Recently Twitter has received a lot of negative publicity leading to a debate about its future. Topics have included limited growth, falling share prices and changes to its timeline algorithm.

Should these reports detour your Twitter efforts? Certainly not, change is inevitable, social media is evolving as it should.

As founder of MoreFollow where we produce Twitter management tools, I analyze thousands of accounts every month for the usual ROI indicators and have not found any decline in performance. Producing great Twitter results is all about what effort you are willing contribute. Remember social media is about establishing relationships and good relationships are a two way street.

Here are some rather valid reasons you should continue full steam ahead.

If your overall goal in social media is to increase brand awareness, generate leads, get more traffic to your website and improve your customer relationships believe it or not Twitter is right for you.

Twitter remains one of the few places that real time engagement of prospects, leads and customers can happen in an economic fashion.

Let’s take a look at 10 reasons your business still needs a Twitter account to make sure you are making meaningful connections with your potential customer.

Competitive Advantage

Conversations about your brand or product are happening on Twitter with or without you. You are missing a big opportunity if you are not getting involved in those conversations.

If you are not on Twitter odds are your competitors are. That means they may be reaching your customers and prospects. In fact one of my favorite Twitter Growth Hacking tactics, grow your Twitter followers fast by spying on the competitions has been one of my most popular blog posts because it is simply very easy and most effective.

Major Exposure

With 320 million active monthly users Twitter is a great way to spread the word about your brand. According to Kissmetrics, 65% of Fortune 100 global companies utilize @Twitter to engage with the world. There is a good reason companies, both large and small choose Twitter as a social media platform.

When done right Twitter is a great way to share information about your brand, in a non spam like way. According to Twitter, 74% of people who follow small and medium sized businesses follow to get updates on future products.

Best of all Twitter is free. What are you doing to create awareness for your brand?

Reach Targeted Audience

One of the greatest opportunities of Twitter is the ability to reach the right people quickly and efficiently. Follow people that you know may be potential customers. Then don’t forget to wow them by sharing great content.

Twitter users tend to be younger, smarter, richer and more mobile compared to the average Facebook user. They also happen to be quite active and extremely loyal to their favorite brands. Millennials, in particular are quite active, a whopping 81% check their Twitter at least once a day!

Reaching the right audience is easy. Simply look for people talking about your topic of interest. Then entice them to follow you. Remember 72% of followers are MORE likely to make a future purchase. Establishing relationships with your audience is key, 74% of people who follow small and medium sized businesses follow to get updates on future products. So take the opportunity to give them what they want.

Lead Generation

Twitter can be a great source of traffic, 34% of marketers use Twitter specifically to generate leads, according to Jeff Bullas. Small Business followers can be very loyal! In fact 47% of people who follow brands are more likely to visit the company’s website.

The key to lead generation on Twitter is to provide the right information to your audience. This is not the same as advertising. Generating real qualified leads involves sharing useful information that helps your prospect solve a problem.

Offer Exclusive Twitter Only Specials

Make your prospects feel special with deals they can only get from you on Twitter – that includes coupons, deals and other incentives. Creating Twitter only exclusives gives them a reason to engage with you. Everyone loves a bargain so encourage your followers to come to you for the best deal.

Be sure to include enticing visuals and compelling headlines with calls to action to encourage retweets and sharing.

Social Selling

Twitter is a great way to identify and research your prospects without being intrusive. You can follow and engage with your potential prospects to provide valuable information about your brand and product once you understand a little more about the individual.

Social selling is about developing a real relationship with your prospect. That means understanding something about them, much as you would in an introductory sales call where you listen first and then respond with helpful information.

Customer Service & Retention

Companies focus on acquisition more than customer retention, even though it can cost 7x more to acquire new customers. It is more cost effective to keep your existing customers happy. That means providing them with real time access to information as they need it.

Use Twitter to keep your customers happy. When it comes to customer service there is a higher expectation for quick response, especially when they have a complaint. Monitoring for people talking about your brand can also help you head off customer complaints.

In order to retain your customers be prepared to monitor and respond to all your customers’ questions, comments and complaints in a timely manner.

Influencer Marketing

Build better networking relationships with powerful people. Having relationships with industry leaders such as influencers, bloggers and social media experts can make a huge difference in your Twitter success. Cultivating relationships with influences that can share your content will allow you to grow your Twitter audience and increase your leads.

Turn your existing customers into brand advocates. Small and medium business see a 30% lift in recommendations after following them on Twitter. When links get shared 86% of users are MORE likely to visit after it has been recommended by a friend.

Cost to Implement

There is a very low entry cost to participate in comparison to say Facebook where getting exposure is all about how much you are willing to spend.

The bigger investment is in your commitment to listen to your audience to provide them with the right content that they are looking for on a consistent basis and then engage with them in a meaningful way.

Be prepared to stick with it to see big results as it takes time to build your followers and establish long term relationships.

Recruiting Top Talent

An added bonus to being on Twitter is that it can be a great way to persuade new talent to join your company. Attract the best employees by showing them what your company is all about.

Social recruiting has been a big hit as of late. You can get the word out that you are looking for a specific position. You can also learn a lot about potential candidates by looking at their Twitter accounts.

Final Thoughts:

There are many options in how to use social media to promote your business but Twitter may just be a great choice for you. As with any channel you must be willing to put in the effort.

The key to creating a winning experience is to acquire a targeted audience of followers and then engaging with them in a positive way.

Leave me a comment and let me know how Twitter is helping your business.

Want to improve your Twitter results, grab a free copy of the MoreFollow Twitter Management Tool.