When used correctly, social media serves as a valuable promotional tool. Like the Internet itself, it’s also been fully integrated into the marketing landscape. According to Brandwatch, the average Twitter user follows five businesses. Knowing how to use Twitter is an incredibly useful tool for every business. The site’s accessibility and lack of cost make it possible to achieve a reach that business owners in previous eras could only imagine. With a small investment in effort, you can build a Twitter presence that can strengthen connections with those who are—or will be—interested in your product.
Eagerly Engage
Think of Twitter as a public “conversation,” not just as a way to broadcast general announcements. Studies have shown that responding in any way to tweets about your company has positive benefits, including customers being willing to spend more money, share their experience and recommend your brand. Reposting tweets that reinforce the image of your brand, such as a tweet from a satisfied customer, will harness the massive power of testimonials.
Don’t be intimidated to converse with those who take the time to address your business specifically. Keep their interest stoked by replying to them! Don’t forget to use the @ symbol. Beginning a tweet with this symbol, followed by another user’s twitter handle, ensures that they will see your words.
Images and Keywords
A picture is worth a thousand words (or at least 240 characters).Tweets that include pictures—or video—are more likely to inspire engagement. This presents great opportunities to show off your product line. Do you have a new product in stock? Are you running any special promotions or seasonal deals? A well-crafted graphic or video is bound to draw attention to your profile, and potentially your website.
Targeting and using keywords in your posts is a good strategy to make sure that your posts don’t get lost due to irrelevance or poor word choice. Conducting keyword research and using SEO optimization tools—such as BrightEdge, Moz or Google’s own keyword planner—makes sure that the right audience finds your content.
Tracking Stats and Trends
You should always be tracking stats. You’ll see these in the center of the screen, between your cover photo and your tweets. The most important stat is, of course, your number of followers. So long as it’s increasing, you know you’re on the right track!
Pay attention to trends. On the right side of the screen, you’ll find popular topics in the form of hashtags that have recently gained traction among large numbers of users. Occasionally these will be worth incorporating into your own tweets. Keep a watchful eye on these trends, because they often change on a dime and with next to no warning.
Paid Promotion
If you have a little money set aside, you can take advantage of Twitter’s paid advertising features to grow your account, which can be much more effective than solely relying on organic growth. Twitter offers a huge variety of possible paid programs, including a la carte options for individual tweets as well as a full program that promotes the first 10 tweets of each day to the audience.
There are a lot of options at your disposal, but it’s probably best to start small to begin with. Target some keywords and accounts that you know have overlap with your customers. Note trends of people that are talking about your business and others like it, see who they follow, and aim promotions at those influencers and their followers.
Signing Off
One of the biggest things to remember while you learn how to use Twitter is that it’s a conversation, not just a business platform. The companies and brands that understand that fact best are the ones that make Twitter a success.
If you’re looking for businesses to follow on Twitter, don’t forget Petra! Our social media posts include relevant news items, plus links to our blog, where you’ll find even more helpful hints!