Imagine you sell mobile phones. One day a crowd of nearly 2,500 customers crowds your front stoop pleading for a phone. Instead of opening the door and yelling, “Come on in, we have what you need!” you lock the door and pull down the shade, cowering behind your register.
Ridiculous, right? Not really – it happens all the time. On a single summer day, customers took to Twitter looking for things like cell phones, purses, TVs and more. As a sample:
· 504 customers Tweeted wanting jewelry
· 216 customers Tweeted about purses
· 3768 customers Tweeted about a massage
· 2448 customers Tweeted about a new phone
And believe it or not, shop owners – both brick and mortar, and those exclusively online – ignore these Tweets from motivated shoppers because 1) they don’t know how to use Twitter, or 2) they haven’t found the right tool to help find and engage these customers.
“Twitter should be an important part of a retailer’s holiday sales strategy,” says Bernard Perrine, CEO of SocialCentiv, a marketing tool that helps businesses find new customers on Twitter. “Studies show 30 percent of Twitter users begin thinking and Tweeting about holiday shopping before October. As a public forum, Twitter is a great place for lead generation because shoppers are looking for suggestions and places to buy items in the moment. The trick is to find the right tools to make Twitter marketing affordable and successful.”
The right tools do the heavy lifting
With a tool like SocialCentiv, subscribers can enter in key words so the software can sift through Twitter to find relevant Tweets that match a customer with the right retailer. If an electronics store owner entered keywords like “need a TV,” “broke my phone,” “want a new phone,” SocialCentiv would pull Tweets that matched those words onto a dashboard where the owner could “@” direct reply with a coupon or special deal to entice the consumer to buy from him. It also works for restaurants, caterers and event venues looking to attract holiday parties as well.
ROI, you ask? SocialCentiv subscribers see an average 34 percent of Tweeted discounts downloaded so the customer can redeem the offer. Many clients’ rates are much higher. Compare that to a traditional direct mail response of 2-3 percent.
Another critical factor: geotargeting. That is, SocialCentiv uses shop owners’ geographic locations to ensure that relevant Tweets are coming from their neighborhoods. A store selling TVs in Springfield, Mo., isn’t helpful to a consumer in upstate New York looking for a TV.
Also, the idea that Twitter is for social media elites is a thing of the past. With more than 5 million Tweets a day, the number of Twitter users is increasing all the time. According to a Pew Research Center 2014 study, 23 percent of online adults use the microblog – a significant stat because one year earlier that number sat at 18 percent. Furthermore, Twitter has historically been linked with a younger demographic, but its demographics are also changing, specifically with men, whites, 65 and older, college graduates, urbanites and those with a household income of more than $50,000.
“People on Twitter are used to turning to the microblog to solve their problems,” says Perrine. “Businesses need to make sure they are there, ready to help with a solution.”
About SocialCentiv
In August 2014, HipLogiq integrated its portfolio of Twitter marketing applications under a single product line, SocialCentiv. Now, businesses can visit www.SocialCentiv.com and find a user-friendly, do-it-yourself Twitter marketing tool that makes it easy to create a campaign that tracks keywords and reaches relevant consumers with greater precision by targeting local Tweets. You can be part of the most relevant Tweets as they happen, spot opportunities first, and make a name for yourself with SocialCentiv.
Since May 2013, SocialCentiv has received $12 million in two rounds of funding. For more information, go to www.SocialCentiv.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
For more information, contact Karen Carrera, TrizCom, 972-207-1935, [email protected] or @kjcarrera.
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