Twitter can be an essential networking and marketing tool for businesses of all types but when it comes to your physical product business, you need to think outside of the box in order to use Twitter to its full potential.

Here are 7 Ways to Use Twitter for Marketing Your Physical Products:

1. List Everyone and Then Some

When you begin using Twitter to market your goods, you’ll need to start by creating important Twitter lists to compile all the important people your business should be networking with and marketing to. For a product-based business, here are some types of list you should have:

- Press
- Current retailers
- Potential retailers
- Retail buyers
- Trade and craft shows
- Top bloggers
- Customers and super fans

2. Reply to Top Bloggers

Now that you’ve got the lists you need, you’ll be able to interact with so many people that’ll help your business grow. Top bloggers in your product niche will help your products get exposure if they decide to blog about your company so to get their attention, simply spend time every single week interacting with their tweets so they start seeing you more often on their reply page. At first they may not pay attention but after a while, they’ll realize you are here to stay and eventually click over to see what you – and your fabulous products – are all about.

3. Tweet Current Retailers

When you ship off an order to a retailer, head onto Twitter and let them know it’s on the way. This is a casual nudge letting them know you’re there, you care, and you’re appreciative of their business. But it will also pique the interest of other retailers and buyers who may want to carry your line now and in the near future.

4. Tweet Potential Retailers

Every time you come across a retailer that seems like a good fit for your products, you should make a point to tweet them casually so they become aware of who you are. Remember this isn’t a lame “please look at our product line for your store” tweet, so just write to them as if they were peer you respect and admire. Start by replying to their tweets, retweeting their interesting comments and letting them know you’re a good fit without being too salesy.

5. Follow Fans of Competitors

A good way to get on the radar of customers who may dig your products is to go to the followers pages of your competitors and start following people who look like a good customer match. Following a handful of potential customers every day will help you gain exposure but will also help you increase the number of targeted followers your company has so it’s a win/win scenario.

6. Network With The Press

It’s not just customers and retailers you have to think about when it comes to marketing on Twitter. Equally important are the press people who can push your products from off the radar to off the map in a flash. A good way to work the press is to tweet with them a few times, then send them a more professional email pitch. If you don’t hear back, go back to Twitter once again which will remind them of the email you sent, likely one of hundreds.

This Twitter, email, Twitter formula is a key communication technique because it allows you to pop into their work in multiple locations compared to other product companies who stick to one communication method.

7. Connect With Buyers

While small retailers who tweet are actually the buyers or owners themselves, larger stores will have multiple buyers in different product areas working for them who don’t tweet for the company. That means once you come across the personal feed of a buyer for a larger store, you’ll want to keep it close to your chest (private twitter list!) and use it wisely (less often and playing it cool).