Mastering Twitter for Business
With over 300 million active users, Twitter presents immense opportunities for brands to engage audiences, promote content, provide customer service, monitor conversations, and build a loyal community. But simply creating an account isn’t enough. You need to fully harness Twitter’s unique features and culture to maximize its value.
Follow these pro tips and tricks to take your Twitter strategy to the next level:
Craft an Appealing Profile
Your Twitter profile serves as your homepage on the platform. Make it instantly informative and engaging.
– Choose a recognizable handle that reflects your brand name or keywords. Short and simple is best.
– Use an eye-catching header photo that captures attention. Showcase products, team, office, etc.
– Write a clear, concise bio summarizing what you do and key info about your brand. Include a link to your site.
– Pin an evergreen welcome tweet atop your profile to greet visitors.
– Link to other social profiles so visitors can follow you on multiple platforms.
Follow Relevant Accounts
Twitter is about community, so you want to follow and engage accounts relevant to your brand.
– Search keywords related to your industry and follow thought leaders in your space.
– Follow competitors and analyze what content resonates for ideas.
– Follow existing partners, affiliates, collaborators, and influencers in your network.
– Follow engaged customers and brand evangelists to strengthen relationships.
– Follow any brands you admire for inspiration even if not directly related to your market.
– Engage new follows by liking and replying to their tweets. Twitter is about dialogue.
Consistency is Key
Posting regularly keeps your content flowing in followers’ feeds. But balance frequency with quality.
– Determine your ideal posting cadence. Multiple times a day? Once a day? It depends on your audience.
– Use a social media scheduling tool to plan and automate content when possible.
– Mix up promotional tweets, industry news sharing, behind-the-scenes, quick tips, fun stuff, etc.
– Make time daily, even if just 15-30 minutes, to engage your Twitter audience in real time.
– Don’t disappear! Maintaining a consistent presence keeps you top of mind.
Leverage Trending Conversations
Trending hashtags and topics present ripe opportunities for engagement. But participate authentically.
– Check what hashtags are trending daily and look for relevant conversations to join.
– Share commentary, resources, or insights related to trending topics in your wheelhouse.
– Quote-tweet authoritative perspectives on trending news from thought leaders.
– Avoid hijacking unrelated trends just to gain exposure. Stay true to your brand.
– Use trends in Targeted ads to get content about your product or service in front of that highly engaged audience.
Jump Into Twitter Chats
Twitter chats are fast-paced, hour-long conversations centered around certain topics.
– Find and participate in Twitter chats relevant to your industry by searching related hashtags.
– Share helpful resources and tools others would find interesting.
– Ask questions to spark insightful discussions.
– Connect with chat participants by liking, retweeting and following them.
– Host your own Twitter chat periodically on industry topics important to you and your audience.
Run Customer Service on Twitter
With public Tweets and DMs, Twitter facilitates seamless customer service.
– Dedicate an account, often @YourBrandHelp, solely to customer service interactions.
– Monitor Twitter mentions of your brand name and respond promptly to questions, concerns, feedback.
– Provide exclusive promos and special offers for customers who engage you on Twitter.
– When necessary, move detailed inquiries into DMs for more privacy.
– Aggregate and analyze Twitter mentions to identify opportunities to improve products and services.
Share Visual Content
Tweets with images, video, GIFs and other multimedia get more engagement.
– Create visual assets sized for Twitter like infographics, animations, product images, behind-the-scenes footage.
– Post product teasers, demos and previews to generate buzz.
– Curate eye-catching photos and videos showing your product or service in action.
– Capture screenshots of positive customer or brand mentions and share the love.
– Give followers an inside look at your team, office, processes through fun photos and videos.
Run Contests and Polls
Contests, polls, and giveaways create viral, interactive experiences on Twitter.
– Pose fun, topical polls to survey your followers and get quick opinions.
– Give away free products, services, swag or gift cards in exchange for follows, retweets, etc.
– Offer a discount code only redeemable by those who retweet a post or use a custom hashtag.
– Partner with influencers in co-branded contests to reach wider audiences.
– Promote your Twitter-based promotions across other social media platforms.
Analyze Performance Data
Utilize the robust data Twitter provides to assess the health of your presence.
– Analyze impressions, engagements, clicks, retweets, profile visits and other metrics.
– See what posts, hashtags and content types perform best to inform future strategies.
– Identify strong referral traffic sources driving website visitors.
– Monitor follower demographics and interests to better understand your audience.
– Set goals around growth, engagement, clicks etc. to benchark progress over time.
Promote Your Twitter Presence
Don’t keep your Twitter activity siloed on one platform. Spread the word everywhere.
– Link to your Twitter profile in email signatures, marketing materials, website banners, etc.
– Showcase your best, most engaging tweets on other social media platforms to recycle content.
– Promote current Twitter contests and promotions through email, paid ads, in-store displays, etc.
– Mention your Twitter handle on guest podcasts, media interviews, conference presentations.
– Integrate Twitter feeds into website blogs, news sections so tweets automatically populate.
Mastering Twitter does take commitment, but the unparalleled reach and engagement make it well worth the investment for any brand’s social strategy. Use these tips and tricks to unlock Twitter’s potential for driving brand awareness, affinity and sales.