#Tweetsmatter. Yes Twitter and LinkedIn form a good one-two punch for B2B and as of April, 2015, are the leaders in social media platforms that allow businesses to market and advertise themselves without the use of additional manpower or expensive resources. The concept around Twitter is that you tweet with a limited character count of 140 which forces you to think about your tweet.
You then put some #hashtags into your tweets, which simply work as tags grouping together tweets containing the same thought. As a registered user, you are allowed to retweet, share, and follow numerous sites which could gain you new followers as well. In this article we will be discussing using Twitter to it’s full potetential:
How to get more Followers on Twitter and Increasing Reach in your target audience:
“Engage – Ask, answer, share, thank, comment, joke and chat. Don’t take the “social” out of “social media.” - favorite quote.
Hello everyone, are you really using your corporate twitter brand to it’s full potential? If your company has a B2B aspect, twitter is one of your best lead generators for social media. The reason being, you can target your reach so easily via twitter depending on the audience you follow and who follows you back. Using key words & appropriate #hashtags, you can find the professionals you want to interact and target.
However, as in all things in the information age, don’t learn from trial and error of personal experience, learn from the community:
Get Your Twitter Known
1. Get to know Twitter lingo - If you’re new to Twitter, or want to learn more about Twitter, start with knowing the language. The lingo keeps changing as the platform develops, but here’s 10 basic Twitter definitionsyou need to know.
2. Make a great Bio - Lots of people will look at your bio to decide whether they will follow you or not. Clearly and briefly write about your company. Keep it friendly, and even add a few quirky (yet professional) comments. Make sure your profile image reflects your bran
d, too.
3. Keep your Bio current - Refresh your bio with events or business campaigns you are running. If you’ve just made a new webinar, for example, post a link to it from your Twitter bio. Include a simple CTA.
4. Make your Twitter known - Cross promote your Twitter handle on social sites. Set up a Twitter tab on your Facebook page, include it in your Google+ profile, your LinkedIn page, and any other social sites your business has.
5. Promote your Twitter on your blog and website - Embed your live Twitter feed on your website. Be sure you have a Twitter “Follow” button on your site. Make your blog posts easy to share, with a “Tweet this” button.
6. Embed your best Tweets - Twitter lets you embed single tweets now. You can code them directly on your website or blog. (Click on “…More” on the tweet, then click “Embed Tweet”; copy the code and paste into your site.)
7. Promote your Twitter on any printed material - If you use any printed material, such as business cards, flyers, or print ads, make sure you include your Twitter handle to make it easy to connect.
8. Include your handle in your email signature - Don’t forget to include a link to your Twitter in your email signature (just as you would your website or phone number).
9. Tweet to people everyday - Make it a practise to @mention 3 new people a day on Twitter.
10. Use your Twitter account to sign in to other forum sites - You’re likely engaging on other public sites. Sign in using your Twitter account, and your bio will often be shown when you post. If you’re successful on those sites, you’ll get more followers on Twitter too.
11. If you guest blog, include your Twitter handle - If your business marketing includes writing for other sites, make sure you have your Twitter handle in your content marketing bio.
12. Sign up for Twitter directories - Yup, there are Twitter directories, where people go to search for interesting people and business. It doesn’t take long to sign up for these types of listings, they’re free, and it adds another way people can find and follow you on Twitter. Try out sites like: Twello, Wefollow , or TweetFind
13. Follow people who follow you - When someone follows you, check out their bio’s and return the follow. This is especially cool if you’re well known, or have a great twitter following already. It makes your new followers feel very special.
14. Follow other people who follow people who are like you - Use Twitter’s “Who to Follow” list, which is catered to you, based on your activity on the site.
15. Follow industry leaders - Find your industry leaders on Twitter. Follow them, and interact with them too.
16. Get a celebrity or industry leader to follow you - Reach out to industry leaders on Twitter. Mention them, retweet them, and ask them to follow you. When they do, keep in touch. They may just retweet you to their followers.
17. Send a Direct Message to your new followers - Again, this makes your new followers feel like you listen and you care. Though the DM is sort of becoming old school, it doesn’t hurt. Just don’t use DM’s to spam!
Use Hashtags
18. Use hashtags - Twitter was one of the first social platforms to introduce hashtags. They are still very relevant today. Keep them to a max of 3 - otherwise you’ll look spammy, and you’ve only got 140 characters.
19. Use trending hashtags - Monitor trending hashtags - you can see trending tags for the world, and for geographic areas. When you see a tr
end that relates to your business, engage in that tweet chat by using the tag, and retweeting other people using the trending tag.
20. Use campaign specific hashtags - Create your own tweet community by using campaign, or even business specific hashtags. Promote these as a way for your customers to engage with you and others on Twitter. For example, if you’re running a Twitter contest, use a contest specific hashtag so everyone who enters can connect.
23. Be informative - When you are posting on Twitter, or any social media site, remember the 80/20 rule. Post 80% of your content about lifestyle or information; post 20% of your content about yourself. Tweet information related to your products - but not just your products.
24. Be original - Tweet a lot of your own original content, or other content that would be of interest to your customers.
25. Be inspiring - Tweet quotes of inspiration to connect with your followers. Quotes are some of the most retweeted content on Twitter.
26. Tweet your blog posts - Write teaser summaries of your blog posts, and link them back to your site.
27. Tweet about breaking news - Twitter is commonly used as an instant way to get the news. If there is a global news story, and it relates to your business customers, tweet the news to your followers. Or, get really creative, and be the first to tweet the news, with a branded spin.
28. Ask questions - Questions open up dialogue, and poise challenges to your Followers. Use them as a way to engage and get responses and retweets. This spreads your business brand too.
29. Use images - 36% of links shared on Twitter are images. Include them in your posts, to get your tweets shared, and get more followers.
30. Use videos - Twitter is becoming more and more video friendly. Use short Vine videos, or embed other videos, to further connect with your market.
31. Repeat your most popular tweets - Track what tweets are getting the most interaction. Send them out again, at different times. Reword them to keep your Followers engaged.
32. Keep it short - Make your tweets under 140 characters. This makes them easier to share with RT’s, MT’s (modified tweets) and @mentions.
33. Ask for RT’s - To get your tweets retweeted, go ahead and ask your Followers to RT. Asking for a RT gets a 12x’s higher retweet rate, than tweets with no ask.
34. Ask for Retweet’s - Spelling out retweet, and asking for a “Retweet” results in a 23x’s higher retweet rate.
35. Don’t auto-tweet - Don’t get into the practise of posting the same update to all of your social sites. You can share the same topic, but don’t post it exactly the same. An update on Facebook will read different than an post on Twitter.
Also, if you are using a Tweet scheduling platform, monitor what you’ve scheduled if a major incident happens that’s related to your business.
36. Don’t rapid tweet - Don’t incessantly tweet to your Followers. They really don’t need to know what you are doing every five minutes. Tweet a few times a day, but time out your tweets throughout the 24 hour cycle. (I’ll comment later on when to tweet.)
37. Be a great writer - You only have 140 characters, which means to write succinctly on this site. Get your message out without using a lot of words. Create wit, and write with clarity. (Ok, I love Twitter for this word challenge! I sometimes write out a tweet, and then rewrite it 5 times before I send 1 out. Yes, I’m a word nerd! But it works, try it yourself.)
38. Be a great headline writer - Ok, you really benefit on Twitter from being able to write great headlines. Twitter’s character count kinda means every tweet you make is a headline. Make it catchy and attractive to your followers, and you’ll get retweeted to their followers, and so on and so on. Those followers will start to follow you too.
Engage With the Person
39. Engage your customer, not your product - Here’s that 80/20 rule again (80% of your content is about your customer; 20% is about your business). Make sure you’re engaging with your customers on Twitter. Yes, you are marketing on the site, but you’re also providing customer service, and showing that you care and listen.
40. RT your followers - Show you appreciate your followers by retweeting good tweets to your followers. You give that follower more exposure, and show you are a business that cares about customers.
41. Tweet about other blog posts - If you find a blog post that has mentioned your business, tweet it, and @mention the blogger who wrote it.
42. Mention followers and great customers - If you have a great customer or follower, @mention them, and something they do. Send this out to your followers too. Mention them in a #ff (follow friday), or suggest your followers follower them.
43. Use the .@mention - Here’s a great tip. Use the .@mention to get your @mentions seen by your followers. If you start a tweet with the person’s username, it is only seen by them. Include a “.” in front of it to make it public.
44. Check your Twitter throughout the day - Your customers want to engage with you on Twitter, make sure you are checking your Twitter at least 3-4 times/ day (or more - think of it like checking your email). Check your interactions and mentions.
45. Respond to @mentions - If someone has mentioned you on Twitter, respond to their comments.
46. Respond to RT’s - If someone has retweeted you, thank them.
47. Partner with other businesses - Give your customers more, by mentioning business partners in your Tweet. You give your partners more exposure too, by retweeting their message.
Use Marketing Tactics to Win Them Over
48. Engage with contests - Add interactive contests (like vote contests, photo contests, photo caption contests, essay contests, or even video contests) to make your Twitter content more engaging. Contests can be ‘follow-gated’ to get you even more followers on Twitter.
49. Run regular contests to gain momentum - Use engagement tactics like contests regularly to build habits in your Followers, and keep getting your contest tweets shared. Host weekly contests, for example, and use an app that sends a tweet to your entrants’ followers when they enter.
50. Offer exclusive deals - Offer your Twitter followers group deals that they can only get if they follow you.
51. Use sweepstakes and giveaways - Like group deals, offer your Twitter followers the chance to win from you. Host Twitter sweepstakes and g
iveaways available only to your followers.
52. Use promoted tweets - Use ads on Twitter to promote your best tweets. Get them seen by your followers and potential new followers.
53. Use promoted trends and accounts - Use other Twitter ad products, to promote your Twitter account and hashtag trends.
54. Target your ads - Target to your Twitter ads to reach people who are like people who already follow you. Target your ads based on Twitter users’ interests. Geo-target your ads too.
55. Launch a new product live on Twitter - Host a live tweet event to extend the reach of your product launch. Set up a hashtag, and get people tweeting as you launch live. You could use live tweets as regular Q&A sessions too, to connect with your market, and get more followers.
Monitor Results: Be an Overseer
56. Monitor results - Always monitor your Twitter (and social media in general) results. Use Twitter analytics, or other third party dashboards.
57. Track your links - Use a link shortner like Bit.ly to keep track of your click through rates.
58. Tweet at different times - Tweet outside of regular business hours. Use a social media management tool to schedule your tweets, and make your life a little easier!
59. Tweet on weekends too - Your customers are actively tweeting on weekends, make sure you’re connecting with them when they are. Check your analytics to determine your best tweeting days, and times.
60. Improve your tweets - Based on your analytics, improve your tweeting practices. If your Followers love your quotes, keep tweeting quotes. If a particular hashtag is getting you more followers, engage more on that tag.
61. Tweet your Twitter Twell - studies have shown that the more you tweet, the more followers you’re likely to have (users who have written 
under 1000 tweets typically have fewer than 100 followers, while those who have tweeted more than 10,000 times usually have followings of between 1000-5000 people).
62. Ideal for Small Businesses - Indeed, if you’re a small business or brand, Twitter will actually help bring in new customers. By a margin of 64 percent, users are more likely to buy from brands they follow on Twitter, according to an infographic by analytics company KISSmetrics.
63. Merge your LinkediIn Contacts to your Email Lists - As you’re more likely to be followed by someone you already have a relationship with, we recommend finding your LinkedIn connections on Twitter and following them. Technically, Twitter doesn’t have a way to do this, so we’ve found a workaround.
First, visit your LinkedIn Contacts page and select “settings.” From there you’ll have the option to export your contacts into a .CSV file. The file can then be seamlessly uploaded to your email account contacts. Then from Twitter, you’ll be able to import your email contacts, which will include your LinkedIn connections, choosing which of them you want to follow.
64. Use a timesaving tool to schedule your tweets. Free and low-cost tools like Hootsuite allow you to schedule your tweets in advance so that you maintain a consistent flow of content, while saving time. People who post content on a regular basis tend to see more engagement and followers.
65. Tweet those Chats - Join a Twitter chat. Every week, groups within various industries get together on Twitter to talk about a topic. By joining these chats and engaging with others, you’ll get the opportunity to meet new people in your sector, play the role of an industry insider, and learn valuable information. Some notable chats include #CustServ, #blogchat, #tchat, #HBRchat, and #mediachat.
Last Tips Section
66. A Tweet Break - Multitask. As some of us have spare pockets of time that we could put to use. For instance, tweet while commuting to and from work on the bus or train. Tweet while on the bike at the gym, during commercials of your favorite shows; tweet while in the waiting room for the dentist.
67. Be a Mirror - Respond to people who are interested in similar content. When you comment on, retweet, or favorite a Twitter post, consider following users who also engaged with the post. The users will notice that you share similar interests in content and therefore be more inclined to follow you.
68. Everyone loves Quotes - Tweet inspirational quotes. Quotes tend to see higher engagement on Twitter because people enjoy reading them and sharing with others. With the free app Forismatic, for instance, you will receive a wide array of inspiring quotes that y
ou can instantly post to Twitter. This will help you to increase engagement, as well as save time.
69. Find Your Clones - Follow users who follow your followers. By utilizing a free and low-cost tool like Tweepi, you can scan the list of accounts that follow your own followers on Twitter. As they are likely to share similar interests, you may consider following them as well.
70. Shorter Tweets matter - Go for short but meaty tweets. According to Social Media Examiner, shorter tweets get 17% higher engagement from other users. Short tweets allow room for conversations, and a greater audience for retweeting and commenting.
71. Ask for a Retweet - sometimes all you have to do is ask. Trying to ask for retweets is a huge opportunity that most brands fail to realize. Reports say that asking for retweets results in 12 or more times RTs. Moreover, spelling out the entire word, ‘retweet’ than the abbreviation RT is 23 times higher than the latter. Then again, make sure that your requests are once in a while; too much might be annoying.
72. Video Mentions - Have a video embedded in your blot post that you tweet. With “Video” mentioned in the subject line, expect a lot more opens and click-throughs.
73. Share rather than Promote - It’s not just about you. According to recent research, we humans spend 60% of our time talking about ourselves. The number increases to 80% on social media. Writing quality tweets is about how you can help your audience and the community you are a part of. Focus on helping and interacting, show your authentic human side. This all starts by not talking about your services from the beginning. Build a relationship first.
74. Be a Person - Behind every brand is a person. Remember that social media is just about people talking. If they like you as a person, they might start to be curious about your brand and help support it. Retweet the posts of others, a retweet is the equivalent of spending in an economy, teh energy circulates.
75. Attention span - be realistic. Have you been reading this article word for word? More than likely you are skimming it. We attract like-minded people to our businesses. To understand your patience level, test your own attention span. When you know how much content you pay attention to in an email, you will know how much detail to include. Think about what you read, what made you lose interest? And learn from that in the content you tweet.
Test your attention span here!
76. Speak to their Fears - think “sales” in the back of your mind. Everyone has a fear of something. Your job is to understand how to reduce that fear with your service. Taking social-industrial psyhology to the next level this means your wording should mirror these fears. The best tweets are those that strike an emotional chord with your target audience.
77. Less is More - literally. Twitter gives you 140 characters to play with. Should you use all your characters? Ideally, no. Leave some space for other tweeters to add comments and mentions when they retweet or quote you; it will encourage sharing and conversation.
78. Choose the Right Followers - targeting is key. This means that you should not be focusing on Tom, Dick and Harry. Instead, you should be focusing on laser targeted audience which has a high probability of resharing your posts, tweets and even connect with you further! Don’t think of poeple in your industry as competitors, rather think of them as collaborators, we are living in the information age after all.
I hope you enjoyed our exploration
of twitter. Do you have a favorite twitter tip to share?
P.S. Don’t forget twitter has a ton of tools to help you manage it effectively Click here.
