A Clever Twitter Tip You Can Use to Focus Your Social Media Marketing Message
Here’s a marketing-smart little idea to wring greater value from your Twitter messages.
Since micro-blogging in 140 characters or less is precious little space to get acquainted with your followers, consider thanking a new follower and providing a link to a short “getting to know you” online survey. We haven’t seen this often, but it’s an easy way to focus your social media message in healthcare marketing. Here’s how one person did it.
When we elect to “follow” someone on Twitter, we occasionally get a direct acknowledgement. Just a quick “thanks,” and that’s it. But when we followed a marketing person recently, their reply included a marketing tool. They said something like: “Thanks for following me. To help me get to know about your interests and to serve you better, please take this short survey.”
It’s all optional and anonymous, of course. But the Twitter writer opens the door for feedback in keeping their twitter stream relevant and tuned-in to their followers. The included link took us to a simple survey of 15, mostly multiple-choice, questions in three easy slices.
“About You:” This section provided a list of “check one” categories for the follower to identify which best described, in this case, their professional or organizational affiliation. This could be a list of characteristics of your intended followers. (If the follower doesn’t relate to any of groups listed, they may be in the wrong place.)
“About Your Use of Twitter:” Another checklist here provides options as to why they are using Twitter and how frequently they monitor the people they are following. (The insight here would be in knowing if these are casual followers or high-interest power Twitter users.)
“About Your Interests:” These questions help gauge the usefulness of tweets, and what topics are of greatest interest to the follower. (A “check as many as apply” list was provided, along with space for open answers.
A pattern will emerge from this data about the likes, dislikes and nature of your Twitter followers. It might suggest, for example, that followers of a hospital’s twitter stream may be better served by more than one Twitter account and messaging.
Much of this process is done automatically, although you need to be on the safe side of policy, confidentiality and anti-spam regulations. That said, there’s valuable insight in knowing about the interests of your Twitter constituents.
Read more Twitter Tips for Healthcare Marketing here. And, BTW, you can follow us on Twitter @hcsuccess and at @stewartgandolf. Plus, click through here for more about making social media marketing profitable.
