How to Tweet to Success

Twitter is one of the world’s largest social media networks. It allows you to “microblog” about your business, what you’re doing and even run contests and promotions with it. It’s now one of the most powerful tools that can build awareness for a business nearly instantaneously (depending on how many followers you have.)

Twitter is used by many businesses and even celebrities to get their message out there. It’s been said that with the use of Twitter it’s possible for you to reach a global market within just minutes. Twitter can be great for increasing traffic, reaching customers and helping you organically grow your business online.

Just about every day we see businesses and non-profit organisations on Twitter looking for ways to grow their following, but they aren’t really sure how to do it. These groups of people often feel overwhelmed by the “rules” and wonder what they should be doing with their time on Twitter. So we”d like to give you 15 things that businesses can do for free on Twitter and hopefully, this will help you make more connections and grow your following in a way that is natural for your business!

 

1. Use Hashtags (#) 

  • Hashtags are used to identify messages on Twitter about specific topics. If you want to create a chat room for your followers, use hashtags that match all the common keywords related to what you’re promoting. For example if I’m promoting an event such as a seminar or training, I’ll use a hashtag such as #seminar or #trainingclass.
  • Twitter chat rooms are a great way to find and connect with influencers in your industry. Use hashtags to locate the chat rooms where people are talking about what you’re interested in. Remember, when researching hashtags for future use make sure to consider things such as Are they popular? How often do they get used? Do they have many followers? This will ensure you get the most out of them for your business.

 

2. Use Analytics

  • Using Twitter Analytics is a MUST for any business using Twitter. Search your most common hashtag that you use in tweets, read through the results and see what other hashtags people are using, then research their meaning and then tag them on future tweets.
  • If you’re not using Twitter Analytics, check it out @Twitter Analytics.

 

3. Showcase your username

  • Don’t forget to include your Twitter username in your email signature and on all company literature! This will help you instantly build a following.

 

4. Use the “Follow Friday” hashtag to tap into your competitors’ followers

  • On Friday of each week, use the hashtag #FollowFriday. This will allow you to tap into your competitor’s Twitter accounts and introduce yourself to their followers. It can be a great way to grow your following quickly if you do it every Friday!

 

5. Use the power of Twitter Lists

  • Make a list of people to follow – this is where you can collect all the people in your industry and find out what they like to talk about.
  • Subscribers are #1 for us! We like to use the Follow Friday tool every week, but sometimes we don’t want their updates showing up on my Twitter feed. Instead we simply add them to a list and continue following them on the weekends when they don’t tweet as often as they do during the week!

 

6. Create a Twitter List of every #Hashtag you use in your tweets

  • As you use hashtags on your tweets, add them to a Twitter List. This will help you organise and manage each one of these topics and help you research new hashtags before using them on future posts. Plus you can easily go back and see their popularity over time!

 

7. Recruit for the best Hashtags!

  • What it means: If you have an event coming up, try to find the #tag that is most relevant to your event to increase your chances of being found & followed.
  • Twitter can also be used for the planning of events – I’ve worked on national conferences where we had separate hashtags for each day of the event, so we could track how many people were talking about each one. This is a great way to see what each day is trending and plan your schedule accordingly!
  • For tools to help with researching the best hashtags check out Social Media Examiner and Hashtagify.

 

8. When you meet someone new, always ask for their Twitter handle and follow them later that day

  • This can be a very effective way to grow your following quickly! You’ll connect with more people and once they notice you have followed them, they will usually check out your profile because they were just talking to you, right?

 

9. Establish a connection with someone before you ask them for a favour. (Tweet them at least 3 times first!)

  • Connecting on Twitter is a two way street – if you simply start an interaction by asking people for something YOU want, it’s not going to work for you.
  • As a way of proving yourself and establishing a relationship, we would recommend that you tweet them at least three times first before asking them for something in return.

 

10. Use Twitter to Search

  • Using twitter is an easy and quick way to find out what people are saying about your industry, your competitors and other businesses that you admire.
  • You can even search by location to see what others are saying about you locally!

 

11. Use Twitter to build trust

  • Use twitter to find the people that already know your company, then connect with them on a personal level and build that rapport.

 

12. Incorporate twitter with your blog

  • Writing a blog? You can increase your comments on each post by writing a Tweet and giving people an opportunity to comment without leaving the article
  • Examples: “Share your opinions here! #writingablog” and “Want to share your thoughts on this topic? Reply below!”

 

13. When you’ve written the blog post, Tweet it with Keywords relating to your topic in the title to increase searchability!

 

14. Use it to see whats happening on other social media platforms

  • Twitter can be used to find out what people have shared on other social media sites. A great way is to look at the “Shared” tab in their profile!

 

15. Respond to all mentioned tweets

  • Responding to all tweets that mention your brand will help you build relationships, trust and increase support with your followers.

As you can see, Twitter is one of the best ways to instantly connect with people; it’s just a question of how you use it! If you are interested in other social media platforms, check out our blog Social Media Platforms – Which is Best to find out which one might be best for your business!

 

Gerald and Rose is a digital marketing and website development agency based on in Surry Hills, Sydney. G&R as we call ourselves was formed when the founders continued to have bad experiences with other providers. 

Marketing, Social Media and Websites need to be simple, well priced and reliable. Business owners hate surprises, we know, we run small businesses. We can assist you with the right social media channels for your business, so drop us an email at sales@geraldandrose.com