How to Use Twitter Effectively for Business (Part 1)

It’s time to Twitter to shine! If the last time, I talked about 4 Tips for People to Notice Your Business Page on Facebook and 5 More Tips for People to Notice Your Business Page on Facebook. As discussed on this post, Twitter can greatly help in promoting your business and engage with potential customers.

Below, I will share some tips to effectively use Twitter for business. So, are you ready?

1) Think of a content strategy.

Like blog posts, social media posts should also be carefully planned. The downside with social media, especially Twitter, is that you have a limited character limit. In 2017, Twitter announced that it can now support a longer limit. From having only 140 characters, everyone can enjoy the new 280-character limit.

However, this doesn’t change anything. Business should strive to provide useful and interesting tweets for their audiences. There should  be value to it!

So, you should plan what to tweet and ask yourself if this tweet does indeed satisfies your followers’ needs. First, you need to define your goals. What are the things you want to achieve in Twitter?

Do you…

• gain more visitors for your website?
• strengthen your reputation in the industry?
• boost brand awareness?
• improve web sales?

Once you finally know what you want, the next thing is to do define who your audience is. You will be able to create the kind of content that your audience wants and needs.

If you are worried on what to tweet, Twitter published a guide: 7 Tips for Creating Engaging Content Every Day.

2) Add photos and videos.

Despite Twitter’s character limit, tweets can accommodate a variety of files. According to Twitter, a single tweet can have a maximum of 4 photos, a GIF, or a video. Tweets with images or videos gain more user engagements than those with just plain texts. Of course, images and videos make your content stand out from the rest. Videos don’t even have to be long. Keep it less than a minute, and your tweets will be fine!

3) Stick to your strengths.

When you follow CNN, you are there to follow the latest national and global news. The tweets are about daily reports. You won’t be reading about the latest guy Taylor Swift is dating, or the latest spat on the Kardashian – Jenner family. The same goes for business. Don’t go ranting about Walmart if your business is about flowers and plants. Go create a personal account for your own thoughts and opinions.

Remember, people started following you for your business. So, if it’s about food, then stick to recipes and restaurant recommendations. If business is about clothes, then, post about fashion trends and outfit suggestions. Keep following a straight line and don’t derail the purpose of your Twitter account.

4) Engage with your followers.

Lastly, don’t think of Twitter as your school blackboard. You just don’t write and write your thoughts. Be sure to participate in the discussion as well.

To help you manage your social media accounts, you can use tools such as  Buffer, Hootsuite or dlvr.it to schedule tweets ahead of time, and to make sure that you are reading every notification and responding to them accordingly.