How to Use Twitter for Business Marketing

X, formerly known as twitter, is a social platform with over 500 million active users per month and about 6,000 Tweets per second. With content ranging from news and real world updates, to writing communities and the art world, Twitter has something for everyone making it a unique place to reach customers in real time, build brand awareness, and ultimately drive sales.

Today we’ll guide you on how to effectively use Twitter for marketing your business to include everything from setting up a strong profile to engaging your audience and leveraging tools for growth.

Optimize Your Twitter Profile for Your Brand

Your Twitter profile is the first thing that users see, so make it count.

Here are a few basic elements to take into account:

• Choosing a username that clearly reflects your business name
• Uploading a profile picture that represents your brand
• Adding a matching header image that showcases something about your business
• Adding a bio (160 characters) to sum up what your business is about
• Include a URl that links to your homepage or a landing page such as LinkTree
• Pin a Tweet to the top of your profile to draw attention to it

Develop a Consistent Content Strategy

Once you’ve set up your profile you’ll need to start posting content that both attracts and retains followers.

The most important aspect of this is posting consistently. The most common mistake businesses make is tweeting only sporadically or when they think they have something ‘important’ to say. The issue with this is that if you’re not posting regularly, your account will appear inactive and by extension your business may seem stagnant to any profile visitors.

Aim for at least one post a day, or a few per week at minimum. You can create a simple content calendar to help you decide when to post and what you want to share. This is also an opportunity to balance different types of content.

Here are some effective content ideas for business marketing on Twitter:

• Tips and how to’s related to your industry
• Behind the scenes snippets showing the human side of your business
• Product updates and offers
• Links to longer content
• Images and videos to catch people’s attention
  

You can also use Twitter-specific features to increase engagement, including polls and Twitter Spaces.

Regardless of what content types you opt for, maintain a consistent voice and tone in your content that aligns with your brand image. If your brand is formal and professional don’t post too many memes or jokes, and vice versa.

Use Hashtags and Trending Topics Wisely

A hashtag is a keyword or phrase preceded by a # symbol. When you add a hashtag to your tweet it becomes searchable by users who follow or search for that hashtag even if they don’t follow you.

For business marketing, use 1-3 relevant hashtags per tweet to expand your reach and get more eyes on your content.

Choosing Hashtags

Think about terms your target audience might search for, but try to get specific. Doing some research before you use hashtags is important to ensure that there are no hidden meanings or irrelevant trends that you’re following without realizing.

It’s also a good idea to look at what your competitors are doing. Spot the hashtags they include and dive into those hashtag pages to see what other tags are commonly paired with them.

Jumping On Trends

Trending topics are a great way to get visibility when used sparingly. On the sidebar or search page Twitter will show trending hashtags or topics. These are things that a large number of users are posting about, usually tailored by region or user interest. 

If you notice a trend that’s relevant to your industry, consider posting about it and including the trending hashtag.

Keep in mind that not every trend will be a good fit for your business, so don’t force anything that doesn’t flow naturally with your existing content plan.

Engage with Your Audience and Customers

Twitter is first and foremost a social media platform, which means that the social aspect is extremely important. For businesses that means engaging directly with followers and even people who aren’t following you. The more you interact, the more connected your audience will feel.

Active engagement shows that there’s a human behind the brand which helps build trust and loyalty over time. Start by replying to comments that you receive with a simple thank you or helpful answer. 

You can also start conversations on your own by posting questions or asking for follower feedback. And be sure to keep an eye on when your business is mentioned on Twitter. You can spot your mentions via your notifications feed.

Turn Negative Feedback into an Opportunity

At some point you might find yourself encountering an unhappy customer or bit of criticism online. The good news is that if you handle it well on Twitter, it becomes a public positive demonstration of your customer care. Public perception is all about how you respond when things go wrong, so if someone tweets a complaint, respond as soon as you can and help them resolve the matter.

This is where basic customer service approaches come into play, so maintain professionalism and do your best to resolve things in a timely manner.

Use Twitter Analytics to Refine Your Strategy

Twitter provides built in analytics for users to monitor their performance on the platform. You can see these at the bottom of each post or on the top of your profile page in the case of followers.

Key metrics include:

• Impressions: how many times your tweets were seen on people’s screens.
  
• Engagements (Interactions): total number of times people interacted with your tweets (this includes likes, retweets, replies, link clicks, profile clicks, etc.).
  
• Follower count

By analyzing which posts are receiving higher numbers of engagement, you can adjust your content plan accordingly and create content that your followers are more enthusiastic about.

Consider Twitter Ads for Extended Reach (Optional)

Twitter Ads can help you reach a larger, targeted audience quickly. This allows you to promote your tweets or create specific ad campaigns to achieve goals, drive website clicks, and boost engagement on a specific tweet or hashtag.

Twitter’s own research has shown that using their ads can boost brand awareness. In fact, launching a product on Twitter with a paid campaign can significantly raise how many people recognize your brand. One report noted that product launch campaigns on Twitter led to about an 18% increase in brand awareness, on average. That means more people remembering your brand name and what you offer, which is an important step toward gaining new customers. 

Utilize Tools (and Services) to Boost Efficiency

Managing a Twitter presence can become a full time job, especially if you’re already running a business. Here are a few third party tools that can help you schedule content, track mentions, and reach your engagement goals more efficiently.

Scheduling Tools

Apps like Buffer or Hootsuite allow you to plan and schedule tweets in advance, this way you don’t have to worry about posting each one live. Both have free plans with basic features, but if you have more needs you can consider a paid subscriptions.

Scheduling ensures that you’re posting consistently and can also help you coordinate with other platforms, since both tools allow you to link multiple profiles to one account.

Social Listening & Monitoring

Tools like Mention or Sprout Social can track certain keywords or hashtags, allowing you to monitor your brand mentions in real time. This is a great way to make sure you don’t miss any potential conversations with customers.

Growth Services

If you’re just starting out, getting seen on Twitter with zero followers or engagement on your posts can be daunting and can even keep you stuck in a cycle of minimal progress. This is usually because most social media algorithms prioritize high performing content when it comes to recommending profiles and posts to their users.

The best way to get around this is to buy Twitter marketing services which can provide an extra push by increasing metrics like followers or video views from genuine-looking accounts. 

Small boosts like these can help to improve your social proof – a profile with a few thousand followers often looks more credible than one with just 50 and a post with a hundred likes looks more valuable than a post with three.

Content Creation

If you struggle to come up with tweet ideas or graphics, there are tools like Canva for making quick images or infographics to accompany your tweets. This is a great way to diversify the types of content you’re posting to your profile.

Summary

• Start by optimizing your profile to accurately reflect your business
• Create a content schedule to keep things consistent
• Research relevant hashtags and trends that you can integrate
• Make time for engaging with your audience
• Prioritize customer support
• Get familiar with Twitter analytics
• Use tools and services to help you post more efficiently and boost engagement

Building a brand on Twitter is a marathon, not a sprint. While you might get lucky and go viral within the first month or so, it’s always best to plan for the long term. With these basic marketing elements up your sleeve, you’re set for Twitter success and can start drawing in followers.