Many small businesses today ask, “Why do I need Twitter For Marketing?” Many of these small businesses tell me “I am on Facebook and it’s generating some leads and occasional sales for me. Facebook doesn’t work as well as it once did but I’m there with the other billions of people.” Then the small business owner begins to tell me how much money they are spending to boost their posts or to do Facebook ads. I wonder to myself why not try Twitter?
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Why Twitter For Marketing Your Small Business?
Twitter has over 328 million users today with over 500 million tweets being sent daily. Of that amount of Twitter users, 54% of them earn over $50,000 per year. The top countries that use Twitter are the United States, Brazil, Japan, and Mexico. Twitter’s advertising revenue was over $545 million. That’s a lot of dollars spent on advertising there. Something must be working for businesses to continue to spend money on Twitter ads.
So, what do all these Twitter stats mean for your small business? That folks who use Twitter have some money to spend and they are not just from the United States. 79% of Twitter accounts are based outside of the United States. Therefore, if you want to sell something worldwide or down your street Twitter is the place to be today.
Also Read: Top Twitter Marketing Tools To Grow Your Audience in 2023
How To Get Started With Twitter For Marketing Your Small Business?
- Set up your profile pic and cover to intrigue Twitter users. Use great graphics and keywords to generate followers who will be interested in your products or services. Do NOT include hashtags. (Many users do but it takes you to others tweets with those hashtags and away from your profile.)
- Just tweet away. Many times, I’m looking at a small business website and see the Twitter symbol. I click on it and it takes me to an inactive Twitter account. It hadn’t been used in months or years. That’s terrible. Why have the Twitter logo on your website if it’s inactive? That’s like false advertising and branding. Keep your Twitter account active or get rid of the symbol from your website.
- Tweet Regularly. If you can tweet daily, at least Monday-Friday. Find 5 minutes in the morning and another 5 at the end of the day to follow up with anyone who tweets or DMs you.
- Set Up Twitter Notifications. This will help you to respond fast to any customers who may tweet your questions or send you a DM – direct message. People love quick responses from Twitter. If not, they will send you an email, and wait patiently. Twitter is for speed. Have the Twitter notifications alert you or have someone manage your Twitter feed for you.
- Engage with others on Twitter. You can tweet out interesting tidbits about your industry or products. But don’t push out sales tweets one after another. Go by the 80/20 rule. 80% of your tweets should be informational, fun, entertaining, etc. 20% can be about you, your brand, or products or services.
What Else Can Your Small Business Do on Twitter?
- Share stories about your business or industry. This step will help you become an authority on the topics. People will come to you with questions. People will begin mentioning you in their blogs and it will begin to snowball. You will increase your circle of network and you will gain more customers in time.
- Be sure to check any DM’s in your inbox. Many can be spam messages but they are also some from people requesting more information. I’ve received business right from Twitter DM’s. So be sure to check yours. You can set up notifications for them on your mobile device.
- Do videos and/or SlideShare. These are great for sharing via Twitter and other social networks too. This mixes up how people see your tweets in their streams. People love videos today. SlideShare helps gain more audience growth too.
- Participate in Twitter Chats. Once you learn how they work, start your own. These can be invaluable to show your knowledge and possibly do a giveaway right on Twitter. Be sure to promote your Twitter chat prior through your website and or email. Be helpful throughout the chat. People will appreciate it and you will gain some more followers this way.
- Schedule Your Tweets. Twitter users do not like to see the same tweets or a user tweeting one tweet right after another. Use a tool like SMhack, Elokenz, or the Buffer. They are a great way to be sure your Twitter account stays active. These tools can also do the same for your Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram accounts as well.
Also Read: Breaking it Down: Twitter vs Threads in the Era of Microblogging
More Tips On Twitter For Marketing Your Small Business
- SEO factor. Did you know your tweets can also help your website’s SEO? Google shares tweets in their search results. It gives you a site when someone clicks from the tweets to your website or blog. This helps your ranking as part of Google’s 200+ ranking factors. Have a Twitter tweet button on all of your website pages and even products. It makes it quick and easy for users to share a tweet.
- Let people know you are on Twitter. Use the Twitter handle in your other marketing efforts offline and online. Include your Twitter handle in your emails, your billboards, etc. Ask people to follow you on Twitter.
- Start a blog if you don’t have one. This helps to generate more content for your social media marketing overall. It should be your home base for your social media marketing efforts. Twitter works well with blogs.
According to Neal Schaffer of Maximize Social Media – He points out “According to Global Web Index, 60% of B2B buyers use Twitter – a 26% higher rate than the overall population. A staggering 28% of B2B buyers also follow prominent entrepreneurs and businesspeople on social media – a 70% higher rate than average. If your business is B2B, your customers are almost certainly on Twitter.”
Be sure to be there too on Twitter if you want to sell B2B.
Tips For Local Marketing Your Small Business on Twitter
Can you market to folks in your neighborhood too? Yes, you can! There are a few ways to do this. You can set up an IFTTT recipe easily to do this. It can send you a notification or an email when someone within a certain mile radius tweets on Twitter. A great way to add them to a list (I keep a list of locals). You can then engage with them and follow them if you choose. Always check their bio and tweets to see if they are worth following. But then add them to a Twitter list so you can easily keep an eye out for your neighborhood tweets. (These lists can be great in storms and events that are happening in your neighborhood.)
Another great IFTTT recipe I love is the one that shares your Instagram photos right on Twitter. If you only share from Instagram the photos do NOT show up in the Twitter stream. This IFTTT recipe does it for you automatically. This feature is great if your business has a lot of images that people love to share. If not, you can always get creative with that. People love sharing visually appealing images on social media.
Twitter Paid Marketing Your Small Business Today
You can also do Twitter ads and use them to generate more followers or to generate more visibility for a tweet you want to be seen by more people. You can spend as little as $5 and of course, you can spend a lot more too. They provide targeting capabilities like Facebook ads now offer.
Twitter Analytics to Check Your Twitter Marketing Efforts
Twitter offers analytics that can be very helpful to see who is seeing your tweets, what they like, respond to, etc. You can see the demographic of your audience as well. You can learn a lot by checking these stats monthly. I was surprised to see my audience demographic. I started to tailor more tweets for that demographic since.
Don’t Give Up Quickly on Twitter
Too many people and businesses give up on Twitter before they get started. It’s not a sprint – it’s a marathon on Twitter. It will take months to get real traction on Twitter. Follow at least 200 people to get started. And then continue to follow more weekly.
Use Twitter Lists. Add them to lists to stay organized. Make a list of customers, for industry news, products, services, etc. It will help you stay organized and focused easier on Twitter.
Have Fun. You can follow things of interest too on Twitter so you will enjoy it more and use it more. I love following weather folks during storms and weather events. I have a list for them and use it when applicable.
Conclusion
Twitter today is a must for small businesses to network with others, become an authority in their niche, generate leads, and make sales. Have you started to use Twitter for marketing yet? Have you found Twitter marketing for your small business working today? I’d love to know more in the comments below.
Elise Cohen Ho
Twitter is such a great place to connect to people. It is also so much fun when you are at a function and live tweeting.
Joy Healey
Hi Oleg,
I’m mostly using Buffer and CrowdFire to manage my Twitter account. I know I should be more hand-on myself, but at least the discipline of CrowdFire prompts me to interact every day.
I DID give up on Twitter at one point, but I saw so many people, like yourself, saying that it was a “must” to include in my marketing that I restarted, but concentrating on just the one main account. (I spread myself too thin across more than one account before.)
My followers etc are increasing, and are more targeted now, so I will persevere and look forward to seeing results.
Joy Healey – Blogging After Dark
Navin Rao
Twitter has a lot of potential for any small businesses. Marketing the content properly really matters a lot. Though it’s quite crowded and the posts can get hidden into that.
I agree with the point you made, most of the B2B buyers are twitter addicted. Which itself, opens a lot of doors. Using Twitter effectively can give the better results. Though Twitter provides the analytics to track the statitics which makes it much easier for further marketing strategies.
Thanks for spreading the value… Loved it!
Malik Ahsan
Please guide us that “How to Increase the Number of Followers” in Twitter ?????????
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Malik,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
There’s many ways to increase your follower count on twitter, but the best way is to unfollow those that doesnot follow you and keep looking for more relevant people and follow them. You can follow and unfollow 1000 people daily – and that process will get you 100 to 300+ followers everyday.
This process is simple and it always works!
thanks,
– Oleg
Elise Cohen Ho
Maybe I will see you at a Tweet Chat soon.
Monika Sharma
Twitter is one of the most powerful & strongest social media network, Which really help on various ways. This is really great article to understand Twitter for marketing your small business
Erika Mohssen-Beyk
A very comprehensive article. I do not use twitter much, it seems I do not really understand how it works. Now I have a better view on it. Thanks for this interesting insights.
Erika
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Erika,
Thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you found something useful in the article, looking forward to follow you on Twitter,
thanks,
– Oleg
Rahul Sihmar
Hey Oleg,
That’s an Great Guide About Twitter Marketing – Before Reading this Guide I have Heard about IFTTT But haven’t used it Though For Social Media Automation and That Advertising Revenue that spent On Twitter Is Hell Alot hahahaha
I’m Using Twitter Regularly and I can Say that If you use it effectively Than You can Make a Good Impression On twitter because 140 Words Are lot to Define Your Purpose And make your Audience understand What You’re Trying To do Over There
Atlast I will say that I loved that 80/20 Principal As always because you can fit this principal anywhere and it will surely work lol
Keep Posting great content man
Cheers,
Susan Velez
Hi Oleg,
I was actually just wanting to spend a few minutes this morning to see if I could improve my Twitter marketing. I really don’t focus a lot on Twitter.
Most of my traffic comes from Pinterest, so most of my efforts are spent there. However, I do know the importance of having a presence on Twitter. Love your tips about saying how important the 80/20 rule is.
I actually try to use this for all the social network sites I use. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of where we are constantly sharing our content too much.
I’ll definitely start using some of these tips to see if I can improve my Twitter performance.
Looks like the motto applies to everything online. It takes time to see the results. Thanks for taking the time to share these tips with us.
Have a great day 🙂
Susan
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Susan,
Thank you for the comment,
Yeah, the same idea applies to all social networks – promoting others and sharing genuine and helpful content for the most part, with a bit of our own self-promotion keeps things in perfect balance.
Good to know that Pinterest is working out well for you – that networks sends us some traffic too.
Looking forward to seeing you more on Twitter,
thanks,
– Oleg
Nirodha Abayalath
Hey Oleg,
Really an amazing read. Thanks for that.
I have been growing my Twitter for almost eight years and got 135K genuine followers by now. So, with my eight years of experience on Twitter and as a freelance social media marketer, I have to say that people are still not using Twitter analytics like Google or Pinterest Analytics.
I don’t know why but, they rely on other third-party apps for Twitter, not Analytics tool on the Twitter itself.
I always ask my clients to see the Twitter Analytics.
Please write an article about Twitter Analytics alone. I think you are the best for that.
Thanks again.
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Nirodha,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
WOW – that is huge! Hard work does pay up and since you mentioned about 8 years – seems like being dedicated and consistent has it’s own merits,
Yes, I do agree that people often miss the actual on-site twitter analytics which has a lot of data. It is a good suggestions, will cover it in the future articles,
thanks,
– Oleg
OLENA
Twitter is not only a social networking platform but also a great marketing platform for our business promotion.