The home of the hashtag has come a long way since its 2006 debut as a simple platform for telling people what they are up to. Not only has it grown from 140 characters per tweet to 280, but it is now a very powerful tool for building brand loyalty and useful relationships that can contribute to the success of your business or product one follower at a time. Here are 5 quick Twitter tips to get your business up to speed on Twitter.
Twitter Tip 1: Goals
Set goals to ensure you get the most out of the time and effort you give to Twitter. Having defined objectives will make it much easier to evaluate your progress. For example:
Generate leads and sales
Increase email sign-up
Build customer loyalty
Strengthen brand awareness
Be sure you set some time aside every couple of weeks to examine your analytics and tweak your Twitter strategy if necessary.
Twitter Tip 2: Perfect your Profile
This may sound basic, but a well-crafted profile can build trust, improve how you appear in search results and give customers a place to ask questions and hopefully give glowing reviews.
Treat your header photo as a billboard for your company. It’s the first thing users will see so take advantage of that space with a creative and attractive design.
Next up is your bio, which is limited to 160 words. Yes, you will have to do a bit of juggling to fit in all the info you want with a sprinkle of personality, but it is definitely worth it. You should also include clickable links and hashtags. Remember this is your chance to tell people why they should follow you.
Pinned tweets should also be considered part of your profile. Visitors to your page will see them at the top your feed, so its the perfect spot for important information. Did you post recently about an upcoming event, special offer or new product – pin that tweet now!
Twitter Tip 3: Engage
If you are a small business looking to reach a local or specific audience, seek out relevant discussions and join in.
Make sure you respond quickly to any enquiries. Research has shown that over 40% of consumers expect a response in 60 minutes on social media.
Get your profile seen by relevant people and brands by tagging them in your posts. If they like what you share they will hopefully respond with a retweet or @mention. This kind of interaction from an influencer or well-known brand is very powerful and can help bring new followers very quickly. But always remember to choose your target wisely and never, ever spam them.
“The best way to engage honestly with the marketplace via Twitter is to never use the words “engage,” “honesty,” or “marketplace.” ― Jeffrey Zeldman
Twitter Tip 4: Clever content
Did you know that tweets have a lifespan of about 18 minutes? This doesn’t mean you should fire out tweets every half hour, because seriously, who has time for that. But you need to be clever about the content you create for your social posts so that you can post it numerous times on the same day, week, month or even year.
Start by aiming to create one piece of evergreen content each week. You will soon have a stable of work to choose from which is especially handy on the weeks you are running tight for time, or finally, take that holiday.
Another time-saver when it comes to content is to repost or retweet relevant news articles, updates or interesting blog posts from other accounts. Use an RSS reader or keyword alert to help you source this kind of content.
Twitter Tips 5: Picky Posts
There are several schools of thought when it comes to the time of day that you should send a tweet. Some suggest tweeting while people are commuting 7 am – 9 am and 7 pm – 11 pm while others reckon people are logging on during the working day and that 12 pm, 3 pm and 5 pm are key tweeting times.
Rather than getting hung up on what everyone else is doing, it’s best to find a time that suits your audience. You might want to reach stay at home parents, chefs or keep fit fanatics, so it’s best to tailor your tweeting times around your specific audience.
But don’t worry if these times happen to be when you’re not available, there are many scheduling tools that can make your life easier. Check out Feedalpha for my favourite Twitter scheduling tool.
And finally, we all enjoy that warm fuzzy feeling a like or a retweet gives us, so go on, take a moment to return the favour. It’s a great way to keep your followers happy. 🙂