Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media platforms around. In the beginning though, it was just meant to be used by a small group of people. Now it has expanded & has over 241 million active users. Your business should be on it. Need help? No problem. Here's how to start using Twitter for business.
1. Choose your username wisely.
When getting started, you are asked to choose a name & a username. The name of your business should go in the name field (e.g. Blue Frog Marketing) and your desired username should be entered in the username field (DMBlueFrog). The username is generally what people will use to easily find your business. Users can search by your name, but they may get more than one result. Both the name & username can be changed at a later date, but it’s best not to change the username if it can be avoided.
When thinking of your username, try not to have an underscore in front of or at the end of the username as they often get left off when telling someone the username. Make it as simple & as close to your business name as possible.
2. Build your audience.
The easiest way to get followers on Twitter is by following people. Many users will follow whoever follows them, as a courtesy. Don’t go crazy following people though, because Twitter will see this & think you are a bot or hacker & suspend your account. Limit yourself to following around 50-75 people per day to keep this under control.
Try & follow people near your business if possible. If your business is online or has more than one location, try searching for people to follow based on what your company does. For example, a craft store with several locations might follow people who mention in their profile that they like crafting, DIY projects, or knitting or crocheting. Since they have an interest in what your business specializes in, they are more likely to be active followers. Following people who follow similar businesses is also a good idea.
If you have trouble getting people to follow you simply by following them, take a more active approach. Do a search for people talking about services or products that are similar to your business. Reply to their tweets, or simply favorite them. This will force the users to take notice of your company & make them more likely to follow it.
3. Know when & what to post.
Unlike Facebook, tweets get posted & show up on users feeds immediately. Also, there are no difficult algorithms that dictate what users see. All of your followers will have your tweets in their feeds, instead of just 6% like Facebook. Since users see your tweets right after they are posted, that means you can make posts that are very timely. For example, restaurants can post their lunch specials right before or even during lunch. Contests can be done in real time also.
4. Make sure your account is managed at all times.
Since posts are seen in real time, that also means users generally expect a swift response. Make sure the person managing your account is able to reply to notifications in a timely manner. This is especially critical when people have negative comments or issues they’d like addresses. Twitter is an excellent want to turn an unhappy customer into a happy customer just by replying in a timely manner.
5. Don’t just tweet about yourself.
The general rule with all social media for businesses is don’t just talk about yourself. People will eventually get tired of just reading about how great your company or your products are, & may even unfollow you. Make sure you are also tweeting about other things, such as the community & current events. Maybe even consider being a good sport and retweeting what other companies have sent out.
6. Know your limits.
Social media management is a very important way to get your brand noticed. Be able to recognize when you aren’t able to devote the necessary time to social media management that you need to. You may even consider hiring an outside firm that specializes in this, such as Blue Frog.