How to Successfully Use Twitter to Market Your Business

For many business owners, using social media as a promotional tool can sometimes feel uncomfortable… They aren’t sure how to effectively use the platforms and they worry about coming off as sleazy with their sales pitches.

But what if you could use Twitter to market your business in a way that feels good? Well, it’s absolutely possible!

How to Successfully Use Twitter to Market Your Business

To help you become a pro at using Twitter as a business owner, just follow these tips and you’re sure to see growth in your following, as well as a boost in engagement.

1. Build a Profile That Stands Out From the Crowd

The first step to take care of is to make sure your profile is complete, while also making it clear what you have to offer people. In order to use Twitter to market your business, you want people to see the value you can add to their lives.

Use your bio and your header image to communicate what you do and who you serve. This way, people can decide if you’re someone they’re interested in right off the bat. And don’t be afraid to add a little personality to the mix! This will help people connect with you and it creates a sense of likability.

2. Create a Posting Schedule to Keep an Active Account

As a business owner on social media, the last thing you want is to be managing a dead account. Your profiles need to be active! And the best way to do this is by creating a posting schedule and using a third party tool to queue up a bunch of posts to go out throughout the day. This way, you’re staying top of mind for your followers, but also boosting your chances of reaching new people.

The key to developing an effective schedule is making sure you have tweets going out at different times of the day. Morning, afternoon, and night should be covered because you have followers in various time zones and across multiple countries. Make sure you’re reaching them by posting when they’re online.

And as for how many posts you should queue up for each day, CoSchedule’s research (shown above) suggests 15 tweets. Test it out and see how that works for you.

3. Share the Content That Will Attract Your Target Audience

Seeing your audience grow is an incredible feeling. But the reality is, building an audience of all the wrong people won’t serve you in the long run. It’s much better to establish a community of people who are in your target audience… Those who are going to be interested in your content, as well as your paid offerings.

In order to attract the right people to your Twitter profile, it’s important that you’re sharing the content they’ll love. Think about what you can share that would appeal to your target audience and serve them in the best way possible.

What are they struggling with? And how can you help? Are there specific tips you know they’d benefit from? What content formats would they be most interested in? All of these are helpful to consider when scheduling your next batch of tweets.

4. Experiment With Video Content to Grab Attention

Instead of posting only text tweets or tweets with graphics… Why not try adding some videos to the mix? You can create videos that share your business story, promote your offerings, provide valuable tips, or give tutorials on your products. The opportunities are endless, so it’s worth trying out and seeing how it works for you!

What an amazing #TwitterSmarter chat today with @TedRubin. Did you enjoy it? What’s your biggest takeaway? Comment below. Brownie points for a video reply! pic.twitter.com/Hz94EsG7zt

— Madalyn Sklar ? Digital Marketing since 1996 (@MadalynSklar) September 5, 2019

In the above tweet, you can see I used video to keep the conversation going after a live #TwitterSmarter chat wrapped. If you need some video ideas, this post has eight you can use!

5. Choose the Right Hashtags to Expand Your Reach

When you use Twitter to market your business, you obviously want to make sure plenty of eyes are seeing your tweets. And the best way to do that? Make sure you’re using relevant hashtags whenever you post. This will increase the likelihood that your target audience will see your content, thus increasing your following and boosting engagement.

But what’s the secret to becoming a pro at Twitter hashtags? I have a post all about using hashtags on Twitter that will help you out. It shares how to choose the right hashtags, how many to add to each tweet, and more.

6. Promote Your Business With Your Pinned Tweet

An example of a pinned tweet from my profile.

Are you taking full advantage of the valuable real estate that is your pinned tweet? If not, you absolutely should be! This is a prime spot on your Twitter profile that will garner a lot of attention when people visit your page. Use it to promote something in your business like your email opt-in or a paid offering that you currently have for sale.

7. Actively Seek Potential Leads Instead of Waiting for Them to Show Up

Your tweets absolutely have the power to bring qualified leads to your business. But the thing is, sitting back and waiting for those people to discover you just isn’t the smartest way to go about it. You should make the effort to seek out new leads if you truly want to increase your business growth.

One great way to find potential leads is to search Twitter for relevant hashtags and topics that your target audience would be discussing. Then, you can discover conversations where you could potentially jump in and offer your advice. This post has even more strategies on using Twitter for lead generation.

8. Focus on Having Genuine Conversations With Your Community

If you’re not engaging with other users on social media, you’re really missing the point! Social media is such an incredible tool that allows us to connect with people all over the world with just the click of a button. It’s important that you’re taking advantage of that by having conversations with those in your target audience, especially if you plan to use Twitter to market your business.

Part of being a successful business owner is building the Know, Like, and Trust Factor. You need to develop a relationship with people before you can expect them to purchase your products and services. And that all starts with having conversations.

Need help getting the conversation started? Read my post with six easy hacks to generate more conversations on Twitter.

9. And Make Connections With Influencers in Your Industry

While you’re having conversations with your target audience, it’s also worthwhile to connect with influencers who could potentially benefit your business as well. You could collaborate on campaigns or projects, but you never know when someone might recommend you to another person. Having those relationships in place can really go a long way.

10. Create Twitter Lists to Make it Easy to Stay in Touch

As you’re making all of these new connections, you’ll obviously want to keep in touch with people after you’ve had your initial conversation. This is where Twitter Lists really comes in handy. You can create lists that house all the people you’ve met. (Read all about creating lists here.)

Just some of my Twitter Lists!

One list can be for potential leads, as in people you think may want to purchase your products and services. You can also have a list for influencers so you can stay updated with them. The reason this is beneficial when you use Twitter to market your business is because it helps you prioritize relationship building, which pays off in the long run.

11. Join Twitter Chats to Gain Exposure & Meet New People

Twitter chats are amazing for a number of reasons. But the key here isn’t to use Twitter chats as a way of outright promotion. It’s not cool to pop into someone else’s chat and pitch yourself. Instead, it’s better to use chats as a way to establish your authority by sharing valuable information.

During the chat, you can also reply to other participants to get the conversation going. You never know when someone you meet in a Twitter chat might buy something from you or share your work with a friend. Get more Twitter chat tips in my post.

12. Research Your Competition to Learn About Your Audience

Another smart strategy to implement when you use Twitter to market your business is to study your competitors. And it’s not so you can copy them! You want to research them to see what they’re doing that you could potentially incorporate into your own strategy. Maybe your biggest competitor is doing really well with video on Twitter. Maybe you could give that a try?

Or is there something you feel is missing from their strategy that would allow you to pick up the slack? You can learn a lot from what they’re succeeding at and where they’re failing.

13. Make Advertising Part of Marketing Strategy

And finally, if you really want to get your business out into the world, give ads a go. While it might seem scary to put money into your social media strategy, it can have a huge pay-off. Use ads to promote something that would be really valuable for your audience.

Ads are great for promoting an email opt-in to generate more subscribers. During a launch, you could boost sales by sharing your offer. It’s all about making it work for you!