Top 5 Twitter Tips for Marketing Your Business

Social media is vital to the marketing of your business. If your customers can”t easily find you online, they”re going to move on to a competitor.

But you can”t just exist online; you need to thrive. Your online presence should be engaging, friendly, fun, and informative. And it”s not enough to have just a website and Facebook page. Twitter is a fast-rising marketing bonanza for businesses.

However, in order for Twitter to work well for you, you have to use it the right way. Here are five tips for using Twitter to market your business.

1. Add pictures Put a face on your business by adding a picture to your profile. If you”re a small business, put a photo of yourself or your team. If you”re a business known for a particular product, post a photo of that product.

If you”re a large company, you might try a unique Twitter version of your logo. In addition to a profile pic, be sure and tweet out photos from time to time: people generally respond well to photos when they”re used as an occasional companion to tweets.

2. Know your audience Put your company name into Twitter Search and find out what people are saying about you. This”ll give you an idea of the common interests and concerns of your customers — and potential customers. Twitter Search is a pretty deep tool. For more information about it, follow the Twitter Search Account.

3. Drive the conversation Some businesses use Twitter mainly as a way to respond to comments from others. Ideally, you want to drive the conversations on Twitter.

Post info on new products or services. Post pictures. Direct people to your website. Additionally, you don”t want to spent 100% of your time on social media talking about your business. Mix it up a bit with posts on other news or developments that might appeal to your followers.

4. Address complaints quickly Often, people who”ve had a bad experience with a company take to Twitter to voice their complaints. Honestly, the validity of those complaints is pretty irrelevant to the Twitterverse.

What does matter is how the company responds. When someone complains about your business, you need to respond quickly and professionally. While it”s impossible to please everyone, people do notice if you”re an attentive, caring company.

5. #Use #hashtags #correctly Some Twitter users — including companies — seem to suffer from a condition known as “hashtag hysteria.” This is where their Tweets contain too many hashtags, which ultimately dilutes their effectiveness.

Think of hashtags as categories: you only want to include your business in a category where it makes sense, and where it will reach the people you want to reach. Proper use of hashtags is both an art and a science.

Getting it right is #GreatMarketing.