Six Reasons Twitter is (Still) a Great Social Media Channel for Business

Guest post by Nikola Roza.

Despite its mistakes, Twitter remains a go-to social media marketing platform for many marketers, and reach is a big reason why. The monthly active user base of Twitter is well over 290 million right now and is predicted to reach 340 million by 2024.

Moreover, 4.8% of marketers around the world use Twitter to promote their business.  Here are six detailed reasons why a solid Twitter presence is important for your online business.

Six Reasons Your Brand Needs a Twitter Presence

#1- Brand Building

Being active on Twitter can help tremendously with your brand-building efforts.

This is because the social media platform provides:

• Massive reach
• Effective marketing tools

A unique attribute of Twitter is your reach and engagement happen fast, as people tend to engage on Twitter as soon as you post your content.

You can use this in your favor and reach your audience whenever you have something interesting to say. Help them understand how your brand can address their problems.

Expert tip: Unlike other social media platforms, you can post on Twitter every hour or so to maximize your reach.

Here are five ways Twitter can help you build your brand:

• Publishing regular Tweets enables you to establish a solid presence.
• You can create lists to keep in touch with the right people.
• Effective interaction with a Twitter audience allows you to build trust with them.
• Using Twitter Hashtags makes your brand visible for relevant search queries.
• Sharing high-quality, helpful content on Twitter helps you position your brand as an industry leader.

You get a lot of opportunities on Twitter to make your brand more visible to your target audience.

If you follow the right strategies, the social platform can help speed up your brand-building process.

#2- Bonding with Followers

One of the reasons Twitter marketing is so effective is that it lets you bond with your audience personally.

But you need to use effective strategies to build rapport with your Twitter followers. You need to show them that you respect and care about them.

Six ways to do that effectively:

a) Showcase Your Brand’s Personal Side

Share your brand’s story, the team you work with, and what goes on behind-the-curtains with your followers.

 b) Respond to Comments

Responding to your followers’ comments will make them feel respected and valued. So, whenever your followers connect with you in the comments section of your Tweets, respond with a personalized message.

c) Always Be Authentic

The digital world is over-commercialized, so being authentic helps you stand out. Avoid getting too promotional with your content and add genuine value to your followers’ lives.

d) Conduct Q&As

One of the best ways to engage your audience and address their questions is by hosting a live Q&A on Twitter.

Livestreams are intimate and engaging, which helps you showcase the authentic side of your brand to followers.

e) Use Quizzes

Another excellent way to build genuine rapport with your audience is to post interesting quizzes on your profile (engaging quizzes can be made for free with Interact Quiz or Kyleads), and as people take them, you’ll get an accurate user profile of your average Twitter follower. This kind of deep insight can help you bring your Twitter engagement to a whole new level.

 

f) Ask for Suggestions

Ask your followers for suggestions about potential improvements in your products or services now and then.

This will help them recognize how important they are to you and help you improve your products.

The bottom line: If you want to bond with your Twitter audience, show them that you respect them and care about them.

#3- Putting out Fires Before They Turn into Infernos

No matter how great your business is, there will always be some dissatisfied customers. It’s human nature to complain. You want to manage complaints effectively as soon as they arise.

You need to put out fires before they turn into infernos. Your dissatisfied customers can be a real danger to your hard-earned reputation.

Here are a few tips for managing dissatisfied customers on Twitter:

a) Respond Quickly

If someone isn’t happy with your product, one of the first things they might do is drop you a message.

To avoid further dissatisfaction, respond to them as quickly as possible.

The faster you put out a fire, the less likely it will spread.

b) Offer a Solution

They might have a problem with a specific aspect of your product, or not understand how to use a particular feature.

Whatever the case, try to offer the best solution and compensate for any inconvenience if possible. Research shows that putting the onus on a dissatisfied customer to fix a problem can work against your brand.

If possible, fix their issue for them to give them an effortless experience.

c) Offer Something for Free

If you think you are at fault, offering something for free to the discontented customer can work pretty well. It can even help you retain that customer for the long term, turning the tables around in your favor.

#4- Monitoring Competitors

No matter what business you are in, your competitors are present on Twitter. And you can learn a lot by keeping an eye on their strategies.

See what’s working for them and what isn’t. Then, you will be able to steer your marketing strategy in the right direction by mimicking successful tactics.

 a) Monitor Their Replies

Observe how your competitors respond to their audience. This will tell you a lot about their customer support strategy and also how you should engage with your following.

b) See What They Tweet

Keeping tabs on what your competitors post on social media tells you a lot about their strategies. You can use an app like IFTTT (If This Then That) to save and track competitors’ Tweets.

c) Analyze Their Followers

One effective way to build your audience is by tapping into your competitor’s.

Thankfully, tools like Tweepi make this pretty easy. Just search their username, and it will show you their followers’ list.

#5- Relationship Building

Posting regularly on Twitter builds your Twitter presence, but the strategy that helps you generate leads is relationship building.

Here are four ways to build lasting relationships with your Twitter followers.

a) Be Helpful

One of the most effective ways to build relationships with a social media audience is by helping people find answers to their questions.

In addition to helping your current audience, you can even do a quick hashtag search, see what other users are looking for and be a helpful resource for them.

b) Follow Up

Reaching out to someone in their inbox just to thank them is a pretty effective way to start a relationship on a positive note.

So, do that whenever someone follows you on Twitter.

Pro tip: never use a social automation tool to schedule Twitter DM’s. It’s completely transparent and using them will leave your brand looking bland and inauthentic—or worse, spammy—which is far from the impression you want to make.

c) Engage with Your Audience

Have one-on-one interaction with your audience, reply to them in your Tweets, and encourage them to engage with you. 70% of Millennials follow their favorite brands on social media to engage with them and receive exclusive benefits.

d) Encourage Your Followers to Share Their Stories

Your Twitter presence shouldn’t be only about your business. To create lasting relationships with your followers, you need to go the extra mile.

Show your followers that you care about what’s going on in their lives. Ask them to share their personal stories if they want. The more you use conversational English, the easier it is for your followers to want to respond.

You can use this tactic to generate positive testimonials and reviews for your products. Just ask them to share their experience with your product.

#6- Careful Selling and Marketing

a) Don’t Be Too Salesy

You should focus most of your Twitter communication on relationship building. The remaining tweets can be promotional but not overly salesy.

Focus on consistently adding value to your followers’ lives, and you’ll sell your products without selling.

b) Offer Great Content

Content marketing is crucial for long term success.

Content marketing, i.e., developing a content calendar, publishing regularly, and promoting each article and blog post to your audience on Twitter will not only boost your website traffic but also generate high-quality leads without you appearing overly promotional at all.

Share well-crafted SEO content that not only resonates with your current followers but also attracts new ones.

You also don’t want to bore your audience with consistent promotional messages. Plus, add fun to your posts to encourage your audience to engage.

Also, post a variety of content to boost engagement. It could be images, explainer videos, infographics (easily made for free with a tool like Visme), and articles.

c) Leverage Your Customers

One of the most cost-effective ways to sell more is by delighting your existing customers with top-notch service.

Even after you’ve sold your product to a customer, help them get the most out of it with proper guidance.

This will make them your brand advocates, attracting more qualified leads to your business.

d) Use Customer Testimonials

Customer testimonials are an integral part of a winning website design.

But earning trust is a tough ask these days.

Positive testimonials are one of the best ways to get your audience to trust your brand. So, encourage your current customers to write reviews if they liked your product.

And once you have a couple of glowing testimonials, add them prominently on your website.

This will work as a lead generation tool and attract more leads to your business, allowing you to generate more conversions without getting too salesy.

Conclusion

Twitter is a go-to social platform for many marketers because of its massive user base and practical marketing tools.

So, as a brand, no matter what business you are in, you need a solid Twitter presence.

Here is a quick recap of the six reasons why your brand needs a Twitter presence.

1. Brand building
2. Bonding with followers
3. Managing dissatisfied customers
4. Monitoring competitors
5. Relationship building
6. Careful selling and marketing

Thank you for reading and have an awesome day!

Nikola Roza is a freelance writer who blogs at nikolaroza.com and whose advice is worth paying attention to, at least occasionally.