Approximately two out of every three brands (66 percent to be exact) with 100 employees or more use Twitter as part of their marketing efforts according to Business of Apps.
This only makes sense as 326 million people worldwide currently use this particular social media site, offering companies a fairly wide platform.
But if you’re a small or medium business owner, you may be wondering how to best use Twitter to help you reach more potential customers, connect with more viable leads, and ultimately increase your bottom line. Here are a few tips to consider.
Use the Right Hashtags
Hashtags are to your Twitter page what keywords and search engine optimization (SEO) are to your website and blog. In short, they make it easier for the people most interested in what you have to offer to find you.
For instance, if you own a carpet installation business in Essex, you’ll may want to hashtag your posts with #carpetcleaner, #Essex, #Essexcarpetcleaner, #ilovecleancarpets, and tags like that.
Solo Build It, a company that helps solopreneurs grow their one-person businesses, does really well with this as, if you scroll through its feed, you’ll see hashtags like #OnlineBusiness, #lovewhatyoudo, #freelancer, #entrepreneurlife, and more.
How do you know which hashtags to use? Look to see what others in your industry are using and use them too. You can also create your own hashtags and start a movement, encouraging others to use them as well.
Interact with Industry Influencers
It’s often said that, in business, it’s not what you know but who you know that matters most. While some debate this, the reality is that engaging with top people in your industry canhelp lift your business to higher levels, and more quickly. That’s where interacting with influencers in your industry comes in.
If there is a person or business in your field who is already where you want to be, take the time to interact with them on Twitter. Reply to their tweets by either favoriting them or adding a comment.
If the information in the tweet may be helpful to your followers, retweet it. Work to establish a genuine relationship with these individuals or agencies, putting you in a better position to potentially collaborate with them on future projects.
Not sure who the top influencers are in your field? In this case, Small Business Trends shares a few potential free online tools (like Who Tweeted Me and Topsy) that may be able to help you better identify them.
Pin a Follow-Worthy Tweet
Have you ever seen a retweet that really resonated with you, then gone to the original poster’s Twitter page to see what else they had to say, only to read the first two or three tweets and, based on those, decide not to follow them? You can keep this from happening to your business by pinning a follow-worthy tweet at the top of your feed.
You only have one opportunity to make a good first impression, making it incredibly important to keep your more engaging tweets at the top of your feed. Someone who does this well is T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Looking at his Twitter profile page, you’ll see that he pins tweets that make you want to know more about who he is and how he can help you financially.
To pin tweets yourself, choose the tweet you’d like to pin, click on the little down arrow in the upper right corner and select “Pin to your profile page.”
When you use the right hashtags, interact with industry influencers, and pin follow-worthy tweets, it can help your business begin to grow – just like some of the biggest companies in the world.