Almost anyone can create a Twitter account and send out a tweet, but you need a strategy to use Twitter to grow a business. With over 7,000 tweets sent out into the world every single second, it takes a certain kind of spark for one of those tweets to fulfill an intention. Plus, the average lifespan of one tweet is only about eighteen minutes, meaning that you could be putting too much thought into content with little impact.
It is not easy to run a successful Twitter account for your business, but it is still a great place to grow your brand and get recognized by potential customers. If you are up to the challenge—and you should be—then keep reading for some Twitter marketing strategies that work.
What you tweet cannot be divorced from its profile.
Before you start to brainstorm tweets to post from your organization’s account, you instead want to focus on your profile. Make sure that your Twitter handle is easy to remember. It should be short enough for other Twitter users to easily tag you and recognize you in posts that you may want to reply to or retweet. People are also less likely to mention Twitter accounts with longer handles.
Having a recognizable Twitter handle is especially critical for running a solo business. When a Twitter user searches for your profile, they will likely see a slew of different accounts. Make your profile stand out by having a handle for users to draw an obvious parallel to your brand. You do not want users to have to guess which profile belongs to you. By keeping all of your social media handles the same, there leaves no room for mystery.
Aside from your handle, your Twitter profile is filled with places to promote your brand. Be sure to use your brand’s logo as your profile photo. If you have been pushing off brainstorming a new logo with your graphic designer, now is the perfect time to put that task at the top of your to-do list. Once you have selected the perfect logo image for your profile picture, the next step is to create a witty profile. Again, conciseness is vital, mainly since your bio is limited to 160 characters. Keep it accurate and tell people exactly what you are on Twitter to do. Sprinkle in some personality or humor to make the description all the more original and engaging.
Timing is everything.
Have you thought of the perfect tweet for your business’s account? Are you all the more excited to post it now that you have revamped the profile? Unfortunately, you may have to hold off on sharing that tweet for now. Holding off on sharing a tweet during peak hours will maximize its opportunity to be seen, liked, and retweeted. Tweets shared on the weekends, including Friday, typically have a higher click-through rate (CTR) than tweets shared during the week. If you are planning to be offline during the weekends, explore content-scheduling apps and tools for you to schedule a tweet.
Be mindful about what to include and not to include in your tweets.
Hashtags help attract prospective customers. Of course, too much of a good thing is not always so good. Although tweets with hashtags receive twice as much engagement as those that do not, tweets with more than two hashtags drop in engagement by 17%. Since you may have multiple hashtags to choose from, research what people are saying, or are not saying, about your brand. Using an advanced search to comb through industry-specific terms is an excellent way of deciding which hashtags to use and which to save for another tweet.
Another tried-and-true Twitter marketing strategy to increase retweets is to use images. Adding images to your tweets is proven to get more share and clicks on your Twitter content. Research shows that tweets with images received 89% more favorites than tweets without one. While images work, you should not feel compelled to throw in a picture for the sake of having one. Tools like Canva can help you generate vibrant graphics to add to your Twitter content.
About Krishen Sauble Iyer
Krishen Sauble Iyer is a successful entrepreneur active in the consulting and real estate industries. A San Diego native, Iyer has invested in commercial and residential property throughout California, including in the cities of Reedley and Visalia. He is also the founder of MAIS Consulting, a consulting firm that helps companies develop their client relationships and marketing strategies to grow their business.
