate in... as I model them it is pretty obvious that twitter plays a small to miniscule role in thier success. Video is more exciting and with some of the newer live video sites available I would rather put my energy into good video production and support. So ... even though Craig got me into twitter in the first place (because he is innovative, trustworthy and agreat marketing guy) ,,,, I am following his lead (or is he following mine) as I begin to target specifically the areas I am good at with video presentations on the power of hypnosis as a healing tool.

Hugh Cole
The Pretty Goodest Hypnotist on the Planet..

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Permalink Reply by Hugh Cole on August 18, 2010 at 11:29am

There are times when you just don't need to Twitter ... Click Here

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Hanover on August 18, 2010 at 5:14pm

Just as I wouldn't use a monkey wrench to drive a nail (okay, I would, and have, but it didn't work...) I don't use Twitter for direct response marketing. It's highest and best uses are in customer service, reputation management, news distribution and networking. It's also a good place to find out what people are talking about in real time.

I've contacted some pretty high-powered people on Twitter who would never take my call in real life. And I've developed my own personal brand to a certain extent. I also use Twitter as an RSS reader. I set up RSS (really simple syndication) feeds that I like to read, and I then subscribe to these feeds using my Twitter account. The articles I want to read are automagically piped into my Twitter stream where I (and my followers) can read them if and when we choose. And finally, a lot of journalists will accept story pitches via Twitter.

If you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Twitter is one tool among many in my marketing and PR toolbox.

Kathleen
Marketing and PR Opinionist
Follow @KathleenHanover on Twitter

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Permalink Reply by Bill Kennedy on August 18, 2010 at 6:03pm

Bravo, Kathleen!

I used twitter to drive up readership in an industry magazine by creating a twitter account for them and searching for twitter users in their industry. They thought it was just a shiny object too, until I had 1,000 followers and their web stats were high enough that the staff got bonuses. I also used RSS to have a headline for all the new articles on the web site posted to twitter with a link back to the web site.

James, it all comes down to what you want to accomplish. Craft items might work if you can come up with interesting things to say and build a community around the craft.

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Permalink Reply by Antonio on August 19, 2010 at 9:44pm

Craig, I've been toying around with using Twitter to promote hypnosis education in Hawaii. I'm still working on my website which my twitter account is connected with. I'm probably going to start off just by adding people who actually live in Hawaii. Do you think this would be fine since I am trying to target people in Hawaii only?

Antonio

Craig Eubanks said:

Twitter is one of the latest "shiny thing" fads in Internet Marketing. Shiny things tend to distract business owners from proven effective principles and strategies of direct response marketing.

Don't waste your time with twitter as a marketing tool. I know people with lists of 100,000+ who will tell you it's no way to make money. To put it bluntly they would say Twitter sucks. And I agree.

There are many reasons why, especially for a business like hypnotherapy. My main reason is I have tested it and tested it and the response rates are pathetically low.

Unless you are a retail store that tweets coupons, or a celebrity, it's a bad way to market your services. Even for those guys it's only one "channel" in an overall marketing strategy.

Focus on doing 2-step lead generation, build a list of interested prospects, and develop a relationship with them so they trust you and believe what you do will solve their problem. Then make them an irresistible offer through email (or even better direct mail).

Email marketing is where you should focus your time. The ROI on it blows twitter away. Both in terms of time and money.

Cheers,

Craig Eubanks
HypnosisMarketingTips.com

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Permalink Reply by Craig Eubanks on August 20, 2010 at 12:17pm

Twitter is a waste of time for hypnotists who need a steady stream of clients to be profitable. You won't build a 6-figure hypnotherapy practice by spending time sending out 140 character tweets. I'm so confident of this, I'll put my money where my mouth is...

I'll pay $100 cash money to any hypnotist who can show me PROOF they get a constant and consistent stream of new paying clients from Twitter.

Plus, I'll invite you on one of the upcoming HypnoThoughts Marketing & Practice Building Teleseminars so you can tell everyone how you make Twitter work for you.

Look, there are some useful applications for Twitter. It has it's uses for Kathleen because she's involved in PR, if she can build a list of people in the news media who actually pay attention to her tweets, then it's a quick way to reach them.

And yes, a magazine publisher like Bill can use it to build readership.

Does that mean it's an effective method for getting new clients. NO! Not a damn bit. I have yet to see anyone prove they get clients from twitter. That's why I'm happy to pay someone to show me how they managed to make it work.

However, I can show you proof that using 2-step lead generation, building an email list, and sending follow up emails has DOUBLED a hypnotherapy business inside of 6-months.

I can show you proof of how list building took a legal practice specializing in non-profit law from an occasional client to bringing in $12,000 to $25,000 a month in business. Consistently, month after month, for the last 5 years.

List building is a fundamental principle and basic strategy of marketing. And most hypnotist DO NOT do this. At my presentation at the NGH last weekend I asked a room with 60+ hypnotists how many of them had a list of prospects or a list of their customers. 3 PEOPLE raised their hand.

In the niche where I make the lion's share of my income, list building to those business owner's is like breathing air. It's something everyone does, and if they stop... they die. These business do high 6 and low 7 gross profits every year and most are run by solo entrepreneurs.

They have all also tested Twitter exhaustively and determined it to be (mostly) useless as a marketing tool. These are people who built 100,000's of Twitter followers.

In the Internet Marketing world, the only so called guru's who sing the praises of Twitter are the ones who want you to buy their $1000 course on how to get rich on Twitter. The smart money does not bet the farm on Twitter. They are sending email and direct mail.

So... if you are a hypnotist, the best use of your time is not with Twitter. You need to get butts in your chair. There are many more effective ways to do it than Twitter.

There is a very useful tool for analyzing if a new tool/media/service is useful for a business. It's called the Pareto Principle a.k.a. the 80/20 rule. (Someday I'll do a teleseminar on this, it's extremely useful for decision making)

The short version is this... 80% of your income (or clients or sales) will come from 20% of your marketing activities.

It's a rule-of-thumb, but one that shows up over and over again and is very useful as a model. The way to use it is to look for the 20% that gives you the 80%, and focus your time/energy/money there.

I'll bet even Kathleen & Bill would find that Twitter wasn't in the 20% that got the 80% results.

My main point to HYPNOTISTS is this... when you look at what gets you paying clients, I have yet to meet a professional who has Twitter in the 20% that brings in the big bucks.

Grow your practice enough so you don't need to worry about paying rent and where your next client is coming from... then you can play with Twitter and TEST to see what use it might have for your practice.

And if you have a receptionist, or a customer service person... one of their duties could be to monitor Twitter (and other media) for conversations/complaints/comments/questions about your business. Grow big enough and this is actually a smart use for twitter. But remember, large companies have staff dedicated to this task which you don't have.

One more thing... people like Twitter and Facebook etc. because they think it's free. It's not free, unless you don't value your time.

Cheers,

Craig Eubanks
HypnosisMarketingTips.com

P.S. If you enjoy Twitter, by all means enjoy yourself. But if your practice is not where you want it to be in terms of cash flow... you need to ask yourself if it's a valuable use of your time.

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Permalink Reply by Craig Eubanks on August 20, 2010 at 12:35pm

Antonio said:

Craig, I've been toying around with using Twitter to promote hypnosis education in Hawaii. I'm still working on my website which my twitter account is connected with. I'm probably going to start off just by adding people who actually live in Hawaii. Do you think this would be fine since I am trying to target people in Hawaii only?
Antonio

Hi Antonio,

No. See my previous post as to why.

Where you on the last teleseminar I did with Richard Nongard? He had some KILLER advice for hypnotists just starting out, which I think would be a real benefit to you.

By the way... you don't add people to Twitter. They must 'follow' you. Big difference.

Cheers,

Craig Eubanks
HypnosisMarketingTips.com

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Permalink Reply by AJ on August 20, 2010 at 12:45pm

I almost bypassed this thread with my critical faculty. Yikes! Wake up everyone. Twitter is for twits (silly and foolish people) as its name implies. Get smart and drop this time waster. Unless you have a very "unique" product to pitch, it is nearly futile to catch active interest. And the amount of work needed to get results is indeed over an 80% investment for less than a 20% return.

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Permalink Reply by Antonio on August 21, 2010 at 4:09am

Yeah I understand that people people don't always follow you on twitter. That is the big issue with twitter. What I am planning on using twitter now is to start off by adding some folks here from Kaua'i. So far I've got a few people from this Island that are following me. I'm not planning on using twitter to promote a private practice, rather to get a few people interested in a local hypnosis practice group. My larger vision is to have a good amount of people on the 4 major Islands of Hawaii become interested in Hypnosis (So far there is not enough interest in Hypnosis to warrant trainers coming out...imho). I basically figured it would be best to start off on Kaua'i and then branch out to the other Islands. I have a few hypnotherapist/hypnotist friends on each Island that are more than willing to help (as they want to promote hypnosis education on Hawaii).

Craig, would you be willing to do a mini seminar on how to promote hypnosis education? I personally feel that I may be a "special" case being in Hawaii. With the geographically separation of the Islands, this can be kind of hard. Yeah I can communicate with people via skype/twitter/facebook/etc. I'm trying to build a solid foundation to make this a reality.

Antonio
Craig Eubanks said:

Antonio said:
Craig, I've been toying around with using Twitter to promote hypnosis education in Hawaii. I'm still working on my website which my twitter account is connected with. I'm probably going to start off just by adding people who actually live in Hawaii. Do you think this would be fine since I am trying to target people in Hawaii only?
Antonio

Hi Antonio,

No. See my previous post as to why.

Where you on the last teleseminar I did with Richard Nongard? He had some KILLER advice for hypnotists just starting out, which I think would be a real benefit to you.

By the way... you don't add people to Twitter. They must 'follow' you. Big difference.

Cheers,

Craig Eubanks
HypnosisMarketingTips.com