Twitter Best Practice Guide

04/11/2016

Twitter Best Practice Guide

Whilst Facebook is currently the most popular social media network out there, amongst the next popular is twitter, which, according to Statista has around 313 million active users across the world. This means that you have a huge potential audience and opportunity to engage though using Twitter.

Using social media for business is all about reaching out, making connections, engaging with people and building human relationships in a business world, and Twitter gives businesses an excellent opportunity to do this.

The Twitter Basics
Twitter is a form of communication where you are allowed up to 140 characters to send messages – or `tweets` - to your `followers`. You can include videos, images or links to longer pieces of content, but the point is to send out a short message. It is a lot more spontaneous than Facebook, and is very conducive to holding conversations.

You can choose people to `follow` - allowing you to see the tweets that they publish, and likewise they can `follow` you, giving you the chance to send out `tweets` to whoever is following you. This means that using Twitter for business can give you a good insight into who are your customers, as well as helping to build a strong relationship between you.

Getting Started with Twitter
Once that you have decided that you want to use Twitter as part of your social media activities, the first thing that you need to do is build your profile and profile page. If you are going to use Twitter for digital marketing it is important that your account and profile give the right impression of your business. Make sure that it tells your story, includes your branding and is unmistakably `yours`.

You need to choose a name which matches your business`s name – it doesn`t have to be exactly the same, but should be relevant as it is this name which will appear by your tweets and which people will identify you by.

You have two images available for your account. A lot of people decide on a logo and photograph – maybe of something to do with your business, or a personal profile picture which shows the human side of your company.

You also have the option of customising the background of your page, which is another good chance to get some company branding in there.

Make sure that you add in your location as it will help people to find you (remember that you are communicating with people from all over the world, so make it easy for them). It is also good for your SEO. Put links in to your website and other social media, and as you only have a few characters to tell people about you, make sure that it is concise and to the point.

Start Following
Once that you have set up your account, your Twitter strategy at first should be to follow people. You can then see what they are doing and get a grasp for what works and what doesn`t. Your Twitter experience depends on who you follow, not who is following you, so make sure that you think properly about who you are going to follow.

In general, a good place to start is by following people such as:

• The businesses who you work with, such as suppliers or vendors
• Your customers
• Trade or professional organisations in your industry
• Your competitors
• Businesses in your professional network
• Businesses geographically local to you

Talking
Once that you are feeling comfortable, you can start talking, getting involved in conversations and getting Twitter followers. You will probably find that people such as those in the groups above will already start to follow you giving you the chance to then expand your follower numbers.

There are five types of tweets that you can use when formulating your business strategy on Twitter:

• You can send a message out to everyone who is following you – a `normal tweet`.
• @reply to a tweet that you have received – everyone will see the original message and who it was that tweeted it.
• Mention another tweet which has been sent out – but is not a reply.
• Direct message to a follower, which is private with only you and the follower seeing.
• Retweet a message which was sent by someone to you, to spread over to your followers.

Content
Another important part of your strategy should be your Twitter content. You need to make it the kind of thing that will promote your business and that people will be wanting to read about and share with their friends and associates.

You might want to tweet news or short tips, comments on events, or links to longer pieces of writing such as blogs, but with only 140 characters available, you should keep your message focused and to the point.

Try to focus your business content on Twitter, on proving to the world that you know what you are talking about and an expert in your field so that when potential customers need help, advice or a service, they will automatically think of you.

You can link and share your content across your website and other social media, maximising the impact and getting it out to the highest number of people possible. That doesn`t mean that you should use the same content across all platforms, but you can integrate it and link them through to each other.

Twitter Hashtags
One great way to broaden your reach is by using Twitter hashtags. By adding hashtags, you can send your Twitter content to people who aren`t your followers. If they are following the hashtag #flowersformum, and your tweet is relevant, by adding this hashtag, it will go out to everyone who is following it.

Twitter can seem a little complicated for people who are new to it, but once that you have got used to it, it can be an excellent tool to communicate and engage with customers and associates.

If you have any questions about how to use Twitter for your business, creating good content or your web design and digital marketing, get in touch with Studioworx either via email ([email protected]), telephone +44 (0)1603 274285 or the website (http://studioworx.co.uk).