Twitter can be a great place to spend your marketing efforts. It offers an unparalleled ability to connect with customers and prospects in real-time, build relationships, and drive traffic to your website. But most people use Twitter incorrectly. They spam their followers with links to their website or blog or broadcast messages without engaging anyone in conversation.
If you want to get the most out of Twitter for your business, you need to start using it unconventionally. In this Twitter for business marketing guide, we'll show you how.
How can you use Twitter for business marketing?
Most businesses use Twitter for one (or all) of three purposes:
- To build relationships with customers and prospects
- To drive traffic to their website or blog
- To broadcast their marketing messages
All of these are good uses for Twitter. But to stand out from the crowd, you must do more than just the basics.
Here are a few unconventional ways you can use Twitter for business marketing:
- Use Twitter to create valuable content.
- Use Twitter to find and connect with influencers.
- Use Twitter to build an engaged community.
- Use Twitter to drive sales.
- Use Twitter to provide customer service.
For example, check out this Twitter post from Motivosity:
As you can see in the Tweet, Motivosity is not afraid to use its Twitter platform as a fun way to market itself. Logan Mallory, VP of Motivosity, said this about that Tweet: "It just seemed like a fun way to show ourselves off in a light-hearted way. We thought it would be relatable for a lot of people."
Preparing a Twitter marketing strategy
Before using Twitter for marketing, you need to have a plan. What are your goals? Who is your target audience? What kind of content will you share? How often will you tweet? What is the best time to post on Twitter?
Answering these questions will help you create a successful Twitter marketing strategy. If you're unsure where to start, let's look at the unconventional ways we mentioned.
Use Twitter to create valuable content
To stand out on Twitter, you need to share more than just links to your website or blog. You must share valuable content that your target audience finds interesting and useful. That could be anything from helpful tips and advice to interesting articles, infographics, or you could upscale a Twitter post with animated images.
You can use Twitter's search function to find tweets that mention your keywords, to find content to share. You can also set up Google Alerts for your industry or use a service like BuzzSumo to find the most popular content being shared on social media.
When you share other people's content, give them credit by tagging them in your tweet. This is a great way to build relationships with influencers in your industry.
You should also share your own original content on Twitter. This could be anything from blog posts and articles to photos and videos. Once you've gained Twitter followers, you can even use Twitter to drive traffic to your website or blog.
To do this, you need to create attention-grabbing tweets and include a call-to-action. For example, you could tweet something like, "Check out our latest blog post on the best ways to use Twitter for marketing!" and include a link to the post.
For example, check out this tweet from Climbing House:
This is an excellent example of Climbing House providing useful content to its fans.
Make sure your tweets are well-written and have relevant hashtags so they're more likely to be seen by people searching for that information.
Use Twitter to find and connect with influencers
Influencer marketing would be best if you connected with influencers in your industry to get more exposure for your business on Twitter. These people with a large following are respected and trusted by their followers.
If you can get these influencers to share your content or even mention your business in a tweet, you'll reach a whole new audience of potential customers. Once you've found some potential influencers, look at their profile to see if they're active on Twitter and whether they're likely to be interested in your content. Then, start following them and interacting with their tweets.
If you can build a relationship with an influencer, you're more likely to get them to share your content. But don't just try to promote your stuff - make sure you're sharing their content and engaging in conversations.
Use Twitter to build an engaged community
To succeed on Twitter, you must build an engaged community of followers. These people are interested in what you have to say and are more likely to interact with your tweets. To do this, you need to tweet exciting and engaging content that will encourage your followers to retweet, favorite, and reply. You also need to be responsive to any questions or comments you receive.
Let's go back to the fitness niche. You could use the search function to find people who have tweeted about your keywords. You could also use hashtags. For example, the fitness company Kickoff has used the hashtag #trainwithkickoff to build a highly engaged community of people who love fitness. Here are a few examples:
John Gardner, Co-Founder & CEO of Kickoff, says, "The key to success on Twitter is to interact with your followers and build relationships. We've found that sharing relevant and engaging content is the best way to do this." It can also help to run Twitter polls or to ask your followers for their opinions on specific topics. This will get them to talk and interact with your tweets.
Finally, you must be active on Twitter and interact with other users. This could include retweeting interesting content, favoriting tweets, and replying to tweets.
By building an engaged community, you'll get more exposure for your business on Twitter and be more likely to convert your followers into customers or clients.
Use Twitter to drive sales
If you want to use Twitter to drive sales, you need to focus on creating tweets that promote your products or services. This could include special offers, discount codes, or links to your website or online store
To make sure as many people see your tweets as possible, you need to use relevant hashtags and include a call-to-action. It would help if you also shared your tweets on other social media platforms and in email newsletters or blog posts.
If you have a large following on Twitter, you could also use Twitter ads to promote your products or services. This paid advertising platform allows you to target potential customers with laser precision.
By using Twitter to drive sales, you can quickly and easily increase your revenue. Make sure your tweets are well-written and include a strong call to action.
Use Twitter to provide customer service
If you want to use Twitter for customer service, you need to be responsive to any questions or complaints you receive. This means responding quickly and taking action to resolve the issue.
You should also make it easy for your customers to find your contact information on Twitter. This could include providing a link to your website (through a number of WordPress plugins) or your email address link in bio.
Finally, you need to monitor your mentions and hashtags to ensure you see all the tweets about your business. You can do this using a tool like Hootsuite or TweetDeck.
By providing excellent customer service on Twitter, you'll build a better relationship with your customers and increase customer loyalty.
Conclusion
Twitter is a powerful platform that can be used for marketing, sales, customer service, and more. To succeed in using Twitter for marketing, you need to focus on creating interesting and engaging content, building an engaged community, and being responsive to your followers. By using Twitter effectively, you can grow your business and achieve your goals, increase brand awareness and build customer loyalty.