There are numerous speculations and polarized opinions about the effect of microblogging on sales ratio. One opinion suggests microblogging is a power unleashed for sales boost. The opposite opinion states that the only party who definitely wins from microblogging is Twitter and similar services. In this article, we provide a brief overview of the direct and indirect benefits and impact of microblogging on sales.
Opportunities
The microblogging services like Twitter were originally intended to provide people with an opportunity to share ideas and express their point of view – tell the world everything you like and as much as you like. The only limitation is that you have to be short-spoken and the message should not exceed 140 symbols at a time. The trick is how we can use tweets to boost sales and enhance marketing efforts.
We cannot pass off the fact that Twitter usage presently stands at an estimated 75 million users worldwide (*according to the statistics provided by Arbitron Edison). Add the indispensable feature of portability and multiple content entry points – and you can instantly see how large audience outreach can be achieved and the microblogging power unleashed is formed. What should be known about Twitter dwellers:
– Twitter users are technology-savvy
– Twitter users are willing to explore
– Active Twitter users (56 percent of users visit Twitter on the daily basis) are willing to communicate. And this is what we have to take advantage of.
A few more facts about Twitter: 50 percent of Twitter users have a blog, a website, or MySpace page. And almost the same percentage relies on recommendations given by friends and family.
According to the same survey (* North American Technographics Media And Marketing Online Survey, Q3 2007), from 55% of teen to 25% of adult users think that owning the best brand is of ultimate importance for them. And 40 percent rely on advertisements when deciding what to buy.
Interdependence between brand visibility and sales is clear. The more people have heard about your company on Twitter, and the more positive references about your product and service you have – the more clicks and sales opportunities you get.
Still, the “10 million dollars” question is how exactly people use this power to boost sales. The strategy you can adopt can be passive or active.
Passive strategy implies using Twitter for tracking what’s in the air, where the area of interests lies as well as prompt reacting to the changes.
Active strategy implies being active in promoting your company products, services, and drawing traffic to your web-sites. It includes the launch and support of certain marketing activities and active on-going communication with users.
