Twitter has leveled the playing field for small businesses to take on global brands. With 284 million active users, a single Tweet has the potential to go far beyond any other form of communication and at an unprecedented speed. And with 72% of people more likely to buy from a company they follow on Twitter, small businesses everywhere need to start thinking big and take advantage of Small Business Saturday coming up in the UK (it was last week in the US).
A solid foothold on Twitter can be a challenge if your brand isn’t yet established, so to help your SME take that initial leap from unknown to well-known, we’ve compiled six essential steps to optimizing your Twitter account and getting the most out of the socially active audience. If you follow these tips and use our checklist below then you’ll have a Twitter strategy that matches your aspirations in no time.
First things first, optimize your profile to reflect your branding. A five-star branded Twitter profile will not only be eye catching, it will be easy for people to find you and fall in love with you on Twitter. Here’s a couple of quick pointers:
You’ve got 160 characters to get your point across, so keep it short and snappy for maximum effect. Having relevant industry keywords and key information about your business can vastly improve the likelihood of potential customers discovering your profile.
Twitter has put an increasing emphasis on the visual aspect of its profile, so use this to your advantage. Get rid of that default egg avatar immediately and upload a photo of your brand logo. Your cover image needs to be 1500 x 500 pixels and avatar image: 500 x 500 pixels.
Add important details, like your website URL and location in the allocated spots under your bio. With 33% of people discovering brands through social media, these small tweaks again have the added benefit of making it easier for customers to find you. A willingness to disclose your location and an external web URL that users can visit paints the picture of a trustworthy, accountable brand on Twitter… as well as driving valuable traffic to your website.
Before you start Tweeting away, you need to think about your tone of voice. Think about how you want to portray your business to the world.
Don’t be afraid to let your brand’s personality, shine through. An appealing brand personality can give you a unique edge over a much larger but less personal competitor, regardless of how big their marketing budget is. Find out what works for you and hone in on it. It’s easier if you think of your business’ key message points and design your communication style from there.
Be friendly and festive with your posts versus just sales-y and
pushy with your social media posts. Yes, 'tis the season for selling... but it's also the season to let your customers know how much you appreciate them and to offer friendly, festive, fun posts in the midst of all the sales pitches customers are being bombarded with daily while online.”
Nicole Leinbach-Reyhle, Small Business Saturday Spokesperson and Retail Expert
Another way to expand your reach is to join in industry Twitter chats. No matter how niche your business is there is likely to be one relevant to you. Chats can help to assert your business knowledge and connect with specialists who may be influential in your field. Remember not to be too salesy in a chat, offering useful advice will help let potential customers know you’re an expert in your field.
Intelligent usage of hashtags in your Tweets can further expand your reach, generate leads and provoke engagement with a wider audience. Not only that, but according to a recent study by Audiense and Hubspot: “Tweets from businesses that include hashtags are 33% more likely to get Retweeted than Tweets without hashtags.”
A ‘build it and they will come’ strategy will not work on Twitter. In order to attract followers you need to Tweet, be part of conversations, and follow other Twitter users. Building a social presence that’s engaging and interesting will help to increase your following, meaning that any sales Tweets you do will reach a larger audience.
Post sales, incentives, promotions, events and all other ‘above and beyond’ festivities taking place in your store often. Being top of mind in your customer's eyes this time of year is vital.”
Nicole Leinbach-Reyhle, Small Business Saturday Spokesperson and Retail Expert
As Twitter is a two way communication channel it is essential that you keep your ears open to any mentions of your business, your products, or your services. Use a free social media monitoring tool, such as Hootsuite, to set up streams for monitoring your brand @ mentions and any other keywords relevant to your brand.
With 72% of customers expecting complaints on Twitter to be addressed within one hour, monitoring your mentions can directly affect your response time for customer service too. Go that step further and let users know when your support team are available. Sky’s help team have done this perfectly, bonus points if you include additional contact details for customers to use during out-of-hours support queries.
Understand your audience better by using the additional insight that Twitter analytics platforms offer. Outline the key characteristics of the users you’d like to target and use the analytics tools to find out what people who fit that profile are Tweeting about. These insights should help to inform what you’re posting, when you’re Tweeting, and the sort of offers that might work with your target audience. Think of Twitter as a worldwide database, search for the influential users you should be following, create Twitter lists with them in, and begin engaging with them.To keep track of your interactions, implementing CRM software can help your small business get the most out of those Twitter users you start engaging with.
Building a strong Twitter presence requires more than simply selling. The best accounts offer a range of content that engages users and sparks their interest. Using hashtags along with whatever content you share is helpful, but an image can be too as Tweets from businesses that contain images are 34% more likely to get retweeted than one without.
Give your customers a reason to want to engage with you via social media. Share fun facts, offer holiday tips that pertain to your store (such as how to take out wine spills if you sell apparel or best ways to decorate a holiday table if you sell home decor) and ask customers to share, return or respond to get them chatting. Being engaged with your customers via social media is a great way for them to feel better connected to your business - and more likely they will want to shop with you, as well.”
Nicole Leinbach-Reyhle, Small Business Saturday Spokesperson and Retail Expert
We’ve already looked at how your Twitter profile needs to represent your business with the appropriate images, keywords, message points, and website link. A Twitter strategy is no different in its approach than any of your other marketing ventures, so you need to think about how it works in parallel with your other marketing efforts. To be effective, you must outline your communication strategies and define your objectives for the service before jumping in.
Tracking your performance against your outlined objectives is an essential element to your improving your strategy. A Twitter marketing platform, such as Audiense will enable you to analyze and act on Twitter data to grow, engage and monetize their audience. Think about your key performance objectives and what metrics can indicate their level of success.
Twitter has cemented its role in any business’ main practices, such as sales, customer services, and human resources. Twitter has become a key pillar in the marketing plan for both small and big businesses, it is no longer just an optional extra. We hope these top tips will help your business make the most of the service. Are there any that you think we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments section below.