Twitter for Business: Expand Your Brand, Connect With Customers

Many companies use Twitter for business to expand their brand and connect with customers. But to achieve Twitter success, you need to have a deep understanding of your audience, have a social media strategy, and a way to measure your results. Here are a few things to consider:

Know The Community: Getting to know your community inside and out is must if you want to improve your chance of success. One way you can do that is by asking questions to your Twitter community. It’s a great way to gain insight on what’s important to your customers, what’s influencing their decisions, and how they feel about your competitors. When you gain insight in your customers and your industry, the more likely you’ll be perceived as an approachable and personable brand.

Figure Out A Strategy: All businesses need a strategy to get, keep and build your customer base. So before you start tweeting, you should figure out a “plan of action” and how to take part within the community. Think about what you plan on posting and how often you plan on posting. And whether or not you’re posting “retweet-worthy” content that will attract more followers.

Develop Social Media Magnetism: The first step is to use word-of-mouth advertising to drive awareness and traffic to your Twitter page. Follow experts, companies and competitors and leaders in your industry. Share your expertise to enhance your reputation build credibility. Figure out what your brand persona or voice is and start engaging with your audience.

Talk To Your Customers: Twitter is about having a dialogue. So start replying to tweets talking about you and your brand. Start and join conversations. And most importantly, be authentic, genuine and real. When you have a dialogue with your audience, it you can convert conversations into actions.

Build Customer Loyalty:  When you post insightful content on a regular basis, more people will find out about your business and you’ll attract more followers. Many businesses use Twitter as a customer retention tool so that they spot unhappy customers and solve their problems. Also, keeping your fans up to date on what’s happening with your business will keep your brand top-of-mind.

Optimize Your Content: It’s important to have a set of industry keywords for your business to use so that your content is optimized for search results. You can start by including keywords in your bio. Also, it’s important to make sure your tweets are compelling and are within 120-130 characters. Posting short and intriguing content will not only improve your click through rates (CTR), but boost your ranking in searches.

Measure Your Engagement: The best way to understand your online influence is by selecting the right tools. Social media tools like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite or helpdesk software can save you time and resources with research, engagement and marketing.

With Twitter you’ll be able to get your name and message out in the public’s eye quickly and easily. Twitter gives you an opportunity to be personable which builds trust with your customers. And if you create an online persona that is strong and on point, your business will gain recognition and possibly new customers.