Twitter is, without a doubt, one of the most valuable online business assets you can have. When customers choose to engage with you, you have a higher chance of reaching them with your message. Still, it is important that you optimize your business’s Twitter presence, or else you may find that customers are hesitant to follow you. With a large, receptive Twitter following, you can drive traffic to your business’s website as well as subtly advertise your newest products.
Below you’ll find seven ways to better utilize Twitter for business…
1. Use hashtags
The hashtag, “#,” is a very powerful tool. With it, you can mark every tweet you send out with your brand. More importantly, you can then track this hashtag at www.hashtags.org to see who’s talking about you. There’s no registration process involved in creating a hashtag. Simply go to the link above and search for the hashtag you want to use. If no results come up, that means no one is using it, and you’re good to go.
2. Tweet often, but don’t spam
It stands to reason that users who follow your business are interested in your product, but that doesn’t give you a license to bombard your followers with spam. To avoid losing followers, try to maintain a balance between non-promotional tweets and promotional tweets. For best results, shoot for a ratio of 3:1. Try to tweet most often on topics that are related to your business, and give your followers valuable information. This will pay off in the long run as you gain more followers, and retain the ones you already have.
3. Use Twitter’s search function, and use it often
Twitter’s search function, located at www.twitter.com/search, is a powerhouse of information. Not only can you search for your brand name, you can also search for your brand in conjunction with hashtags. With these two searches, you can immediately get an idea of what potential customers are saying about your brand, as well as what they are associating your company with. Don’t forget that you can search for a specific phrase by encapsulating it in quotes.
4. Follow Twitter users who tweet about your industry
While related to the previous point, this tip stands on its own. This is perhaps your best chance to find Twitter users who will be eager to follow you. By tweeting about your industry, they have expressed an interest, and may convert into customers at some point down the road once you get them into your sales funnel.
5. Reward your loyal followers
By occasionally running promotions for your followers, you make it less likely that you’ll lose them when you send a series of promotional tweets. You can hold contests, offer coupons, or send details about promotions through Twitter Direct Messages.
6. Engage customer complaints
Take advantage of Twitter’s open platform by showing competitors and potential customers that you have nothing to hide. Don’t shy away from complaints by ignoring them. Instead, actively respond to them and ask for more information. Engage the other party and show them that you care. If you do this consistently, customers will sit up and take notice.
7. Expound on your links
Every business wants their followers to click their links. This is understandable. However, it is important that you frame your links in an interesting light. For instance, if you are trying to get your followers to visit your company’s blog, frame your tweet in such a way that it is a short summary, and not a call to action.
Implementing these seven principles will not only gain you more followers in the long run, it will increase the receptiveness of your audience as well. Both of these factors, combined with a winning product and a sound all-around marketing plan, can lead to increased conversions. This, in turn, can lead to less reliance over time on more expensive advertising channels such as print media, television and radio.
About the Author: This is a blog post written by Ethan Henry. is an writer and blogger who reports on new trending technology. He mainly writes on topics related to Social Media, Mobile and telecommunications. He currently writes for AT&T technologies. You can review AT&T offers by going to Att uverse coupon.