As an Internet Marketer, I find it difficult to convince clients how social media can benefit their business growth. Its to be expected of course especially with small businesses caught up in the old mindset that sticking with their traditional marketing strategies will do them just fine. And of course, that is fine. That is unless you want to grow. Lend an open ear to our Internet Marketer I say and open your mind to Social Media.

Dell made 3 million dollars from Twitter

A couple of weeks ago, I had to explain to one of my friends how business can leverage social media platforms such as Twitter beyond his belief that its only useful if you’re a celebrity and that it can be used to increase your online sales and conversions. I showed him a recent article published on Internet Retailer that discussed an article posted by the New york Times online stating that Dell made 3 million dollars from Twitter over the last 2 years (sources below). In the article, it says that it took Dell 18 months to make its first $1 Million, but much faster to make its next. The reason for that is because when most people use twitter they dont realize how it can benefit them, but as soon as companies like Dell, GoDaddy, HostGator, RedFlagDeals, start posting promotional codes on their websites, people start listening and keeping on top of their tweets.

The fact is, leveraging Twitter (twitter followers that is), is no different that leveraging your newsletter subscribers. If you’re an online business, you have subscribers. They are your past customers, customers that have asked you a question in the past, and customers that have signed up to your email newsletter no matter how frequent or infrequent you send one out.

Here’s a Twitter/Social Media campaign being used by DomainsAtCost.ca to increase domain name registrations and other services:

DomainsAtCost.ca’s OH Canada Olympic .ca Sale

If you’ve never thought of using leveraging Twitter or Facebook to increase your online sales and conversions, you should. Depending on your customers of course, whether they are online or not, getting people to follow your company on Twitter and or Facebook is a good idea. If your customers are using these platforms on a daily basis, then why aren’t you trying to convert them from these platforms? Use Twitter and Facebook to promote coupon codes like DomainsAtCost.ca and Dell. Your followers will come to learn that if they subscribe and follow you, the next time a new promo code comes out, they’ll be notified.

Sources:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/dell-has-earned-3-million-from-twitter/
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE55B0NU20090612
DomainsAtCost.ca DOTCA Domain Name Sale (landing page)