Ad agencies are missing out on Twitter’s growth for new business

Agencies are missing an opportunity to grow their business by neglecting the power of Twitter.

My consultancy business has been built through the use of social media. I practice what I preach. The strategies, tactics and tools that I recommend to you are the ones that have built my business internationally. My program that has also been refined by having been implemented in over 125 agencies in the US, Canada and the UK.

The leading traffic generator for my blog through the years has been Twitter.  

Twitter’s audience has skyrocketed and continues to grow in popularity and importance in both the consumer and corporate worlds. It has evolved into an important component of brand marketing. Twitter is also a place to generate agency new business. It is a powerful prospective client networking tool if used correctly.

• In 2009, there will be 18 million US adults who access Twitter at least monthly.
• Twitter is the fastest growing social network in the world, increasing by 1,928% from June 2008 to Jun 2009.
• Twitter reached the 50 million unique visitor mark in July 2009.
• If Twitter’s current growth rate keeps up, they could be at 100 million members by the end of 2010.

There are a number of Twitter tools that will allow you to take advantage of Twitter’s growth for ad agency new business:

Social Oomph

I have published hundreds of blog posts. I’m able to easily repurpose that content. Posts that are over 2 to 3 years old continue to generate traffic to my blog. To save time repurposing content I use a tool called Social Oomph. This tool allows me to schedule the day/time for each of my posts to be published through my Twitter account, @michaelgass and Ashley Cox, my administrative assistant who maintains my other account, @fuellines .

Once a post is inputed into SocialOomph, the recurrence feature allows you to set the day/time and frequency of publishing a post through your Twitter account. You can set recurrences from hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly. I’m currently using it to post to my Twitter accounts a post every hour, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. I change up my schedule quarterly and rotate in the higher traffic posts into Twitter’s prime-time, from 11 am to 3 pm.

Note: I’ve been able to measure what is and what isn’t acceptable to the majority of followers using additional metric tools such as SocialToo that help me maintain the proper balance. The repurpose content also has to be resource type content, the kind that is helpful to the intended audience. It isn’t about your capabilities, a sales pitch within 140 characters.

TweetAdder

I also use a new tool called TweetAdder, an inexpensive software program, to primarily find and follow prospects for clients. This tool allows me to grow a network of targeted followers. The more followers a client has, the more their content can become viral and generate traffic to their blog, the “gateway” to their agency. Early social media adopters and leaders like Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan - 97,563), Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki - 170,000) have amassed a huge following. Mashable’s CEO, Pete Cashmore, (@mashable) has an incredible following of 1,459,481, which keeps him among the top Retweeted users.

TweetAdder allows you to find and follow by searching for Tweet keywords (i.e. environmental, moms, healthcare), by bio keyword (i.e. CEO, CMO, etc), or by location. This tool also allows you to follow the followers of another user. For instance, if I were looking for B-to-B prospects I would could follow everyone who is following @btobmagazine or if my prospective clients were hospitals I could follow those following Twitter accounts such as the @mayoclinic.

TweetML

A new tool that was just recently introduced is TweetML. TweepML is a simple format to make it easy for you to organize your Twitter prospective client lists. Share your lists internally to allow staff to monitor and network with prospective clients. You can also use it to create your own lists of Twitter accounts to follow, whether they are agency related or interests related (i.e. if you target audience was into environmental marketing, you could provide a list of the best environmental Twitter accounts to fllow).

This is a sampling of  Twitter prospective account lists that I’ve created using TweetML.

1. Ad Agency New Business (resource list for ad agencies)
   
2. Airlines (transportation prospects)
3. Banks (financial prospects)
4. Convention Visitors Bureau – CVBs (tourism prospects)
5. Hospitals (healthcare prospects)

Use Google search to find existing lists and organize them through TweetML. Here are 20 different lists of prospective clients using Twitter.

• Breweries on Twitter
• Charities and Non Profits on Twitter
• Colleges, Universities and Educators on Twitter (Top 100)
• Consumer Brands on Twitter
• C Suite Executives on Twitter
• CVBs on Twitter
• Drug Companies that use Twitter
• Education
• Food/Specialty Products on Twitter
• Home Builders on Twitter
• Hotels using Twitter
• Industrial Manufacturers on Twitter
• Legal Professionals on Twitter
• Retailers on Twitter (229 stores)
• Travel and Recreation on Twitter
• Video Game Companies on Twitter
• Top CMOs on Twitter
• 183 CEOs on Twitter
• 278 Companies on Twitter
• The 100 Most Mentioned Brands on Twitter

Create your agency’s own list of Twitter accounts made up of your best target audience.

Here are 19 additional Twitter articles, specifically for ad agencies that can help you take advantage of Twitter’s growth for new business:

1. How to Generate Traffic to Your Ad Agency’s Blog with Repeat Tweets
   
2. Twitter 101 for Ad Agency New Business
3. Ad Agencies: Useful In-Depth Data on How Twitter is Being Used
4. Study: Fortune 100 companies using Twitter more than any other social media platform
5. A Simple Twitter Formula for Ad Agency New Business
6. Ad Agencies: 5 Ways to Find Prospects on Twitter
7. 5 Ways I Use Twitter to Help Ad Agency New Business
8. Edward Boches, CCO for the Mullen Agency: What Twitter Can Do For You
9. Ad Agency CEOs Should Use Twitter
10. Twitter Traffic Explosion Being Led By 45-54 Year Olds
11. 3 Ways Twitter Can Make You A Better Writer
12. Tweetlater A Great Ad Agency New Business Tool
13. Ad Agencies: Top 10 Articles for Twitter Search
14. A Twitter Business Model Contest is Won by an Ad Agency
15. Socially Benefitting from My Twitter Habits
16. Today’s Top 10 Twitter Post for Ad Agency New Business
17. List of C Suite Executives Using Twitter
18. Top 5 Twitter Tools for Ad Agency New Business
19. Promoting Your Ad Agency Using Twitter?

photo credit: Justinvl via photopin cc

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