Are you using Twitter to market your business?
Wondering how to improve your results?
When used correctly, Twitter can be a valuable addition to your current social media strategy.
Not only is it an opportunity to reach and engage consumers in real-time, but it also promotes trust and builds credibility.
Freely sharing your knowledge, know-how and expertise goes a long way towards establishing your reputation as the go-to professional within your industry.
So, how can you use Twitter to strategically support your business?
Below are five simple ways you can expand your presence and grow a loyal following through Twitter!
5 Simple Ways to Boost Twitter Engagement…Right Now
1. Connect with Consumers
While there are many social media tools to help you connect with potential clients, Twitter can help you quickly identify opportunities, connect on a hyper-local level, and remain responsive to the ever-changing needs of today’s consumer.
How can you make valuable connections? It’s a two -step process.
First – find and follow the right people (in other words…not just anyone) and then share better content.
1. Find People to Connect With on Twitter
Get started by visiting sites like WeFollow, Twellow, Social Bro or Twitter Advanced Search.
Research and identify other people with similar interests, within your same niche or living within your area.
Here’s how to run an advanced search through Twitter:
- Enter your search into the search bar on twitter.com.
- At the top of your results page, click More options and then click Advanced search.
- Fill in the appropriate fields to refine your search results.
- Click Search to see your results.
Refine your search similar to the way you’d refine a Google search.
For example, I’m looking for all tweets that contain the term social media and small business.
This is what my search would look like.
Now get even more specific with this list of Twitter’s advanced search terms:
Words
- Tweets containing all words in any position (“Twitter” and “search”)
- Tweets containing exact phrases (“Twitter search”)
- Tweets containing any of the words (“Twitter” or “search”)
- Tweets excluding specific words (“Twitter” but not “search”)
- Tweets with a specific hashtag (#twitter)
- Tweets in a specific language (written in English)
People
- Tweets from a specific account (Tweeted by “@TwitterComms”)
- Tweets sent as replies to a specific account (in reply to “@TwitterComms”)
- Tweets that mention a specific account (Tweet includes “@TwitterComms”)
Places
- Tweets sent from a geographic location, e.g. a specific city, state, country
- Use the place dropdown to select the geographic location
Dates
- Tweets sent before a specific date, after a specific date or within a date range
- Use the calendar dropdown to select a “from” date, “to” date or both
- Search for Tweets from any date since the first public Tweet
2. Share Better Content
- Use Twitter to give consumers the exact information they’re looking for and then give them real-time feedback.
- Have a solution to a frequently asked question? Break it down into multiple 140 character tweets and share them through a series of tweets.
- Give your followers a sneak peek in to who you are, what you’re passionate about and how you and your business can best serve their needs.
- Share a behind-the-scenes look at your business. Just attend an event? Spend time at an industry conference? Tweet a pic with context around it. Always make it relevant to your followers. The question I always ask myself before tweeting is “why would they care?” If you can’t answer that question, don’t tweet it.
- Stay involved in the conversation. If you’re actively sharing content, people will eventually start responding. Make sure you’re paying attention. There’s nothing worse than a one-sided conversation.
Jodi Okun, the founder of College Financial Aid Advisors is a great example of someone hyper-focused on taking great care of her followers.
You can see how responsive she was to this particular tweet.
@bikerphoto wow. So true cost of college is huge the conversation needs to continue #collegecash
— Jodi Okun (@JodiOkun) July 11, 2015
With social media now woven into the fabric of our everyday lives, the days of consumers making a decision without any prior knowledge is over. Today, all anyone needs to do is Google you…or tweet a question to see how you respond.
Twitter gives you the online advantage by putting you in the exact space your potential clients are spending their time. Don’t miss the chance to take them from a possible lead to business advocate.
2. Drive Website and Blog Traffic
Twitter can be used to increase traffic to your website or blog through thoughtful and strategic sharing.
3 Ways to Increase Website Visibility:
1. Tweet Your Latest Post: Notify your Twitter followers of your latest post by tweeting it as soon as you hit publish.
However, don’t make the mistake of stopping there. Tweak the verbiage within your tweet and send it out several additional times throughout the week.
Monitor the effectiveness of each tweet. What worked? What gained the most traction? Now do it again!
And make your life easier while scheduling those tweets. Use a third-party management tool such as Hootsuite to schedule ahead. This will free up your time to actively engage rather than feeling tied to your computer.
2. Hashtags: Identify relevant hashtags based on industry, niche and location.
Use hashtags within your tweets to place your content in front of a larger audience. But be careful.
One or two hashtags is all you need to get your point across. Too many hashtags just makes you look like a spammer and no one wants that reputation.
Try a tool like hashtags.org to research the frequency and popularity of each keyword and its use.
3. Call to Action: A call to action isn’t just for your blog post.
You need to use it within your tweet as well. For example, your latest blog post is titled “10 Ways to Stay Sane During Your Next Move.”
Include within your tweet a question such as “Making a move?” or “Have you felt the pain of moving in the past?” Now tell your followers how you will solve their problem. It could read something like this,
“Making a move? It doesn’t have to be difficult. How you can avoid moving day stress and stay sane!”
Additional call to action ideas would be “find out more,” “click here for more details,” “don’t miss this tip,” and “watch this video for more details.”
Think about that next step you want them to take and add that to the end.
3. Optimized Profile
Your Twitter profile is the first stop for potential followers. They’re going to land there, doing their research prior to clicking that follow button.
When was the last time you updated your Twitter profile? Now might be the time to do a little housekeeping.
The top areas to optimize:
-
- Your bio – this should include information about your business, location, niche and passions.
- Your cover – include a custom header image that represents the look and feel of your personal brand both offline and online.
- Your profile picture – use a consistent profile image that easily connects people to you and your personal brand.
People are eager to connect with you, but in order to click that “follow” button, you need to give them a compelling reason.
Take time to create a convincing bio and cover image that offers insight into your business.
And make use of that real estate space like my friend Sara F. Hawkins, Attorney at Law to brand your business and cross-promote other social properties.
4. Twitter Lists
Twitter lists are an easy way to manage and categorize your followers based on a shared interest, passion or industry.
Twitter lists are the best way I know to minimize the noise and keep up with specific conversations in real-time.
Instead of trying to remember everyone you follow, lists allow you to organize and categorize those you are most interested in staying in touch with.
So the next time you log in, instead of fumbling around to find someone to retweet, simply navigate to your Twitter list and read through the stream of conversations.
As Twitter expert Aaron Lee says,
“Twitter is a widely used resource to collect and share information, as well as interact and develop relationships with others in your field. To fully utilize the benefits of Twitter for your business, you need to get organized.
As Twitter continues to branch out, information will get even more random and difficult to filter. Well-kept lists act as a permanent filter for each of your points of interest.”
Make Twitter lists your secret weapon!
5. Repurpose Content
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to content for Twitter.
Take your current website or blog article and share small quotes, statistics or thought-provoking questions to encourage interaction.
Here’s one example of how I use this strategy. In this tweet, I took a quote from my post and an image created by the team at Buffer to tell a story.
What should be included when planning a Pinterest strategy? Here’s 26 tips to get you started! http://t.co/4TOiLs4jbd pic.twitter.com/5hWxcUrH9h — Rebekah Radice (@RebekahRadice) July 12, 2015
Final Thoughts
When used strategically, Twitter can be an effective way to support your current marketing efforts.
It’s interactive, fun, insightful, and most of all — incredible at boosting awareness and increasing personal brand recognition.
What’s your best Twitter tip? I’d love to hear it in the comments below!
Hi rebekah, very informative article. My blog Cashstock is also connected with Twitter, however, it is not doing any good for me. But after reading your article, I know what I need to do in order to increase the twitter engagement in my blog.
Great insights on boosting twitter engagement thanks rebekah!
Great tips! I just read a post that gave similar tips, they seemed very effective, most involved mentioning influencers, industry leaders, products, partner/collaborator, community, and calling out audiences with hashtags, obviously. Combining these with your tips would absolutely boost engagement. It is important to mention media monitoring as well as media analytics as being a key in measuring your efforts. Great post, Rebekah!
Hi Isentia! There are an immense amount of moving pieces that make for a successful Twitter strategy. You’ve listed a bunch that could be added along with monitoring/listening which I find to be one of the best ways to insert yourself into important conversations.
Thanks for stopping by!
Some great tips in here, Rebekah. Really like the advanced Twitter search examples – great way to drum up some additional engagement and connect with new people. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Rebekah,
I’ve always find Twitter practical and easy to use. I’ve been going on randomly and intuitively with it. Now, Following your advice combined with those of SBI! I shall make much better use of Twitter for both my followers advantage and mine.
I actually was thinking about ways to optimize the use of my list. Your tips are nicely showing the way to make it a cool secret weapon.
Thanks!
Hi Rebekah,
What a land mind of ideas to expand. Thank you. I have been looking for ways to increase my traffic and this fits just perfect. I have save the link because I find this post is going to benefit more each time I read it. I have already hooked into those Twitter Accounts you have suggested. You have got me all fired up and ready to go again.
Thank you.
Rachel.
In depth article.
Thanks for sharing names of tools that make every step actionable.
We have not started twitter reach at our blog cashoverflow but I think it’s right time after reading this article.
Thanks for sharing Rebekah.
Hi Rebekah great article as usual.
I am relatively new to Twitter and will taking these useful tips on board. I have a question is there a minimum number of tweets per day to get engagement?
Great tips, Rebekah. Some time ago I took a bit of a tweet hiatus but now realize how important Twitter is for networking, etc.
I’ll add a tip… Use Twitter VIDEO! I learned this from Twitter Rockstar AJ Amyx as a great way to connect and engage with people. And adding a short video right within the Twitter app is so easy now… Have you tried it?
Another nice piece of information from you Rebekah.
I am less active on Twitter now. I think its the time to get engage with my Twitter network again. Thanks for sharing these tools to manage your Twitter account, and followers.
For social networking hashtags has become really very important. Using a hashtag a business can increase its social reach and build their brand awareness.
Hi Rebekah.
Thanks for the very informative post. Being fairly new to Twitter, these will
definitely help me out going forward.
I had no idea about Twitter lists. That alone will come in very handy. I currently have 73 followers and am following 93 people. I can see where having lists will make it easier to deal with all that, especially as those numbers continue to increase over time.
I will be sharing this info with my peeps.
Thanks again, and have a great upcoming weekend…..Chris
Great tips that most seem to forget. Thanks for the reminder! – Anna
All great ideas, Rebekah!
Hi Rebekah,
I love these tips – and I love Twitter too!
I used to use the (now defunct) Tweet Adder to find people to follow so your tips on finding people are particularly helpful.
One way I have used Twitter to help boost engagement and increase sign ups to my mailing list was to offer a special giveaway for anyone signing up via Twitter (they were directed to a separate sign up page via my tweets). People seemed to like the idea that they were getting something additional that wasn’t available to others signing up from elsewhere.
I also like to ask questions to see if there is any client ‘pain’ that I can help out with. Not only does that increase engagement but it also helps to start conversations AND gives me ideas for future blog posts.
Thanks for your advice – I’ll be tweeting this too!
Best,
Heather