Six Tips for Getting the Most out of Your Small Business Tweets

Are you active on Twitter? Looking for more ways to improve the effectiveness of your Tweets?

Getting the most out of our Tweets can really improve your brand exposure, drive traffic to your website, and show that you are active and engaged with your customers and prospects.

But to do this you need to step back and assess where you are today and ask yourself a few questions about your Twitter strategy. For example:

  • Do you find that you are largely using Twitter to share information about your business? Whether it's events, promotions, blogs, new product launches, and so on? This is great, but it's a one-way dialog and does nothing to invite engagement.
  • Do you know how to find and communicate with your target audience?
  • How long are your Tweets? Length can impact the potential reach of your Tweets.
  • Are you wary of Tweeting the same message too many times at the risk of seeming repetitive?
  • What do your Twitter analytics say about the time of day that you send your Tweet or whether one message has more resonance than others?

They may seem like obvious questions, but they are easily overlooked in the push to maintain a steady Twitter feed while juggling your other daily tasks. However, making a few simple adjustments to your Twitter strategy can quickly earn you new followers and increase your influence.

Here are just a few tips to help you get more out of our small business Tweets.

 

How to Find Your Target Market

Twitter isn't as completely random in terms of who finds or follows who. There are a number of ways you can hone in on your target market.

One of the easiest ways it to search for keywords and hashtags that people are using in the body of their Tweets using Twitter's very own search tool. Running a search for keywords that relate to your business specialty will uncover a newsfeed of active Tweets that feature those terms. A quick scan at these will often reveal your target market, i.e., people who are predisposed to like or have interest in what you have to offer – give them a follow! The other great feature of the search tool is that it allows you to narrow your search geographically and pinpoint people within a certain radius of your business.

In addition, if you find some folks who you believe are influencers in your market – take a look at who is following them and extend a follow to those who are a good fit for you. This extends your reach into a potentially lucrative gold mine of brand advocates.

 

How to Engage with Your Target Market

You don't have to engage everyone that appears in your Twitter keyword search, but it's worth investing some time each week to get to know what people are saying about your market, what they like, what they are seeking. When appropriate, simply say "hello" and give them a follow. 

From here you can start to build relationships with this willing and targeted body of followers who hopefully have a propensity to read, re-Tweet, and spread the word about your business via Twitter.

 

Tweet Often

The more you Tweet the more you boost your search engine optimization (SEO) and visibility in your follower's news feeds. How often is often? Anywhere between 5-10 Tweets a day is your target. Use free Twitter tools like Hootsuite and TweetDeck to schedule your Tweets in advance.

 

Shake Your Message Up

As every good marketer knows, tone and style are a huge factor in ensuring that your message stands out, resonates, and promotes action. Tweeting is like conversation, putting out static updates or statements will fall on flat ears, but engaging, teasing, querying, and showing interest will promote action. So shake your message up, use the words your audience uses, sprinkle in some hashtags and go on and tease a little. So, instead of saying:

We're giving away 2 bagels for the price of one at BagelFest on Nov 25, 4-8 PM <LINK>

Tweet this:

We know you love them! Get 2 bagels for the price of one on 11/25. Find out where <LINK>

 

Change Your Headlines

If you've got a message that you really need to repeat more than once, change your headline each time. This will ensure your Tweet resonates with different people and generates more exposure.

 

Keep Your Tweets Well Under the 140 Character Count

Lengthy Tweets are a very common problem in the Twitter-sphere. Why? Because a Tweet that is too long requires editing by the person who re-Tweets it. Keep your Tweets as brief as possible and make it easier for your followers to spread the word.


Source: Caron Beesley
Public Domain Mark This work is in the Public Domain.

Last modified: Thursday, January 21, 2021, 5:12 PM