I think a lot of people underestimate Twitter for business out of the gate especially if they’ve never used it before. Like Facebook, Twitter marketing is a must for any business. Once you understand how Twitter works, it is extremely easy to build up a following on the platform.
In fact, Twitter marketing is much easier now than back five or so years ago when images and video weren’t native to the platform. These days, you can share just about anything on Twitter. The 140-character limit is a little bit like sending a text message to your audience. It’s a one-of-a-kind social media network.
A Few Stats About Twitter
Twitter isn’t the biggest social network by any means, but it’s an important one to have in your social media for business arsenal. There are around 230 million active Twitter users worldwide. 72% of them are more likley to buy from a small business after following and interacting with them on Twitter. Likewise, 86% of them feel more connected to a business after following them on Twitter. As you can see, you really can’t afford to ignore Twitter as a small business or entrepreneur.
Tips for Getting Started with Twitter for Business
Choose the right username – Or handle, as they say on Twitter. Make sure your branding is consistent across all your social media profiles
Profile picture – Make sure you set one. Don’t let it be the default picture of the egg. I suggest using a headshot or your business logo
Cover image – This is the large header image across the top of your profile. Choose it wisely. If your business is web design, you don’t want a picture of your favorite rapper emblazoned across your profile
Bio – Make your bio about what you do. Include relevant hashtags and links, but remember you’re limited to 160 characters
Do not buy followers – You will most likely receive a good amount of people following you who sell followers. This is always a bad decision. You want to grow your following the “hard” way organically
Market your business and services – You should definitely tweet about your business and services, but make sure you’re sharing other great content that is relevant to your industry as well
Tweet more – Not necessarily volume-wise, but add your personal thoughts to your tweets. Twitter is already overrun with bots churning out blog post titles and links
Use images – In the beginning, users had to employ third-party services like the now defunct Twitpic in order to include images. These days, Twitter for business allows images natively, so including these in your posts will increase engagement
Use advanced search – Twitter search is a force. It’s a pretty powerful little search engine, but if you really want to laser-target your audience, advanced search is where it’s at
Use Twitter lists – Like I said, as you follow more and more people, it will be hard to connect with people in your Twitter feed. Add people of note to a Twitter list so you don’t lose them in the crowd
Wrap Up
Twitter for business is a great tool that’s free to use, so why wouldn’t you put it to work for you? It’s a simple add-on to your normal social media management that can pay dividends. Share your handles in the comments!
