Using Twitter for Business

I like to think of Twitter as a giant chat room.  Conversations on Twitter seem to progress at the speed of light, and trending topics can shift in a matter of minutes.  Because of its fast-paced nature, Twitter can be hit or miss.  That being said, Twitter can be an excellent platform to use for business.  Although we do not currently use Twitter to promote Humble & Whole, we had a presence on Twitter for our first blog and learned some tricks & tips to cultivate an engaged following.  Keep reading to discover the five tips to make the most of Twitter for your business.

YOU MUST BE HIGHLY ACTIVE ON TWITTER

First and foremost, Twitter is a social platform that relies on constant activity.  For many people who don’t like Twitter, this is a major turn off.  Twitter posts have such a short lifespan (about 18 minutes) that in order to reach your target audience, you have to be posting frequently because there’s a good chance that some of your content was missed by your tribe.  It’s recommended to post between 10-20 times per day to maintain an active presence.

Using Twitter for business is hard to do without a handy tool like Hootsuite or Buffer to auto schedule and post your content for you.  It’s not enough to just post 10-20x per day if all of those tweets surface between 5-6pm.  

Twitter is a platform where it is an absolute must to post your content THROUGHOUT the day.  I know, you may still be thinking, 10-20x daily?  That is a ton!  The good thing about Twitter is that you’re expected to share 80% of other people’s content and 20% of your own, so that takes away some of the pressure.

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SHARE MORE CONTENT FROM OTHERS THAN YOURSELF

When we started on Twitter, we made the mistake of only sharing snippets of our blog posts, our thoughts, etc. and we wondered why we were having such a hard time getting quality engagement on our account.  Our twitter feed basically looked like it was operated by a robot.  Your twitter feed is not meant to look like spam.  

TIP: Find 3-5 accounts that complement your own to use as sources of content to retweet and fill your queue on Hootsuite or Buffer.  This allows you to establish the beginning of a relationship with other bloggers and entrepreneurs and share quality content from other sources to prevent your account from looking like spam.

@byReginaTV does an AMAZING job of sharing quality content from other entrepreneurs on her Twitter feed.

So what type of content performs well on Twitter?  With the 140 character limit, you’ve got to get straight to the point because there isn’t a lot of room for fluff.  Think of Twitter as a giant chat room.  The general tone is conversational and informative, making it a great platform to share actionable tips, quotes, and announcements (like flash sales + discounts).

OPTIMIZE YOUR PROFILE TO ATTRACT TWITTER USERS TO YOUR LIST

In order to optimize your account to grow your mailing list, take advantage of the link you can include in your bio.  Instead of directing visitors to the homepage of your blog, link to the landing page of a popular opt-in.  Kleneice and I always recommend that you set up as many gateways as possible to build your list through social media.

Because of the quick speed of information and activity on Twitter, it’s rare for users to stay on your “profile” for long.  People may click to decide whether or not to follow you, but for the most part, Twitter users analyze and react to the information on their newsfeed.  

You literally have seconds on Twitter to provide someone with an incentive to stay in touch with you when they click on your profile.  This is why it is so important to include a link to a lead magnet as a pinned tweet AND in your bio.

In addition to using the link in your bio, you could also create a tweet with a short description of your valuable freebie and include a link to a landing page.  Then, you could “pin” this tweet to the top of your page to capture the attention of visitors to your profile.

@kayla_hollatz has optimized her Twitter page by including a link to a quiz in her bio and her email course is a pinned tweet.

PARTICIPATE IN TWITTER CHATS TO MAKE NETWORKING A BREEZE

Twitter is one of the BEST platforms for networking with entrepreneurs because of the wide range of Twitter chats.  Twitter chats are essentially discussions among a like-minded audience about a certain topic.  Some Twitter chats are insanely popular and can feature hundreds of guests.  Other Twitter chats may be among close-knit communities and may only have a few dozen guests.  In either case, Twitter chats present an awesome opportunity to make new connections with people from your industry.

If you need help finding Twitter chats related to your niche, you could always check out this list, ask your industry friends, or observe the newsfeed of influencers in your niche to see if they are aware of any chats.

Bonus:  After participating in a Twitter chat, send a sweet note to the people you connected with the best.  This opens the door to building meaningful business relationships.

USE HASHTAGS TO BOOST THE VISIBILITY OF YOUR CONTENT

Like Instagram, Twitter uses hashtags to increase the visibility of your posts and to help your content get discovered by new people.  You don’t have to use hashtags with every single post on twitter, but it is important to be aware of trending hashtags in your industry and include them as often as you can.  An easy way to identify trending hashtags is to identify two or three influencers in your niche and take note of the hashtags they are using to promote their content.

Twitter can truly be a valuable platform to promote your business, but strategy is important here to balance the types of content you share and to boost the visibility of that content.  

We would love to hear from you!  Do you use Twitter to promote your business?

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