Twitter, with its impressive 328 million active users, plays a significant role in the social media realm. This platform has gained immense popularity, particularly among individuals who are frequently on the move, as 75% of users access it via mobile devices. Additionally, the United States accounts for 67 million of these active users.
It is similar in concept to a cocktail party, in which everyone has the opportunity to listen to the conversations of others if they so desire. This similarity to a cocktail party is because
- Guests who only talk about themselves aren’t very popular (unless they’re already popular for other reasons).
- If you’re new to the scene, it can be hard to find people to talk to.
- If you’re not in the right place at the right time, you can miss out on a lot of great connections.
Here are a few quick pointers to help you gain traction if you want to try out Twitter or if your customers are asking you to engage with it. The second and third bullet points highlight two of the main reasons local business owners may find it challenging to leverage Twitter successfully.
Get Started with Twitter
To begin the process, you should create an account on the website https://twitter.com. It is important to select a username that is both distinctive and concise, as space is limited on Twitter. Additionally, having a short username will make it easier for others to share your content. Ideally, your chosen username should align with the ones you have previously used on platforms such as Facebook and other social media websites.
It is essential to spend time and ensure that you provide thorough information on your profile page that is both compelling and attractive. This should include a detailed description of your business, a link leading back to your website, a professional photo or logo representing your business, as well as an engaging background photo. Completing this step is crucial in order to draw in followers.
Optimizing Your Bio for Local Business
Your biography should succinctly and clearly convey your job description, ensuring that customers can quickly understand the benefits it offers to them.
In order to increase the visibility of your profile in search results, it is important to think methodically and rephrase the provided text without adding or removing any information. Utilize relevant keywords to enhance the chances of your profile being discovered. While your username should serve as a branded keyword, utilize the bio space to convey additional information that cannot be expressed through your handle alone.
When writing your bio, it is important to consider search engine optimization (SEO) best practices and ensure that it is optimized for search. Therefore, utilizing keywords and hashtags is encouraged and should not be avoided.
Choosing a Header and Profile Photo
In order to ensure that potential and existing customers easily recognize you on Twitter and are able to pay attention to your posts, it is important that the color scheme of your header and profile photo on the platform reflects that used on your website.
When selecting a profile photo, ensure that the dimensions are 400 x 400 pixels and the file size does not exceed 2MB. Similarly, for the header photo, the dimensions should be 1500 x 500 and the file size should not exceed 5MB. It is acceptable to upload images in either .JPG or .PNG formats.
Setting Objectives/KPIs
After you have established your Twitter account and made improvements to your profile, the next step is to establish objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These will assist you in determining the strategic positioning of your local business on Twitter, with the aim of accomplishing your overall business objectives.
Defining Goals
There are several goals that you might want to consider setting.
- Building brand awareness through working with influencers to earn brand mentions
- Generating leads by running ads to landing pages or webinar funnels
- Handling customer support issues to help resolve customer problems faster
- Increasing online sales through your eCommerce platform
Once you have established the objectives, you can utilize a marketing workflow to outline the approach for achieving these objectives.
Find People to Follow
To begin, start by searching your current network on other social media platforms for individuals to follow. For instance, check if you have any personal friends on Facebook or professional acquaintances on LinkedIn who are already active on Twitter. This approach will assist you in creating an initial list of individuals with whom you can engage in conversations.
To continue the search for accounts to follow, it is recommended to utilize a Moz app known as Followerwonk. It is advised to particularly focus on the “Compare Users” tab.
To begin, compare the accounts of businesses nearby your own or slightly distant competitors. Give extra attention to individuals who follow more than one of the accounts you entered as they are generally more inclined to follow you back after you follow them.
You can follow these steps to find a targeted list of users on Twitter. Firstly, go to the Advanced Search section on Twitter. Next, enter a keyword that is related to either something you sell or something that your typical customers are interested in. Finally, complete the “Near this place” field. By doing so, you should obtain a fairly specific list of users to follow.
Get Familiar with a Twitter Management App
Twitter is different from other social networks because the most efficient method of using it is through third-party applications. The Twitter website itself is a bit difficult to navigate and needs frequent refreshing in order to stay updated on conversations.
There are two excellent apps, Hootsuite and Tweetdeck (which is currently owned by Twitter), that are perfect for keeping track of and responding to Twitter feeds. Both of these apps offer the capability to organize the individuals you follow into various categories such as “customers,” “prospects,” “influencers,” and “VIPs.” Additionally, they allow you to receive notifications for specific individuals’ tweets or particular keywords, as well as schedule tweets ahead of time.
The Twitter mobile app for Android or Apple iOS is crucial for your long-term success on Twitter, as well as all of these features.
Listen First
It is advisable to spend a few weeks just listening to conversations and becoming familiar with the mechanics of using the app. During this time, you can learn the common syntax and tone used by the people you follow, as well as pick up on their topics of interest and understand how Twitter conversations generally flow.
To ease into a conversation about an interesting topic, start by retweeting the person who originally mentioned the topic.
Tweet Intelligently
As you gain more familiarity with using your Twitter app(s) and observing the conversations among the accounts you follow, feel free to join in and start tweeting yourself. Showcasing your true personality is essential when you tweet, as genuine accounts are more likely to attract and retain a large following.
When it comes to what to tweet about, there isn’t a magical formula, but small business social media expert Matt McGee suggests a helpful guideline: aim for one-third of your tweets to share original content, one-third to engage with others by replying or retweeting, and one-third to share links or promote yourself. To maximize your reach, use Followerwonk to analyze when your followers are most active and schedule your tweets accordingly.
To gain popularity quickly, it is important to engage with your followers on a personal level. Whenever someone @mentions you or retweets your tweet, make sure to thank them promptly and initiate a conversation with them. Accounts that are more responsive and interactive will gain popularity faster compared to those that are less engaging or slow to respond.
Measuring Analytics
In order to monitor your KPIs, it is necessary to utilize Twitter analytics. Taking into consideration that the majority of small businesses in the U.S depend on a SaaS tool to facilitate their business operations, you may want to consider utilizing a social media scheduling tool like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to assist in managing your account and gaining access to additional analytics reports, such as brand mentions and brand sentiment.
When using social media platforms for scheduling posts and monitoring analytics, it is advisable to also utilize a project planning template from a company like Monday to effectively plan projects, meet deadlines, and track KPIs. By doing so, you will have no difficulty showcasing ROI/ROAs during meetings.
Developing a Twitter strategy
In order to succeed on Twitter as a local business, it is essential to have a well-defined strategy that enables you to accomplish your established goals.
Content strategy
Once you have determined your goals and objectives, your content strategy will assist you in ensuring that your followers remain engaged with the content you share.
To enhance the visibility of your tweets, repurpose your blog post images by posting them on Twitter alongside a concise description, a link, 2-3 appropriate hashtags, and a call-to-action. Start with the content originally shared on your blog.
To save time, utilize a graphic design tool that automatically resizes images for Twitter, ensuring the correct size is used.
To ensure a continuous flow of content for posting, you can adopt two effective strategies when dealing with evergreen content, which remains relevant for a long duration. Firstly, break down the infographics you create into individual images, and secondly, distribute them among your followers.
Finding accounts to follow and engage with
One option is to search for popular topics in your specific field or location that you plan to monitor and interact with. Another possibility is to incorporate your business’s city as a hashtag in order to engage with the community in that area.
To gain an understanding of the content that appeals to your potential and existing customers, it is important to focus on these topics. Engage with relevant threads by retweeting, liking, and replying to them, thereby initiating connections with these users.
Post frequency and timing
The frequency and timing of your content posting on Twitter should be determined based on when your target audience is actively using the platform. When do they usually log in to Twitter? How frequently do they engage with Twitter on a daily or weekly basis?
Although there are optimal times for posting on Twitter, it is advisable to conduct your own tests to determine the most effective times. If unsure, it is always a good idea to refer to the recommended posting times suggested by experts.
Interacting with your customers
As you consistently share content on Twitter, it is important to interact with your customers. If Twitter is utilized for customer support, ensure that you provide a response within a 12-hour timeframe. When addressing complaints, respond with empathy and guide the conversation to a private platform like email, moving it out of the public domain.
Side notes
Using Twitter effectively for local business can be a cost-efficient method to enhance brand visibility, increase website traffic, and raise awareness for your local business. By adopting the strategies employed by established brands, you can achieve impressive outcomes without overspending on reaching a larger audience and generating leads and sales.
To begin immediately, assess whether Twitter is suitable for your local business, after which establish an account and optimize your profile. Determine your goals, relevant objectives, and KPIs that you will monitor.
First, analyze the actions of your competitors. Then, generate a content strategy that distinguishes you from them and encourages regular interaction with your audience. Examine analytics reports to pinpoint areas in need of enhancement.
As time goes on, the results of your efforts will gradually accumulate, yielding new leads, sales, and revenue for your business.
