“The best way to engage honestly with the marketplace via Twitter is never to use the words “engage,” “honestly,” and “marketplace.”- Jeffrey Zeldman.
Back when the social media bubble burst, everyone wanted to get in on the action of staying in touch with their loved ones and then let them know about their life. However, now it is a world of its own where people have turned into influencers, and businesses have turned into brands. With Facebook leading the charge in terms of the number of registered users, Twitter is leading the head with the most trends.
Twitter might seem like a second-tier title for business, but if you want to start getting some serious business through the door, this is the platform to be on. More than 68% of the hashtag trends began on Twitter and then on other media. So, how can Twitter help? Well, for starters, using Twitter for a business can improve brand awareness by an additional 8%. Want to know more? Read on!
Why Should You Use Twitter for Business?
Social media has changed the very fabric of how businesses can capitalize on their loyal audience without spending too much on marketing. Instead of hiring flash mobs or high-budget media campaigns just to raise a little extra awareness, leveraging social media is a much better investment because it can help bring down marketing costs by almost 82%. Here’s why.
Businesses turn into brands when they find a connection with their audience, and that connection can then drive leads, conversions, and in the end, revenue. With Twitter, the association with a brand message tends to increase by 18%, while brand preference can shoot up by an extra 7%. This combined can help improve the purchase intent by 3%, which is almost at par with the other social media platforms.
Steps for using Twitter for Business
When you start searching for a good strategy for using Twitter, you will come across tons of guides and how-tos on using the platform for your business. However, none of them has the unique characteristic of business as yours, so you need something that is evergreen and always comes with a little bit of beginner’s luck to spur you on into experimenting and waging your path. So, here are some of the best tips for using Twitter for business:
Step 1. Establish A Voice For Your Brand
A brand needs to be identifiable to connect with its audience. Having a voice enables that connection. Therefore, even though the brand image determines buying decisions, sales depend on the brand’s voice resonating with the customer.
Step 2. Keep Your Tweets Concise And Precise
Only Twitter limits the number of characters you can put in your posts. However, most of the platforms place a limit of 2000-3000 characters on them. In contrast, a single post on Twitter cannot exceed 280 characters.
This means you have to keep your tweets very precise, concise, and enticing enough to pique the user’s interest. And if you are going to use any hyperlinks, make sure to use a link shortener like Bit.ly, or you might be struggling for space for the rest of your content.
Step 3. Post High-Value Content
The Twitter algorithm works according to the number of social interactions a post is getting. The higher the number of interactions, the higher its value is in front of the algorithm. And an increased number of interactions comes from posting high-value content. Not all content is supposed to drive sales. Some of it is only about educating the users about your business or the field in general.
Today, sales are about educating the customers about what they are missing out on or helping them make their lives easier. And if your content is valuable enough for a user, they will automatically either like it or retweet it. This will automatically establish authority in the community and with the algorithm as well.
Step 4. Post In Moderation And Consistently
What a lot of brands struggle with is understanding how much is too much. Initially, brands start going out and posting over 10-15 tweets a day which can seem like spamming to the user, especially if they are new to your page. And instead of visiting your page, website, or store, they will end up unfollowing you. Hence, moderation is essential.
Start with six tweets in a day, and then go on from there as your audience starts growing and engaging more. Post them at different times in the day so that any user who comes to the platform and sees your tweet does not feel spammed. Do this consistently every day or every other day so that you will also help the Twitter algorithm in understanding your posting schedule.
Step 5. Retweet Other People’s Tweets
Instead of tweeting your content, give attention to other users, other businesses, or even an influencer. This will make you seem more human as a brand and help establish more trust with the users. It will also help your brand to appear more selfless and more open towards the community.
This, combined with your consistent efforts of high-value content, will automatically help gain more traction for your business. Furthermore, the brand or user whose tweet you retweet will also notify you and maybe do the same. So, you are opening more doors than you might think.
Step 6. Respond And Engage With Your Community
In their horde to become big, businesses tend to adopt a very formal and jargonistic approach towards answering their followers or users. Sometimes, they try to thank their users and still fall short in the language since it seems too mechanical. This is a huge turn-off for most users and leaves them apprehensive about doing it again in the future.
Instead, be more human. After all, at the other end of that account is a human in front of the keyboard. Be formal, and yet have a more humanistic language so that people and users can feel a connection with you. Use the right tone of speech, and engage with your users. Thank them creatively or in a fun way that impresses them and allows them to do it more often.
Step 7. Use The Right Hashtags
Last but certainly not least, use the right hashtags with your post. Twitter gave birth to the almighty hashtag movement, which spurred trends like #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, #CupforBen, #Brexit, #NetflixandChill, and many more! So, if you want to reach the right audience, use the right hashtag.
Hashtags are also a great way to help define your niche in front of your community. Instead of using random ones, you can start your own or use some of the pre-existing dominant ones to help the Twitter algorithm to understand the content in that post and then help in reaching the right audience.
Step 8. Target The Right Audience
In the beginning, many organizations target just about anyone with their tweets. Unfortunately, this can have more negative effects than positive ones. If you use Twitter effectively, you can streamline your marketing efforts for maximum efficiency. Twitter provides a lot of customization options when it comes to marketing your tweets. With the correct targeting and timing, you’ll be able to capture their attention in no time.
Conclusion – Is Twitter Good for Business?
Yes! With the kind of benefits that Twitter now offers businesses, it is a whole ecosystem that can help make your business successful. Join the conversation, and you will automatically be able to sway that conversation to bring them to your business’ doorstep and get conversions.