Of the social media platforms that are available for businesses, Twitter is one of the most effective platforms. With more than 271 million active users every month, Twitter provides businesses with a valuable opportunity to market their products and grow their online presence. By sharing links to their websites when posting on Twitter, businesses are able to increase traffic to their websites which could result in more sales. 

The Twitter crowd, however, is a little bit tough and it will take more than just regular posts to get them interested in your products. Without targeted posts, you will receive close to zero user engagement on your profile and your follower count will remain the same. It is for this reason why we wrote this article: so as to help business owners understand how to use Twitter for business. Below are some of the tips that businesses can use to turn their Twitter accounts into lead-generating powerhouses and get more people to follow their profile.

Increase your follower count

It is difficult for businesses to spread their brand messages far and wide if they have few followers. Without a sizable following on Twitter, your posts will appear on a few timelines, limiting your ability to drive as much traffic as possible to your website. It is for this reason why businesses need to increase their following on Twitter so as to ensure that more people are able to interact with their posts. 

How to increase your Twitter following?

To do this, businesses need to identify relevant Twitter profiles and engage with them through targeted messages and content. If they like the content you are sharing and what your business is all about, they will likely follow you back and this is how you build a sizeable following on Twitter. 

With good content, your followers are likely to share and retweet your posts and this will increase the visibility of your brand even further. Businesses should, therefore, ensure that they have competent content creators will create shareable posts that they will publish on their twitter pages. 

Engage influencers

Another useful strategy of how to use Twitter for business is to engage with industry influencers. Influencers with a huge following on Twitter are a valuable resource that businesses should leverage to make more users interested in their products. Businesses that fail to work with the influencers in their industry usually fail to generate as much interest in their products and as such, they are not able to drive a lot of traffic to their websites.

With the trust that the influencers have built with their followers, businesses can partner with the influencers to push their products or services. Businesses are also likely to gain more followers from the influencers and increase engagement on their posts. By engaging the influencers, businesses are also able to learn about trending topics in their niche and use this information to craft content that will help them reach a larger audience.

Here is the example of Old Navy brand partnering with the New York Yankee veteran Alex Rodriguez to raise money for Boys & Girls Club of America (BGCA).

Use relevant hashtags for Twitter content

Hashtags help posts get to the right audience. Unfortunately, in an attempt to keep their posts clean and clutter-free, Twitter account managers have been publishing posts without hashtags. This limits the reach of the posts to the account’s followers and the occasional shares and retweets. To get their posts far and wide, account managers are advised to add hashtags to their posts. 

Why are hashtags so important?

The businesses that use them for the content that they create are able to reach a large audience, and this increases the chance of getting more followers. When a certain hashtag is used in a post, that post will appear on the timelines of everyone who is following that hashtag. You could have very few followers but as long as you are using the right hashtags, your post will reach more people, and making it easier to gain more followers. With more followers, it is easy to generate more sales for your products or services and it is for this reason why businesses should ensure that the content they post is accompanied by relevant hashtags. 

Don’t overstuff your posts

However, you should be careful with the number of hashtags on individual posts. Studies show that posts with less than 2 hashtags received more engagements than those with 3 or more hashtags. Account managers should, therefore, only use the hashtags that are relevant to their industry and avoid overstuffing. Other than this, the account profiles should feature industry-specific hashtags so as to make it easy for users to identify the account after performing a search. 

In the example below, we can see how @EVOSportswearau employs industry-specific hashtags #sportswear and #yogaclothing which helps them reach their target audience and help users understand what exactly this company can offer.

Accompany your posts with the relevant media

Posts with visual media are highly clickable. They experience more user engagement and this makes eye-catching photos and videos an important part of a great social media marketing strategy. Businesses are, therefore, advised to ditch text-rich posts for media-rich ones to capture the attention of their followers on Twitter. 

For the videos, account managers should ensure that they publish the entire video rather than adding a link to the video. This is because the Twitter video will begin playing immediately when it appears on a follower’s timeline. With the link, the followers will have to click on it to view the video and more often than not, Twitter users will avoid this extra step.

Guacamole: a true crowd-pleaser that only takes 10 minutes to make. Find the fresh ingredients you need at your local Stop & Shop! ? #recipe #entertaining pic.twitter.com/0tZAG2z0wC

— Stop & Shop (@StopandShop) August 2, 2019

Twitter Ads are a good source of user analytics

Twitter analytics is another avenue that can help business owners learn how to use Twitter for business. Brands can promote their posts and reach a wider audience through Twitter Ads. Unfortunately, many people believe that social media use should be free, hence some of them don’t see the need to pay to have their posts and profiles promoted. What such people don’t know is that Twitter collects an insane amount of data that they can use to ensure that their posts get to the right people. Twitter captures the psychographics and demographics and for a small fee, users are able to promote their posts to the right audience through Twitter Ads. 

They are also able to access user engagement statistics by checking the post analytics. Such stats are very valuable to any business since they will gain insights into the type of users that interact with their posts. They are able to understand user demographics and use this information to optimize upcoming posts. You can also use the Sotrender app to track the stats and gather data. It provides you with clear and informative reports to help you improve your Twitter marketing strategy. Based on the Activity Index, you can see which days are better for posting, for example.

Charts in Sotrender, social media analytical tool

Find your brand voice

When talking to your followers on Twitter, you need a brand voice for all your messages. Most businesses have adopted a formal voice for their online communication but the nature of social media means that they need to lighten things up to better connect with their followers. An informal tone makes a brand appear approachable and this will endear the business to the users on Twitter. It also shows that there are humans behind the brand and this goes a long way to help brands build lasting relationships with their followers. 

Once a business finds the voice that resonates with its audience, they need to consistently use that voice on all their communication. Consistency builds credibility and this will help the business in its online marketing campaigns.

Take part in Twitter chats

Business accounts hardly take part in Twitter chats and when they do, they are overly promotional with their messages. Businesses need to realize that promotional content is such a turn-off and as such, they should find other ways to engage their followers. They need to craft useful messages when responding to customer concerns without appearing like they are pushing them to buy their products. This less aggressive approach on Twitter can give more positive results than an aggressive marketing strategy. 

Conclusion

Twitter is a great social media platform that businesses can use to share their brand messages and promote their products. When used properly, Twitter can help businesses increase traffic to their websites and drive sales.

Featured image credit: Diggity Marketing