Do My Twitter Followers Know What Material Handling Is?

As many of you know I am first and foremost a marketing person, specifically business to business (or Government) marketing on the Internet. By the grace of God we have been able to grow American Warehouse Systems from two guys in a storage closet (literally) to one of the largest suppliers of material handling products to the US Federal Government. All of this business has been generated by Internet traffic (to date we still don't have a yellow page listing).

Through the years we have relied on leading edge SEO and other Internet marketing strategies to bring our customers to us. With the dawn of social media, for this blog specifically Twitter, I have turned a great deal of my attention toward this "new" marketing resource.

The way to achieve your business goals on Twitter is actually quite easy in theory. You find your target market, get them to follow you, pitch your product and they buy. Unfortunately in reality it's really not that easy even if you are very familiar with how Twitter works. A quick search on Twitter or some third party help can quickly bring you to your target market (assuming you know who they are) and you can follow them hoping they will follow you back. They might but if you spend every day trying to pitch your product you will lose each and every one of them and fast. People don't go to Twitter to hear sales pitches they go for community. You target market exists on Twitter to be part of a community of like minded individuals not the target of never ending commercials.

In order to be successful on Twitter you need to become part of the party. You need to find someone in your organization that has a passion for the same things your target market has a passion for and let them Tweet. For American Warehouse Systems this was easy. I started AWS with the intent to sell to the American Government specifically the military for which I have a passion. My target market is basically me, God fearing, right wing Americans. Unfortunately for others, they don't have the advantage of an emotional connection with their market. On the other hand maybe someone in your organization does. It is certainly worth looking into. Faking a connection to "join the party" is pretty transparent and won't get you far.

OK so you've found someone in your organization who is on the same wave length as your target market. Now what? You need to become part of the community. You need to invest in the conversation and let people know you are a human being with the same interests as them. In short you need to make friends. Sitting in the corner listening and hoping they will come to you doesn't work. Get out there and get involved. Don't be afraid to voice your opinion (but don't forget you are representing your company - read your social media policy).

Lets say now you are involved and you have a great big group of followers that comprise both your passion and your target market. How do you get them to buy your product? There is no easy answer here. People "run" from the virtual salesperson faster than the Fuller Brush Man. You can't pitch your products on Twitter and retain your quality followers.

For the most part I don't pitch our products or services on Twitter (or my blog for that matter). I Tweet about things I love; America, our Armed Forces, politics and internet marketing. To this point I have been approached several times with the question; Do your followers even know what material handling is? I guess for me the answer is; "I don't know and I'm not sure I care". Analytics today can show me that a great deal of traffic (people) travels through Twitter and my blog to our website. I can't tell you what their motives are or if they are their because they need material handling equipment or are just interested to see what we do. I can tell you that Twitter is our highest traffic source outside the major search engines and our website is the source of virtually all our revenue (outside current customers and referrals (who probably came from the Internet originally)).

I think if you are looking at Twitter as a pure sales tool, you will probably be disappointed. Twitter is a group of communities that have come together for a long conversation. If you become part of this conversation, you will meet people (just like the "outside" world). If you are decent and these people like you and your ideas (Tweets) they may end up checking out your "business" side and perhaps place an order someday. This process is not unlike getting to know your neighbors, in fact it is the same.

The long and short of it is; Your company should be on Twitter to become part of the same community that your customers are a part of. You should be involved in the same issues they face and Twitter is a great place to come together. Twitter is not a direct sales tool, it is a relationship building tool. Building relationships outside of the sales arena often builds trust and credibility. Trust and credibility often lead to sales.