If you own a company, do you need to be active on Twitter? In most cases, the answer is yes. This can depend on your industry. This blog will give an overview of how to use Twitter in the most fundamental sense, then dive into a few best-practice tips for businesses.
Why Use Twitter for Your Business?
Consumers use Twitter to share what they know and learn. Twitter users are craving new concepts, opportunities, information, products/services, and people. If your business is not part of this market, you're leaving two enormous opportunities untouched: growing your business and improving it to adapt to the modern consumer market.
Companies of all sizes use Twitter for a variety of reasons, from advertising to customer service. The way your business uses Twitter will vary based on your goals.
Setting Up Your Business on Twitter
1. Set Up Your Account
The first task in getting your business on Twitter is making your account.
Go to twitter.com and click "Sign Up". Add in the name of your business, phone number or email address, and date of birth (don’t worry, this information isn’t made public on your profile.)
Hopefully, your business name will be available (Tribute Media's handle for instance is @tributemedia), but in the event that it is not available, you'll need to create something that will be recognizable to your customers (for instance, a restaurant named 'In A Pickle' located in Waltham needed to utilize @inapicklerest).
Click "Next" and update your information if you need to. The click "Sign Up" and Twitter will ask you to verify your phone or email. You will then need to choose a profile picture; your company logo is a perfect option.
2. Make a Bio That Encapsulates Your Business
Twitter is generally perceived as a standout amongst the most open informal communities, in that, the majority of the conversations on the site appear in the news stream (as opposed to on individual pages or groups). Remember when making your bio, more individuals will discover you on Twitter that have no past information of who you are or what you do.
If you only had a couple of seconds (or for this situation 160 characters) to clarify your business to a complete outsider, what would you say? That will be your bio. Read more on how to get creative with your bio.
3. Use an Image that Defines Your Company
Don't belittle the value of choosing the right image for your profile. For organizations, the ideal profile picture will be one that your clients know, like your logo. (You do have the option to change your profile picture later on, however I don't recommend it, at least until you've made your presence known on Twitter for a significant amount of time.)
4. Announce Yourself With Your First Tweet
Make your first couple of tweets a snapshot of what people can expect from you. What's your brand voice like? Is it very professional with a side of sass? Show it!
5. Find the Right Audience to Follow
Who you follow on Twitter will determine the nature of the connections you want to create. Therefore, you'll need to set up some criteria, to voice your experience, your industry, and what you're attempting to accomplish. Individuals you need to follow could include your business partners, experts in your industry, associates, and even present or potential clients.
When you're beginning, the key is to follow organizations like yours that are doing well—don't copy what they tweet, however give careful consideration to how they are captivating their audience and the sort of content they display. This is great for ideation!
6. Tell Your Network You're on Twitter
If someone has officially joined your email list, they may want to interact with you on Twitter. Send an email to your contact list, welcoming individuals to follow you on Twitter.
If you've already built a following on other social media networks, let them know you're on Twitter!
7. Get the Tools You Need to Simplify Posting
Hubspot's Marketing Software is the best in the industry for social posting, and it connects to your CRM to produce an advanced look at what your leads and customers are up to and how they are interacting with you.
8. Make Your First Twitter List
Twitter 'Lists' is a unique tool offered by Twitter to let clients arrange the users they follow into groups focused around their industry, relationship, hobby, and so on. When you're first starting, lists won't have to be a top priority because normally you'll be developing your own group, although I do suggest making at least one list to let yourself get accustomed to using them. It's much simpler to keep your contacts sorted from the beginning than to attempt to arrange them when you truly need them.
Construct a Plan for Twitter
How about we rewind to the moment that you initially chose to sign up and log on to Twitter.
What were you attempting to accomplish? Is it safe to say that you were looking to drive more business? Increase brand awareness? Position yourself as an expert in your industry?
Simply being on Twitter won't be sufficient to complete those objectives, regardless of the fact that you followed the steps above. What will allow you to accomplish those objectives is having a social media plan for the way you interact on Twitter, the sort of substance you need to impart, and the goals you plan to attain. Over time, do a mental check to ensure that your posts still align with your goals and refine them as needed.
Written by Sarah Wai
Former Content, Email, and Social Media Marketing Specialist of Tribute Media. Bachelor of Science in Digital Communication Arts and Master in Business Administration.
