How To Use Twitter For Effective Marketing

Twitter is one of the most valuable tools on the Internet.

Twitter is an American online news and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as “tweets”. The social networking site is a great way for brands and marketing teams to connect with customers online. With more than 336 million monthly active users worldwide as of the first quarter of 2018, Twitter is one of the biggest social networks worldwide.

With such a massive audience, this platform has presented itself as a necessary digital marketing tool for advertisers and marketers. But how can someone get started with Twitter marketing? In this post, I’ll provide some tips and tricks for marketers diving into Twitter marketing.

Let’s say a business is just starting out, what are some effective and new ways that they could increase their organic following on Twitter?

• To grow organic followers: Make sure your Twitter bio is friendly & contains keywords. Tweet content that helps your customers solve problems and actively find & follow potential customers.
• Target particular topics to join in on conversations and provide authoritative answers. Set up a regular Twitter chat on those topics and talk to people.
• Participating in a relevant Twitter Chat is a good way to start meeting people who share interests with you and connect with those people that way – start conversations, and stand out as someone whom they should talk with.
• First, make sure your website links to your Twitter profile and that your profile is well-optimized. Second, follow and engage with potential customers. Starting a conversation will help you learn more about them.
• Utilize trending hashtags as often as possible.
• Engagement is key. Find your audience and engage with them. Add them to lists and follow influencers. Twitter is a great way to grow your relationships.
• Identify Twitter influencers in your industry, participate in industry discussions, and follow those who provide valuable insights with high reach.

Is it possible to show up in feeds for people searching for certain terms? What are some ways a business can search engine optimize their Twitter presence?

• Use keywords and hashtags in your posts that are relevant to or trending in your industry, but make sure whatever you’re posting is worth reading and provides value. Sometimes you only get one shot when building your presence – make it count!
• Hashtags can help you to get found BUT More than 2 hashtags make you look spammy & decreases engagement and retweets. Highly popular hashtags often have bots responding so may not be valuable.
• People search for keywords so make sure you include them in your bio and in your Tweets (even in replies).
• Tweets are searchable on Google so think about long tail keywords that you want to get found when you write Tweets.
• In order to get into the SERPs, you’ve got to, well, be popular. Okay, not quite — but you have to Tweet frequently and be Tweeting things that your followers respond to/share/pass along/etc. The more people engage with your posts, the better for social media SEO.
• By association and of course, hashtags also have a place because they are data. Twitter also uses a form of PageRank to analyze networks with their link graphs.
• Anticipate what people might search for & include those words or terms in your profile & your tweets, including in hashtags. Build topical Twitter lists & review those daily & see what people in them are tweeting about – get involved in discussions with them.

Let’s say a business has little to no budget, is it possible for them to reach a broader audience without putting any money behind it?

• Again, use keywords/industry terms in profiles/posts, and get involved in chats and topics. Look up those same words in the Twitter search and engage those users posting and following them. Also – put your Twitter handle in all your marketing materials!
• Post tips, insider advice, how-to’s
• Acknowledge and respond to mentions and DMs
• Be smart about the time you are spending on your Twitter presence. Create valuable content that’s going to help you reach your target audience and join chats to make new connections.
• Tips for reaching a broader audience: Use Google to source great articles to share in your niche.
• Schedule at least 5 Tweets a day every day.
• Twitter is brilliant because you don’t need a budget to make a big impact. It’s possible with no budget, but then it takes time to build relationships and do slow and steady organic growth. I kinda prefer it that way anyway. It puts the focus on real relationships, rather than (often) shallow growth hacks.

What are the best ways to get your customers/audience engaged on Twitter?

• TALK to them! If you want to get your audience to engage with you, don’t be afraid to start conversations. Share something worth talking about. Ask questions. Just take action!
• The best way to engage your customers on Twitter is with the 4 R’s: – Respond – Request – Retweet – Repeat
• Sharing content that is helpful to your audience is a great way to get them to engage. To help them, you have to get to know your audience first and understand their pain points.
• Ask them their Twitter handle when they convert and follow them or tag them in appreciation posts if they’re okay with it! Customers love genuine recognition.
• Ask questions (by the way, how’s your day going?) – Memes and gifs!
• Truly understand your customer so that when you Tweet you have a conversation with them. Help them along their buying journey by answering questions and educating them.
• Provide engaging images/polls with questions for your audience to answer! People love seeing businesses interact with their audiences. This shows the business cares to hear from its customers.
• Tell stories – case studies can elicit great responses.
• Event and product updates followers will want to share.
• Respond to everyone in a human way and keep empathy close by.