Did you know that you can actually use Twitter as a source for industry contacts that will send you free product to review for your blog? It’s true and I am doing it on a daily basis. Large and small companies alike are learning the power of social media at an alarming rate. Everyday, I have more companies following my Twitter accounts to stay on top of the latest web news and to keep an eye on Internet trends.
Twitter is growing at a rate of 50% per day according to the last calculations as this post is being drafted. That is a gigantic resource for you to pull from to create long lasting blog readers and personal contacts with companies at that are searching for relevant websites that can create more media around their products and services. So how do you tap into this vast resource to get products to review on your blog?
Twitter Tips When Dealing With Companies
- Be relevant and resourceful – You must have a quality Twitter account that relates to you specific niche. If all these perspective companies are seeing is what gas station you are visiting or what you are eating for breakfast, they are most likely not going to take you seriously. Share links, blogs, news and other related information from your niche that creates value to your followers on your Twitter account.
- Set Up A Twitter Feed To Display Latest Posts – If you have companies following you on Twitter, it is very likely that they are not following your blog. They are using your Twitter account as their source to keep on top of your latest news, and because of this…you need to have your latest posts displayed as Tweets. These companies do not have time to follow your blog, newsletter, Twitter account, Facebook account and anything else you have out there on the web all at once. They are going to pick their most efficient way and stick with it. Go to twitterfeed.com and set up an account. Twitterfeed will automatically generate tweets off your RSS feed and provide your followers with your latest blog post.
- Interact – You will be incredibly surprised how much you can actually say in 140 characters or less. Direct message, reply and interact with companies in your niche that follow your Twitter account. Do not start off asking for review product right away, but instead form a relationship with the marketing guru that is running the companies account. This will be a very valuable contact for future business.
- Search and Follow – You will be really surprised to see who is an isn’t on Twitter. Use the search function to seek out and follow perspective companies that you would like to work with in the future. As you follow and interact with these companies, you will now be on their radar when you might not have through other conventional outlets.
- Keep Them Updated – Once you have established the relationship, keep these people updated and provide your other Twitter followers updated on the behind the scenes information. Tweet when you get the product in, tweet when you are using it, tweet your initial thoughts, etc. All of this interaction brings more exposure to the company and provides you with relevant and useful Twitter content that may not be newsworthy enough for full out blog posts. Be sure to always use the @companyname when talking about their product or service within tweets.
Before I had mentioned that I am doing this on a daily basis, but what I did not mention is that I actually got my largest industry contact through Twitter. This publicly held company that does billions in revenue a year, sent me a $6,100 product to review because of a relationship started on Twitter. Remember…always under promise and over deliver…
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