We’re on it. Stephen Fry’s on it. Your MP might even be on it. By now, everyone knows about the social media sensation that is Twitter. Small businesses are often advised to get out there and use Twitter. But the thing that’s often skimmed past is, well, how to use Twitter. So here are three ways to approach Twitter for business purposes.
It’s good to talk
Twitter is, don’t forget, Social Media. So, follow your followers back and get chatting. You don’t need to (and probably shouldn’t!) ambush their every other tweet, but you should be open to conversation. Invite comments from them about a product or service you offer. If they say something nice about you, say thank you. If they come to you with a service issue, be polite and helpful and keep track of the issue. All of this interaction, as well as being generally pleasant for all concerned, has a few strong business benefits:
- A direct line to your customers – what could be more valuable than that when it comes to gauging what will sell?
- The human touch – those people with whom you interact will see the human face behind the company and will, assuming your interaction has been a positive one, go away with a positive impression of your company which will in turn make them more likely to buy and recommend your products or services.
- Reputation building – anyone looking at your profile on Twitter will immediately get a sense that you’re a helpful and responsive business, so they will get a great impression of you.
Twitter is not the Classified section
If you simply blat out a series of adverts, not only are you rather missing the point, but you’re also going to find that you don’t end up with a Twitter presence that has much traction. Regular users of Twitter follow people they find interesting, entertaining, inspiring and/or informative. They might be interested in your announcements and promotions, but since for the most part people are on Twitter to connect you’re going to need to strike a balance – turn people’s timelines into a barrage of ‘buy me, buy me’ and they’ll stop listening. People need to see a value to following you.
By all means tweet news of your latest sale or newest product. But don’t do it 20 times per day and don’t make those your only subject.
Expand your interests
So, what should you tweet about? Well, absolutely, draw attention to your half price sale or shiny new products. But there’s plenty more to talk about.
Some industry news catch your eye? Tweet about it. Ask your followers what they think. Tell them what you think about it. Better still, blog about it and tweet the link to your blog post. If an interesting conversation starts up in your blog comments, tweet about that, too. You can retweet interesting things from your own timeline, too.
Get your customers’ opinions on existing or planned products and services. Ask them what they think of your new green widgets, get them to tell you if there are any dooflips they’d love you to stock, see whether there’s something they really like or dislike about your website.
What about a Twitter exclusive competition or promotion? Launch a promo code or giveaway via Twitter and see how far it spreads – if you’re worried about giving 20% off to thousands of people, you can always limit your promotion to the first 100 takers.
If you’re attending any events, tweet about those. You can use this in a few different ways and tweet a few times about the same event. For example: ‘We’ll be at Lovely Jewellery Fair at the NEC on 26th – come and see us on Stand 5!’ ‘Packing stock for Lovely Jewellery Fair on 26th – we’re debuting some fabulous new pendants’ ‘Psst… if you’re coming to Lovely Jewellery Fair, whisper ‘Twitterfan’ in our ears for 10% off on the day’ ‘Lots of lovely customers at Lovely Jewellery Fair – check out this photo of customer Mary in a tiara made from our beads’. You get the idea.
Don’t avoid talking about problems if they might affect a number of people. People are generally forgiving, so long as you can show you’re dealing with them – a ‘So sorry – supplier let me down, so deliveries of purple widgets might be late. Will keep you updated!’ isn’t likely to hurt your business, but it might avert a complaint.
Maybe you’re like us and have huge amounts of incredibly useful information in a knowledge base? Tweet an article link now and then.
And if all else fails, there’s always the weather! No, seriously. There’s nothing wrong with a ‘So, how are all our lovely followers on this sunny Friday morning?’ once in a while, by way of a conversation starter.
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Hopefully that’s given you a few ideas for ways to approach Twitter for business. If you want to strike up a conversation, why not follow us and start chatting?
