By Johny Walker
Figuring out how to use Twitter for business means first establishing your objectives. Twitter is an immensely popular and influential platform, which can be used to achieve various goals.
For example, you could run a Twitter campaign to find more potential customers for your business, or drive traffic to your website. Alternatively, you could set up a Twitter profile with the goal of boosting brand awareness, or promoting your latest products.
Using Twitter for business is something that can be approached in a number of ways. But considering how Twitter has an estimated 206 million monetizable daily active users worldwide, it’s a platform every business should be using.
Research suggests that the average Twitter user follows at least five businesses. In addition, four out of five Twitter users mention brands or businesses in their tweets.
Coupled with the fact that using Twitter for business is largely free of charge, it all adds up to an unmissable opportunity. Though as it stands, an opportunity most businesses are not taking full advantage of.
18 Tips to Promote Your Brand
Knowing where to start can be half the battle, due to the scale of the competition you’re up against. Making sense of the many thousands of Twitter tips, tricks and hacks circulating online can also complicate matters.
But when it comes to the fundamentals of running a successful Twitter campaign, the basics are surprisingly simple. Irrespective of business size, nature and objectives, the following 18 activities should form the core of your Twitter strategy:
Add Twitter Cards Pointing to Your Website
First up, Twitter cards are so much better for directing traffic to your website than basic text. There are five types of Twitter cards you can use to bring attractive and engaging visuals to your external links – all guaranteed to boost your CTR. Twitter cards are particularly important when directing potential customers to product pages, giving them a visual indication of what’s on offer.
Post Various Types of Content
Research suggests that Twitter users who publish various types of content earn on average 150% more retweets. Mixing things up with eye-catching photos, GIFs, videos, text and polls therefore comes highly recommended.
Along with generating more interest in your tweets and boosting engagement, a rich mix of media types will also help you influence the Twitter algorithm.
Work On Your Profile
You have to assume that if someone takes an interest in your tweets, they’ll check out your profile. At which point, that all-important first impression will influence what happens next.
From your bio to your taglines to your profile picture and background, everything about your profile needs to scream pure professionalism. All while showcasing your personality and authenticity.
Collaborate with Twitter Influencers
There are two ways to connect and collaborate with influencers on Twitter. You can convince them to recommend your business and promote your products, or you can pay them to do so.
Though where possible, the former tends to be the most effective approach. Either way, the influencers you reach out to must be of genuine relevance to your business, your niche and your target audience.
Engage with Your Audience
Adopting a passive approach to a publishing strategy on Twitter is a recipe for failure. Publishing quality content is only half the job. To make things happen, you need to engage and interact with your audience on a continuous basis. Embracing the ‘social’ aspect of social media is essential for convincing followers to get on board with what you do.
Find the Right Time to Tweet
A useful tactic to simplify your publishing strategy is to schedule your tweets in advance. However, you first need to determine the best possible time to Tweet, in accordance with audience activity levels.
Use analytics to determine when your audience is at its most active, and schedule your tweets accordingly. Avoid publishing at times when engagement levels are likely to be low.
Handle Problems Via Direct Messages
If a customer shares a complaint or grievance publicly, issue a professional and diplomatic response the same way. After which, use direct messages to get to the heart of the problem and resolve it.
DMs are better than tweets for resolving issues as there is no character limit, making it much easier to communicate properly with your customers. Though again, an initial public response to indicate you take negative feedback seriously is essential.
Retweet Relevant Content
Don’t limit your publishing strategy exclusively to your own unique and original content. Make the effort to provide your followers with a steady stream of relevant posts from elsewhere. Retweeting can be great for bridging the gaps between your own original posts, while at the same time bringing variety and engagement to your output.
Try Twitter Spaces
If appropriate to do so, it’s also worth giving Twitter Spaces a try. Spaces is Twitter’s new live audio conversation feature, which although still under development is already proving popular. Promote your audio events with your tweets, invite your followers to take part and bring a new dynamic to your Twitter strategy with real-time audio.
Tweet Regularly and Consistently
Research has shown that Twitter users always respond more positively to publishers who Tweet regularly and consistently. By contrast, tweeting infrequently and at completely random times does little to generate engagement. Again, you can simplify your publishing strategy by scheduling your tweets in advance and planning ahead.
Utilize Twitter Analytics to Analyze and Optimize
Twitter comes with a bunch of in-built analytics tools, which should be taken full advantage of. Monitor the performance of all aspects of your publishing strategy and make adjustments on a regular basis.
Approach your publishing strategy as a campaign of continuous improvement, boosting the performance of what works and eliminating anything that doesn’t.
Hashtags are Key
Hashtags are the searchable words and phrases that group tweets on the basis of trending topics, brands and general subject matter. The hashtags you use will therefore have a major influence on who discovers your tweets and engages with your business.
However, it is essential to only ever use hashtags that are of relevance to your business and value to your target audience. Hashtags should also never be overused – less is almost always more.
Use Twitter Ads to Promote Your Content
Paid ads on Twitter can be a surprisingly affordable option for instantly boosting your reach and influence. Just of few of the options worth checking out include Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts, Promoted Trends, Twitter Amplify, Promoted Videos, Mobile App Promotion and more. Most of which have no minimum spend, with affordable options available to suit all budgets.
Build Your Twitter Following Fast
For an instant credibility boost, there’s always the option to buy Twitter followers. Social media growth specialists like Media Mister make it easy and affordable to buy authentic Twitter followers of guaranteed quality.
The more followers you have, the more attractive, engaging and authoritative you posts appear. Buying followers can also be great for inspiring other Twitter users to follow your profile organically.
Pin Your Important Tweets
Including a pinned Tweet at the top of your timeline is something you should be doing at all times. This pinned tweet is the first thing anyone will see when they check out your profile. Hence, it should be the most important tweet you’ve published recently, or a tweet that conveys the right first impression.
Monitor Twitter Keywords and Use Social Listening
Social listening tools automatically monitor the web’s major social networks for mentions of your brand name. Whether positive or negative, you need to know what’s being said about your business and where.
In addition, keyword research as the basis for your SEO strategy on Twitter should be continuous. Use keywords to search Twitter for tweets relevant to your business and use them.
Use Twitter Lists
Twitter Lists can be useful for splitting your feed into a series of topics, in order to keep things organized and accessible. It’s entirely up to you how you use Lists for your business, but they can be great for keeping tabs on your competitors or monitoring those who engage with your content most often.
Set up UTM tracking
Last up, UTM tracking provide essential insights into the website visits generated by your Twitter campaign. Using Google analytics, you’ll see how many people are visiting your website after clicking links on your Twitter pages.
However, you will need to set up UTM tracking to see which of these clicks came from organic tweets and which came from Twitter ads. Essential for accurately tracking bounce rates, conversions and sales.
Conclusion
Twitter holds remarkable potential as both a promotional platform and brand development tool. It can also provide a level playing field for businesses of all sizes, as the vast majority of its features can be used free of charge.
Paid promotion – including buying followers and other social proof – can be great for kick-starting a successful campaign. But as is the case with all social networks, it will always be the quality of your output that determines the outcome.
Johny Walker is a Social Media Expert and Web Traffic Consultant for over 10 years. In 2012 he launched Media Mister, a Social Media Marketing Company which is helping businesses to get social presence at an affordable price.
