When promoting the launch of a new product, service or event using the internet you have almost limitless options to choose from.

You can really let your imagination run WILD with competition ideas, online parties and free workshops, and multi-guest summits. These are fun, rewarding and massively effective at drawing attention to your campaign.

Plus, they’re a low cost alternative to paying for ads.

(Let’s be honest here! Ads are hit n’ miss, expensive and don’t grab the spotlight you need to stand above the crowd of sameness in your industry, so let’s toss that idea aside for now…)

As well as these bigger, fancier promotional options, you can’t ignore the subtle ‘drip, drip, drip’ marketing activities that are crucial for a successful campaign.

These function as your steady promotional undercurrent. They’re the no-brainer, must do, consistent actions.

And, Twitter is one of the best forums to seed these activities.

Read on for my 3 x 3. A 3 point framework for using Twitter to promote your next big thing and why they’re so important.

I’ve broken these into 3 keys phases: before, during and after, plus included 3 actions you can plan to use for each phase.

(When mapping out ANY marketing activity, thinking of your campaign in these 3 phases helps make every aspect of your launch promotion a success and way less overwhelming).

Before

1. The sooner your start…
Don’t wait until launch day, start tweeting about your launch NOW! Spark interest and get people curious about what’s to come by tweeting snippets on what you’re up to during the planning stage.

We love to get an insight into the ‘inner workings’ of a business. And, this also gets your audience prepped for what’s coming. The more you tweet about it now, the more people are likely to hear about your main event come launch time.

2. Get Hashtag-tastic
Create your event hashtag (It’s worth me mentioning here that when I say ‘event’ it applies to a new product or service too. Even a shiny new website!). Having your own hashtag means others can get involved in sharing news of your event for you, and all tweets containing this hashtag will be grouped together.

If you want to get real fancy, use a tool like VisibleTweets.com or Storify.com to create a visual display of your hashtagged tweets.

3. Secret aid for promo stress relief
Take 30 minutes to create a bunch of re-usable promo tweets about the event itself. These can be pre-loaded into Buffer or Hootsuite and tweeted automatically during the pre-event phase.

Doing this ahead of time will give you much needed time + space, confident that people are hearing about what’s coming while you focus on other crucial areas of your event.

Remember, to ALWAYS include a live link in these tweets directing people to a web page where they can get more info.

During

1. Inner circle help
Enlist the help of your very inner circle to help spread the word about your event. Asking a handful of key friends who have a similar audience that will appreciate your event is a smart way to spread the news about your launch, getting your name out to a new bunch of peeps.

The key to leveraging this tactic is making it SUPER EASY for your besties to help you. The easier you make it the more help you’ll get. So, create and share a selection of ready-made Click To Tweet messages that they can just upload and go!

2. Recycle magic
Use these same click to tweets to self promote your own event. Just like in the pre-event phase – load ‘em up into Buffer or Hootsuite. This leaves you room to focus on 1:1 interactions and sparking interest during the crazy launch phase of your event marketing plan.

3. Subtle antidote to the selly-sell
With all the promotional tweets whizzing around you want to balance your tweets with juicy value content too.

Tweet blog posts and guest articles you’ve written on topics relating to your launch to demonstrate your expertise and knowledge. Sprinkle mentions and references about your event within the posts themselves.

Tweeting these is a subtle way of drawing attention to your event without appearing too salesy.

(You can even add a Click to Tweet within the articles encouraging your readers to tweet them too!)

After

1. Don’t stop me now
Phew! Your launch is over but this can be the prime time to leverage the interest you’ve built up during the pre-launch and launch phases.

Now’s not the time to sit back. Make good use of all the extra activity and buzz surrounding you.

Keep sharing what’s going on in your world. Continue to drip your behind-the-scenes snippets. Had amazing results? Tell us! Feeling overwhelmed with excitement and grateful for all the internet love? Let us know!

2. Social proof power
It’s one thing for us to tweet about our event and amazing results, but there is massive power in hearing others rave about it too.

Have you received a heartfelt review or acknowledgement? Tweet it! Continue to drum up interest, even though the event is over. Scarcity is a huge motivator, and it could be the push stragglers need to pay closer attention next time around.

3. Assess your progress
Take some time to look over your numbers. Gathering this info will help you understand what resonated with your audience or what didn’t work so well, so you can use this information next time.

• How many web visits came from Twitter during the launch?
• What blog article gained the most tweet attention?
• What were your most popular tweets in terms of opens and re-tweets?
• How many followers and increase in interactions did you achieve?

As I work my way through my 4th Twitter Brilliance launch, as well as the spikes of fun promotional activities, (such as my free training event and celebration on October 1st, the guest posts and interviews) that draw attention to what I’m doing, this constant promotion of Twitter activity is whirring away.

This keeps interest raised and puts me on the radar of more people who want to learn how to leverage Twitter for a better business.

Use the guide I’ve outlined above as a checklist for your next event (product or service launch…). Each time you launch you can re-use certain elements (like the hashtag and click to tweets) and once you have the framework, you can apply it to almost any launch.

You can find out more about Twitter Brilliance right here: TWITTER BRILLIANCE