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17 Twitter Tips for Your Business – Start Building Your Brand Today

Embracing these 17 Twitter tips can get your brand in front of thousands or even millions of internet users in little time. Twitter for business tips are easy to learn, and you can practice them one by one, over time.

You want to get your brand in front of many viewers as possible. It identifies your business to internet users, customers, businesses, and others. An effective brand promotes your business, portrays your professionalism, and encourages trust.

Kurt Wagner, of Recode, estimates that Twitter sees 157 million users daily, making it a powerful branding tool.  Many businesses, like Major League Baseball, built their brands extensively on Twitter.

Twitter Tips #1: Get Started on Twitter

To effectively establish your brand on Twitter, use these Twitter tips to get your business online and start learning the basics of the platform. You’ll you need to set up your Twitter business profile in a professional manner. Then just start posting and seeing what resonates with your target audience.

Twitter Tips #2: Learn the Twitter Basics

Once you get started using Twitter on a regular basis, you need to establish a group of other Twitter users that you follow. You should also learn how to use hashtags (#), and you should interact with other Twitter users. You’ll also need to keep up with the latest in trends in the Twitter community.

Twitter is very different from social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, in that it’s posts are very short. The Twitter post, known as a tweet, allows you to post up to 140 characters including spaces and punctuation. If you want more effective tweets you might want to limit your characters to only 120, because that leaves space for those who retweet your tweets. Retweets allow you 116 characters, and they allow you to personalize a tweet with an opinion or other information when you forward it.

Twitter Tip #3: Twitter Business Usernames

You establish your business’ Twitter username when you register on the platform. Whatever name you choose, keep it short, easy to remember, and related to your brand. Provide your full name, if your branding yourself, or your business name, when you’re registering on Twitter.

Twitter usernames look like these:

If the name you would like has been taken, you may need to find something different. However, some business owners find that someone already has their registered name, and, when that happens Twitter has a mechanism just for reporting and mitigating trademark issues.

Twitter Tip #4: Tweet & Retweet

You can also retweet your own tweets. Some businesses retweet when good tweets did not get much engagement. A good tweet sometimes just fades away because it went out at the wrong time. Retweeting at the right time might get the engagement the tweet deserved. Engagement varies widely, depending upon the time of day, reported Buffer Social.

You can include another Twitter user in your tweets simply by using his or her username.  When you enter Twitter you will see “Trends for you” (see above). That’s where you’ll see trending topics on Twitter at that particular moment in time.

Twitter Tip #5: Use – Hashtags

You’ll find that Twitter is one of the most important places to use the hashtag:

Using hashtags in your Twitter business profile can help bring traffic to it, highlight your business’ focus areas, and build your network, according to OnSharp. When you start using Twitter, you may find that Twitter users already have a hashtag for your brand. If that’s the case be sure to use it frequently.

Looking for suitable hashtag phrases? Try Hashtagify, to find hashtags related to your niche. It will lead you to hashtags that are very popular or trending at the moment.

Twitter Tip #6: Choose Effective Images

Twitter says that profile images are an important component of a Twitter accounts expression of identity. U.S. Steel, for example, uses its iconic logo for its profile image and its head image shows enormous rolls of steel.

When choosing a header image, look for something that reflects your brand. Be sure to select something that is visually simple, so that it does not distract too much from your profile photo and provides a background for it.

In addition, your tweets can have in-stream photos. In-stream photos, remember, need to be eye-catching. They will be competing with other stream photos on each Twitter user’s wall. They should represent something associated with your branding, its colors, products, or images associated with what you do, where you work, or the people that you work with. Businesses with a strong focus on dining, for example, will feature interesting foods and dining environment shots.

Twitter Tip #7: Tweet Your Brand’s Voice

Just as you use a distinct writing style for your business website, Facebook page, or LinkedIn profile, your business’ Twitter account should reflect a voice distinct from that which you use at home. As you compose tweets, ask yourself:

  • What does the text on my web page “sound” like?
  • Does it speak in the first person or the third person?
  • Does my business have its own lingo?

As you “speak” in Twitter, you speak as a professional in your niche. You speak as you want your customers to “hear.”

Twitter Tip #8: Consistent Tweets Build Followings

Did you ever have a co-worker who showed up late, missed a lot of work days, or even showed up at the wrong time? Twitter is all about fast and furious, and its users are busy. Twitter users expect consistent, regularly scheduled activity. If you post once a month on Twitter, you will lose your following.

Successful Twitter users post frequently and regularly. Some post many times per day. The frequency and quality of interaction your brand imparts show your followers how much interest you have in them. Quality, frequent posting will build your brand on Twitter.

Twitter Tip #9: Engage in Twitter Chats

Twitter chats provide an opportunity to interact more with other Twitter users. Of course, they require more attention and time, but they help you establish your brand as an authority in your niche. Invest time and effort in starting a Twitter chat: interesting, intriguing, provoking, and well written.

Kristi Hines, in “5 Ways Twitter Chats Can Help Your Business,” on Social Media Examiner, described a number of ways that Twitter chats can help your business. For example, she noted, “Hosting an event is a great way for a business to bring its potential and current customer base together to learn, engage and build a deeper relationship. Not all businesses can host a conference or seminar, but every business can host a Twitter chat.”

Twitter Tip #10: Use Twitter for Customer Service

Using Twitter for customer service can increase customer engagement. It can get followers talking about your products or services, and it provides a public, open, transparent medium for mitigating complaints.

If you decide to use Twitter for customer service, make sure that you provide an effective foolproof mechanism to respond to every query on your profile. Customers expect answers on a customer service page.

If you frequently leave your customer service Twitter wall unattended, expect graffiti. Unattended customers become hostile customers, and hostile customers attract other hostile Twitter users.

Twitter Tip #11: Post Positively & Proactively

As with any social medium, keep all interaction on Twitter positive and proactive. Help customers look for proactive solutions, where everyone’s a winner. Keep tabs on tweets moving through your niche, and, be ready to pour on the positive when the negative starts burning.

Twitter Tip #12: Make your 280 Characters Valuable

You want to make sure that you don’t use Twitter to just push your products. You need to offer something that makes you worth following. When you watch television you don’t do it to see advertising; you watch television to see the programs.

Twitter feeds are not much different. People don’t use Twitter to read ads. They want to engage, to meet people, to interact with other people, and see and read new, interesting content. A good tweet contains good content and shares information your audience wants to learn about.

If you only push your product you will have a hard time finding followers. Think about things that your followers would like to know.

If you own a delicatessen, sure, you might post a coupon code for a sandwich, but you’ll also tweet about how to host the perfect event, how to choose a wine that goes with pastrami, choosing the best bread for individual bite-sized sandwiches, or how to consider special dietary needs for a lunch meeting. You’ll find customers looking for your tweets because they’re interesting.

Twitter Tip #13: An Effective Leader Follows

Social media use algorithms to connect people. The more you connect to others in your niche, the more others connect to you. It’s not much different from going to a high school football game with your buddies. The more people you know in the crowd, the more people you meet at every game.

Twitter Tip #14: Vary Your Tweets

If you post a link every time you tweet your followers will stop clicking on your tweets. People enjoy mystery or a surprise now and then. If you usually post with links, try posting without a link. If you normally include two hashtags in your tweet, leaving them out.

Twitter Tip #15: Add Images to Your Tweets

Tweets with images tend to get more engagement than those that have no images, according to Hubspot. One of the most important Twitter tips for your business might be to learn to select good images that reflect your brand.

Try to stay away from free stock photos. If you do start using them, you’ll notice that everybody else is using them too. Your tweets start blending in with the crowd. You can use Twitshot to help you choose the best images.

Twitter Tip #16: Learn Tweet Nuances

You’ll find all kinds of Twitter tips and hints online about the nuances of Twitter. Little things like where you place a hashtag or arroba (@) may produce distinct outcomes. For example, if you want to mention someone you can put an arroba before their username to embed them in your post. You can also use hashtags to add images. You can reduce link characters by using a short link. Knowing these little tricks and Twitter tips can provide you with useful tools to achieve your branding goals.

Twitter Tip #17: Tweet Owls by Night and Eagles by Day

Tweet timing can affect the effectiveness of your tweets. Make sure that you tweet your audience based on their Twitter habits. You can check when your audience members are logging into Twitter by logging into Twitter Analytics. The audience tab will take you to a list of countries, and you can choose the country for the users you’re most interested in reaching.

To learn more about the best time to tweet to your preferred audience, the Tweets tab tells you about individual tweets and when a particular tweet has received the most responses. It can give you an idea of when to start tweeting.

If you use these Twitter tips for businesses, the platform may become one of your most important marketing tools. Take the time to learn about the platform, practice using it, and research the analytics on your tweets. As time passes you will get better and better at tweeting at the right time with the right format and the right words.

Recap:

17 Twitter Tips for Business to Start Building Your Brand:

  • Get Started on Twitter

    To effectively establish your brand on Twitter, use these Twitter tips to get your business online and start learning the basics of the platform.

  • Learn the Twitter Basics

    Once you get started using Twitter on a regular basis, you need to establish a group of other Twitter users that you follow.

  • Twitter Business Usernames

    Provide your full name, if your branding yourself, or your business name, when you’re registering on Twitter.

  • Tweet & Retweet

    A good tweet sometimes just fades away because it went out at the wrong time. Retweeting at the right time might get the engagement the tweet deserved.

  • Use – Hashtags

    Using hashtags in your Twitter business profile can help bring traffic to it, highlight your business’ focus areas, and build your network.

  • Choose Effective Images

    Twitter says that profile images are an important component of a Twitter accounts expression of identity.

  • Tweet Your Brand’s Voice

    Your business’ Twitter account should reflect a voice distinct that distinctly portrays your business.

  • Consistent Tweets Build Followings

    The frequency and quality of interaction your brand imparts show your followers how much interest you have in them.

  • Engage in Twitter Chats

    Twitter chats provide an opportunity to interact more with other Twitter users.

  • Use Twitter for Customer Service

    Using Twitter for customer service can increase customer engagement.

  • Post Positively & Proactively

    Keep all interaction on Twitter positive and proactive.

  • Make your 280 Characters Valuable

    A good tweet contains good content and shares information your audience wants to learn about.

  • An Effective Leader Follows

    The more you connect to others in your niche, the more others connect to you.

  • Vary Your Tweets

    If you post a link every time you tweet your followers will stop clicking on your tweets.

  • Add Images to Your Tweets

    Tweets with images tend to get more engagement than those that have no images.

  • Learn Tweet Nuances

    Knowing little tricks and Twitter tips can provide you with useful tools to achieve your branding goals.

  • Tweet Owls by Night and Eagles by Day

    Tweet timing can affect the effectiveness of your tweets.

Hope these Twitter tips help you get your business in front of the clients and customers you deserve!

If you are interested in making sure your blog posts, product pages, or website is properly optimized, feel free to get your free SEO audit below and let us know if you have any questions!

 

Brad D

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