December 01, 2018
How to Get the Most Out of Twitter for Business

Did you know there’s a tool that connects you with an endless stream of potential customers, free of charge? We’re talking about Twitter; one of the most effective marketing tools you can have in your arsenal.

You can use Twitter for:

  • Market research
  • Finding new leads
  • Engaging with new and prospective customers

As a bonus, you don’t have to invest time in taking stunning photos or writing lengthy content as you do for Facebook and Instagram. Twitter is designed for a short conversation, so establishing a presence is quick and easy.

In this article, we’ll look at some tips for using Twitter for Business to help you get started.

Twitter audience profile

Setting Up Your Account Using Twitter for Business

First things first. You need a business account that’s consistent with the tone and image of your brand.

Start by choosing a username for your business Twitter account. This needs to be as close as possible to your company’s name so people will recognize it. There’s always the chance that your username is already taken, so here are some workarounds that won’t affect your branding:

  • Add your location at the end of the username (ex: @AmazonUK)
  • Include your industry in the username (ex: @ALDO_Shoes)
  • Add prefixes or suffixes like “Get,” “Real,” or “HQ” to your username (ex: @GetCredo)

Don’t Forget the Aesthetics

Next is the visuals. We recommend using a company logo for your profile picture, but you can also upload your personal headshot for the photo if you’re the face of the brand.

Take a look at author and speaker Robert Kiyosaki’s profile for example. He’s the guy behind his personal brand, so it makes sense for him to use his picture in his Twitter profile.

Twitter profile

Now compare that with this profile from WooCommerce.

Twitter profile for WooCommerce

The difference between this profile and @theRealKiyosaki is WooCommerce doesn’t have a name/face that people can connect to the brand. As such, it wouldn’t be effective to put a person’s face on the company profile — no matter how instrumental they are in expanding the platform.

An exception may be small but growing businesses – using a picture of your team, your co-founders, or your key support staff may be a great way to humanize your brand.

Regardless of which type of profile picture you choose, you need to create an account strictly for business. Don’t convert an existing personal account into a business profile. Start fresh so you can maintain a consistent tone from day one.

If you need help choosing an attention-grabbing banner, check out Canva.

Canva


They have over 50,000 templates that you can choose from, so designing the perfect banner for your brand has never been easier. If you haven’t created a logo yet, Canva can help you do that as well.

Finally, you need to complete your Twitter profile so that it’s optimized. Tell people a little about your brand in the bio, and be sure to include a link to your company’s site in the website field.

Better yet, create a landing page specifically for Twitter users if you really want to boost leads and drive conversions.

Using Twitter for Business as a Research Tool

Got your account set up? Great. Now, let’s look at how to use Twitter for business.

Believe it or not, Twitter is a great market research tool. In this recent report, we can see the following Twitter statistics:

  • 326 million people use it every month
  • 24% of users are adults in the United States
  • Affluent millennials make up 80% of users

Millions of tweets are sent every day — 500 million to be exact. That’s a lot of people sharing what’s on their minds… and much of what they share is valuable market data.

Conversations with brands about customer preferences, complaints, and suggestions all take place on Twitter, and most of it is available for you to access simply by using the search feature to look for keywords or trending hashtags.

There are also a number of competitor research tools out there to help you monitor the industry — and keep a watchful eye on your competition.

If you’re looking for a tool designed specifically for Twitter, check out Followerwonk.

Followerwonk gives you in-depth insights into you and your competitors' activity on Twitter. You can use it to see what’s trending in your industry, what your rivals are talking about, and who’s interested in your goods and services.

But that’s not all. You can also use Followerwonk to tweak your Twitter marketing campaigns. Its dashboard lets you monitor key metrics like top keywords, follower demographics, and engagement ratings — all of which are useful when creating custom-tailored content on Twitter.

There’s also Twitter Analytics, a native tool which lets you access your brand’s performance and engagement on the platform free of charge. Twitter analytics provide a view of tweet performance and audience reach, as well as a broad look at your follower demographics and info about your organic audience. Twitter Analytics even allows you to compare your followers to Twitter as a whole, as well as compare your audience against different predetermined audiences, including different personas, demographic groups, interest groups, and more.

Integrating Twitter for Business Into Your Marketing Strategy

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s look at how to use Twitter for business marketing so you can boost sales and conversions.

Twitter is a great platform for making announcements. Got an upcoming sale? Tweet it. Launching a new product line? Announce it on Twitter.

You can even embed important tweets on your landing pages to increase awareness while gaining more followers. Or, when someone praises your brand, you can use their tweet as a form of social proof.

If you’re running your site on WooCommerce, embedding a live tweet is as simple as pasting its URL in the editor — the platform will take care of the rest.

WordPress (and by default, WooCommerce) users can add sharing buttons for Twitter and other social media platforms by simply activating or installing the Jetpack plugin, as seen in this visual demo from ThemeIsle.

You can also use Jetpack to automatically share a post on Twitter the moment it’s published. That way, followers can stay updated with your content in real-time.

Building Your Brand With Twitter for Business

Did you know that Twitter ranks second in B2C marketing use, just under Facebook? It’s also the third most popular platform for B2B marketing according to Statista data.

One of the reasons for that is because Twitter is a great place to build relationships through engagement. Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter makes it easy to connect with customers and prospective customers alike.

You can use it to:

  • Answer questions related to your product or industry
  • Offer customer service and support
  • Collect feedback from your supporters

When it comes to Twitter for business, engagement is the name of the game. By keeping an open channel of communication between you and your target market, you’re able to build brand loyalty while expanding your influence.

Start Selling Today

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