Of the many social media platforms available to business owners, one that is often overlooked is Twitter. That’s unfortunate, because Twitter is the most popular micro-blog platform, and is a low-cost, quick, and easy way to reach your audience.

In addition, unlike Facebook, Instagram, etc., it’s an open platform, available to all, so it’s a great way to become known outside your regular customer base.

Our social media experts think that you should consider folding regular Twitter posts into your overall marketing strategy.

Here are a few tips on how to make the most of your Twitter activity.

 

Get to know your followers

You can’t interest followers unless they’re interested in what you’re tweeting about. That sounds like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many marketers aren’t aware of that. There are three effective ways to go about this.

  • Ask them. Let them know you’re interested in their challenges, concerns, and the issues they face regularly with an occasional survey. Most people like to talk about themselves, and if your interest seems sincere, they will likely open up. You may even want to sweeten the pot a little by offering a discount or coupon or free gift as a thank you.
  • Use Twitter polls. Along these same lines, Twitter polls are another way to gauge your audience on a specific topic. Questions that are likely to engage an audience are: quick, fun, unusual. For example, you might poll them on your products or services which, again, helps you get to know them better. “Should we add a children’s line to our spa products?” An engaging poll will also encourage retweets, which pulls in new fans. They also maintain interest in your business because people will return to your feed to see the results of the poll, if only to compare them to the way they voted.
  • Follow your customers. This is another bit of advice that seems self-evident, but again, many people fail to do it. If someone’s tweet mentions your business, or if a customer contacts you using your Twitter handle, latch onto them. According to Twitter, 85 percent of small- and medium-sized business (SMB) Twitter users in one survey said it’s important that businesses provide customer support on Twitter. And 36 percent of SMBs reported attracting a customer through their Twitter marketing.

 

Use this Twitter tool

Organization is the key to all successful businesses. Given the vast amount of information available on Twitter, it’s essential to organize it into smaller fragments. Twitter Lists can be either public or private, but either can help you to manage the overwhelming amount of information that flows through Twitter.

You can use a Twitter List to:

  • monitor the types of information that apply to your business
  • focus on tweets from important groups of people, including customers
  • network with people critical to your business
  • organize various Twitter handles according to your needs

Whatever way you need to use it, this tool can help you categorize the various groups of people you follow and decide when you want to read their tweets. With Twitter Lists, you can create up to 20 different lists with as many as 500 accounts in each list, so the more narrowly you focus the categories, the more they’ll help you manage your marketing strategy, and save you hours every day.

 

And remember, to optimize your time on all your social media efforts, you’ll want to consult our social media managers. We can help you make the most of your tweets, as well as your Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram posts.