Twitter has quickly become the go-to online platform for businesses to promote their services and interact directly with customers. I know it’s a lot of fun to spend time staying up to date with your favourite celebrities and commenting on the newest episode of Downton Abbey but the reality is that Twitter can be the Holy Grail of business marketing. In this article we consider 3 ways that you can optimise your profile to get the most for your business out of Twitter.
To make your Twitter profile as visible as possible it is imperative that you create an online identity which will appeal to your target audience.
I know this sounds like an obvious one, but it’s surprising how many organisations have Twitter profiles without relevant ‘avatars’ (profile pictures) or without a picture at all. You need to be able to make an impact straight away otherwise you’ll lose your potential customer’s attention. Using the pre-loaded, automatic ‘egg’ image will show your organisation as unprofessional and will not attract anyone. Instead, opt for an image of your logo, build your brand awareness and make yourself easily identifiable.
It’s also worth saying that you should keep your ‘handle’ (or what comes after the ‘@’ symbol) as close to your business’ actual name as possible so that you can be found effortlessly. Who knows who might be out there looking for your services?
A Twitter profile’s ‘Bio’ is a 160 character biography that will explain what it is that you do and the services that you provide. If you want to be searchable for specific things on Twitter, the words that you use in your ‘bio’ will act as keywords. With only 160 short characters it is essential that you clearly define who you are. Aim to achieve a perfect and concise description without sounding too sales-y.
So, you have a brilliant profile; a top class bio and your brand is everywhere, but how do you make sure everyone knows about your organisation? Think about how you can appeal to users. Try adding relevant hashtags to your posts so that your profile comes up during Twitter searches. Not only does this allow you to connect directly with potential customers but it enables them to find you. Be cautious when using hashtags though, although tweets with one or two hashtags tot up a 12% higher engagement rate than those without, using more than two can be a disaster for your visibility. Overusing hashtags will actually drop your engagement rate by 17%.
Build relationships with your followers by retweeting and replying to posts that you’ve been mentioned in. Make sure that all responses are relevant to what it is you are trying to portray. Prove that your business is worth being a part of.
3. Increase Your Tweet VolumeOnce you’ve engaged your potential customers you will need to keep them entertained or informed. Businesses thriving on social media sites do so because they are updating their content regularly. An easy way to make regular tweets without tiring yourself out is to dedicate a day to writing them and using a scheduler such as Buffer or Hootsuite to plan them. This means that you are able to respond more quickly to other users and still keep your followers entertained.
If your tweets become infrequent and boring, you may find yourself losing followers and therefore custom. Give yourself a pattern to tweet by; hashtags such as #tbt (throwback Thursday) are used on a number of social media platforms including Instagram and Facebook to show something funny or retro and are a regular weekly post that followers may look specifically for. Focus on news-based tweets for the beginning of the week and consider writing funnier or more entertaining tweets towards the end.
To get the best out of your Twitter profile it’s important to use it in the most effective way. With only 140 characters it is imperative that you keep your tweets current and relevant. Optimise your profile to build a brand which is identifiable whilst giving your followers something interesting to read.
With approximately 500 million tweets sent every day, what will make yours stand out? Please share your comments below…
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