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This time around I am going to talk about Twitter as a business promotion tool. For the last couple of weeks, many people have approached me with questions about twitter, some very basic and some which I felt were a bit complex for a new entrant in the growing Internet Medium. I decided to write a post about twitter for business for entrepreneurs seeking to understand this better. My aim is to help you understand how twitter can help if used effectively as an online marketing tool.

Much has been written about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM – Google Ads, yahoo, bing) and there is quite a bit already present about twitter and the different ways brands and organizations are leveraging it as part of their social media marketing strategy.

We all know that Twitter is a hot subject and has remained so during the years and as it continues to grow and create new records it is expected to be an important part of the Internet Marketing economy. Its shown some really crazy growth patterns and its ever-increasing popularity and is somehow a mystery for many business owners who are struggling to find an effective way to encash twitter for business. Many believe and understand that they should be using Twitter, but simply do not understand it and thus do not consider it from a marketing perspective. I am hoping this blog post will help you to learn, use, and benefit from twitter.

Like many of you, I too was confused when I was introduced to Twitter. As a Twitter newbie, visiting your own Twitter home page can be a challenge. The home page is where the action is. It shows updates of posts from people who you are following (you need to follow some people first and the learning begins). For many who follow favorite content creators suggested by friends and colleagues, you will realise soon enough that there can be too much to read and thus a lot of confusion.

First, you need to create a twitter id or handle as its popularly called. It like creating a new email or facebook account. Handles at twitter are the id’s, like your email, and are written with a preceding @ symbol. For e.g. You can follow us @virtualsnipers and our handle is thus virtualsnipers. Given the growth of twitter the chances of getting an id you want may be difficult but make sure you try and get the best possible combination.

And the next question is what do you like to read? This will define who must follow and if those you follow will be worth the time (and money). For me, Twitter became a great huge ever-growing directory / dictionary / encyclopedia of information and latest updates and I found some really excellent and interesting people (popular as Twitterati)  who I would have never connected with had it not been for twitter. I follow people in my industry who share their experiences and knowledge, and there are many who like me who believe in sharing and provide links to an interesting article, video, or blog (essentially leading to solutions) – places/websites which I would want to be on but may never have found them. Now that you have found those whom you want to follow it’s your turn to share and write about things you like and thus help others and generate followers for yourself. These followers could be people you follow too.

You will need to be actively engaged on twitter to decide whom to follow. You can unfollow irrelevant people over time as you uncover their interests and intent.  On twitter, you can get to know a person much better because what they write is a reflection of their true self. And this is something and every individual finds easy to connect with. Businesses can understand consumer opinion better which helps cater to the market with a more conversion driven product. The nature of the short message provides for focus as it forces people to say only what they need.

So how can you use Twitter for business? Twitter is an excellent tool for networking, linking with people, learning and sharing. It’s a great means of guiding people to content on your website, articles you have written about your services/products, or by guiding people to a service you want to highlight – basically you drive your brand and business by guiding traffic to your website in a cost-effective manner and thus generate more visibility and increase chances of a sale.

Tip : Business marketing on Twitter will deliver only you set the right expectations. Remember its a peer-to-peer platform and you need to set your goals accordingly. As apart of a larger marketing plan twitter can be indispensable and powerful but if you are expecting half your Twitter followers to become a customer, you will not come out happy. 

Do not compare twitter with other social media platforms like instagram, facebook, linkedin, etc. It needs a different content approach, an always-on engagement mode, and fast response times. It’s best to hire a social media agency or set up an in-house team under the leadership of a digital marketing expert.

twitter business marketing tips :

1. Implement hashtags (for e.g. #digitalmarketing) – create one unique to your business & campaigns and also keep an updated list of popular hashtags for including in your tweets.
2. Content strategy for twitter – Based on competition and audience research decide what type of content is ideal. Use images and videos too. Keep a close watch on your twitter follower’s posts to gather intelligence about their interests.
3. Engage with your Twitter followers – respond to them fast, like if their comment or share your posts, share their posts sometimes.
4. Twitter Post schedule – you need to be diligent when it comes to tweeting. Once on keep going and you will meet with success.
5. About your business – The Profile and Bio on twitter is what shows up first when a person visits your twitter business page.
6. Do not ignore twitter analytics data – You will need some 3rd party tools for robust analytics but its a worthy investment if you want to get marketing ROI from your twitter business marketing campaign.

Happy tweeting!