July 13, 2009
Op Ed By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team
Twitter is the new buzzword, but while its popularity continues to grow, many remain baffled about what can be gained financially from it. The CEO and co-founder of Twitter, Evan Williams, has even admitted to some confusion regarding how he will monetize the site. Considering this, it’s no wonder so many eCommerce gurus are still learning how to best use this impactful tool for their own gain. So, to shed some light on the subject, the ZippyCart Op Ed team has gathered 3 helpful tips that allow you to use Twitter to better manage your eCommerce storefront.
1. Use Twitter as an Extended Affiliate Communications Tool
Not all shopping cart providers feature affiliate management tools, but if you’re lucky enough to have an affiliate management tool, then you should utilize Twitter. The first step is to set up a unique account just for your affiliates. Now you can easily communicate with them via another channel in addition to email or instant messaging. If your affiliates follow you and you follow them, then you can send them quick direct messages to answer their questions or publicly message them. If you have an iPhone, Blackberry or other smart phone, you can download great Twitter apps to help you manage your affiliates wherever you are.
2. Use Twitter as an Easy Way To Manage Your Online Reputation
Twitter is a tool that allows anyone to say anything in 140 characters or less. You have a business and a brand that you want to protect so having a presence on Twitter allows you to reply to anyone who has negative or positive feedback about your online store. In addition your Twitter profile will typically display very high in Google search results when someone is searching for your business online. This will give users another way to learn about you and see that you are a credible online store that they will feel comfortable shopping at.
3. Use Twitter as a Direct Customer Service Tool
Customers are what makes an eCommerce store successful, but with customers comes questions about your products and their orders. Having a Twitter account allows you to easily give them instant responses when they have a quick question. This will help build customer loyalty because it allows you to be attentive to your customers needs. In a sense, it’s similar to Live Chat on your site, but free. A happy customer typically tells other customers about their experience and if they give you a positive mention on Twitter they could have an audience of 10,000, 100,000 or even 1,000,000 people who will see their message.
Nick was born and raised in California, but has been working the dot com scene in Seattle for many years. He co-founded ZippyCart back in 2009, and now works here full-time. Nick wears many hats at ZippyCart, including producing content for our Ecommerce News blog. Nick loves photography and the outdoors, so when not working on ZippyCart you can find him out and about in Seattle.
