Twitter has changed the rules of the marketing playbook. There’s no doubt about it: the social media platform has become a marketing force for all types of businesses, from large corporations to small businesses.
So, just how (and why) can you use Twitter to help your business grow? In this article, we’ll explain how your company can successfully use Twitter to…
- gather information
- promote your content
- build your brand
Learn About Your Customers
A major benefit of establishing a Twitter account for your business is that you can learn so much about your existing customers and your target market through the social media platform.
Twitter’s “Explore” page can help you learn about what’s trending in your area. If you know what issues your customers care about, then you can make better decisions about how your company operates and what it offers.
Think about Twitter like it’s the world’s biggest focus group. You can ask customers for feedback on your products and perform market research to figure out what demographics have what preferences.
Be careful, though, when you open up your products to feedback, you’re also opening your business up to criticism. Be prepared for criticism and have a plan for how to address it.
By learning more about your customers and their preferences over Twitter, you can make more informed business decisions
Promote Your Content
You spend months planning your content. You pour time and energy into developing a content strategy and creating a content calendar. Then you post the blogs, videos, infographics, presentations, and status updates that you hope will impact your audience.
If you’re not using Twitter to promote that content, then you’re missing out. Every time you post significant content, you should be linking it to your Twitter page.
When you do, all of your Twitter followers have the option to view it and, subsequently, be influenced by it. That’s exactly what you want.
Your social media strategy is only worthwhile if your posts are reaching your target market. If no one is seeing the fantastic content you’re creating, then you might as well have not created it in the first place.
By posting links to your content on Twitter, you’re ensuring that your market is aware of the material you’re creating. In a best case scenario, your followers will retweet that content and increase the number of viewers and the impact it has.
You can also pay Twitter to promote your tweets, and therefore your content, so that it reaches more eyes. This could be a great investment for your brand.
Build Your Brand
Again, using Twitter’s “Explore” page is a great way to learn about your customers and to build your brand. If you can connect with your market over the issues you care about, then you can build your brand identity based off the values that your company and your customers share.
Engage with your customers on Twitter. Have conversations. Show them that you’re a brand who cares about what your customers think.
Make sure that your Tweets have a consistent voice. If your brand’s tweet on Tuesday sounds like it was written by a middle school student, and then your tweet on Wednesday was written in the voice of an expert scientist, then customers won’t know what to expect from you.
That’s not what you want at all. Just like your branding should be cohesive on your website and printed marketing materials, your brand voice needs to mirror that identity on Twitter – and stay consistent.
If there’s some playfulness to your brand voice, that’s great and opens the doors to more customer interactions. If your brand is more formal, Twitter is a place where you can show that serious tone.
By building a brand community, where your business Twitter account engages customers in a conversation with both the business and each other, you can drive repeat customers to return to your business. You can also increase your reach as customers share your brand’s tweets.
One other benefit is that you can monitor your brand’s reputation on Twitter. If your brand comes under fire on Twitter and you don’t have an account or a presence, that can cause issues. If you already have an established Twitter page, then you can easily monitor and respond to any attacks on your brand’s reputation.
In Conclusion
When you use Twitter for your business, you can learn more information about your customers, promote your content to your existing followers and potentially to new customers, and build your brand community. These three benefits can have a major impact on your brand.
So, make sure that the next time you sit down with your social media team you think about how your brand can leverage Twitter. See how a little tweet can make a big difference!