by Gail Oliver, Small Business Marketing Consultant

People are very descriptive with their Twitter profiles. Do you ever read them? Here are some examples (I have removed the Twitter names):

YouTuber | Journalist | Workaholic | Documentary Filmmaker

Small Town Gal – Sports Enthusiast – Foodie – Wannabe Fashionista

Proud Bostonian | Former NYer | Cookbook Author | Future Chef 

See where I am going here? You can find potential customers on Twitter by searching their profiles for the words that describe your target customer.

My Killer Twitter Tip

What words would describe your target customer? Write out a list of one or two-word phrases of how you think that your customer would describe themselves.

Then go to the Twitter search box and type in the words and scroll down to the bottom of the search box where it says “Search all people for”….

Twitter Tips

Now, when the list of people whose profile descriptions have these words in them appears, you may not see potential customers near the top as these tend to be Twitter user names that include these words. You need to scroll down the list to read the profile descriptions to really identify who could be a potential customer for you.

You then want to follow them on Twitter.  They get a notification that you are following them, which may peak their interest to check out your profile and see what you do.

Examples of Twitter People Search Words

  • If you sell wedding products, you want to search for profiles that contain phrases such as “getting married” or “engaged”.
  • If you sell jewelry, try searching for people whose profiles say “jewelry lover” or “jewelry junkie”.
  • If you sell clothing, search on “fashionista”
  • If you sell kids or baby products, try searching “new mom” or “mom to”
  • If you sell pet products, try “dog owner” or more specifically “pug lover”
  • If you are targeting someone who holds a specific job, enter that phrase such as “IT specialist”, “fashion blogger”, “interior designer”, “web developer”

Popular Descriptives in People’s Twitter Profiles

  • Vegetarian
  • Athlete
  • Fitness freak
  • Wine drinker
  • Geek
  • College student
  • Sports fanatic
  • Avid reader
  • Traveler

This is an effective technique if you follow Twitter profiles that are still active. The popular e-commerce clothing shop, Nasty Gal, began their huge success simply by following the MySpace pages of their target customer.

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GB OliverWant social media ideas exclusively for your small business? I offer a Social Media Marketing Plan for just $99 US, customized specifically for you. Contact me to discuss at attentiongetting@gmail.com or order here

© 2014 Gail Oliver. All right reserved.