Yesterday, I offered some tips to use social media monitoring to help lay a solid foundation for blogger outreach. And, Tonja Deegan of Airfoil Public Relations offered additional valuable information in learning about bloggers you might reach out to.

Today, let’s look at how you can use Twitter for prospecting.

Say you’re a car dealership in a decent metro area. Use a service like Nearbytweets.com or search for your #city’s name on Twitter — like #Toledo, for example — to get a feel for the locals on Twitter. Assuming there’s a good size local community, set up Twitter searches for terms like:

  • The names of the car brands you sell.
  • The names of key competitive brands.
  • Terms like “buy” with “car” or “truck” or “minivan” or other type of vehicle you sell.
  • Terms like “car” with “repair” or “service”

When people in your sales and service area show up in results, see if you can contribute (another one of my Three Cs of social media) and add value. For example, you can reply with a tip/suggestion around automotive questions, provide links to information to help them research (third-party links; not your site), and other replies that demonstrate your value and service.

In doing so, you create top-of-mind awareness with potential customers — without trying to sell them a car.

You also start to develop a relationship with potential customers in your sales area, and build followers. The bigger and stronger community you develop, the more these prospects become solid prospects.

They begin to think positively of you — because you add value to their Twitter network.

And, when they need to purchase a vehicle, who do you think they’re going to strongly consider?

You — if you’ve done it right.

Tomorrow, let’s take a look at LinkedIn.

-Mike

While I definitely hope the above was helpful, it’s definitely not any earth-shattering Twitter secret. It’s simply smart social media. For other perspectives in using Twitter for business development see:

  • Techrigy’s Connie Bensen’s case study
  • Curve Detroit’s Charlie Wollborg’s talk at Social Media Breakfast-Toledo on Oct. 2. I’m one of the founding members of SMB-Toledo and was responsible for inviting and coordinating Charlie’s visit.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can use social media to build business — either having me talk with your group or help your social media marketing efforts — contact me.