Back in December, we wrote a post about how to successfully use Facebook Business Pages to your brand’s advantage.
Today, we tackle how to use Twitter and its unique platform to build a brand following and generate leads.
In this post, there are 12 tips to setup a business on Twitter— and get the most out of the social media. These tips are our recommended steps to Twitter success, but it’s up to you to decide if you want to follow them all or only some of them.
No matter what you decide, remember that your presence on Twitter is primarily interaction-oriented, not promotional! :-)
Now go start a business Twitter account. Good luck!
1. Your Twitter username: easy to remember and business-related
To begin setup a business on Twitter, create a new account (that means, create a business profile on Twitter) and make the name memorable and relevant to your business (NOT to your favorite movie or your friend’s favorite nickname).
Twitter for Business also recommends this in their list of Twitter business profile basics. It will be difficult to change your username later, when your followers are used to your current handle and you have created links and citations across the Web.
2. Choose your business following carefully (no defaults!)
Skip the “add friends” step Twitter asks upon initial setup, because you need to choose your followed users closely and carefully.
If you still want to use this step, use the provided search function to find popular accounts that are relevant to your business and potentially good contacts to leverage later. Don’t “sheep-follow”, but follow the right people who can bring a wealth of relevant content to your table.
3. Interact and be helpful
To start a business on Twitter it’s important that you tweet replies to others (relevant to your niche) while you work on your content.
When you help others, you also build a name for yourself– a name that will ring “helpful person or brand this way!” every time it’s heard or read.
This is something you should work on before you start sharing your own content, because it will help others see you’re not on Twitter just to get followers and earn a social media face for your business.
4. Less promotion, more interaction
Post your updates not more than 3 times a day. Everything else should be interactions and replies, where you really go out of your way to help others by responding to their questions and giving advice.
Also see #3 for more insight.
5. Have a business-oriented banner
The banner should be about your business, not about you and your love for cute cats and beautiful landscapes. Premade banners are definitely not a good idea for a Twitter business profile.
Get inspired by these 13 business banners at HubSpot.com to make yours.
6. Create brand hashtags
Hashtags become the popular way to categorize your business once you get them running smoothly.
This will also help you monitor brand mentions across Twitter, even when your Twitter handle isn’t directly cited.
Hashtags will be your keywords on Twitter. Like Ken Krogue says in his article at Forbes, it’s “better to know about keywords than even about hashtags, because a hashtag is a keyword or a “theme” that can help amplify your exposure.”
You can use brand hashtags in your Twitter bio and in other Twitter-related media as well.
7. Evaluate your followers as your business grows
You can use Followerwonk.com to analyze of the popularity of your followers and your following as well, but it’s important that you understand why you should do this: it’s definitely not to discriminate among your followers, but to focus your business efforts on interacting with those whom you may build business partnerships or relationships with, without ignoring other followers and their interactions, of course.
8. Schedule your tweets
You can use Klout or hire a Social Media Manager to schedule your tweets.
There’s no need to sit in front of your Twitter account al day long; what you need to do is plan your day or week tweets and then schedule them to go live at set dates and times.
Only get online when you want to interact with your followers and other Twitter users.
9. Join popular hashtags
The more popular an hashtag, the easier it becomes to get found, followed and taken in consideration twitter. You can use a service like Hashtags.org to find popular or trending hashtags in your niche.
However, make sure to study these hashtags first!
No matter you use popular or brand hashtags, limit them to two or three in the tweet, no more. Everything else should be your content or your reply.
10. Involve followers and visitors
Organize contests, trivia and giveaways to keep your followers’ and visitors’ interest alive and bait for new retweets and mentions.
Involving followers and visitors can only work to your advantage, but contests and giveaways should be done sparingly to avoid overwhelm and a sense that you’re trying to game people into buying or using your services.
11. Build a plan! Follow a strategy!
Don’t leave your Twitter profile in the hands of fate. Plan, schedule, interact strategically — but still genuinely — and give people a chance to know you for who you (your brand) are.
Also, you will never “waste your time on social media” when you have a set plan and strategy to go with. You can always optimize your Twitter time for optimal return.
12. Always, always have something for your followers
Whether that’s a piece of advice, an e-book, a discount code— anything helps to keep their interest in your account alive.
People are always on the lookout for something that will help them and make them feel cared for, so every time you give them, you’re earning more of their trust and loyalty.
Today, we tackle how to use Twitter and its unique platform to build a brand following and generate leads.
In this post, there are 12 tips to setup a business on Twitter— and get the most out of the social media. These tips are our recommended steps to Twitter success, but it’s up to you to decide if you want to follow them all or only some of them.
No matter what you decide, remember that your presence on Twitter is primarily interaction-oriented, not promotional! :-)
Now go start a business Twitter account. Good luck!
1. Your Twitter username: easy to remember and business-related
To begin setup a business on Twitter, create a new account (that means, create a business profile on Twitter) and make the name memorable and relevant to your business (NOT to your favorite movie or your friend’s favorite nickname).
Twitter for Business also recommends this in their list of Twitter business profile basics. It will be difficult to change your username later, when your followers are used to your current handle and you have created links and citations across the Web.
2. Choose your business following carefully (no defaults!)
Skip the “add friends” step Twitter asks upon initial setup, because you need to choose your followed users closely and carefully.
If you still want to use this step, use the provided search function to find popular accounts that are relevant to your business and potentially good contacts to leverage later. Don’t “sheep-follow”, but follow the right people who can bring a wealth of relevant content to your table.
3. Interact and be helpful
To start a business on Twitter it’s important that you tweet replies to others (relevant to your niche) while you work on your content.
When you help others, you also build a name for yourself– a name that will ring “helpful person or brand this way!” every time it’s heard or read.
This is something you should work on before you start sharing your own content, because it will help others see you’re not on Twitter just to get followers and earn a social media face for your business.
4. Less promotion, more interaction
Post your updates not more than 3 times a day. Everything else should be interactions and replies, where you really go out of your way to help others by responding to their questions and giving advice.
Also see #3 for more insight.
5. Have a business-oriented banner
The banner should be about your business, not about you and your love for cute cats and beautiful landscapes. Premade banners are definitely not a good idea for a Twitter business profile.
Get inspired by these 13 business banners at HubSpot.com to make yours.
6. Create brand hashtags
Hashtags become the popular way to categorize your business once you get them running smoothly.
This will also help you monitor brand mentions across Twitter, even when your Twitter handle isn’t directly cited.
Hashtags will be your keywords on Twitter. Like Ken Krogue says in his article at Forbes, it’s “better to know about keywords than even about hashtags, because a hashtag is a keyword or a “theme” that can help amplify your exposure.”
You can use brand hashtags in your Twitter bio and in other Twitter-related media as well.
7. Evaluate your followers as your business grows
You can use Followerwonk.com to analyze of the popularity of your followers and your following as well, but it’s important that you understand why you should do this: it’s definitely not to discriminate among your followers, but to focus your business efforts on interacting with those whom you may build business partnerships or relationships with, without ignoring other followers and their interactions, of course.
8. Schedule your tweets
You can use Klout or hire a Social Media Manager to schedule your tweets.
There’s no need to sit in front of your Twitter account al day long; what you need to do is plan your day or week tweets and then schedule them to go live at set dates and times.
Only get online when you want to interact with your followers and other Twitter users.
9. Join popular hashtags
The more popular an hashtag, the easier it becomes to get found, followed and taken in consideration twitter. You can use a service like Hashtags.org to find popular or trending hashtags in your niche.
However, make sure to study these hashtags first!
No matter you use popular or brand hashtags, limit them to two or three in the tweet, no more. Everything else should be your content or your reply.
10. Involve followers and visitors
Organize contests, trivia and giveaways to keep your followers’ and visitors’ interest alive and bait for new retweets and mentions.
Involving followers and visitors can only work to your advantage, but contests and giveaways should be done sparingly to avoid overwhelm and a sense that you’re trying to game people into buying or using your services.
11. Build a plan! Follow a strategy!
Don’t leave your Twitter profile in the hands of fate. Plan, schedule, interact strategically — but still genuinely — and give people a chance to know you for who you (your brand) are.
Also, you will never “waste your time on social media” when you have a set plan and strategy to go with. You can always optimize your Twitter time for optimal return.
12. Always, always have something for your followers
Whether that’s a piece of advice, an e-book, a discount code— anything helps to keep their interest in your account alive.
People are always on the lookout for something that will help them and make them feel cared for, so every time you give them, you’re earning more of their trust and loyalty.
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