Twitter is one of the most popular online platforms for businesses across the globe. But, as with any social media marketing platform, there are strategic ways to make your Twitter account truly successful in order to drive your marketing goals. Here’s a useful guide that covers all the basics of using Twitter to market your business.
Why Use Twitter At All?
You may be wondering why you should choose Twitter for your business – after all, there are plenty of popular social media platforms available for businesses to utilise. Here are some reasons why this is such a highly-effective platform:
- It has about 330 million active users each month according to their statistics from the first quarter of 2019.
- The quality of the platform is continually improving – most notably, with the removal of around 70 million fake accounts.
- There are around 500 million additional people per month who don’t have accounts but still access Twitter posts via links.
- Twitter has very broad appeal, with 63% of users falling into the 35-65 age range and 43% falling into the 18-29 age range, with 34% of overall users being female and 66% being male.
- People spend a fair amount of time on the platform, at an average of 3.39 minutes per session.
- 67% of B2B businesses are using Twitter for social media marketing already, but the pressure is on when it comes to this platform – 77% of users report positive feelings as a result of a brand responding to a Tweet, and around 60% expect a response on Twitter within just one hour!
- Twitter’s statistics say that their users are generally well-off too as consumers, categorising 80% of their user base as affluent Millennials.
Based on these statistics, you can see that using Twitter as part of your social media marketing strategy means dealing with some stiff competition – but also puts your brand in line for significant rewards when it’s done right.
How to Optimise Your Business’s Twitter Account
Step 1: Choose Your Header Image – This is the large, banner-like image you’ll see at the top of your profile. It’s your best chance to include a high-impact image on this largely text-based platform, so it needs to be perfect. Pick a professional image that showcases your brand or values, or your newest product/service/campaign. If you do this, remember to update it regularly to ensure you’re always relevant.
Step 2: Your profile image and name – This is the image that pops up with every tweet, just like your profile picture does on Facebook, and should always be your logo. This keeps the message very clear about who is tweeting and interacting with users on the platform. Below this image will be your profile name, which should be your company name.
Step 3: Your Twitter handle – This is the username of your account which will pop up with every tweet, as well as the name that people will use to find and follow you. Every Twitter handle has to be unique, and it doesn’t have to be the same as your account name. This is useful, because there are often companies and people with the same names on Twitter – but try to keep it as close to your company name as possible to avoid confusion. If your name is taken, try adding your location or your industry to the handle. Avoid numbers and characters.
Step 3: Your Bio – This is a brief couple of sentences that explains who you are, providing clarity for any Twitter users who connect with you. Try and include a line on what you do, how it benefits your customers, and end with a call to action. Have some fun with it by adding relevant emojis too. Another good idea is to include a trackable link so that you can track and analyse how users interact with your call to action.
Step 4: Your Pinned Tweet – This is a function where Twitter allows you to keep one tweet right at the top of your feed. It’s great for highlighting a product launch, competition or new campaign, so remember to update it for your followers.
How to Optimise Your Content for Twitter
Just like Google, Twitter has an algorithm that determines how or if content should be displayed, so your tweets need to be optimised effectively.
Focus on engagement – Twitter prioritises content that your audience actively engages with – sending replies, liking content and retweeting it – and downgrades content that gets little activity. This means no more spammy sales content and more genuine conversations.
Enhance Customer Service – Tweets are public and any mention of your brand – whether you have a business Twitter account or not – are part of the public record. Consumers have become increasingly savvy about using social media regarding performance of brands, but it’s a path that goes both ways. By being on Twitter and responding quickly to complaints, queries and compliments, small businesses are able to showcase exceptional customer service in front of everyone.
Make authentic connections – Think of ways that your tweets could engage directly with a person or brand and include them in your tweet in a way that’s authentic. It’s more likely to get a response and spark some wide-reaching engagement by bringing together two sets of followers into a single conversation. It’s also a great way to get new followers! Just think about what it’s like when a celebrity responds to a fan directly, or when a brand jumps into offer a helping hand or cheers on a local team or cause.
Post Content Regularly – For all social media marketing, posting content on a regular basis is essential. But because of the limited character counts and the ability to engage extensively, it can be more difficult to know how often you should post. A good guideline is to post no more than 15 times per day and to time your tweets for lunch hour on Monday to Friday. We know that sounds like a lot, which probably means you don’t have enough content to fill 15 tweets. That’s fine – if you don’t have anything to say, say nothing.
Use Twitter Advertising – Twitter also offers paid advertising in addition to your organic marketing to create a highly-effective combination. This advertising is well-known for its affordability, and using it allows you to monitor engagement to further refine your campaigns overall.
If you’d like more information on using Twitter for business or you’d like assistance with a campaign, contact us and speak to our friendly social media marketing team for some great insights and expertise.
I take a spark and turn it into a fireworks show! From internal client communications to LinkedIn authority articles, social media, and blogs, I write it all. My aim is to represent clients authentically with high-quality content that Google loves. I’ll show consumers why you’re the business they want to work with, buy from, and follow for life!
