Twitter is a powerful marketing tool, but only if a business uses it in the right way. Businesses can use Twitter to create the personality behind their brand. It is also a good medium for providing customer support. Twitter is great for creating a buzz around a new product. However, since Twitter only offers you 280 characters per tweet, and tweets only have an average lifespan of 14 minutes, how can a business use such a restricted medium for marketing purposes? Here are ten tips on how to make Twitter work for your business.
- Set Your Goals
Because of the instant nature of Twitter, some businesses do think of it as a serious platform. It is important, though, to treat Twitter in the same way as you would any other marketing activity. A Twitter marketing campaign needs planning and monitoring, like any other marketing campaign. Start by setting your Twitter marketing goals. Do you want to create sales? Do you want to engage with existing customers? Are you going to use Twitter to create brand awareness? Then set your targets and track your progress against those targets.
- Optimize Your Profile
Spend some time on your Twitter profile. You only have 160 characters available for your Twitter bio, so make the most of those characters. Make your bio punchy and to the point. You can use hashtags in your bio, but don’t overuse them. Complete all the available fields. Add your business location and your website address. Upload your business logo and a header image for your profile. Remember that your Twitter profile must reflect your branding. Keep your branding consistent across all marketing platforms.
- Listen Before You Tweet
Twitter is not a one-way medium. You can learn a lot by looking at your competitors and listening to your target audience as well. Think of Twitter as a conversation that you are about to join. Listen to other people before you make your contribution to the conversation. Tweets may only have a lifespan of 14 minutes, but they can make a big impact. Especially if they get retweeted by the community that you are targeting.
- Tweet During the Peak Hours
Before you put fingers to keyboard and post a tweet, find out when the peak hours are for your target audience. Posting between 12 pm and 3 pm on weekdays is usually effective for most businesses. But this may not be the case for all types of audiences. So, track the engagement stats for tweets made at different times. Then, schedule your tweets for the best times. Use Social media management platforms, such as Hootsuite. They provide both twitter analytics and tweet scheduling functions.
- Keep Your Tweets Short and Informative
As is the case with any type of content, business tweets must have value. That value might be solving a problem, company news, or entertainment value. Whilst you do want to reflect your band’s personality in your tweets, don’t take this too far. One post about the office cat might be amusing to show the personal side of your business. Daily updates about the cat, though, will be tiresome. Remember, too, that there is no need to use all the 280 characters that you have available. Short and to the point is usually the most effective type of tweet.
- Use Hashtags Appropriately
Using relevant hashtags can double the engagement with your tweets. It is important not to overuse hashtags and not to use off-topic hashtags. If you use too many hashtags, it will make the tweet difficult to read. Hijacking off-topic, trending hashtags will only attract the wrong audience. And, it will irritate Twitter users. You can search for hashtags related to your target market with tools like Hashtagify.me.
- Use Multimedia to Increase Engagement
Video and images are very effective ways to increase engagement with your tweets. Many people would rather watch a video about a product than read a long post about it. In fact, 82% of Twitter users watch videos on Twitter. Tweets with images are 34% more likely to get retweeted. Businesses can make good use of animated GIFs as well. A fun, animated GIF can be very effective, but it must be on-brand.
- Post Unique Content on Twitter
There are tools that will automate the posting of blog posts to your social media accounts. These can be useful, but if you do use them, your social media marketing will be the same across all platforms. It will be more effective if you post a mixture of links to blog posts and unique content on Twitter. Posting unique content on different social media platforms will increase engagement levels. It will encourage people to visit more than one of your social media profiles.
- Don’t Use Twitter Only to Sell
Don’t turn your Twitter feed into a long list of advertisements. Twitter is all about engaging with people. So, tweet useful and informative information as well as advertisements. Constant sales pitches will discourage people from visiting your twitter account. That’s not what people use Twitter for. One sales pitch amongst many other posts will be far more effective than a wall of ads.
- Tweet Often and Engage
People visit Twitter for up to date information. It is very much a real-time platform. So, keep your Twitter feed updated with new tweets, and don’t neglect to answer questions left by your users and respond to any comments. Businesses should aim to tweet at least once a day. Regular tweeting gives people a reason to revisit your Twitter account.
Conclusion
Twitter is a social media platform that businesses can use to great effect. The format of tweets is very brief, but tweeting can help create a connection with customers. Like all social media marketing, you need to track the success of a Twitter campaign. By tracking your analytics, you will be able to identify what works, and what does not. It does take time to build up a following on Twitter. But, if you persevere, Twitter can be a very effective way for a business to connect with its target market.