So you’ve got yourself a Twitter account and enough time on your hands to write 140 characters. What can you do with Twitter to grows your sales? Here are three ways to get it done: 1. Join a conversation Whereas Facebook has a fairly closed circle mentality, Twitter is a completely open network where you can join any conversation. If you see someone asking a question or making a comment within your field of expertise, feel free to jump in! The first step to getting a new customer is making them see that you’re knowledgeable in your field and you know about the products you’re selling. If you can make a pointed observation or answer a question you’ll get immediate recognition from that person – as well anyone who views the conversation (which could be a lot!). How do you find conversations? Hootsuite is a social media management tool that makes it easy to find conversations on Twitter. All you need to do is setup a stream – a constantly updating feed – that shows every tweet that includes a certain keyword. So all you need to do is setup a few feeds with common keywords for your industry and you’ll be able to find relevant conversations in no time! How do you join a conversation? It’s not a whole lot different from real life. Simply find someone who is asking a question or posing an opinion and respond to them. You can do this simply by writing a tweet and mentioning them in the post. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get answers all the time – many people, especially those with a lot of followers, get many mentions everyday, so it can be hard to stand out. Just keeping pushing and you will start to see your traction pick-up. Remember, Twitter is not the place to be a wallflower 2. Write about & mention popular Twitter user There are many established Tweeters with thousands (if not millions) of followers in every niche (even yours!). If you can write about one and mention them in a Twitter post and then have them Tweet you back, you’ll receive a social recommendation from them that will go out to all of their followers – and a recommendation from a trusted source will not only get you exposure, but it will make shoppers confident in purchasing from you. How do you find popular people? wefollow.com/ is website that shows the top twitter users in different categories. All you need to do is search for a relevant tag and you’ll instantly see a list of top Twitter users to tweet to. How do you write about them and get them to Tweet you? Flattery is your best weapon. Talking about why someone is successful and how others can emulate them to be successful will get you a much quicker shout-out than simply soliciting one by telling them why you’re so great. Find thought leaders in your niche that have a wide distribution and a vested interest in self-promotion – the best are people/brands who sell products and services. Take time to get the find the right content formula and people to reach out to. Not everyone will be open to this, but many will, especially those who are trying to build their image as one’s with great customer service. 3. Make Twitter your de facto support center Let your customers know that Twitter is the best place to reach you about any complaints or inquiries – this will give you exposure to their entire following every time they tweet about you and will also make public any of your awesome customer service responses. If someone sees you giving awesome customer support they’ll be way more likely to purchase from you. Companies like Zappos have built successful companies not on innovation, but just on providing great customer service. Just think about how it makes you feel when you have a great customer service interaction and you’ll understand how important it can be for growing your business. By Nick @ Wishpond