12 Ways to Use Twitter to Increase Membership & Retention Levels

Transcription

1 12 Ways to Use Twitter to Increase Membership & Retention Levels By Tyler Archer Let me just start by saying this - if you are not promoting, marketing, and sharing your membership & subscription based site using twitter today, right now, this second - you are leaving big money on the table. So how can you use, what on the surface seems like a really bloated conversation about nothing to bring in a flood of new subscribers? Plus, as an added bonus keep your existing subscribers uber-engaged? Here are 12 ways you can start using twitter today to increase membership retention and boost your sign-ups. 1 - Optimize Your Profile Make sure your profile prominently displays what niche you cover, why people should follow you, and a link back to your sites home page. I don't recommend your profile link point to a sales page. Remember most folks are checking you out to see if they want to follow you, not to go sign up right now(that will come later). I think it is best to point them to your homepage so they know you are a real person/company and really are an expert in your niche. Now when you are tweeting out specific offers and specials then, yes go ahead and point to a sales or offer page, otherwise link to your main page. Should your profile have your picture or the site logo? And should it be personal or represent the site? Ideally, I would advise that you have two accounts, and work your butt off in both of them. Preferably your personal brand will eventually encompass more than just a single membership site so it's best not to limit yourself. So the answer is yes - set up a site specific account, but keep it personal. User name can be the site and the full name can be you. Then go ahead and throw your sites logo on it. 2 - Search Within Your Niche And Follow Leaders And Members Of The Community If you membership site is all about, let's say Bass Fishing, than go to and type in 'Bass Fishing' and you will find hundreds of users who are talking about bass fishing right now! Check out the profiles and follow them. When they see that '@BassFishingSite' is following them they will check out your profile. Then when they see you offer tips and tricks that will help them haul in more Bass, they will follow you back. Do this a lot. It works, and it has a compounding effect.

2 Same goes for leaders of your community. Pick up the latest trade magazine and search for every name you find in there and follow them. When they see you are involved in their niche, almost all of them will follow you back - this equals huge exposure that is literally priceless. All you need is one of the leaders in your niche to retweet your content and you can have a traffic explosion overnight. 3 - Provide Value for Non-Subscribers Don't just pimp out your site. I will say that again - don't just pimp out your site. Whatever your niche is, there is a lot to talk about. There are lots of resources to share, lots of posts to retweet, lots of conversations to engage in. Become part of your niches community and it will pay off. Post ten times a day about how they should join your membership site and you will get the nasty 'unfollow' click of death, quickly. 4 - Create Specific "Content Tease" Posts on Your Blog for Twitter After people are following you and you have joined the community it's time to pull out the big guns. First we will create a 'Content Promo' post on our blog and them promote those posts via twitter. To really boost the effectiveness of this technique and maximize the traffic you are getting from twitter you need to make sure the blog post is created to promote membership and provide good content at the same time. It sounds like a lot of work to pull all this off every time you have new content, but it's actually pretty simple if you create a system. Part of my members content creation schedule is actually the process of creating this teaser content and preparing it for twitter. Say for instance you membership site has two live webinars per month that are recorded and posted to your membership area. Here are the steps to really make this content work for you via twitter: Transcribe the recording - not only is this a great bonus for members but it lets you grab a small piece and use it for content marketing(ie. search engines spider bait) and your teaser post that we will create next. Write your post - Choose a page or two out of the transcript and combine it with a short introduction about why the webinar was amazing and all the great stuff your members learned(very important). Then end it with a call to action. "Members login here to view the entire presentation. If you are not a part of our community yet, you can get the full webinar plus access to our archives right now - click here". Systematize it - Create a template for each teaser post. Mine have slots for the actual blog post, up to 10 tweets, and a few facebook posts. It looks like a lot to write, but actually since you do it all in one sitting, and copy & paste the benefits from your blog post it is pretty easy.

3 Automate it - Now you can get a VA on board and train them with what to do with that single word DOC. They can take that one document and turn it into a blog post, multiple tweets and facebook posts that will promote your site for the next week, automatically. 5 - Tease Content to Non-Subscribers As I create the "Content Tease" post in word that we just talked about, down at the bottom, I am quickly jotting down tweet ideas as they come to me. So by the time the post is finished I will likely have around 10 totally different tweets that I can post pointing back to the blog. I(or the VA) load up the post, schedule all the tweets in HootSuite and boom, automatic traffic for a week. I use questions, quick facts, tidbits, 'fascinations' and straight "new post" type tweets. All relating back to the topic, all intriguing, and all followed by a shortened link to the post. Now don't overdo it. I think two a day on the same topic is probably enough. Then if you spread this out over a few days and combine it with your other content you have a stream of relevent useful content to share with your followers. Please note: On these teaser, non-members posts, I recommend linking to a post that provides some content and value. Do not link these to your paywall. People will get grumpy. 6 - Update Subscribers When You Post New Content All of your subscriber should be following you on twitter, there really is no excuse for them not to(well, beside them not being on twitter, but that will change). Make it easy for them, add your twitter links on your member site sidebar, add it to your content, add it to the s they get when they sign up. Add it everywhere. Then when you are tweeting make members specific posts like "Pro Members: Just posted last night's webinar - covered top 10 conversion strategies - download it now in members area." Then add a link to the login page, which of course should have a big list of membership benefits and an option to join, along with the login box. Not only is this a great way to engage your members and increase consumption but it makes it clear to nonsubscribers who follow you that you are a real expert source, you have great, consistent content, and they are being left out by not being a member. 7 - Reengage Current Members Use twitter as the ultimate "reengagement" vehicle. Remind your members every day why they are privileged to pay you every month. Tweet about your archives. Tweet and tease about upcoming content. Announce free bonuses. Get out there and make the thought of losing all of that great content unbearable. 8 - Ask questions - Get Feedback Asking your followers is not only a great way to engage them and start conversations but a perfect way to get ideas for new content. Like:

4 "Hey guys, what is really bothering you about " " Fans - What's on your mind today?" "What can we cover to really give you an advantage?" 9 - Schedule Your Tweets I like twitter, it took me a while to get it, I will admit that - but now I am all in. With that being said, I will also admit that it's a huge effing time suck! Create a promotional plan that involves twitter, create a schedule, and then fire up a Tweet scheduler like tweetdeck or HootSuite. Set it and forget it. Or better yet, farm out the task to increase real interactions Balance Promotion With Personality This relates back to providing value beyond just pimping your membership & subscription. You probably picked your niche because you are passionate about it, and it probably relates to your life outside of the internet as well. Let that come through, if you don't have at least 10 interesting, non-promotional, personal things to say or share about your niche each day, you might not be that into. I am not saying you should fire off all 10 each day but, I am saying they should be there and perhaps jotted down on a notepad and scheduled for later Connect With Potential Partners Chances are good that you're not the only one selling something in your niche. Twitter is a great way to meet-n-greet the other players that are providing content to the same target market as you. Follow them and they will likely follow you back. After a few weeks they will know you are a real provider of value and will likely be very open to discussing a JV deal with you. You will also know, rather quickly, who is real and who is not, you can see the number of followers a potential partner has as well as the value of their content. Don't be a "follower" snob though. Someones 100 followers may be the most rabid aficionados with their wallets wide open. Of course this can be beneficial in both directions. You can offer their product to your customers and they can offer your membership site to their customers. Both lists have proven to be buyers so this is by far one of the most lucrative marketing opportunities out there Create A Daily Check-In Create a unique concept that you can repeat every day. Something that relates to your niche, that is helpful, and that people will come to expect. A quote, a link, a list, a tip - anything that will stand out and become a normal part of your followers day on twitter. Go Start NOW

5 I really believe that these will benefit your membership/subscription site and your bottom line. But they are all for nothing unless you get out there, open up an account and start. Let me help, here's the link: