Twitter and other social media sites have become an incredible opportunity for businesses that are looking to quickly and easily reach their target audience. While it may seem easy to use Twitter for businesses, there is certain etiquette that must be followed. If you make too many mistakes with your account, you could lose customers and destroy your chances of building a following on Twitter.
Tips to Make the Most of Twitter
- Seek out and follow relevant Twitter accounts. Some people are likely to find your account through other relevant accounts. When you follow them and they follow you, you are creating a network of people that will allow you to reach new people you wouldn’t otherwise reach.
- Encourage interaction with your customers. Many businesses are used to the one-way conversations many other advertising methods use to reach out to customers. One of the incredible advantages of Twitter is to hold a conversation with your customers. Create Tweets that allow you to interact with your customers. Ask questions and allow them to give you feedback, to which you can give a personalized reply.
- Implement your branding into your Twitter account. Make sure you include your business colors, as well as your logo, as part of your Twitter account so people can feel confident they are really interacting with your company. Your branding should carry through to any method you use to advertise or interact with your customers. This will create a more fluid experience.
- Be consistent with your posts. People expect you to keep posting to Twitter once you start. Think about how often you would like to post and make sure you consistently post. There are programs available that allow you to set up the Tweets ahead of time so you can schedule them for a week or so at a time to help you save time and money.
- Arrange for one person or a small team of people to handle your Twitter account. It is best to have one person in charge of your Twitter account and the posts you make. This ensures there is consistency in the way posts are constructed and there is no overlap in the information the Tweets provide. This can be anyone within your company but should not be an intern or another inexperienced individual.
Things to Avoid with Twitter
- Don’t post only advertisements. It may seem that Twitter is the perfect venue to advertise your business, and it is if you use it properly. Scatter your advertisement posts in between relevant information that will interest your readers, questions to get them thinking and even fun tidbits. This will keep your readers interested and make it more likely they will listen to your advertisements.
- Don’t use too many hashtags. Hashtags are an important element of Twitter to help users find information they seek through an easy search. However, there is such a thing as overdoing it. Make sure you only use one or two hashtags in each post at the most. Mix in a few that don’t use any to avoid being annoying.
- Don’t forget to complete your profile. An incomplete profile can be a deterrent for people who would normally follow you. It is important to make sure you complete your profile so people can learn to trust you. It is important to show your contact information so customers can feel more secure in turning to you.
- Don’t forget to attribute sources. If you are ReTweeting something or posting content from another source, make sure you offer proper attribution. This can tarnish your reputation and make it difficult for your customers to trust what you have to say.
- Don’t worry about the number of followers. Having a large number of followers is a boost for your business, but it isn’t a necessity in the beginning. The important thing is to create quality Tweets that will catch the attention of the followers you do have. When they ReTweet your information, the people who follow them will see it, which can potentially increase your exposure. This is also why it is important to follow other relevant Twitter accounts that aren’t direct competitors.
When you follow these tips, you can experience the success many other businesses have achieved through proper Twitter use.
There are plenty of other things to organize when setting up your own business, for example, if you are a home business, then spend some of your time putting together a great working space or tidying up the space you already have – if this isn’t something you have time to do, then you can always hire a cleaning service to tidy up your work area. Have a clean and organized area creates an organized mind to get started on something. Other things you need to do as a new business is discuss funding and thinking about hiring new staff to take care of aspects of your business, for example, your social media.
Ericka B is a blogger and social media fanatic – she loves spending time researching and writing tips about social media for others to learn from.
Photo Credits
bplanet | KROMKRATHOG | Freedigitalphotos.net | Courtesy of Author