One of the issues with using Twitter for local business marketing is that by gaining followers through keyword searches, you’ll build up your account with people who will never patronize your business because they don’t live in your area. But by using Twitter’s advanced search features with geotargeting, you can find potential customers located nearby and build a relationship with them, making them aware of your business.

To begin, let’s head over to Twitter Advanced Search and start some geotargeted keyword searches. For example, if you’re interested in finding people in Austin, TX, who are into wine, and perhaps wine bars, you’ll search for the following: [wine bar near:"Austin, TX" within:15mi] as seen below:

The results page will be full of relevant potential followers and customers (and competitors!), giving you some insight into what people are both tweeting about and searching for:

Search for various combinations of keywords and search radius (you might want to increase the surrounding area mileage, for example) until you’ve hit upon the most relevant for your business. In order to automate this process, subscribe to the search feed with RSS, and you can then view the results each day in your feed reader.

Once you see the results from Twitter Search, you can then follow those most likely to be in your customer base and begin to engage them – not selling to them yet, but merely responding to their tweets. One especially helpful tactic is answering questions they pose, as they relate to your business or area of expertise. Make yourself useful to them as a local resource. For example, responding to a request for a recommendation for a local wine shop or bar, or even answering a question about which wine goes with which foods, will help to set yourself up as one of the go-to guys for that topic.

Businesses can also gain a greater understanding of their market and their niche by simply listening to the conversations happening on Twitter, which means that you don’t have to be tweeting away all day – you can use the info as business research without dedicating the time to actually post messages (but it certainly helps if you do!).

A few quick pointers on using geotargeted Twitter searches for your local business:

Be transparent: Being up front about who you are and who you represent is a key element in gaining their trust. Acting as if you aren’t the business owner or employee in order to be seen as objective might come back to bite you, so be open about that.

Don’t spam: Using direct messages to your followers to promote your business is a divisive topic, with most of the long-time users staying away from automatic direct messages and those which are solely designed to sell. While it’s certainly OK to respond to followers with a direct message, unsolicited sales tweets may cause you to lose those people, so do it sparingly.

Be helpful: Pointing people to resources from other businesses isn’t giving away all your business, it’s being helpful. There’s no need to be always pushing your business, because by helping people find what they need, you’re being social, not a salesperson, and people do remember that.

Keep going: Those searches can be a great source for finding other keywords and search terms, so filtering out the relevant ones and making a spreadsheet with the results will go a long way toward refining your local search strategy.

Share: For companies that have multiple users on their Twitter accounts, sharing the local search results (either through RSS or Twitter saved searches) with the team enables a more comprehensive plan to be built. That information can also be shared with the marketing department to help better inform their efforts.

How have you used geotargeted Twitter searches for your local business?

[Derek Markham is a writer, a father, a WordPress addict, and social media butterfly who loves to share what's new and interesting in his world in under 140 characters. Hit him up with an @ reply anytime for help, advice, or just to say hey!]

Image: © Fantasista – Fotolia.com

You know you need to be active in social media networking to get more exposure for your business, so you’re all signed up with a brand spanking new Twitter account.

But now what?

With over a billion tweets sent every month, Twitter can be a rich source of information and networking, and the best place to start is by listening to what others are saying about the products, services, and issues in your field. You can do that by finding the leading voices in your niche to follow, and then watching the conversations they have with each other.

A simple way to grow your network is with one of Twitter’s built in tools: Twitter Search.

For example, if I was a local business, I would start with the nearby area. A framing store in Santa Fe, NM, would begin searching for Tweets about Santa Fe, then add in searches for Tweets mentioning both Santa Fe and art, and continue to drill down on keywords that are related to photography, art, or galleries, in the surrounding area. They would also use the advanced search engine to input location or further filter the results.

Businesses should also search using those same keyword terms without the location, as they’ll be farther ahead the larger their network is, even if they aren’t local customers. For a web-based business, you can skip the location searches and go straight to keywords that relate to your business, including as many longer tail keywords as you like.

Search, Subscribe, and Save:

When you find some searches that really hit home for your business, either subscribe to the RSS feed for those searches (top right hand side of search page), or if you search from your home page, save the search there. That way, you can easily tap into the results on a regular basis without setting up the original search again.

Follow or Filter:

Once you’re viewing the search results, click through to the listed users’ profiles and follow them if they are an interesting or influential voice (my rule of thumb). Higher numbers of followers doesn’t necessarily translate into an engaged network, so don’t get sucked into thinking that the best Twitter strategy is to follow massive amounts of people and to amass the most amount of followers. A smaller group of followers who are actually listening to you and responding to you is much more useful to you than those of most ‘mega-follower’ accounts.

Add Value:

If you have anything to add to their conversations, send them an @ reply with your view on the subject at hand. They’ll see it in their stream, and notice you, perhaps following you back as well. One especially important task in social media engagement is responding to questions or helping to solve an issue for them – the more you do that, the sooner you’ll begin to be seen as a resource for your industry.

When in Rome:

It certainly doesn’t hurt to just lurk and listen at first, especially if you don’t understand how others are using Twitter, but my advice is to simply start tweeting, regardless how many followers you have.

The temptation (and a big no-no for new users) is to just start broadcasting only links and information about your company, but that doesn’t help you to grow your network or to build relationships. A smarter strategy is to start sharing other people’s links and tweets, adding in some links to yours here and there, with the ratio staying heavily on helping other people out.

Rinse and Repeat:

If you’ve followed along so far, you should now be following a good-sized group of people that share information about the topics you’re interested in, and you will have the searches saved on the homepage or subscribed to with your RSS reader.  This is your base – something to build on a little each day.

You’ll scan the searches for potential conversations you can add value to, for new and interesting people to follow, and for ways to help others with their messaging. Use a Twitter scheduling application or a multiple Twitter user application to schedule these tweets throughout the day or to collaborate so that someone is always monitoring your niche. If you devote even a half an hour each day to these tactics, your network will grow larger every day, and it will be a focused network, not a general one.

Tip: If you find yourself closely following a smaller subset of people, start to filter those conversations by either putting them into a Twitter list, or using the ‘group’ feature found on many Twitter applications. You’ll be able to focus in easier on the people you need to pay attention to, and you won’t waste countless hours wading through the Tweet-stream looking for it.

[Derek Markham is a writer, a father, a WordPress addict, and social media butterfly who loves to share what's new and interesting in his world in under 140 characters. Hit him up with an @ reply anytime for help, advice, or just to say hey!]

Image: © Photosani – Fotolia.com

• Profile: Create a profile that reflects you.  Enlist the help of a graphic designer if you can to add pictures that tell your travel story to your background.
• Following: There are a lot of amazing travel people to follow.  You can find great ones on WeFollow and ShortyAwards.  The travel community on Twitter is very into reciprocity, so if you follow and retweet posts that resonate with you, it’s the best way to get followed back and retweeted.
• Lists: Many folks have developed great travel lists.  You can find some of these here.
• #TravelTuesday: This Twitter meme has legs.  Every Tuesday, travelers, travel writers and travel pros a like tweet their best info using the #traveltuesday hashtag.  Join the conversation and watch it unfold using search.

Twitter is a great place to find clients, options for cross promotions and to be discovered by travel writers.  It’s easy to get started, so if you’re not tweeting yet, get aboard the Twitter train!

An increasing number of U.S. politicians are using Twitter, with President Barack Obama (@BarackObama) and Senator John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) still leading the pack in terms of followers.  It’s likely that the Twitter usage by U.S. politicians during the 2008 Presidential race, has spurred more rapid adoption of Twitter and other social media by politicians.

Not surprisingly, the bulk of the content within politicians’ Twitter profiles consists of reaching out to constituents.  Some of the uses include:

• Announcing media and other appearances
• Referencing new blog posts
• Requesting co-sponsorship on bills
• Rallying support for and against specific bills

It appears that many politicians send their tweets directly from the Web, with a few using popular desktop and mobile clients such as TweetDeck and TwitterBerry.  The inference from this is that many politicians are doing their own tweeting and not necessarily engaging staff for contributions to their Twitter streams.

A list of U.S. politician tweeters and their current number of followers can be found at http://congressional140.com/tweeting.php

Twitter Use By Politicians in Some Other Countries

Kevin Rudd (@KevinRuddPM), the Prime Minister of Australia, has a very respectable three quarters of a million followers on his verified account.  Prime Minister Rudd signs a lot of his tweets with “KRudd” — presumably to reinforce the fact that he does his own tweeting.  A list of tweeting Australian politicians can be found at http://ozpollietweeters.pbworks.com.

The verified account for the British Prime Minister’s office is @DowningStreet.  It does seem to make sense to tie the account to the office, rather than to the politician — the next Prime Minister will inherit a strong following.  At the time of this writing, @DowningStreet shows an impressive 1.5+ million followers.

There is no shortage of unverified Twitter accounts for politicians throughout the world — some of them more flattering than others.  Perhaps more world leaders should consider jumping on the Twitter bandwagon to get their messages out into the Twittersphere.

If there’s any group that has embraced Twitter more than the business community, it’s the news media.  In fact, all of their talk about Twitter is certainly one of the reasons for the service’s astronomic growth.  So, we know journalists love to talk about Twitter, but how do they actually USE it?

On air uses for Twitter:

• Taking questions from viewers/listeners
• Soliciting feedback on a specific topic
• Mashable noted all the way back in September of 2008 how CNN was one of the first to really harness the power of Twitter.

Twitter for fan relations:

• My good friend Natali Del Conte is a senior editor for CNET and she keeps her fans in the loop with expert use of her Twitter Stream.
• She asks questions, runs contests and gives people a glimpse into her life and her thoughts (in addition to providing links to her stories).  She’s developed a legion of hard-core fans, so she’s definitely doing Twitter right.

Twitter is great for breaking news:

• When news is breaking, you want to know the details now.  Twitter is the real-time king so it’s the perfect way for journalists to get the word out fast.  SFgate (The San Francisco Chronicle’s online version) even has its Twitter stream embedded in the homepage.

Twitter and for sports news:

• Real-time results, play-by-plays and smack talk can all be accomplished on Twitter.
• The folks at @ESPN_tenis (TweetFunnel users) broadcast Spanish-language tweets from many members of their team on all things tennis.

Driving traffic with Twitter and a virtual news room:

• TechCrunch means traffic for the companies it profiles, but how does TechCrunch drive traffic to its site?  One way is Twitter.  The official TechCrunch account is a feed of their most recent articles from all of their staff.  And with over 1 million followers, I bet they get a lot of click-thrus.
• Note of caution: You have to be a pretty big name in journalism to get 1 million followers on an automated feed.  If you’re a smaller fish, try mixing in some engagement.

Why Use Twitter for Real Estate Marketing?

• Short, 140-character tweets, make it quick and easy
• Twitter lets you talk to new people — unlike Facebook, which only connects you with people you already know
• It’s free!

What can you use Twitter for?

• Announce new listings as soon as you get them
• Live tweet open houses (make tweets like, “Setting out the signs for the open house at 123 Main Street,”  or “Love the light here in the living room of 234 Sutter St.”  You can even include pictures!)
• Talk about news and issues that are important to the neighborhoods in which you specialize
• Link to your blog posts to drive traffic to your site
• Tips on staging and prepping your house for a quick sale
• Trends in the US and local housing market
• Search keywords to see what people are saying about the things that interest you
• Don’t forget to engage with people by asking and answering questions and retweeting other twitterers’ posts

More Detailed Information on Tweeting for Real Estate

• This previous post on our site will give you an overview of Twitter lingo
• Getting started is covered here
• Opinions are mixed about whether or not to mix business and personal tweeting.  Here are some examples of keeping them separate
• This post has all kinds of good information and FAQs for Twitter for real estate
• For ideas on who to follow, click here
• A real life example of how Twitter can work to sell homes!

Make it a Team Effort

Do you work with a partner or have an office of agents that wants contribute to one Twitter stream?  If so, then you may want to engage your entire team in contributing to your Twitter presence.

The biggest complaint about Twitter is people say that many of the postings are about the banality of daily life, like what you had for lunch.  Well, if people are talking about their meals on Twitter, doesn’t it make sense for restaurants to have a presence there?  In this post you’ll find a compilation of tips for restaurants marketing on Twitter.

What types of restaurants should be on Twitter?

•    Cafes/Delis
•    Casual dining
•    Fine dining
•    Taco trucks (tweet your location!)
•    Fast food
•    Mom and pop shops without a big marketing budget

Restaurants on Twitter How To:

Here are some great resources on Twittering for restaurants.

•    This post offers specific tips on how to get started and what to tweet.
•    This article talks about how restaurants in Boston are using Twitter.  Hint: These tactics could work anywhere.
•    Jobaba helps small business connect to customers online, with the help of Twitter.
•    MSNBC talks about How Kogi and other mobile food trucks have made Twitter a foodie success.

A Few Good Examples of Restaurants on Twitter:

Big brands (thanks to Mashable for this list):

• Starbucks
• theBKlounge (Burger King)
• DunkinDonuts
• PopeyesChicken
• tastidlite

Smaller shops

• kogiBBQ (Some say they started the restaurant movement on Twitter)
• tupelo02139
• myersandchang
• 1300onFillmore
• An expansive list of San Francisco culinary tweeters can be found here.
• Another long list of restaurant tweeters from all over.

It’s recently occurred to me what a powerful tool Twitter is for sports.  What better way to track the fast action and ever changing world of sports than with Twitter, the real-time results King?  This post will give an overview of the best info out there on how to use Twitter in sports.

Who Should Use Twitter?

• Professional sports teams (NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL. Etc.)
• Local sports teams
• High school sports teams
• Even Little League and Pop Warner can benefit from Twitter!

Sports teams on Twitter How-To:

These are the best resources I’ve found for maximizing your team’s Twitter presence.

• 10 reasons why sports teams should use Twitter
• This presentation and this blog post give a high-level overview on the benefits of Twitter (crowd involvement, engage with community, etc.) and also a detailed list of tactics to use (live tweeting games, fan tweetups, etc.).
• How Twitter is changing sports

Some good examples of Sports Teams on Twitter (thanks to Mashable for part of this list):

• Chicago Bulls
• Detroit Pistons
• Portland Trailblazers
• San Diego Chargers
• Phoenix Suns
• Miami Heat

Shameless plug:

Tweeting for a sports organization is bound to be a team effort.  Enlist people from all parts of the organization and make it easy to coordinate their tweets using TweetFunnel.