The power of Twitter is undeniable when it comes to increasing the reach of your business online. Tweets about brands are mentioned by 80% of Twitter users, who follow five businesses.
If you use inbound marketing techniques to market on Twitter, your customers will find you. You should use social media platforms to establish your business. For example, you buy likes, comments, and followers for your Instagram account using Mixx. Twitter can be used in a number of ways, but what is the most effective one? In this article, we will be discussing 12 twitter best practices for business.
Success on Twitter requires more than just keeping your message within the character limit.
Twitter transformed how the world communicates after its founding in 2006 by distilling world news, jokes and life updates into bite-size posts. It enabled truly real-time digital communication, allowing users to report news and follow sports together as the events happened. As Twitter has evolved, best practices for using the platform have emerged. Here are some of those tips, as well as things to avoid, to help your business be successful on Twitter.
How to get started on Twitter
Twitter can provide a new opportunity to connect with your customers and share your brand with the world. Here’s how to get started with your Twitter account:
How to make a Twitter account
Follow these three easy steps to create your Twitter account:
1. Go to Twitter.com, or download the mobile application. Enter your name and email address, and create a password. Keep in mind that you will be able to customize your account later if you need to. Twitter allows only one account per email address, so if you already have a personal Twitter account associated with your email address, you will need to use a different one for your business account.
Source: Sprout Social
2. After you’ve created your account, you’ll need to start building your Twitter timeline, which is a feed where you will see tweets from people you follow, as well as tweets your followers have liked or retweeted. For this step, Twitter will ask you to follow three people from a selection it provides and then five people you know.
Source: Wordtracker
3. Finally, confirm your email address by clicking the link in the confirmation email Twitter sends, and your Twitter account will be all set to go.
Source: AutoMonkey
Choosing a Twitter handle
When choosing a Twitter handle, it’s important to keep it clear, short and related to your business. Your handle is how Twitter users will search for your business’s account, so it should be clearly related to your business.
Your handle starts with “@” and is the name people will use when tagging your business in tweets. Your username, on the other hand, is the name that appears as the official account name. Here is an example showing the difference between a handle and a username:
Source: SproutSocial
Although your handle and username are separate components of your account and are often different, they can be the same, which maintains consistency and makes your business very easy to find. However, you can make them different if it makes sense for your business or your handle is taken by another account, as in this example:
Source: Post Planner
How to use hashtags on Twitter
Hashtags are a key feature of Twitter and are used to organize tweets on a certain topic and make them searchable. It’s a good idea to add hashtags to most, if not all, of your tweets. When you create your business’s Twitter account, take the time to look through the relevant hashtags for your industry to see what kinds of tweets populate that hashtag, and adjust your content to fit.
Brands often use hashtags to promote products or collect entries for giveaways or Twitter contests. Here’s how KitKat used a hashtag to promote a contest:
Source: Wishpond
How to gain a following on Twitter
It’s important to build a following of Twitter users who are interested in your brand and your tweets. Having a large following on Twitter can do a lot to boost your business’s credibility, since it shows that your followers enjoy and trust your content. Follow these tips to help grow your follower count organically:
Tweet frequently; multiple times a day is acceptable on Twitter.
Incorporate visual content, like images, GIFs and videos.
Engage with your followers via likes, replies, tags and retweets.
Follow others in your industry, and share their content.
Pin your most popular or most important tweet to the top of your profile.
Have a strong bio; your Twitter bio is indexed by search engines like Google, so it’s the first thing (besides your handle and username) that people see when they search for you.
Carefully choose your profile picture and header image.
Add your business’s location to establish credibility and boost local traffic.
Include your Twitter handle in your email signature, and link to your Twitter account on your other social profiles.
Avoid flooding your followers’ timelines with too many tweets in a short period of time.
Use hashtags mindfully: Don’t use hashtags that don’t make sense for your tweet, and don’t use too many at one time.
Use Twitter Analytics to inform your content and posting times.
How to optimize your Twitter profile
Optimizing your biography can help you increase your followers on Twitter. The hardest thing about optimizing your Twitter bio is writing a description of your brand within 160 characters. Since space is so limited, rely on highly relevant keywords. Research keywords among your competitors to help with the selection process. Also, consider including one or more hashtags that relate directly to your business.
Profile photo
Most businesses choose their company logos for their profile photos. Whatever you use, make sure the image is optimized for social media. You may want to use a different logo if your current Cpromoted trend ad, the user can search popular hashtags and see your tweet. Like most social media sites, you can create audiences on Twitter to control who sees any of your promoted content.
A new feature from Twitter is an automated ad option called Twitter Promote Mode. With this feature, you pay a monthly flat rate and it automatically promotes your tweets and profile.
No matter what types of ads you decide on, keep your content fresh and full of keywords relevant to your business. Twitter is known for changing algorithms frequently, so update keywords often.
11. Ask for retweets.
Request retweets from your Twitter followers. With a retweet, your content will be shown to those who don’t follow your page directly. A retweet appears directly on the feed of a Twitter follower and works in the same manner as a Facebook post share. You could start a contest or create another incentive for retweets. For example, you could put in the tweet, “Get $10 off your next order with a retweet.”
12. Use different media.
Use images and videos to optimize your Twitter profile. Engagement numbers are likely to be higher if you embed an image or video in your profile or your feed. Once you post a tweet with an image or video, share the link across all of your social media platforms.
What not to do on Twitter
As with any social media platform, there is a long list of what not to do and etiquette rules to follow. Here are some examples of things to avoid doing on Twitter:
Cross-posting from other social platforms
It might seem like an easy time-saver, but copying and pasting the same post from Instagram or Facebook onto Twitter is a major faux pas that can damage your business’s social media credibility.
“Twitter is its own platform,” Honsa said. “And it’s used very differently from other social media sites, so you want to tailor your content to the platform.”
Tweeting in bursts
Burst tweeting is defined as sending multiple tweets in a short period of time and then not posting anything for at least a day or two. Burst tweeting can be annoying to followers, because it clogs their timelines with multiple tweets from one user and results in inconsistent posting for you. Instead, space out your tweets regularly to encourage engagement. Use a tool such as Hootsuite or TweetDeck to plan and schedule your posts so they are not submitted back-to-back.
Sharing only others’ content
While retweeting and sharing content from others can be a great way to boost engagement and gain followers, it’s best to do so in moderation. Creating your own content is important for establishing your business’s credibility as a valuable and knowledgeable source in your field.
Tweeting unrelated content
It’s important to remember that this is a business account, and as such, you should stick to content that is relevant to your business and industry. If you tweet about unrelated topics, your followers will be confused and annoyed that they are not receiving the content they signed up for.
Trying to imitate other brands’ voices
While it can be tempting to imitate the voice of other, more successful brands on Twitter, doing so can come off as inauthentic and forced.
“Avoid trying to be like everyone else who is succeeding on Twitter if that is not who you are,” Hager said. “Avoid being funny unless you are really, really good at it. Avoid being political unless that is part of your brand.”
Posting only promotional content
Though promotional content has its place on social media, if that’s the only thing you’re posting and sharing, you’ll lose followers quickly, as Twitter users expect to see mostly original content.
“You need to blend a healthy mix of promotional content and fun posts to nurture your followers’ engagement,” said Yaniv Masjedi, chief marketing officer at Nextiva.
