Twitter for Your Business: Part 2 of 2
By Gerald Johnson
Before we look at setting up Twitter and start driving
traffic to our site, we must first understand how authenticity will help.
People will generally feel good when words and actions are easy to identify
with and brands that are consistent. People will also feel distant if your
Twitter feed Is carefully crafted with an artificial image. Meaning, people or
your audience want to relate to you, but they cannot if your impression is that
of being perfect and everything is fine. Businesses that share and post updates
of one perfect second in an otherwise dreary day may make their audience feel
disconnected. This is the fear of vulnerability, which can actually help your
brand connect with a broader audience (Friedlander).
So it is important to be authentic on social media and when
it is done correctly and displaying vulnerability, people will fee empathy and
connected to it. Although, it still has to be attention-worthy and something
people care about (Friedlander). Furthermore, you do not have to feel like
cursing or growing a beard to seem authentic. Do what feels the most natural to
you and share your losses as often as your wins. Also, make sure to always tell
the truth and accept that there will always be people don’t like you. Lastly, open
up and take about things people can relate to like family and music. Remember
people don’t do business with faceless companies and market like you are
speaking to one person (Friedlander).
Personally, when scrolling through my feed I see images of
sports, celebrities, friends, family, and news. A lot of these tweets are
perfect images and seems like the people or businesses posting it always have a
perfect day. This makes it seem artificial and on my bad days seems like I
cannot relate to it. Although, if they add bad days, family, or other content
then it is more relatable. An example is below from one of the world’s
well-known soccer players, Ronaldo, and he posts numerous photos of winning and
private jets. He also remembers to post his losses, bad days, and family to
make it easy to relate and I think it helps with his clothing brands and
sponsorship's.
Furthermore, we begin to dig deeper on how to make Twitter work
for your business in 11 steps. We begin with a quick video of how to use Twitter for business.
1. Present Your Brand
Start with the idea of making everything consistent and recognizable.
Your profile image and twitter name must be reflected in your other social
media apps and website. Header photos must also be as a description for your
business or show more offerings.
2. Build a Strong Foundation
It is imperative to completely set up your twitter account
so it contributes to your business’s story. This includes location, website,
and biography. This is so users find you, look further into your business on
your website, and gives you the opportunity to bring some personality to your
business.
3. Start Following People
This give you a big audience and you also should start out
slow, because if it looks suspicious or aggressive your account could be
suspended. You want to start with following: your customers, business partners,
suppliers, vendors, contractors, competitors, peers, professional organizations
in your industry, businesses nearby, and your professional network.
4. Start Talking
First, it can seem hectic and intimidating, but give
yourself a little time to get your feet wet and begin with listening to others
and jump in when you feel comfortable. You can start with a tweet and let conversations
and comments begin. Then you can take advantage of Twitter’s other tools and
start replying, mentioning businesses or individuals, retweeting, and using
direct messages.
5. Talk Smarter
You want to talk smarter and plan out ways to focus your
Twitter posts and conversations to draw in potential customers and publish your
tweets that are most likely to engage people and get retweeted and mentioned.
6. Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog
Twitter is awesome for driving traffic to your site and can
easily be done by creating a tweet with your URL in it. Although, twitter will
shorten your web address; do not panic and it will still work correctly. This
is the URL shortener tool that saves space in the tweet.
7. Connect Your Online Presence
This reminds us that we have to connect everything for a
better online presence and this can be done adding your twitter link to your
website and other social media applications. Also you can utilize a Twitter
widget to your website that allows your tweet to be seen there. Also you can
embed your website within tweets.
8. Get Mobile with Twitter
Any smartphone allows you to set up push notifications to
your phone to stay in the loop when people mention your business, retweets,
gain a follower, and if someone sends you a direct message. A fast response is
best and notifications make it easier for you.
9. Share Photos & Videos
People love to look at photos and videos, if you post them
the greater the chance to gain a reader. You can share from both your desktop
or smartphone app. Get into a habit of taking photos and videos of your
business activities you can share with your followers.
10. Organize Your Followers into Conversation Lists
Following more people can be challenging to focus on the
information coming from specific groups or people. Here you can use the Twitter
list, which allows you to separate the Twitter accounts into groups for
customers, potential customers, community businesses, professional
organizations, people who inspire you, and people you talk with most.
11. Expand Your Audience with Hashtags
Twitter is limited to people you follow, therefore, it is
always a good idea to keep looking for new voices to follow. Hashtags, allow
this and appear in tweets to identify a common topic or theme. One example can
be if you’re an athletic clothing line, some hashtags you would tweet or follow
are:
·
#NCAA
·
#MarchMadness
·
#NCAABracketChallenge
Finally, to take your Twitter to the next level it is
important to start measuring your Twitter performance, focus on building your
Twitter community, learn which tweets are most effective, expand your conversation
topics, and fine-tine your Twitter presence to get better results (Kingston).
Friedlander, Jamie. (2017). 4 Expert Tips for Social Media
Authenticity. From the World Wide Web: https://www.success.com/article/4-expert-tips-for-social-media-authenticity
Kingston, Charlene. (2013). How to Use Twitter for Business
and Marketing. From the World Wide Web: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-twitter-for-business-and-marketing/
Video Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jV-sJaldUc
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