Twitter has 330 million monthly active users and over 500 million tweets are sent out per day. This is makes it an effective channel for communication, and not just personal communication, Twitter is an excellent platform for businesses. Twitter can be an effective marketing tool for. Using a platform like Twitter gives businesses a channel to engage with their audience in a simple and cost-effective way. Twitter accounts are free and if you’re not using Twitter for business, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.
Connect To Customers
With millions of users and more people joining every day, Twitter is a great place to find potential customers. As a social network Twitter was designed to help people connect. Twitter allows for real-time open communication.
You can share new information about your products, use humor, and humanize your customers’ experiences with you. You can build trust and loyalty from customers when you are able to connect with them. According to Oberlo, 40% of Twitter users carried out a purchase after seeing it on Twitter.[1]
Increase Your Brand Awareness
While large companies do not need an introduction to get followers, they can still build their brand by having a presence on Twitter. Smaller businesses will not be able to count on starting with lots of followers, but through the use of regular tweets and appropriate hashtags they can reach their target audience and increase their brand awareness. All of this happens without paid advertising, but research shows that Twitter users spend 26% more time with ads than other social media users. [2]
Help Your Brand Through Followers
Tweets can go viral and obviously that would bring large scale brand awareness. But even when tweets don’t go viral your followers can still help your brand. They can tweet their appreciation of your product and include you. Simply by liking your tweet their followers who don’t follow you will be able to see it. If they retweet your tweet then they are spreading your message.
Be Engaging
One of the best things about Twitter is that it is engaging. Your website is a vector for one-way communication, but twitter is a two-way street. You can put out information about new products, and then see reactions real-time. Twitter allows you to do surveys and boost sales with special offers and discounts. You can reward your followers through special deals for them and build your base and increase loyalty. It is also a great way to offer quick and visible customer service responses. Even if the finer details get moved to a private email or phone call, a customer who has decided to publicly address a problem can be offered quick and helpful customer service which can improve your reputation. It also makes customers feel heard- they don’t have to wait days for a response to find out if their email was received.
Monitor Customer Sentiment
Because customers can tag you in their own tweets, Twitter is a great way to watch what customers are saying about you and your competition. If you can identify themes you can address them in your marketing. For example, you might figure out why certain products are favorites or what your customers consider the most common drawback. By participating in Twitter you can develop more desirable products and refine your brand to help your business become more successful.
Drive Traffic To Your Website
Twitter is a great way to get more website traffic. Did you know that 47% of people that visit a Twitter profile also visit the website linked to that profile? Beyond relying on people to go to your profile, you can send out links to your blogs regularly. You can share new blogs when they come out and older blogs that are still relevant. Building your reputation as a knowledgeable source of information. You can also share links to specials and new products on your website. This will help build loyalty with your followers and increase their trust in your brand. You will want to vary your tweets and make sure you are not spamming, but you can send out relevant links daily.
