Are you missing out on what Twitter can do for your small or medium size business? The real Twitter Business opportunity is in the ability to generate leads and create brand awareness. If you take advantage of this awesome power you will be happy with the results. Of course we build Twitter applications so we may be a little biased in our opinion of how awesome Twitter can be for your business, but we are not alone in that thinking.
If you are wondering if Twitter may be right for your business let’s take a look at some of the current stats.
- 271 Million Monthly Active Users
- 500 Million Tweets are sent per day!
- 77% of accounts are outside the U.S.
- Vine has more than 40 million users
- 74% of people who follow small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) follow to get updates on future products.
- 47% of people who follow brands are more likely to visit the company’s website.
- 34% of marketers use Twitter to generate leads!
- 70% of SMB followers retweet because they like the content.
- 30% see a Lift in recommendations of an SMB after following them on Twitter.
- 86% of users are MORE likely to visit after it has been recommended by a friend.
- 72% of followers are MORE likely to make a future purchase.
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It doesn’t matter if you are just getting started or are looking to improve your results. One of the benefits to using Twitter as a marketing tool is also in the fact that you can see results in a very short period time.
Quick Tips To Make The Most of Your Twitter Results
Create the Perfect Profile
To make the most out of your Twitter performance you should start with your profile. Remember first impressions count! Make it clear to anyone who see’s your profile what exactly you do. Need a little inspiration, check out a great article by Jeff Bullas which has some great examples.
Your profile consists of three things, your bio, your image and the background. You should always look at ways to optimize these components.
Bio
The bio should tell a story in 160 characters or less. This is a great place to use #hashtags and @mentions if you are promoting multiple channels. Your bio is used in searches so be sure to take advantage of keywords that are meaningful to what you do.
Image
Your Twitter photo shows up in all your tweets so it should also have a clear meaning and be recognizable. Your logo, for example is a great choice to carry your branded theme if you are promoting a business page and a professional clear headshot should be used to promote an individual. Consistency is key to make it easier for people to recognize you.
Background
It’s time to take advantage of the real estate. The recommended dimensions of the header photo are 1500 x 500 pixels use that space wisely to showcase your talents. Your background ties it all together. There are many free or low cost background templates available that will give your profile that polished look.
Grow Your Followers
Now that you have established who you are it’s time go out and get some followers. Twitter marketing does not work without an audience and you goal is to get the right people following you. You can start by following 80 – 100 people per day. You should unfollow people that don’t reciprocate after a few days.
Try to focus on the following areas.
- Potential Customers
- Your Competition
- Influencers
Follow Your Potential Customers
You probably have a pretty good idea of what your customer looks like. Perform searches based on keywords and #hashtags that your potential customer will likely be using in their tweets and their profile. Of course if you are using our MoreFollow Twitter management tool its easy to create your search terms and have suggestions delivered to you daily but you can also use Twitter Search.
Follow People that Follow Your Competition
Odds are in your favor that people following your competition are in the market for your product. Be sure to look for people that are active and that fit your customer profile. Remember you are not just looking for followers, you are looking for the right followers. I like to read their bio’s and look at how many people they are following, this will give you a good indication on whether they will follow you back.
Follow Influencers within Your Vertical
It is usually easy to find the influencers in your industry. I really liked the advice from Post Planner on examples of finding popular posts. It may be a little harder to get them to follow you back. Let’s face it, influencers are busy people and they are usually selective about who they follow back. You must do something to gain their attention and give them a reason to be friends with you, this can include retweeting their articles, give them a shout out, let them know how much you appreciate what they do.
A great way to keep track of influencers and get their attention is by creating and adding them to lists. You can make your list private or public depending on what visibility you would like for each list but I like to keep a list of my influencers by industry so that I can track their tweets. This makes it easy to share tweets that I think are important to my audience.
Engage Your Audience
To grow your audience you must interact with them. Listen first then share, respond and show your appreciation by being thankful.
Listen
Spend some time perusing tweets from your followers to get a feel for what they like to share and what topics interest them. Be sure to answer questions and comment on their posts. You can always unfollow anyone that doesn’t fit your with your business goals.
Share
Now that you know a little about your audience be sure to tailor your message to meet their needs. Social is about getting personal not just blasting your “buy my stuff” message. Make your posts informative, engaging and entertaining for the best result.
Don’t be afraid to have a brand personality, a little swagger so to speak.Spice up your messages. Share personal stories that show you are not a nameless/faceless brand without emotion.
If you are sharing on Twitter using Photos can boost retweets by up to 35% and adding a video can result in a 28% boost in retweets.
You can share a variety of images that also humanize your brand, for example sharing pictures of your staff doing something funny at the office.
Make your posts informative and useful. Don’t forget the attention grabbing headline, properly placed of course. Your tweets should begin with your headline, this is a good place to capital letters and other punctuation that displays enthusiasm. Include links and a call to action, such as RT. Give plenty of credit with @mentions.
Use #hashtags wisely to make the most of your tweets, be sure to use at least one or two #hashtags but no more. According to Neil Patel of QuickSprout, hashtags are a great way to increase your overall social media traffic and I could not agree more with him.
Conclusion
I hope these suggestions help you see the power of Twitter! Now get out there and start making the most of Twitter for your Business! Be sure to let us know how it’s going…
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