Use Twitter To Grow Your Business

Everyday, more businesses are taking advantage of the power of Twitter to stay up to date with their customers. With Twitter, you are able to share live, informative updates that are short and straight to the point. These updates can help businesses to grow, but only if they’re strategic with what they post in order to keep the attention of their audience.

Most celebrities rely heavily on Twitter in updating and, more importantly, engaging with their fans on what is happening on a minute-by-minute basis. However, it can be a bit challenging for businesses. While it can be an avenue through which companies can share promotions, sales, etc., it can also be a two way street as customers can log in to complain or make inquiries. Due to this two way street, it has been a challenge and a big relief to those who know how to use it properly.

The very nature of Twitter means that businesses that use it must be committed to providing regular updates. For some people, it may mean a tweet once a day. For others, it may be a case of continuously updating their profile several times a day. This can mean using a social media analyst who will constantly monitor the company’s channel to provide a high level of engagement with customers. Regardless of the frequency of updates a company chooses, it is essential to know how to take advantage of Twitter to grow your business. Not tweeting enough, or sending out the wrong messages can be harmful to a business. Therefore, in this article, we’ll look at how businesses like yours can take advantage of this wonderful marketing tool to grow your business.

However, a little background information on this social media platform is in order.

Like regular accounts, business accounts on Twitter can be followed by anyone including individuals and corporate bodies. They can do the same things a regular account can do such as: read, reply, and retweet with their followers. Messages can include various types of content like text, pictures, videos and links to anything online, such as a blog, pdf file or any website.

A lot of businesses often wonder if there’s a difference between Twitter and other sites. There are some differences, so let’s compare them with some other popular social media platforms we’re familiar with to understand how Twitter works.

• Facebook – with Facebook, think of a tweet as being similar to a status update. However, on Twitter, while every follower gets the tweet, a status update may not reach everyone as that depends on the privacy settings of the updating account.
• LinkedIn – here, relationships are a two way street between you and your followers. You can’t contact strangers like you can do on Facebook, neither are you even allowed to follow strangers. On Twitter, however, you can.
• YouTube – is a video sharing site. On Twitter, you can include a video in a tweet, but you can’t create your video channels like you can on YouTube.
• Pinterest – photos are the main source on this platform. With Twitter, you can share both pictures and words like you would in a conversation, unlike you would be able to on Pinterest.

Now let’s look at how you can take advantage of Twitter to grow your business.

You Can Promote Your Brand

With Twitter, you can show what your brand is all about in your own way using abbreviated messages and with shared content. This allows you to project a consistent brand message across several channels.

Your Twitter account and what you post should have the same look and feel as your site and other social media platforms that you’re using. This way, you help project your brand identity across all these platforms.

Consider putting a lot of thought into the account name for your Twitter account. Unless your name is your business name, it isn’t a good idea to use your personal name as your business account. Do not use punctuation or strange characters in your name. It’s also a good idea to keep it as simple as you can so that mobile users can easily locate you.

You’re allowed to have a profile picture that will be seen by your followers. What can you use? You can use your business logo, your headshot, a prime product or indeed any product you want to promote. With respect to the pictures of your products, you can cycle them if you have more than one product. You can also add a larger background picture to use as a profile header. Use something that tells your story and this will be seen at the top of your profile page.

You’ll also be able to create a specific background for your account for your visitors. To do this, click on the design button in your profile settings. Ensure you complete all aspects of your account to provide as much information about your business as you can. Include your location, your company’s URL and a short biography about your company. You have 1150 characters in which to do this.