Have you added Twitter to your internet marketing strategy yet? Twitter is a good vehicle for businesses to engage with customers, establish thought leadership, and show that they are tech-savvy.
Twitter’s basic function is just like the “status update” feature on Facebook. Twitter users have a profile from which they can publish updates called tweets. Tweets are visible to anyone who clicks on or follows their profile. Twitter users can also follow other users, mention other users in tweets, and tweet links to outside material like websites, blogs, videos, and photos.
While many businesses take the initial steps of setting up a Twitter profile and broadcasting a few tweets, they then experience a sort of stalemate and don’t know what to do next. Below are four easy steps that businesses can take to maximize a Twitter presence and really build a sphere of influence on the site:
1) Brand Your Profile
First, decide whether you’ll be tweeting as the business or as a real person working at the business (both are good strategies). Create a custom image for the background of your profile and upload a logo or professional head shot for your profile picture. To be viewed properly, Twitter profile images must have a square aspect ratio. Be sure your profile URL is pointing to your home page or a very relevant page on your business website. Finally, use the biography area to explain your company’s unique selling points or value proposition.
2) Listen
Twitter is a great place to monitor attitudes, news, and trends around a certain product or industry, or even within a particular zip code. Experiment with the search bar, advanced Twitter search, and search operators to look up tweets with keywords and phrases relevant to your business. See what other users are saying and follow other users, especially influential ones who have many followers and a lot to say.
3. Engage
After the listening phase when you follow and watch other accounts, you’ll likely see more people following your account, as well. Start to reach out to both the users you follow and users who follow you. Click the retweet option to instantly re-publish an interesting tweet from another user’s account for your own followers to see. Retweeting someone else’s message is a great way to build goodwill. If you have the ability to make timely responses, then encourage customers to use Twitter as a contact or support method for your business.
4. Integrate
Make Twitter a part of your online marketing mix. Place a link to your Twitter profile on your homepage. Let customers and clients know about the new account by mentioning Twitter in email signatures, in any marketing materials, and also in conversation! Twitter is a great forum for sharing links to content assets, such as a company blog, case study, product backgrounder, special report, or even customer testimonials. If you have Google Analytics set up for your company website, then you can track the effects of Twitter on your incoming traffic.
Let Us Help You Build Your Business
Does your business need help taking its social media and online marketing to the next level? Contact the web design and online marketing experts at Anchor Wave in Tucson. We help businesses to build websites and develop online marketing plans that generate measurable results. Contact us at (520) 622-3731 to set up a free consultation.
