15 Definitive Tips to Help You Master Tweeting

As an “oldie but goodie” social network, it’s easy to take Twitter for granted. In recent years, the network has hosted heads of state, journalists, creators and ordinary people. However, nowadays it is more than a good place to hang out. Instead, Twitter is a great place to do business, primarily through marketing and updating people with brand affinity. With that in mind, here’s how to use Twitter for business.

1. Create a Twitter marketing strategy

Learning how to use Twitter for business starts with planning your goals and how you will measure success. For example, some businesses tweet about sales or special offers in hopes that people will take them up on the offer. In this case, the measure of success is how many clicks and make a purchase, which is a relatively simple thing to track with cookies.

On the other hand, for many companies, there is more than one reason to be on Twitter, and that’s probably as it should be. Some goals, such as brand awareness, are an excellent choice in a forum where there is mass sharing and engagement. And, the use of a social media dashboard is relatively easy to measure.

Further reading: The 21 best Twitter user statistics for 2024 to guide your marketing strategy

2. Build an eye-catching profile

No matter how good your Tweets may sound, if your Twitter profile is weak, you will have less impact. Twitter is a very competitive forum despite recent controversies surrounding free speech and other issues. Therefore, it is important that your profile stands out from the competition.

To this end, your Twitter profile should always have a good profile picture. In most cases, for a business, this is a logo, but make sure it’s a clear image. Also, make it easy to find relevant keywords and hashtags. As a bonus, these extensions will help with SEO, both for your profile and your website. Which, by the way, should be linked to your profile.

Further reading: 14 Twitter bio ideas to attract more followers

3. Find your brand voice

Ask yourself what will set your tweets apart and what personality they will have. In marketing, we call this a brand voice, and it’s a very important part of how to use Twitter for business. For example, some companies use funny or quirky humor to attract attention. On Twitter, your business’s brand voice will help build a following and differentiate you from the competition.

4. Research and monitor your competition

Everyone in business needs to stand on the shoulders of giants by learning from their competition. For some companies, there is a crowded market with many competitors, while others have relatively few rivals. Either way, take the time to see what your competitors are doing and learn from it. If you can, use a social media dashboard that also does continuous monitoring to make sure you don’t miss anything. Over time, it will become easier to stand out from the competition.

Further reading: How to find my best Tweets – and those of my competitors – on Twitter?

5. Know when and how often to tweet

Knowing how to use Twitter for business requires understanding when your audience is online and how often they’d like to hear from you. You can learn the desired frequency for a particular niche by analyzing how often your competitors are tweeting. And while there’s some trial and error when it comes to tweeting times, one company did a study on the hottest times for each day of the week that you should check out for some guidance: When to Tweet for Higher Engagement?

6. Add value to your content

In other words, make your content something people expect to read. Almost all companies need evergreen content that remains valuable over time and can be used over and over again. In other words, they never age. For Twitter, however, you need to make small changes. I’ve covered this in more detail here: Why Evergreen Tweets Are Critical to Twitter Marketing Success

7. Use Photos, GIFs and Polls

A big part of using Twitter for business is getting attention and gaining engagement. These days, you can include pictures in your Tweets and you can use the same ones that you may have placed on other networks. In addition, Twitter now allows you to create and insert GIF, which allow for humor or exaggeration that makes people laugh. Finally, consider Twitter polls. These are useful for market research or just for fun.

Further reading: 11 ways to use Twitter polls for marketing (with examples)

Similar to personal Twitter use, hashtags on business accounts help you and your Tweets get found. As with other social networks, you should always do hashtag research before starting a marketing campaign. However, because Twitter has more hashtags than other social networks, you should always have relevant hashtags in your posts. This allows people to find you, but also enables your Tweets to be part of Twitter conversations. As part of a comprehensive social media strategy, these dialogues can be very valuable.

9. Follow other accounts

Consider following relevant people who follow you as well as reaching out to proactively engage with potential customers. One of the best things about Twitter is the way we can have dialogue with each other. However, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of ​​other accounts that are interested in the same thing. By following other accounts, you can build relationships with their owners. In turn, the report can open up opportunities for sales pitches, influencer marketing, and much more.

Further reading: Twitter Followers vs Unfollowers: What’s the Ideal Ratio?

10. Engage with your audience

In the world of social media, engagement is king. And on Twitter, that’s really more than some other places, because engagement is literally the heart of the social network as part of a conversation-focused forum. There are several types of engagement on Twitter, and you can use several different strategies to increase engagement. But perhaps most important for business users is the fact that engagement on Twitter often results in sales leads, conversions or other desirable outcomes. And if that’s not awesome enough, engagement exposes your account to other users through your news feed.

Further reading: 9 ways to increase your engagement on Twitter today

11. Identify and engage with influencers

As with other social networks, Twitter influencers are valuable contacts. In fact, influencer engagement is definitely a prime example of how to use Twitter for business. That’s because influencer marketing is valuable, and even if you’re not compensating an influencer, low-level engagement like “likes” from them can help get your profile found or followed.

Also, because influencers hear from many businesses who want to work with them, it’s important to engage with them for a while before asking. Otherwise, there’s a good chance the influencer will say “no thanks.” If you get a response at all. Therefore, once you have identified a relevant influencer, you should spend time engaging with them. In business, personal connections are very valuable.

Further reading: Twitter influencers: How to find and connect with them

12. Provide timely customer service

Customer service is not a clear example of how to use Twitter for business. After all, most of us think of customer service as a phone, email, or on-site chat phenomenon. However, many people use Twitter for real-time customer service, so get on the air if you find customers asking you product and after-sales questions on Twitter. While I’m not sure I recommend this, there are some companies where Twitter is one of the few places to contact corporate. After all, being where the people are is a great place to foster goodwill.

13. Understand your performance with Twitter Analytics

Twitter analytics help you understand which content is performing better than others, which days and times get you the most engagement, and much more. You can find some Twitter analytics on your business dashboard, but you should also keep track of your social media dashboard. And, as you read and analyze the data, be sure to focus your practices and strategies. Double what works, cut what doesn’t, and fine-tune what promises. Over time, this will improve your analytics numbers on their own.

14. Learn how to use Twitter lists

While most people only have a single Twitter feed where everything is grouped together, this is not suitable for most business accounts. If you properly understand how to use Twitter for business, you will find that the amount of information in your feed will quickly become overwhelming. Twitter lists help you organize your follow-up and better engage with influencers, customers and other sub-groups by entering them into separate lists. This way, you can view Tweets by different categories separately, which makes it easier to process the information you receive.

15. Venture into paid advertising

If you want more reach than organic efforts can provide, consider spending some $$$ on Twitter advertising. While this may not be necessary for small local businesses, most brands find that paid advertising is beneficial as they grow. There are several types of Twitter ads, but one of the best for beginner advertisers is boosted posts. Here, you pay money to sponsor the Tweet and place it within the feeds of people who might find it relevant (as identified by Twitter and your campaign settings). The beauty of boosted posts is that you don’t need to create special content – just choose your best Tweet to promote.

CONCLUSION

Since most of us are used to social media for personal use, the idea of ​​how to use Twitter for business is not necessarily intimidating. However, Twitter’s business features — and the free enhanced features often used by businesses — are somewhat different. Fortunately, by following the tips in this article, it will be easy for you to master the differences between personal and business use. Plus, you’ll learn a lot about marketing at the same time.

Hero photo by ilgmyzin on Unsplash