Small business owners may want to focus their promotional efforts on social media outlets in order to garner attention from consumers online. While many professionals rely heavily on mailing lists for marketing, having well-rounded campaigns is essential for growth and success. Here are five ways to use Twitter to engage with customers effectively.
1.) Many professionals are under the impression that Twitter is a numbers game. They try to attract as many followers as possible to increase impressions and potentially boost conversion rates. However, looking at Twitter with a more strategic eye and working to acquire followers who actively engage online may be more influential. After all, thousands of followers won't be effective if only a dozen are actually regular users.
2.) Most Twitter users don't bother looking at tweets that were published earlier in the day, so marketers need to continuously post content. Furthermore, it could be beneficial to establish a schedule to govern when messages are posted loosely based around periods in the day when people are most often online, like after work, lunch and during prime-time television hours.
3.) Instead of solely focusing on posting calls to action hourly, marketers may want to provide their followers with advice to help them achieve their own goals. A business-to-business (B2B) company, for example, may want to consider publishing small business tips to help its customers improve their services and potentially find further success. This type of engagement would help create a more trusting relationship between the company and its Twitter followers.
4.) In addition to posting tips to assist followers in their professional ventures, a B2B company may want to retweet small business resources from third-party Twitter users. Retweeting useful information and adding opinions may help an organization develop an extensive online presence that users find beneficial.
5.) The most important thing to remember is that sharing information is key. Whether tweeting calls to action, tips or redistributing third-party content, having an active Twitter presence can help an organization build trust with its followers, convert leads to customers and grow its services tenfold.
Twitter can be an invaluable tool for marketing, but if it is used sporadically or the content is low-quality, users won't find the information or the brand useful in their daily lives. Taking the time to map out and plan posts in advance will help make sure that any social media effort will reach its full potential.