Although Facebook is overwhelmingly the most popular social media channel, Twitter is also an incredibly useful channel to implement into your small business’s social media plan. If you’re not utilizing it, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to engage with your customers, grow your business and increase the visibility of your brand.
Around 75% of companies with an online presence are now using Twitter for marketing purposes, so you can almost guarantee that at least some of your competitors are on it. Twitter has changed significantly since its inception, and although recent algorithm changes have made it more difficult to appear in the news feeds of your target audience, it’s still a great avenue for connecting with customers.
You might be asking yourself, “Why should my small business consider using Twitter?” Here are just a few reasons.
Build Your Brand
Unlike big brands that can be recognized easily, small businesses must create brand awareness. If you’re just starting out, or even if you’ve been in business for a bit, having a Twitter account (and using it correctly) can help accomplish this. But first, you must consider how your company will use Twitter, whether it’s for customer service purposes, fun and entertaining content or a platform for you to highlight new products and other company information.
If you go for a combination of the three, try and formulate a posting schedule to sort out the content you want to push out. Don’t use one-way messages, as it won’t gain your much interaction on Twitter. Conversations happen on Twitter in real time, allowing you to answer questions quickly and address any concerns your customers may have. These types of connections can help build credibility and brand awareness and increase trust.
Watch Your Competitors
As mentioned earlier, at the very least, a portion of your competitors are already on the platform. By typing certain keywords into the search bar that pertain to your business, you can see what people in your industry are talking about, including your competitors. This will also give you an idea of the variations of content being pushed out by them. Twitter can be used as a networking tool for interacting with people that you may not have had the chance to otherwise, so use that to your advantage and keep watch on what’s going on in your industry.
Communicate with Your Customers
In addition to relaying relevant information about your business, Twitter can be used to interact with your customers. It’s an avenue for collecting information, such as what customers want to see more of from your business, what they are liking or disliking and what they would like to see improved. Each of these components can help you make necessary improvements and changes.
Don’t spam your customers on Twitter. Be sure to versify your content to fit their needs. This will increase your changes of creating long-lasting, fruitful relationships with them. Around 85% of followers feel more connected with a small business after following them on Twitter, so make those connections meaningful.
Increase Website Traffic
Twitter is multi-faceted, and it can help you accomplish other goals within your business outside of social media, like driving traffic back to your website. In fact, 47% of the people that visit a Twitter profile also visit the website linked to that profile.
Placing your website in your bio is a great way to drive traffic, but you can also add this link within some of your posts, as well as the blogs you post on your Twitter channel. Provide users with an incentive, like a special offer or a new product and give a link back to your site to increase traffic.
