There are many avenues to promote businesses and Twitter is one of the best
With over 300 million active users the reach is endless. Twitter is the go-to when it comes to communicating with potential consumers and spreading the brand message.
How Twitter Works
First, you must create an account for Twitter. You should create a business account because you are using this in a professional setting. Create your username as the name of your business. If that name is already taken, don’t sweat it you can add underscores to change it up. Make sure your name is under 15 characters, that is the limit for Twitter handles.
Branch Out
Once you are done signing up for the account, you will see suggestions for people to follow. Start following your competition, so you can see how they use their social media. Don’t just copy and paste what your competition is tweeting. Use this to keep the creative juices flowing, you never know what will spark an idea.
Then, you should begin to follow people who follow your competition and people that tweet about the type of products you offer. This gets the name of your brand out there for free. A great way of building your social circle on Twitter is having the app scan your Gmail contacts. This allows the people you have been in contact with to join your Twitter community.
Originality is Key
Now that you are up and running in the Twitterverse, it’s time to start creating your own content. Twitter allows you to retweet, quote tweet, and tweet. This is the time to start posting any articles that refer to your business or any industry-related trends. Posts on Twitter have to be 280 characters or less, so make sure your posts are concise and straight to the point. Business Twitter retweets and tweets should consist of:
- The local area
- Relevant to industry
- The brand of your business
- User-generated content about your specific business
- Supporting local businesses
Hashtags
Hashtags make it easy for Twitter users to search content based on a word by the “#” symbol. This is important for business Twitter users if you tweet something industry-related you should hashtag any word that describes the post. This gives the post an abundance of avenues to be seen. The more hashtags, the more potential views of your post.
Business Twitter Best Practices
The biggest practice of them all; don’t promote your business on Twitter with your personal account. The content on your personal account may not align with the company. That’s ok the business account is for business-related content, it’s best to keep them apart.
The best way to connect with your audience on Twitter is to share content that relates to the industry. You don’t want to seem like your pitching a sale on Twitter. Potential clients seeing your brand being active is free advertising. Posting blogs and media that relate to the industry shows you care about your audience and you’re not simply trying to make a profit off your followers.
Know your followers and post when they’re most likely scrolling through Twitter. If you know your audience is an older audience, post right after someone gets off work. This allows for a greater chance of being seen. Analyze what kind of posts are being interacted with. When clicking on your own tweet, there is an option to see how many times the tweet has been interacted with. This is great for posting media, you will notice more interactions.
- Run polls and surveys that make sense for your industry. This gives your followers an interactive experience, but also giving them quality information too. This allows your followers to engage with your brand.
- Be consistent with how you post. Find the right posting cadence. Don’t post too much that you’re clogging your followers’ feeds, but not enough that your followers don’t think you’re active. You want to post consistent quality content.
- Establish a brand and stick to it. Your brand should be consistent throughout your website and social media platforms. Your color scheme should be consistent, along with your logo and voice.
- Ads and promoted tweets once your following has grown. You don’t want to do this until you have a big enough following to make it worth it. This method maximizes your reach and builds company awareness.
