How to use Twitter for business

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Business owners have a lot on their mind regarding Twitter (well it’s obvious they very well know Facebook)!

What is Twitter?
How Twitter works?
How to use Twitter account?
Can I use Twitter for business promotion?
What is Twitter business account?
How to create Twitter business page?

We have tried to answer all the above queries here in this article -

What is Twitter & how does it work?

Twitter is an online news and social networking site where people communicate in short messages called tweets. Tweeting is posting short messages for anyone who follows you on Twitter, with the hope that your messages in your audience are helpful and interesting to somebody. Microblogging may be an additional description of Twitter and tweeting.

Some people use Twitter to discover interesting people and companies online, opting to follow their tweets.

How Twitter Works?

Twitter is easy to use as either broadcaster or receiver. You join with a free account and Twitter name. Then you send broadcasts (tweets) daily, hourly, or as frequently as you like. Go to the What's Happening box, type 280 or fewer characters, and click Tweet. People who follow you, and potentially others who don't, will see your tweet.

Encourage people you know to follow you and receive your tweets in their Twitter feeds. Let your friends know you are on Twitter to slowly build up a following. When people follow you, Twitter etiquette calls for you to follow them back.

To receive Twitter feeds, find someone interesting (celebrities included) and press Follow to subscribe to their tweets. If their tweets aren't as interesting as you thought they'd be, select Unfollow.

Go to your account at Twitter.com day or night to read your Twitter feed, which is constantly changing as people post.

Twitter is that simple.

What is Twitter used for?

The primary purpose of Twitter is to connect people to a big audience and allow them to share their thoughts. Twitter allows users to learn about the greatest news and events today, to listen to people or companies who post content they like or to communicate with friends simply. In addition, Twitter can be used by PR teams and marketers to increase brand awareness and delight their audience.

Whether you're new to Twitter or want to start using the platform to boost your business, here's everything you need to know about it.

Setting up Twitter for business

There are six parts to a Twitter profile – a Twitter handle, username, profile picture, bio, header image and pinned tweet. All these elements should work cohesively to create an accurate representation of your business.

The handle on Twitter is your @name and your Twitter ID. It has up to 15 characters and should make it easy for people to find your business. Your profile photo should represent your business and brand visually. Your profile photo is displayed on your profile and in every tweet you post.

For your bio, you have 160 characters to describe your business. Include information such as your location, business hours and a link to your website. The header image behind your profile picture can be used to highlight promotions, events or news about your business.

Lastly, your pinned tweet is the first tweet people see when they visit your profile. You can change your pinned tweet whenever you want.

How to Use Twitter Business Account

1) Create an engaging content

Content is key to using Twitter for business success. But not just any content – it's relevant, engaging content that your intended audience will find value in that you need to be posting. Regularly. That's where a content strategy comes in. Creating a plan ensures that your content satisfies your goals and the needs of your audience.

First, decide what your content goals are. What do you want to accomplish with Twitter? Do you want to:

• attract more website visitors
• build brand awareness
• develop a reputation as an expert
• increase sales

Then define your audience. Who exactly do you want your tweets to reach?

Once you've done that, you're ready to create the kind of content that your audience/potential customer will most appreciate and that will best accomplish your goal.

Worried about the challenge of being able to send out quality content every day? Read our “7 tips for Creating Engaging Content Every Day”.

2) Incorporate photos and videos into your tweets.

Tweets that include images or video routinely get more engagement than tweets that are just text. So use relevant photos when you can, not just in your tweets, but in your replies, too.

Video is a great way of making your tweets stand out; the movement of video can arrest someone's attention as they're scrolling through their Twitter feed. We advise aiming for videos of 30 to 45 seconds as Twitter users are used to short updates. Be sure you grab their attention quickly by putting your most eye-catching image or clip right up front.

3) Stick to the plan.

We're guessing that you don't care that we're sipping a black tea without sugar as we write this or have a doctor's appointment later today.

That's okay – We understand.

You're reading this article because you want information on how to use Twitter for business effectively, not because you have a burning desire to know what we do every minute of the day.

Twitter is the same.

When you choose to follow us on Twitter, you can tell from our account name (@bigassertindia) and our bio (Encapsulating technology in creative capsules, we are a team of professionals committed to service both small & big businesses.) that we are going to tweet about helping businesses digitally. That's what you expect. So if we go off into rants about what a great band the Beatles was or asking advice on how to keep the mouse out of our home, you're going to be confused or worse, irritated. If we did want to go on about this sort of thing, we would set up another Twitter account.

Keep your follower's expectations in mind and be sure you're meeting them.

4) Engage as well as tweet.

If you have a website with an RSS feed, it's easy to set up Twitter so it will automatically read and send out your feed – which is great. But don't just leave it at that.

Twitter is a virtual water cooler, remember, not a bulletin board. You need to be there, to be participating in the conversation.

So, yes, use a social media management app to get your RSS feed picked up and sent out automatically as part of your Twitter promotion strategy, but make sure you're also reading other tweets, responding to them, and sending out other tweets of your own.

5) Be helpful.

Don’t forget that you can reply to other people's tweets, too, answering their questions or commenting on their ideas.

Helpful people are people that other people want to converse with. People that you actually converse with are going to be the most receptive to your message.

6) Use Direct Messages.

Giving your potential customers the ability to contact you directly is another great way to encourage conversations and make connections. So make sure you're set up to receive Direct Messages from anyone, even people who don't regularly follow you. This will put a message button on your profile and let you reach a larger audience than you'll reach by tweeting alone. (Then make sure you check your Twitter inbox regularly. No one likes to be left hanging!)

7) Use hashtags.

When you put a "#" in front of an unbroken word or phrase like this: #unbrokenwordorphrase, it creates a hashtag, and when you use it in a tweet, it becomes linked to all the other tweets that include it. Two of the best ways to use hashtags to promote your business are:

• to research and use hashtags people are already using to talk about your brand and/or products.
• to use hashtags to highlight campaigns by creating a unique hashtag for each campaign.

For instance, if you were trying to generate excitement about a sale, you might append a hashtag such as #wuffysonedaysale on all your relevant tweets.

Don't go crazy using hashtags – one or two per post is enough.

8) Use Twitter ads.

Twitter ads can help you get more followers, website clicks and/or app downloads. Targeting features are available so you can choose the specific audience you want to reach and there's no minimum campaign spend. Note that the cost of your Twitter ads is determined by auction. If you're having trouble deciding how much you will pay for each interaction, such as a new follower or a click to your website, you can use automatic bidding, which will determine the best bid price based on your ad budget and goals.

Twitter recommends choosing four or five tweets to focus on in your campaign to start. Be sure your chosen tweets include strong call-to-actions, such as "sign up" or "start today", and avoid using #hashtags or @mentions in your copy. (You don't want people clicking away from your ad.)

Twitter also offers a Promote Mode option. For $99 USD a month, your first 10 tweets a day will be added to a Promoted Tweets campaign that targets your selected audience. Tweets that are promoted become Twitter Ads and appear with a small "Promoted" badge. Your Retweets, Quote Tweets, or replies will not be promoted.

9) Use Twitter Analytics and other tools to craft campaigns.

Like many other social media platforms, Twitter offers its own suite of free Analytics that you can use to learn more about your audience and how your tweets are doing. Currently, the Analytics tool includes your account home, which provides an overview, a tweet activity dashboard, where you'll see exactly how many times Twitter users have seen, retweeted, liked and replied to each tweet, audience insights, which shows information about your followers' interests and demographics, and a campaign dashboard, where you can track your impressions, results and cost-per-result for your Twitter ad campaigns.

Twitter has also partnered with Union Metrics to create a free Twitter Assistant that analyzes your tweets and makes recommendations to help you create tweets that will get more engagement.

How to Use Twitter for Business: The Bottom Line

Like any other social media application, the more you put into Twitter, the more rewarding you'll find using it. And if you use it wisely, Twitter can be an excellent promotion tool for your small business.

You may also be interested in -

• connect facebook to twitter
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• social media marketing

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