Yearly Archives: 2012

1. Don’t be a Spammer
There is no quicker way to get people to unfollow you than to spam them with uninteresting, obvious sales tweets. Make your tweets sincere, interesting and of use to your followers! If you have some great blog posts…tweet about them! Relevant news items? Perfect! Be a resource for your followers – not another annoying spammer.

2. Follow People Back
Let’s face it – Chances are you are not a million dollar empire who has access to thousands of loyal followers! You need to work at creating a following and the first step is to follow people back! Twitter offers you the opportunity to get to know both your current customers and your potential customers. By following people back you increase the likelihood that they will continue following you and this allows you to begin developing a relationship with those potential clients.Show an interest in what your followers are saying by occasionally re-tweeting their interesting links, articles and tweets. When you engage with your followers make sure that you have a direct, appealing and personable message. Do not sound like a robot! Also, don`t be afraid to stop following people who are not following you. Check through your list of followers every couple of weeks and weed out those who are not following you back. A great resource for checking who is following your account can be found at: www.friendorfollow.com

3. Meet Your Best Twitter Friend – The Hashtag
Using the # symbol in front of different words converts them into searchable keywords. This means that anyone can perform a search for that word and all of the relevant tweets will be pulled into a single listing. Search out topics that are relevant to your business and then include them in your tweets. Proper Hashtag usage will increase the likelihood of reaching people who are interested in your products/services and help to increase your number of followers.

Sample tweet with good hashtag usage:
Great tips on #website design for your #business in #kitchener!

4. Offer Discounts & Incentives
Reward your loyal followers by offering discounts and incentives that can only be found via your Twitter feed. Make the promotions compelling and exciting and your followers will feel as though they have the inside scoop on your best discounts. This is a simple and cost effective way to market your business and a great way to attract new customers and to retain existing ones.

5. Respond Promptly!
Check your twitter stream regularly and above all don’t leave your followers hanging! If they are tweeting to you then you need to be responding! If they have a problem or issue with one of your products than they expect that you will answer them back promptly! Twitter can be an excellent Customer service tool – use it wisely.

6. Manage Multiple Accounts with a Platform
You can effectively manage your social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) by using a third party application like TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com) or Hootsuite (www.hootsuite.com).

Screenshot of TweetDeck

View all of the information you need from all of your accounts at once and cross-post Tweets to different accounts at the touch of a button. Long URL’s are automatically shortened and you can set it up so that your Facebook posts are automatically posted to Twitter, schedule tweets and quickly review timelines in one application. This can be a great time saver!

7. Be Resourceful!
Establish credibility among your followers by offering industry advice on relevant topics that your company is knowledgeable about. By sending out interesting tweets you increase the likelihood of someone reading and re-tweeting your posts!

If you are a lawn care company tweet about the latest in industry trends, care tips for healthy lawns, or the hottest lawn care tools. Home Improvement Company? Send out seasonally relevant home care tips, do-it-yourself home care projects and new product information.  Do your research and understand what matters most to the people that you are trying to reach.

Twitter can be one of your most valuable social media tools. With over 100,000,000 active users on twitter and and amazing 250,000,000 tweets sent every day, there is an unparalleled opportunity for reaching your potential clients! Using Twitter for business is a great way to share your important information, gather vital marketing intelligence and develop relationships with people who are interested in your company. It offers you the ability to develop relationships with potential clients and can lead to an increase in customers, brand awareness and recognition and will help to ensure your long term success!

Keep in mind that creating a successful Twitter feed requires that you spend the time and effort developing and managing the account. Just as in most things in business – the more you put into it the more you will get out!

More information about using Twitter for business can be found directly at the source.
Visit: http://business.twitter.com/