Friday, April 2, 2010

FINGER CANDY FRIDAY - THIS WEEK: Twitter vs. SMS Text Messaging


TWITTER VS. SMS TEXT MESSAGE MARKETING

If you ask 100 people whether you should use Twitter for you business your likely to get split answers. Twitter is undoubtedly very popular and it can provide sales and a new level of customer interaction for your business. There are several benefits and weaknesses to using Twitter for your small business, lets take a look at them when compared to SMS text message marketing.

Twitter is part of a larger group of social media web 2.0 sites. Also in this realm are Facebook and LinkedIn which we use but as you will find, it is hard to focus your attention on one and gain maximum benefit. Twitter is free and you probably already have customers and potential customers using it.

Benefits of Using Twitter:

1) Allows you to check up on your customers, naysayers and competition. There are new Twitter search alert tools that allow you to be sent alerts when someone Tweets about your business or competition. This is a great way to stay on the curve. Check out our favorite free tools, TweetDeck  and SocialOoomph.

2) You can Tweet sales, promotions, product advice and discounts. The ROI is only sales against your time as Twitter costs no money directly. People Re-Tweeting your message allows it to have viral potential. To track Twitters effectiveness use special offers that are only on Twitter.

3) Grow your customer base. By using Twitter actively you allow people to find your business who previously didn’t know you even existed.

Still Twitter results and time vs. return can be hard to measure. Is it the number of followers you have? The number of Tweets you send? How do you gain the most followers? How many people should you follow? How do you cut through all the proverbial noise on Twitter to get your message across?  Do followers actually read you’re Tweets?

Twitter can be seen as most useful when you incorporate it into an overall marketing strategy and not as a stand alone to an end all be all. Text message marketing that uses SMS based messages picks up where the Twitter shortfalls begin. As a business and advertiser you need to build one on one relationships with your customers. Engaging them in a opt-in campaign allows you to do this and it is much more personal because messages are being sent right to their mobile device.

Benefits of Text Message Marketing vs. Twitter:

1) 95% of messages are read by your subscribers in 15 minutes. You know with text message marketing that your message is being heard. It is almost impossible with Twitter to measure this. Tweets could go days without being seen, if at all. This will not increase your business when you need it most.

2) The text audience is much larger than Twitter. Twitter is estimated to only receive 22 million unique visitors a month and some say it may be showing signs of declining. On the other hand there are over 150 million people a month who actively use text messaging as mobile communication and this number continues to grow at a rapid rate.

3) You can gain new subscribers instantly in your store, through your traditional advertising and through your customers forwarding your offers to a friend. Adding a mobile call to action which is ease and gives your customers a clear benefit is easy with text message marketing, not so much with Twitter.

4) Text Messaging allows you to have text based contests, voting, coupons and offers. There is no easy way to do this on Twitter. The various text campaign types have be proven to be fun to customers, increase loyalty and sales by rewarding your best customers.

As a business or brand owner today, you should embrace all of the new media outlets there are available to reach your customers and increase your sales. You need to build a database of your best customers that have a true relationship with your business.  Twitter can be a nice addition to your marketing but will not be able to replace the ROI, increased sales and customer loyalty that text message marketing provides.

I have been speaking with Moto Message about their philosophies and strategies towards social media and text message marketing and am really impressed. Mobile marketing can be incorporated and should be if you haven't already into your marketing strategy! They have been nice enough to offer SocialMediology, Finger Candy Media and Full Throttle Country readers a trial that will allow you to implement, test and gauge the response from your customers before you even have to pay anything. If you have been thinking about getting into text message marketing, check these guys out at MotoMessage.com. They are really patient and truly believe in helping small businesses compete in this economy. Our special referral code SOCIALALITYto take advantage of the trial offer that is above and beyond what they offer normal customers!


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