{"id":4802,"date":"2010-04-18T07:07:49","date_gmt":"2010-04-18T12:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/37d57f8fa2.nxcli.io\/blog\/?p=4802"},"modified":"2010-04-15T07:21:20","modified_gmt":"2010-04-15T12:21:20","slug":"twitter-product-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/web-marketing\/social-media\/twitter-product-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About How to Use Twitter in a Product Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The truth is, today Twitter only enables us to reach a tiny fraction of a typical market (unless it\u2019s the Twitter market itself). \u00a0The reality is that Twitter is just one of many \u201ccanvassing tools\u201d that should be used for launching a product, website, or company, as shown in the diagram below.<\/p>\n

Twitter is a social networking tool that\u2019s great at getting the word out about your launch and for attracting prospects to join and promote your launch. \u00a0However, Twitter is just one element of a proper launch strategy, as shown in the launch canvassing big picture here:<\/p>\n

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Twitter is one of the\u00a0available\u00a0social media venues for canvassing the market and targeting specific buyers. \u00a0It\u2019s also a key part of staying in touch with your launch community throughout the pre-launch and launch stages.<\/p>\n

At the time of this writing, I like to use\u00a0Twellow.com<\/span><\/a> to locate prospects in the target market. Twellow searches Twitter profile \u201cbios\u201d, which people use to describe themselves. \u00a0TweepSearch.com is another bio search tool (it\u2019s in Beta currently and seems to be up and down right now).<\/p>\n

The bio search is a great way to find people who describe themselves as in your target market; e.g., if you\u2019re selling to CIO\u2019s of IT shops, then search for \u201cCIO\u201d, or \u201dhiker\u201d and \u201ccamper\u201d if those activities are your target, or \u201cVP Marketing\u201d and \u201cCMO\u201d if you\u2019re targeting upper management in marketing departments.<\/p>\n

You then \u201cFollow\u201d each of the people in your target market using Twitter.\u00a0 Be sure to make several useful, interesting Twitter posts before inviting people to follow you on Twitter.\u00a0 Most people will \u201cFollow\u201d you back (if they\u2019re active, valid Twitter prospects). \u00a0Then LISTEN to what your market and potential buyers have to say\u2026 and then engage in the conversation with them and LEARN\u2026<\/p>\n

Then you can invite people to your launch in the usual ways \u2013 by giving them useful, free content and offering them the opportunity to register for the launch on the launch landing page.<\/p>\n

Remember that Twitter users are not always online following you, so you will need to repeat yourself once or twice a day (at most) to ensure maximum coverage.\u00a0 Importantly, on Twitter, you need to attract lots of \u201cReTweets\u201d to increase your exposure.\u00a0 If enough people retweet your tweets, you can reach tens of thousands of people very quickly.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of articles available on ways to get people to retweet. Use Google to search \u201cget more retweets\u201d to learn more:\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/www.google.com\/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=getting+more+retweets&aq=f&oq=&aqi=<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, Twitter is a great way to locate and develop a relationship with key influencers in your market, again using TweepSearch. \u00a0I also use Google to locate influential bloggers, then locate them on Twitter from there. \u00a0You will need to build rapport with these influencers and develop a basic relationship with these folks, before asking them to assist you.<\/p>\n

If your launch and product are newsworthy and relevant, bloggers will likely want to break the news to their audience.\u00a0 Be prepared to give them free access to your product so they can do an independent review.\u00a0 These people are busy, so you should begin this process far enough in advance of your launch to provide yourself enough time.<\/p>\n

Twitter and Facebook are good places to supplement email notifications throughout your pre-launch and launch sequences.\u00a0 They are also great places to locate affiliates and other launch partners to support your launch.<\/p>\n

Your blog is the \u201chub\u201d of your launch content publishing and delivery strategy.\u00a0 Your blog is where everyone can find the \u201ctable of contents\u201d for your launch \u2013 the list of posts; i.e., all of your important launch content, including informational posts, videos, recorded teleconferences, articles, etc.\u00a0 Importantly, it\u2019s also where everyone can see direct social proof, in terms of tweet counts and comments made by those in your launch community.<\/p>\n

You should be using a \u201cTweet\u201d tool on your blog that displays the number of tweets and make it easy for others to tweet your blog entries to their followers.\u00a0 You can see an example of this on my blog here (and most anyone\u2019s blog who is in the know today).\u00a0 This is an extremely powerful tool for creating visible social proof.<\/p>\n

Of course, in order for people to want to share your blog entries with others by tweeting, it must be \u201ctweet-worthy\u201d (if that\u2019s not a word, it should be).\u00a0 Your blog entries generally must be\u00a0passionate<\/strong>, relevant and stir an emotional response to get tweeted (or to get comments for that matter).<\/p>\n

Hopefully by now it\u2019s clear why the Big Idea (discussed in the New Rules of Launch) underpinning your launch is so important.\u00a0 If your big idea doesn\u2019t resonate, it will not garner the attention required to get people to spread the word about it.\u00a0 In order to make effective use of social media to spread the word about your launch, the big idea must be:<\/p>\n