At first, when Twitter was launched, it was basically used just for fun. Only few could have thought of how much of a help it would be for business. But over the years, more businesses have discovered the massive opportunities in the digital world and are now taking advantage of the unique ecosystem of Twitter to level up their businesses and increase sales.

So, here is the question: How much are you doing to cash in on Twitter?

In the world of visual content such as pictures and videos, Twitter has continued to stand out as a platform that helps drive real-time conversation and breaking news in such a way that most social media platforms just can’t. For one, Twitter boasts of an average of 321 million monthly active users.

Every second of the day, Twitter users send an average of around 6000 tweets. That is around 500 million tweets in just 24 hours! That is a billion exchanges in 2 days. If that isn’t mind-blowing, what is? No wonder a lot of celebrities and politicians join the conversation and use the tool to communicate with the public and gain popularity.

If you want to connect with your customers in a really human way, Twitter is an indispensable platform for you. Creating an account on Twitter is a great idea for those who want to improve the visibility of their brand. But what is Twitter, really, and how does it all start?

First, What Is Twitter?

Remember how we mentioned Twitter drives conversations? Well, there are those who might define Twitter as an instant messaging platform. However, Twitter is way more than that.

Launched in 2006, Twitter is a microblogging platform that allows you to send messages and receive personal updates from other contacts. Instant messages are called tweets and have 280 characters (the limit, which was previously 140 characters, was increased in 2017).

Even with the character increase, there hasn’t been much change in the culture. Most people still stick to the succinct 140 character tweets.  That doesn’t mean it is all text on Twitter. It is also possible to broadcast videos, photos and links to external sites in an unlimited way.

Twitter allows you to tweet as many times as you want. This way, when you follow other people on twitter, you can see their tweets on your timeline. Those who follow you would also get your updates on their own timeline.

As you can see, Twitter is, more or less, a social network with a continuous flow of information. Despite that, it is not necessary to be connected 24 hours a day to follow everything your friends and contacts say. The good news is that you can connect and disconnect from all that talk whenever you want.

In addition to that, Twitter also maintains a public record of all your updates that can be viewed through the powerful Twitter Search tool. If you think that is all, you haven’t seen how great the Twitter Advanced Search tool is!

 You can search for various terms of interest to engage with a specific demographic.

Despite appearing like a simple tool, Twitter has caused a great revolution in its launch, because it has opened the doors for anyone to become a content producer. For example, a simple tweet talking about a new post on your blog or a new product launched can be crucial to attract new consumers and generate leads.

But this is just a little glimpse at what Twitter can do for your business. Here are a few more reasons why Twitter is vital for your business growth:

Why You Should Use Twitter For Your Business

Level Of Interaction

Just like we mentioned earlier, Twitter makes it so much easy and fun to interact with people. The ability of Twitter to achieve such a high level of interaction is something that you should exploit for your business.

Hashtags

Thanks to the use of hashtags, you can monitor conversations about your brand (what do your customers say about you?) or investigate your competition. This way, you can detect any possible incident, improve the way you interact with your customers, and change strategies. Determine a different hashtag for each of the types of content you do on Twitter.

Low Cost

The cost of operating a corporate Twitter account is relatively low when compared with other channels of communication with customers, prospects, and related. Even among social media platforms, it costs less since you use fewer data in a text-centric platform.

Ability To Manage Campaigns

With a thread of short messages, you can create very successful advertising campaigns, with great impact that bring you all the benefits that you could truly hope to get from the social network.

Speed

The information network in real-time is very fast, versatile, and efficient. Communication flows instantly and this is what makes Twitter a truly impressive social media platform.

Great Impact

Additionally, Twitter is a social media platform that has a very high impact. The trending topics can be highlighted by region, and you can see what has got the most attention for each day. And this is not just vain. With the right strategies, you can bring a lot of awareness to your brand through such topics.

GeoTargetting

Part of the beauty of using Twitter is taking advantage of the location. If your business serves only the people in a particular geographical location, it would be a waste of resources connecting with the general populace. With Twitter, you can restrict your activity to the geographical area of your business.

Attract New Clients

When you interact with your clients on Twitter, you will get to know them more and better serve them. However, that is just a side of the coin. Without a doubt, the interaction will help you to attract the attention of potential clients by engaging in conversations about topics of interest to your business. This way you will have the opportunity to find the right moment to offer your services or products.

Offers Broadcast

Since Twitter is a social media platform that thrives on short messages and news, it becomes an important communication tool to inform your followers about new offers or discounts offered by the business to its customers.

Announce New Products And Publicize Events

Just like we mentioned in the previous point, Twitter is perfect for breaking news. So, if you are organizing an event or trying to publicize a new product or a new service, Twitter is one of the best means to broadcast it, and thus reach all your followers (current and potential customers).

Custom URLs

On Twitter, it is essential to shorten the links to make the most of the limited characters. This practice that has become so evident from the beginning of the social media platform is perfect for using custom URLs through URL shortening services, like Bit.ly and Twitter itself. You can even measure web traffic with it.

Lists

Thanks to the “Lists” option, you can create different lists to control your customers and even other companies. Every time you enter Twitter, look for your lists and get up to date with everything that is said in the profiles that you have saved. This way, you will always be updated of what happens around your brand and you will be able to know the strategies of your competition.

Analytics

With the help of Twitter Analytics, you can check your KPIs on interaction and number of followers. Remember to set short and long-term goals to increase the number of comments and engagement (commitment of your customers).

Customer Service

Even though many businesses do not take this point into account, it is the most important. Treating your customers with respect should be evident by how you interact with them on social media.

Luckily, your replies to customers’ tweets also appear on your timeline. That means that your response is not only visible to the concerned customers or enquirers, but also to other current customers and potential customers. This can help demonstrate how much you care about your customers, thereby generating more goodwill and sales.

How To  Use Twitter

Using Twitter isn’t rocket science at all. Twitter is a very simple social media platform that you would personally find to be user-friendly. The first thing you have to do is create your profile and customize it by putting all the relevant information about your business.

This includes the logo, the header image, and the bio. You must optimize your profile to include information and keywords related to your business. This will help indicate to the clients what you do as well as where they can patronize your services.

Now that you know a little more about Twitter, the time has come to learn how to create an account and take advantage of the potential of this social network.

Create An Account

First, you must create an account on Twitter. To do this, download the application or go to www.twitter.com and click on Sign Up. The registration does not take more than five minutes, and you only have to enter your full name, email, and password (you can also use your phone number to register).

Choose An Appropriate Email Address And Password

Since you intend to use Twitter frequently, use an email address that you access daily, to follow your notifications. If you have a dedicated email address you use for your other social media platform, you may use that.

If you have your own domain, you can create a personalized corporate email account with your business name. This will help convey more credibility and separate your personal life from the professional one.

Also choose a secure password so as not to risk having your account hacked. The password must have at least 6 characters which could be made up of numbers, letters, and some special characters.

Pick A Username

The next step is to choose a username. Check the availability of your business name, as it is a corporate profile. If someone already has a profile with the same name you chose, you can create variations using the underscore symbol (_).

Just be careful not to create an overly complicated username, because that makes life difficult for those who want to find your profile. In any case, you can change the username of the profile later, if necessary.

Place A Photo And A Description

Now, it is essential that you leave the profile as similar as possible to your business. Place a photo with your company’s logo and create a brief description making clear the product you deliver or the problem you solve. To do this, simply click on the Upload photo button.

In addition to the description, it is also possible to place more complete information, such as the address of your business and city, but you can skip this step if you have an online business.

Like Facebook, Twitter has the option of a verified account, which you can request to transmit more credibility to your followers. This can be a goal for the future when your profile has a high level of engagement.

Share Relevant Content

After getting your profile ready, it was time to create and promote content for your followers.

A valid strategy to get attention at the beginning is to create exclusive promotions for those who follow your page. Remember to use tools such as Bit.ly to shorten links, so you do not lose so many text characters. Twitter also comes with a native link shortener. Explore that, if you want.

In all situations, do everything to have a friendly and sincere relationship with your followers, follow the mentions of your brand and be solicitous, even when you are dealing with haters.

Do not talk too much about yourself or your product. Some people can follow your profile but are not yet ready to make a purchase. Therefore, talking a lot about what you want to sell may end up alienating those users.

However, it is possible to convert them into future customers by offering quality content and helping them solve a problem.

Visual resources, in many cases, are worth more than a thousand-word text. Don’t assume that all you must do is write. Including a video or a GIF in a tweet can make it more attractive and, better yet, more shareable. This is essential to reach people outside of your contact base.

Whenever possible, conduct surveys and promote interaction with your readers. This is important to chart new and future people for your business and create content more aligned to the needs and desires of that audience.

Retweet

Retweeting is nothing more than the action of republishing a post you find interesting on your profile. If you find a post on Twitter and think it can help any of your clients, you can share it on your timeline by clicking on the retweet icon.

Once again, take care so that this practice does not take up the space of your own messages. The public values original content very much, mainly when it comes from you. In addition, you want to be recognized as a reference in your niche. For this, you must produce your own relevant content regularly.

Follow What Your Customers Say

As we already mentioned earlier in this article, Twitter is used for microblogging by a lot of people. Chances are, your customers and followers are also talking about you. That is why it is important for you to find questions and comments about your business.

Respond quickly and establish solid communication with your followers. When positive reviews are left, make sure you retweet it, so that other followers can see it on your timeline.

If a problem occurs and a consumer starts posting negative tweets about your brand, do not despair. Show maturity by receiving the feedback and making every effort to solve the problem. Take this opportunity to show openness and transparency in the dialogue with your clients.

Learn To Use Hashtags

You’ve probably already used hashtags in personal posts on other social media platforms. They are composed of words related to the subject of a post and the symbol # and serve to expand the scope of some publication. Well, what you may not know is that it all started on Twitter!

Imagine you want to share an article on your blog about how to be more productive. You can use the hashtag #productivity to facilitate the search of those that want to know more about the subject. If your post is more recent than others, it will appear at the top of the searches.

Keep in mind that good hashtags are those that are shared since they increase the reach of your profile on the Internet. Large companies already use this technique to create viral campaigns and attract the attention of followers.

The most engaging hashtags can become a trending topic on Twitter. This reinforces once again the importance of creating content that is shareable.

There are, in fact, several aspects that are fundamental to the success of a business. If you want to level up your business, Twitter is worth the look! That is why it is part of WunderTRE.