To Tweet or Not to Tweet; should you use Twitter for business?
I speak to many small business owners on a regular basis and many of them say that they are going to leave Twitter, or not use Twitter for business; that it’s just not relevant for them any more. I’m often bemused and question why and I spend most of the meeting regaling Twitter.
The truth is, it’s not Twitter that’s the problem, it’s the users that are the problem.
Here’s how I begin..
Yes, automation is excellent. Social Media managers can automate the content they want to promote on a given day, however automation is not beneficial to Twitter or any other Social Media site if users don’t get to know and engage with their followers.
Automate your tweets and then forget them isn’t going to work; they will be forgotten about in seconds. Yes, Twitter moves fast!
I often remind people of the a fact that is often missing from their social media strategy, social media is all about engagement. Focus on the key word SOCIAL… you have to be social. People who use Twitter for the purpose of getting to know their customers and letting them know you and your business will see great success, so use Twitter for Business and engage.
Those who have resorted to too much automation are the ones who have the problems. It’s not about re-tweeting random tweets everyday, it’s also not about full on self promotion; it’s about engagement. Letting your followers know why and how you can help them and showing them how with your social media content, letting your followers know the person and personality behind the business name. It’s a two way street and you’ll find out how you can manage to do this below.
SO?
Why Twitter Is Still Relevant and Useful
Twitter is still a formidable social media outlet that small businesses should continue to use for the near and far future. There are many reasons for that, such as:
* Twitter is still informative – Compared to other social networks, it’s still easier to find information about groups, causes, and businesses via Twitter search. Hashtags make it easy to compile the information, and important people are still having important conversations on Twitter. Research the hashtags which are relevant to your business and and set up Twitter feeds to use them effectively. I use Hashtagify for my clients, and it works a treat.
* You can engage with anyone – Due to the way Twitter works, you can potentially connect with anyone whether you follow them or not, and vice versa. Due to the ease of sharing and the ease of tagging people, before you know it you could be in a conversation with someone famous or at least famous in your group.
* It’s very responsive – Using Twitter on mobile devices is still easier than using other social media on mobile devices. There is still a lot you can’t do with mobile on Facebook that you can do with Twitter.
* Search is easier – It’s so easy to filter out the things you don’t want to see. You can look at only tweets for a particular topic which makes finding trends super fast and easy using hashtags. You can easily study your audience and potential audience on Twitter. For help with advanced Twitter Search take a look here.
Due to these factors, it’s important for small businesses to realise that Twitter is still a useful tool for engagement, research, and promotion. You just have to do it right. [bctt tweet=”If you are having issues with getting results from Twitter, you’re doing it wrong.”]
Don’t Pass Up Everyday Opportunities
Tweet about what you’re doing right now, and ask your employees and your contractors to do this as well. Make it relevant to your audience. For instance, if you’re working on a new eBook, say so. “5000 words down on my new eBook!” is a great example of a tweet that will get attention of your audience, and likely some “congratulations tweets” too. What fabulous interaction, from just a simple update that you can capitalise on.
Your Twitter followers not only care about your day and what you’re doing – enough to read your tweets and correspond about them, they’ll also be happy if you share anything profound from other tweets of people who you follow. Sharing, commenting, and engaging are all important aspects of being on Twitter. Without those three things you won’t be successful.
Use Twitter for all it’s worth, because it is still very relevant in social media marketing today. You can use automation to post to your account and then keep your Twitter feed open to check for re-tweets and mentions or if that’s not possible..
Outsource your Twitter feed to Virtuoso-PA if you can’t spare the time to use it effectively ~ I schedule to check all of my clients’ Twitter feeds every 30 minutes during the working day and respond and engage with their followers and accounts which benefit them accordingly.
The number of followers you have is nothing without interaction and social engagement use Twitter for Business with outsourced help.
