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At its core Twitter is a network for conversations. You can broadcast a message to many people, and as we have seen recently in the USA, that message can have a tremendous effect. That being said, Twitter as a ‘bullhorn’ is not really an effective marketing strategy; if you have a massive audience and constantly send out messages to stir people up and keep your ‘brand’ top-of-mind then and only then can it effectively fulfill that role (say what you will, President Trump is particularly effective at reaching his base of supporters and also stirring up all sorts of awareness using Twitter). Alas, we are going to avoid any political controversy and focus exclusively on Twitter for business. But before we go there here is a little photo montage I created:
Ok I cannot resist, just one more:
Getting Started
I am going to assume you can setup a Twitter account and provide some basic graphics for the header image (1263 pixels x 421 pixels). If not then click here for a Twitter setup tutorial and go to CANVA and create your own header and post images specifically for Twitter (no resizing and it is FREE). Have fun and once that is done move to strategy. Alternatively you can also watch the video below. Enjoy!
Twitter Strategy for Business
You may be tempted to import contacts and SPAM your way to marketing glory. I have some simple advice here: do not do this. Spamming everyone you are connected to really only results in turning people off and they begin tuning out. Aim instead to first have a presence on Twitter and the capacity to have a conversation that is personalized to followers (Batesole, 2017).
Twitter is useful for personal brands in that you can connect with colleagues and join in on conversations. Traditional business brands need to take a different approach. Twitter allows you to follow your existing contacts, but you cannot invite them to follow you (they can choose to do so, but the invitation is not direct nor requested).
So, what do you do? For traditional business it is enough to send an email to contacts announcing your Twitter handle, add a connection to your Twitter feed to your company website (or better yet embed it), and put the icon on your marketing print materials (Batesole, 2017). This will likely engage those of your customers who already use Twitter. Yay! You have completed the first steps. Take five on me.
Ok I partly lied to you. I only told half of the truth. There is a workaround to get your Twitter contacts successfully imported from all your social media. Follow the links above to do it (first link is for Gmail, second link is for everything else). This way you can begin to better follow your customers and see what they are talking about. Ideally it is best to only follow people that can add value to your conversation on your brand (Batesole, 2017).
How do you want to be perceived?
Think of how you want to be perceived. What is your brand essence? How are you going to come across. Friendly and personal with a consistent voice is better than cranking out promotion after promotion. If conversations require a different tone then be sure to be professional and courteous (Batesole, 2017). Use authentic language by being true to what your brand represents; avoid language that is slang if it is not part of what your company is about. Retweet with caution; promoting is ok but less is more (Batesole, 2017). Handle any crisis with a courteous and well thought response.
Marketing Objectives
Is Twitter for your company a customer support hub? Will you be using it to engage your customers and help them? Are you trying to establish brand recognition? Or are you trying to sell using promotions and links to drive traffic your company website? Goals plus a ‘call to action‘ may motivate people but they need some substance (aka ‘value’). The key is to be conversational, and also helpful (Batesole, 2017). Funny, helpful, newsworthy, and inspiring. These are the keys to interactions. This is ‘Groundswell’ style thinking. You aim to ADD VALUE before the customer has even spent any money (the link lists 22 ways to do so). Your company will become the ‘trusted source’ that people go to for information.
Retweeting & Other Tricks
Topic or theme based hashtags that you attach to your tweets show up in other peoples searches. This means that you can expand your reach by joining in on relevant conversations and others will be exposed to your messaging. They are meant to help categorize content and reach a larger audiences (Batesole, 2017). This can work for events and locations as well. If you attach a event/location hashtag to a specific post that message will show up when someone else is searching for or tweeting about that event.
Making a list and checking it twice . . .
This section is short but sweet. Twitter lists help you organize content without having to follow the user. You can create public and private lists, organize them around themes, and even monitor what your competitors are saying. They help you organize your content so that you do not have a bunch of jumbled conversations to monitor at once. Follow the link above to guide yourself to curating glory!
Enter the LAWN GENIE
Adding useful content to invite someone interested in what you do can help them become a follower (leads generating leads). Again we seem to return to that ‘Groundswell’ thinking in that we want to be helpful and engaging and adding value BEFORE the customer contacts us. How do I do this? Here is a suggestion: simple ‘How To’ photo stories or short videos really help. For my lawn care company – LAWN GENIE ‘Kiss Your Grass Goodbye‘ – I am creating a series of lawn care videos that will help people take better care of their lawns. I am a big fan of mulching as it is better for our environment and my plan is to advocate and demonstrate the benefits over time. Planning is key and I personally feel that a video should be short, professional, and well executed. More tips for great videos on shoestring budgets are found here.
When you have content is when I would suggest you start advertising with Twitter. A full suite of tracking analytics is available and you pay on a CPE (cost per engagement). A great Twitter ad tutorial on Hootsuite is found here.
Conclusion
Twitter is great for your business. My wife says it’s time to eat now, and it is Easter Sunday, so I hope you enjoyed my work. Tweet this puppy out and remember: if Trump can become President using Twitter, you can run an ad campaign for your business using it too. Here are some of his Russian friends from years gone by . . .
References
Batesole, B. (2016, May 4). Twitter for Business. Retrieved March 31, 2018, from https://www.lynda.com/Twitter-tutorials/Use-your-profile-build-brand-presence/480768/495356-4.html
Batesole, B. (2016, May 4). Twitter for Business. Retrieved April 1, 2018, from https://www.lynda.com/Twitter-tutorials/Explore-hashtags/480768/495364-4.html
Batesole, B. (2016, May 4). Twitter for Business. Retrieved April 1, 2018, from https://www.lynda.com/Twitter-tutorials/Establish-your-marketing-objective/480768/495368-4.html
Batesole, B. (2016, May 4). Twitter for Business. Retrieved March 31, 2018, from https://www.lynda.com/Twitter-tutorials/Leverage-power-retweets/480768/495376-4.html
Batesole, B. (2016, May 4). Twitter for Business. Retrieved April 1, 2018, from https://www.lynda.com/Twitter-tutorials/Launch-promoted-account-campaign/480768/495383-4.html
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