Getting the Most from your Twitter Account

Twitter is one of the most popular social media websites in the world, with 192 million daily users sharing content on the site. Founded in 2006, Twitter lets you interact with others through “tweets”, as well as get all of your daily news stories as they break. This all sounds great but how can you make the most of it for your business?

We’re going to break down how the platform works, and provide you with some insight into how best to optimise your profile to really engage your audience and generate those much desired leads. By having a presence on Twitter, you are able to establish your own brand through the tone and content of your profile and tweets.

Twitter lets you set a narrative of who your business is as you have total control over the information that your twitter account shares. You are able to frame your profile to give your target customers the right impression of your business.

Tell me the facts

Brands that use Twitter for connecting with their audience find significant increases in their marketing funnel, including an eight percent rise in brand awareness and a seven percent rise in brand preference. Simply maintaining an active presence on Twitter could give a huge boost to your business, increasing your sales and drawing in new customers.

So how does Twitter work?

You send out “tweets” which can include pictures or videos and other users can like or retweet them. If they retweet your post, all of their followers will get to see your tweet.
People can follow your profile, which means that they want to see the content that you share on the platform.
You can follow other people so that you see the posts that they share whenever they share them.
Twitter Lists lets you prioritise which accounts you want to see so that you never miss a post. This is a really useful tool for getting to grips with Twitter.
Think of it as a list of all of your favourite accounts on the platform.

What can I share on Twitter?

Twitter allows you to share pictures, videos and written posts up to 280 characters long, which are called tweets. Communication on Twitter is concise and to the point, which is why many people choose to get their news from the app, with the brief nature of the posts allowing you to get summaries of important news stories as they break. As a bonus tip, you should verify the quality of any information which you share or read on Twitter before you decide to trust it. Unfortunately, Twitter can be a place where misinformation can easily be spread so be sure to double check anything that you read, just in case it is a falsehood.

It is important to make the most of your limited character count, so try to maximise your message as much as possible. People are using Twitter for the convenience of the website, with news being much easier to take in when it is in short written form, than having to sit through an entire news report. Tweets filter out all of the excessive material which comes with news and get directly to the point. You should use this ‘less means more’ principle when you tweet about your business. You can also share images and video here, along with links to your website or an online shop.

What are "followers?"

In the same way that Facebook has friends, Twitter has followers. Followers are people who are following your profile because they want to see more of what you do.

Your followers will see the content which you post every time you share something on Twitter, meaning that they can “like” or “retweet” your tweets. As you share more content to your Twitter profile, you should see your followers increase. The more that people follow you, the more people will see your tweets when you do share them.

You should follow people that you know and any pages which interest you or you would like to see more from. This could mean following people that you do business with, acquaintances or a news organisation that you like.

The importance of engaging with other people on Twitter cannot be understated, as it can be a useful tool for networking and developing new connections. A really useful way for you to get to grips with Twitter would be to use Twitter Lists. This feature lets you prioritize which tweets you see on your timeline, so that you always see the posts shared by the most important accounts to you. You have the option to join a list developed by somebody else or follow a certain topic or interest.

Twitter Lists makes it really easy for beginners to use Twitter as you can decide whose content you wish to see the most.

How can I optimise my profile?

The easiest way of optimising your profile is to work from the top, down, starting with your header image. You should also add a header image to the top of your profile which can improve the look of your profile and elevate its branding. This could be a company-related graphic , or you could use a professional picture of some happy customers. Make the most of all of the opportunities to display your business’ branding. This could be just the reminder that a potential customer needs.

It’s really important that you can make your Twitter account stand out with personal branding for your business. You should use the profile picture feature to brand your account with your logo or a clear headshot, as every time that you send a tweet, your profile picture appears alongside what you have shared. You can use your favourite picture of yourself or perhaps a company logo to remind people of who you are.

Twitter gives you the opportunity to write a bio which will appear on your profile page, which gives you the opportunity to share what you do, as well as a little bit about who you are. You can even include a light-hearted fact about you such as what your interests and hobbies are, to help to humanise your account. This can help to convey that you are approachable and helpful in how you go about things.

You should also include a link to your website so that other users can immediately get more information if they want it.

Did you know, you have the option of displaying a pinned tweet on your profile? This would be the first thing other users see of your business’ account. You should use this to describe what you do briefly, so people can understand which services you offer, which may prompt them to follow you for more information. Think of this as a snapshot of your business, offering customers a brief glimpse into what you do and enticing them to find out more. Perhaps you could use this opportunity to build the number of email subscribers that you have? Pinned tweets are a great way to hook customers in and prompt them to want more information.

How about content?

When thinking about what content to post, it’s really important to think about your audience first. Can you entertain them? Can you inform them?

Brands which are seen to be involved in culture develop a greater affiliation with their customers. The admins of twitter accounts can even gather a ‘cult-like following’, with many businesses’ social media teams being praised for how they interact with other users.

Remember the Weetabix and Beans incident?

Why should bread have all the fun, when there's Weetabix? Serving up @HeinzUK Beanz on bix for breakfast with a twist. #ItHasToBeHeinz #HaveYouHadYourWeetabix pic.twitter.com/R0xq4Plbd0
— Weetabix (@weetabix) February 9, 2021

Of course you do, and this is exactly what we mean.

Another idea of something for you to share is behind the scenes pictures of a working day, giving people an insight into what you do and how you do it. Keeping your profile light-hearted and friendly allows people to relate to you, and this is where they make an emotional decision to contact you – something much more powerful than a decision based solely on their need.

People may only visit your business’ website once, however, with a Twitter account every time that you post your followers are reminded of you, helping to keep your company fresh in their mind. You should take advantage of this by posting regularly and consistently.

Can I get feedback?

Twitter can serve as a way of getting valuable feedback from your customers and help you to understand what they want. You could use Twitter’s poll feature to share a multiple answer question, which lets users vote for a winner. This could be used for feedback about a potential product and help you understand what it is your customers are after. Twitter can act as a large focus group for your business, giving you access to plenty of new opinions which you didn’t previously have.

How can I support other businesses on Twitter?

Any tweet which you would like to share can either be liked or retweeted (shared by the user) which means that it will be seen by accounts which do not follow you, giving your account an increased reach. Make use of popular hashtags that will show your tweet to people who are looking at the same hashtag. If you tweet a comment about something popular, use the same hashtag as others so that you will show up in people’s search results.

Retweeting other people’s content will show their tweet on your profile and can be a great way to share a business idea or piece of work that you found particularly inspiring. Sharing the content of other users opens up plenty of new opportunities with similar businesses and makes Twitter an excellent tool for networking and forming collaborations. By sharing the posts of other businesses, you are showing that brand off to your followers, allowing them to reach an unknown audience. It is a simple way of showing support for your fellow businesses.

So how do people contact me?

Alongside the core tweeting funcion, and the retweets/engagements mentioned above, there is one other key way which you can interact with your audience on Twitter – Direct Messages (DMs). We would advise keeping your DMs open, as this allows people to contact you privately without sending you a tweet. If somebody has an opportunity or wants to network with you, they can get in touch with you via this messages feature. Similarly, if a customer has a dispute or a problem then this can be a great way to discreetly resolve the issue. You can use direct messages to act as both a chatroom and as a way of conveying support to your customers.

This sounds like hard work?

You might find that you are feeling that all of this is a bit too much to manage and will be very time consuming. Our solution for this is to provide a digital review of your business and also provide a targeted marketing strategy to grow your business. For more information and to claim your free digital review, contact us at info@chromamarketing.co.uk

Digital Marketing Marketing Small Business Social Media Twitter

Getting the Most from your Twitter Account

Tell me the facts

So how does Twitter work?

What can I share on Twitter?

What are "followers?"

How can I optimise my profile?

How about content?

Can I get feedback?

How can I support other businesses on Twitter?

So how do people contact me?

This sounds like hard work?

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