Twitter for Small Businesses: 9 Marketing Tips to Try

Twitter can be an incredible tool for small businesses, helping you connect with your audience and enhance your brand. The social platform can also be an excellent way to boost brand awareness and expand your reputation. But to get the most out of Twitter, there are a few things to keep in mind. 

In this article, we’ll explain why you should use Twitter for your small business and we’ll share some tips to help you wow your customers on the platform.

Should Your Small Business Be Using Twitter?

Yes, your small business would greatly benefit from Twitter. Though the platform has some pros and cons, every small business should at least make a Twitter profile as part of their social media marketing strategy. You don’t have to go all-out on your Twitter marketing strategy right away, especially if your audience spends more time on other social media platforms. But you should at the very least claim your profile to help with branding, reputation management, SEO, and consistency.

If you have yet to decide how much effort your small business should put into your Twitter account, keep the following pros and cons in mind.

Pros of Twitter for Small Businesses

• Reach a vast audience
• Use hashtags to reach a local audience
• Use hashtags to reach your target audience
• Connections feel more personal
• Ability to provide customer service
• Expand your brand identity
• Ability to build a community
• Ability to gather feedback
• Free account set-up—the only necessary investment is time
• Use of images and videos

Cons of Twitter for Small Businesses 

• A well-rounded Twitter strategy can be very time-consuming
• You need to be prepared to handle negative Tweets and comments
• You have to be careful not to make major mistakes, as scandals spread quickly
• You have to time your tweets carefully to reach your audience
• Twitter has a 280-character limit
• Potential security concerns if you aren’t tech-savvy

9 Tips to Wow Your Customers on Twitter

Now that you understand why Twitter is so helpful for small businesses, you may wonder how to go about using it. The following Twitter tips will help you wow your customers, grow your brand, and generate sales.

Tip 1: Start by Thinking About Your Customers

As with any other part of your digital marketing plan, you should always start your Twitter strategy by thinking about your customers. What are their goals and interests? Where do they live? What hobbies do they have? What are other relevant audience demographics? Getting clear on your ideal customer is necessary for this step; you have likely already done this when preparing a general social media strategy or a strategy for any other type of marketing.  

Once you have a clear idea of who your customers are, you will be able to target them more effectively on Twitter—and on other marketing channels. 

Tip 2: Know How to Set Up Your Account

Setting up your Twitter account will be a crucial part of your marketing. Make sure that your branding on Twitter is consistent with how your brand appears on other platforms or your website. Use your Twitter account as a chance to show off your brand’s personality.

Here is a checklist to keep handy as you create your Twitter profile:

• Choose a Twitter handle that includes your brand’s name
• Use your logo as the profile picture (or a headshot if you run a personal brand)
• Ensure your branding is consistent across all digital marketing channels—inconsistent branding leads to confused customers
• Create a short bio, around 90 characters or so
• Use a pinned tweet to help people get to know your brand

Tip 3: Respond to Mentions

One of the most basic parts of managing a small business Twitter account is responding to mentions. This is part of customer service as well as reputation management. Responding to mentions shows your followers that you care about them and value their opinions.

Don’t forget to respond to current or potential customers regardless of the way they reach out to you. Some will mention you in a tweet while others will send you a DM. But keep in mind that you are free to choose the communication method you prefer. For example, you can decide to respond to mentions within the feed. You could also choose to respond to everything via a direct message (DM).

If you respond to tweets and mentions via DM, however, consider making a quick reply in the feed saying, “We’d love to continue this conversation in DM. We sent you a message,” or something similar. This will make it clear to everyone who sees the interaction that you responded.

→Share User Generated Content

Take this tip to the next level and share social media posts from users about your brand. This social media management method reduces the need to create your own posts while maximizing existing posts about your brand. 

Tip 4: Participate in Relevant Hashtags

One of the great things about using Twitter is the ability to join the conversation by using hashtags. Twitter makes it easy to stay up-to-date by showing you exactly what’s trending at any given time. Take advantage of this feature for community building and make it feel like a real person is running the platform.

You don’t have to participate in all of the popular hashtags and social media trends, but you should aim to do so regularly, especially when a trending conversation is relevant. So, consider joining conversations about your city or those related to industry news. For example, if you run a gym, you can join fitness-related conversations on Twitter. If you own a beauty store, participate in conversations on makeup trends. You can even create your own campaign hashtag to boost social interactions. 

Tip 5: Use Native Media When Possible

You can easily use Twitter to share media from other platforms, from Instagram to YouTube. But you should do your best to share native media when possible because Twitter prioritizes this media in feeds. On top of that, native videos are more likely to play automatically compared to other types of videos that would require an extra click.

Tip 6: Don’t Be Afraid to Repurpose Content

It can be overwhelming to come up with new content again and again. So, don’t be afraid to reuse content, as long as you do so strategically. For example, you can repeat a few evergreen tweets once or twice every few months.

→Also, Use Twitter to Promote Content on Other Platforms

What’s even better than reusing content from Twitter is using content from another social media platform. For example, you can tweet about a new blog post with a link to the post. This will drive traffic to your blog while also adding value to your Twitter feed. Do the same from other social media accounts, whether Facebook or Instagram. By doing so, you ensure that Twitter users will see content from social media channels they may have missed. 

Tip 7: Share Industry or Local News

Sharing industry or local news can be a great way to keep your Twitter feed relevant and highlight your company’s expertise. Simply put, if you seem to be up-to-date with the latest trends in your industry, customers are more likely to seek you out, as they will assume you are an expert.

Tip 8: Create Tweets That Add Value

With all of your Tweets, you want to add value to your followers’ feed. This can be by sharing news, educating the audience, entertaining them, or advancing an idea. Adding value will help you maintain followers and create a strong reputation, which can generate leads.

Tip 9: Encourage Interactions

You should also aim to create Twitter content that will promote conversations. Inspiring conversation will enhance the feeling of community and improve the customer experience. An example of a tweet that starts a conversation would be an ice cream shop asking its followers to tweet their favorite ice cream flavors.

And of course, encourage your followers to reach out to you for customer service via Twitter chats. Twitter should also become an efficient customer support channel. 

Some Final Thoughts

Twitter is an essential part of any social media marketing plan. You can use it to reach your target audience and boost your branding. For the best results, combine your Twitter use with other social media platforms. The more channels you’re on, the easier it is for customers to reach you on the channel they prefer.

Ready to really take your marketing efforts to the next level? Podium allows you to interact with customers across various channels, from email to texting, on a single platform.