How can your business take full advantage of Twitter?

In the past few years, Twitter has become a social media powerhouse and should be an invaluable weapon in your company’s marketing arsenal. However, like any weapon it can be used badly or it can be used well! So, here’s the catch, how do you use Twitter to it’s full advantage and get your followers to actually engage with you?

Below we've highlighted a few helpful hints for engaging your audience on Twitter. There are of course many more tips out there, these are just some of our favourites.

Firstly, your Twitter handle (e.g @Enlighten_News) and profile is how people find you so we’ll kick off here… 

Consider your handle and profile image

Your @ should be easy to read and identifiable as your brand! Do your research because if you've created a business profile and generated a whole heap of followers before realising you’ve made a mistake it could be too late! Also think about your images:

• Header: 1500 x 500
• Profile: 400 x 400
• Shared Photo: 1024 x 512
• Instream Photo Preview: 220 x 440

Are your images visible, legible or does your logo get squashed?

Mix up your content

A continuous stream about the same topic is not an ideal content strategy for your Twitter profile (or any of your marketing channels for that matter!) Your followers will want some variation in the content of the Tweets you’re posting. Variety is the spice of life! Don't just Tweet 'Hi we're active and we do __', five times a day. Believe it or not a lot of companies are guilty of just posting what they do instead of thinking about how their product or service helps solve a particular problem for their customers.

Add in links

As well as using Twitter to reach out and communicate with your audience you should also be looking at how Twitter can engage with your audience and drive traffic to your website. This could be to a specific landing page, a blog or to a relevant news or product page. In order to try and turn interest into a lead or sale you should use some of your Tweets to drive traffic to your website using links, although given the character limit on Twitter we would recommend using a shortening service such as bit.ly. This will help you save space on your post with the added benefit of allowing you to track the traffic using this link.

Use Twitter techniques such as Retweets, Mentions and Favourites

The more engaging you are on Twitter (and indeed on other social media sites) and share other peoples' content the more they will start to engage and share your content. Don't just use Twitter as a way to broadcast your voice, make sure you engage with other people if you want people to engage with you.

Respond to people who Retweet or Direct Message you

If someone has mentioned you in a Tweet or contacted you directly you should respond! This will let people see you’re sociable and willing to engage. At the end of the day these people might want to know more about your company before they become a customer!

Post your personality

You’re allowed to be a little bit more casual on your social media profiles so don’t be afraid to be a little more relaxed! Of course you need to remain professional and adopt a tone that is suitable for your industry and audience. If you are worried about appearing stuffy every now and again post something light-hearted or funny, or have a weekly slot for your funny posts.

Space out your Tweets

You don’t want to stuff your feed with Tweet after Tweet after Tweet about the same old thing! Overkill will encourage people to unfollow you very quickly… You want to create as much readership as possible with your Tweets so ensure you spread them out over the course of the day when different people may be reading their Twitter feed. Even if you have a very specific, one-dimensional message, make sure you find ways to mix up your content. Your business may interest you and get you excited but your customers might not think the same! Curate some topical content or post something entertaining and find a way to mix it up a bit.

Create hashtags (#) to increase your reach and for special events

Don’t forget to include hashtags! They are widely used in Tweets and will allow you to track trends and popular topics. If you’re having an exhibition or launching your latest product at a show you should create your very own hashtag for the event. This allows visitors to Tweet about the event or products and you’ll be able to see who ‘hash-tagged’ the event. You can then Tweet to thank them for supporting and helping to increase your audience yet again. Just don’t do what Susan Boyle’s record label did when they planned a party for her new album... #Susanalbumparty (think about it... true story!).

Hashtags can also be a great way to research your audience and keep yourself up to speed with any current trends. A lot of people will follow specific hashtags relevant to their area of interest, e.g #SMEowners would bring up a list of all tweets with the hashtag #SMEowners in it. Say you wanted to target SMEowners this would be a good place to start to see what the current conversations are on this topic and who is posting with this hashtag. Are these people potential targets or could this bring up a list of what your competition is up to?

Pick a few hashtags relevant to you and have a look at the frequency they are being used. This will let you know if people are actively using these hashtags. Another use of hashtags is to tag a particular Twitter directory such as #bizitalk or #UKbizinfo as this will associate your tweet with these directories. If other people are following these hashtags they will see your tweet or if the directory has a feed your post will be included in it. This is a useful method of increasing your audience outside of your normal followers.

Don’t use all your characters and allow others to quote your Tweets

The formula for a good requote is to post a Tweet with some space (-25 less) at the end so someone can quote your Tweet comfortably - have a look at the Tweet below where the highlighted text shows the text that was added by someone when they quoted the original Tweet.

Don’t be self absorbed

Don’t post only about you and your business. This might be an obvious one but it’s easy to get carried away and only post about your company. What are the latest developments within your industry? Can you curate or retweet any stories from other credible sources? Have a go and show your followers you’re not just a one trick promotional pony. And for goodness sake please don’t #humblebrag… It’s cringeworthy! "Oh, look at me on the TV today. I just can't believe how wonderful my life is. I'm just so pleased with myself." PUKE!

Set out some rules

This is the not so social tip but it could get you out of hot water fast. Consider setting a few short rules and regulations for your team or even a disclaimer at the top of your profile. Outline when your profile will be monitored just in case a complaint is posted and when your customers should expect a response or an alternative contact number. Also determine what is acceptable and what isn’t so that everyone is clear on what will be deleted, blocked and reported. You aren’t trying to be a kill-joy but a few rules and procedures could help someday when you know what hits the fan!

Summary

In short, if you’re not on Twitter, you really should consider it. It’s a great tool to improve your brand awareness, increase your reach and act as another way to engage with your audience, drive traffic to your website and ultimately increase sales. Twitter has also proved very useful for some companies who manage their customer service experience. Even if you aren’t using Twitter for customer service always remember that once you open the door your customers may well use Twitter to very publicly let you know what they think of you and your company. Even if you only Tweet once a week in the beginning - get started!

As a final note, remember to be cautious with every Tweet you post as you don’t want to have to dig yourself out of a hole - even typos and broken links will reflect badly on the quality of your business and be careful with who has access to your professional profile (and password!). Check out this crazy Twitter hack http://mashable.com/2013/02/18/burger-king-twitter-account-hacked/

We hope you found this post useful and enjoyed reading it. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like some assistance with your Social Media Strategy, or leave us a comment below on what works for you. If you would like to follow us you can find us here - @Enlighten_News