Your business, big or small, needs to be on Twitter. Not convinced? OK, let’s let the bigwigs at Twitter HQ have their say:-
I know what you are thinking: They would say that. And you’d be correct.
However, at the time of writing 70% of small businesses are on Twitter. Over 90% of them rate it as the most valuable of all social channels and there’s plenty of reasons why.
For starters, more than half of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products. The average user follows five or more businesses. It’s a massive audience to turn your back on.
Roughly 42% of Twitter users use the platform to learn about products and services, and 37% will purchase from a brand they follow.
Engage with them, develop your brand and make Twitter work for you. Still not convinced? Check out Aaron Lee’s 10 essential uses of Twitter for businesses.
These case studies courtesy of Jeff Bullas might give you some food for thought. Still craving more case studies? Say no more…
A week or so ago a client came to us looking to make more of their Twitter presence.
They did have some followers, about 175 to be precise. But they had been stranded somewhere between the 125 and 175 mark for over six months.
And they weren’t engaging with their audience either.
They wanted more followers but quality was just as important as quantity.
They didn’t want to just buy a few thousand Twitter followers – they wanted to form genuine, beneficial relationships with a Twitter following who contributed.
So we took a look under the bonnet. We’ve only just started and we’ve got a long old road ahead of us but things are already perking up, with 75 new followers in the first two or three days. Here’s the graph:-
OK so these numbers are hardly going to shake the world of social media marketing to its core but they can start to make a difference for a small business so what are our tips?:-
1 Make your bio intriguing so you stand out from the crowd
According to digital marketing guru Neil Patel “the goal of a Twitter bio is to get followed”.
The bio is the first thing you read when you come across a profile and it was the first thing we looked at for our client.
It should be accurate and give details about your business. But it needs to do more than just be informative.
A bio should be targeted: Who is your audience? Who do you want to attract? What will appeal to them?
Ask yourself why you are worth following. What are you offering? A little intrigue can help as long as your audience has a decent idea what they are going to get from following you.
A bio should be connected: Get a relevant hashtag in there or an “@” mention. This will make your profile more likely to appear in Twitter searches.
You need to do all that in 160 characters, including a call to action.
2 Don’t just look interesting and useful. Be interesting and useful!
Our client was posting regularly. But not regularly enough.
There is a direct correlation between the number of Tweets and the number of followers on business profiles. Activity encourages followers – there’s no use in following a silent account.
There isn’t a hard-and-fast rule about how often you should Tweet, but most businesses should try roughly three times a day or more, evenly spread out.
That increases their chances of reaching more of their following.
However, for our client, we are posting more regularly than that – every hour or two. And we are seeing the results.
We are scouring the web for useful, insightful and relevant content to share. There’s plenty out there!
Our client blogs regularly and it goes without saying we are sharing that content too. It’s unique and it lends authority to their profile.
Their followers were used to just seeing adverts and plugs. Now they are being bombarded with quality and the retweets and favourites are starting to pour in.
As the impressions per post grow so does the follower count.
But it isn’t just the nature of the content that is attracting follows.
We try our best to ensure our Tweets are succinctly written. A good Tweet is a close relation to a good headline. It’s got to be snappy. It’s got to attract attention.
Also, we stuck our head above the Twitter parapet. We threw in hashtags (never more than two at a time) and we mentioned current followers, other profiles in the industry, even competitors.
Engagement often breeds engagement, and before we knew it our client was at the centre of several different conversations – resulting in follows.
Building on this, we hosted a Twitter chat. It wasn’t large scale but it pulled in new followers. Host your own regular chat or jump in on daily events to get your business noticed.
3 Connect with others and they will connect with you – kind of!
Okay, this sub-title might be a little misleading.
We would never advocate following Twitter accounts left, right and centre just to get followers in return.
This results in a news feed populated with irrelevant material and a disinterested unengaged following.
Instead we are being selective in who we are following. We are focusing on relevant profiles that are not only active and provide value in their Tweets, but who also seem to be engaging regularly with others.
We are following it up with direct messages to a few of them. Nothing too strong, just a few words saying we are looking forward to their Tweets.
Flattery goes a long way on Twitter. Now we’re not saying be a suck up. Just play the game.
Summing up – how to boost your Twitter following in no time
Being on Twitter is a must. If your business isn’t on there yet have a read of our guide on how to get started.
Having an engaged following is important – without it, a lot of the plus points of being a business on Twitter become redundant.
You’ll need to make an effort to follow the right people and provide relevant and useful content.
Everyone has to start somewhere and even another 40 or 50 Twitter followers can help you get the ball rolling.
If you’re struggling to get your follower count up – or you just want to see a bit more of activity on your page – give us a ring for a no-obligation chat.
Hopefully the above helps but if you are still hungering for more have a look at this, courtesy of our friends at Salesforce…
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Via Salesforce