24 Entrepreneurs Explain How They Use Twitter for Business

Social Media is here and it is not going anywhere. Many brands focus on specific social media sites because of the type of updates they can make or the activity level of their target market. Twitter is no different and the microblogging site is used by entrepreneurs and business owners to promote brands, communicate with customers and to tell their stories. Rescue a CEO asked some businesses how they use Twitter to help them.

#1 – Keep in Touch & Recruiting

I like to share Marley Spoon's company updates and food & tech industry news on Twitter – it always sparks some nice discussions. It's also a great tool to keep in touch with fellow founders, investors and industry leaders. Furthermore, I use it for recruiting, looking for people interested in food and tech.

Thanks to Fabian Siegel, Marley Spoon!

Twitter Handle: @fabiansiegel

#2 – Helpful & Inspiring

I use Twitter for business to be a helpful resource and inspire others to go after their dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. The CorpNet Twitter account shares helpful posts, motivational quotes and inspiring images to lift our community up remind them that “they can do it just like we did”. We decided when we started on Twitter that we would take a more approachable route vs.. keeping things strictly about our services. It has definitely worked and we contribute to grow our Twitter following daily and love interacting with our community.

Thanks to Nellie Akalp, CorpNet.com!

Twitter Handle: @corpnet

#3 – One of the Best

I am the creator of my divorce website, Divorced Girl Smiling, which offers advice and inspiration to men and women facing divorce and dating after divorce. Twitter has been instrumental in growing the 2 1/2 years business that has now become my full time job. Tweeting links to my articles roughly 5 times per day results in multiple retweets, which drives significant traffic to the site and promotes brand recognition. I have also connected with dozens of potential advertisers on the site, as well as media outlets that have contacted me for interviews. I believe that Twitter is still one of the best social media outlets out there.

Thanks to Jackie Pilossoph, Divorced Girl Smiling!

Twitter Handle: @divorcedgirlJP

#4 – Connecting with Bloggers & Industry Leaders

Our main use for Twitter has been connecting with influential pet bloggers and industry leaders. We connect with them to ask if they'd be interested in reviewing a few of our products and hosting a Twitter contest. If interested in doing a review and a Twitter giveaway, we ask the blogger to use the hashtag #hotdogcollars and encourage their followers to retweet using that hashtag. The blogger then randomly selects a winner who retweeted and used that hashtag, and they receive a prize from us. This has helped not only in terms of building making connections with influential Twitter users within our industry, but it has also helped us narrow down our audience, increase our following, and develop natural PR.

Thanks to Todd Handler, Hot Dog Collars!

Twitter Handle: @hotdogcollars

#5 – Driver of Traffic

In less than two months, Twitter has become my top driver of traffic to my company's website. I use a scheduling tool (Buffer) to publish tweets every two hours around the clock, and since tweets have such a short lifespan, I'm able to use the same content (and calls-to-action) over and over. Twitter is by far the best social media platform I've found for earning new prospects through targeted messages.

Thanks to Spencer Smith, Spencer X Smith Consulting!

Twitter handle: @spencerXsays

#6 – Reach Customers

Twitter has helped me to reach many customers who are interested in Jump Roping and motivation to exercise. I started to post my Jump rope videos on twitter and sales for my custom jump ropes almost doubled! I couldn't believe it! I had been advertising on Facebook for 2 years and didn't get much results, but within 2 months on Twitter, I gained more customers who booked me for Jump Rope Events, Summer Camps and Birthday Parties! Twitter helped me to better hone in on my branding and marketing strategies. Twitter is great for us small business owners and entrepreneurs. I love it!

Thanks to Lucie Buissereth (Lucie B), Lucie B Jump N Fun!

Twitter Handle:@LucieBJumpNFun

#7 – Selective in Your Content

My experience is that it's critical to be selective in your content. People interact based on the level of trust they have for you and the confidence they have in your “brand”. When your standards drop, or you try to force things, you begin to lose that trust which is the only currency you have to trade.
Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Thanks to Tim Fargo, Tweet Jukebox!

#8 – A Client Asked

One of our patients asked us if we had a twitter account. At the time, we didn’t. After all, we didn’t feel that a chiropractic office needed one. Considering that we were being asked, apparently it did. Our patient wanted to tweet about his awesome experience in our office, as a way of saying thank you for taking care of him. As a national celebrity, he is constantly tweeting about his day. Since then he has consistently tweeted about us or us about him. It’s been a fun intro to Twitter.

Thanks to Dr. Jeanett Tapia, D.C., Intouch Chiropractic!
Twitter handle: @IntouchChiroSD

#9 – Real ROI

Twitter is a daily tool in my business. I use it to share my insights, successes, specific information I may be looking for and overwhelmingly to network with other professionals and potential clients. Sharing my insights through articles and tips helps to generate discussion, as does engaging on the posts of other professionals. Twitter has led to many business opportunities and key collaborations that are pushing forward the growth of my company. As a social media professional who uses the majority of the other popular platforms, Twitter is the one that I use the most and is providing a real return on investment.

Thanks to Laura Dunn, Led Media!

Twitter handles: @ledmediaorg & @lauraemilyd

#10 – Conversation Tool

Conversation wise Twitter is the most social platform in our tool box. Keeping that in mind, we focus on having, starting and joining conversations. When having a conversation with customers, on Twitter especially, being personable is key. This personable connection can really build the relationship between a customer and your business. After all, relationships are what social media is all about.  To start a conversation it is best to find people with specific interests that tie into your value proposition. Here it is important to keep the reigns on your campaign as to not cast too wide a net. We like to go for a “narrow and deep” approach. Joining a conversation is simple, just convey your stance on a trending topic as honestly as possible and, as always, add value to the dialogue. A big part of Twitter is that all content carries the same weight on the feed. For us as a business, what that means is producing content that is genuine and truly engaging for the customer.. There’s no paying to promote a post on this platform.

Thanks to Damian Palmer, Pressed!

Twitter Handle: @pressedapp

#11 – Be Miles Ahead of the Game

It doesn't take a genius or out of this world smarts to run a Twitter profile. In fact, it's pretty basic and simple. What I recommend CEOs do with their Twitter handles, and social profiles alike, is find a common ground amongst you and your audience. Not only share content and articles you like and find valuable, but be a resource to your audience – write blog posts, articles, or opinion pieces, and distribute them amongst your network. Ask questions and comment on other people's shares or tweets – get engaged in the conversation and become a thought leader. Use your company's content to answer questions <https://twitter.com/search-advanced?lang=en>. Remember, these days users aren't loyal to brands, they are loyal to the people behind the brand, and if you are your company's biggest cheerleader and provide a valuable experience to those who follow you, you're miles ahead of the game.

Thanks to Patrick Delehanty, Marcel Digital!

Twitter Handle: @marceldigital

#12 – Educate People

At UrbanBound, we use Twitter as an outlet to educate people about our industry. Instead of constantly pushing out our product and self serving our company, we post articles and content pieces that are relevant and interesting to our readers. We do this by trying our best to follow the 50/50 rule. With this rule, 50% of the content is ours, and the other 50% is from other sources. We interact, retweet, respond, and engage with the Twitter community as an attempt to spark ideas and conversation. Once people trust your brand and value what you have to say, the rest will fall into place. You need to establish credibility though, and the only way to do that is to serve as a source of education to people – not a sales pitch.

Thanks to Erin Wasson, UrbanBound!

Twitter Handle: @UrbanBound

#13 – Twitter Advanced Search

Imagine your customers would run to you and begging you to solve their problem. Twitter has a gold-mine function that hardly anybody is really using, but which is exactly doing this. It’s called: Twitter Advanced Search. At SmartPianoLessons.com we asked ourselves the question where we can find hungry clients with real credit-card-in-hand-needs. And then we found Twitter search. On twitter search you can see what people are talking and jump into the conversation. We used the different options to filter out exactly the terms we want. For example in the “This exact phrase”-section we wrote “play piano”. In combination with “Any of these words” and the words “regret,wish,force”, you get people who say things like “I wish I could play piano” or “I regret my parents didn’t force me to learn the piano”. Now you only have to filter away all the ads by putting “http” in the “None of these words”-section, and off you are: People with real needs in your niche, ready for you to bring the solution. Cost: Zero!”

Thanks to Nate Bubna, Smart Piano Lessons!

Twitter Handle: @PlaySmartPiano

#14 – Content Delivery Platform

We primarily use Twitter as a content delivery platform and to offer actionable advice to our followers. When we write a new blog post or create an infographic, Twitter allows us to distribute it to readers that we know are already interested in our niche and are more likely to share our content with their social networks.

Thanks to Brian Stumbaugh, The Startup Garage!

Twitter Handle: @startup_garage

#15 – Announcement

We use Twitter to announce what we're up to–whether it be at a conference, gaining new customers, or announcing new style launches. Whenever we attend events, we actively work the hashtags provided and work hard to be a part of conversations that keep our brand out front. We also retweet things that are pertinent to our mission. We don't overdue it daily with our posts, because it can be a sensitive topic, but we love reaching out to our customers in this way!”

Thanks to Angelle Albright, Chemo Beanies!

Twitter Handle: @chemobeanies

#16 – Public Relations Strategy

At our agency we've implemented a public relations strategy that utilizes Twitter as an additional tool for media outreach. Social media is undoubtedly a major aspect of effective PR, and by leveraging this, we've found that we are able to reach reporters, editors, and bloggers in a place where they aren't overly-inundated with messaging. Sometimes, when trying to secure placements, as opposed to following up with an email, we'll send a quick tweet to see if there is any possible interest. It's often difficult to cut through the clutter of an inbox, and Twitter allows us to reach our contacts succinctly throughout their busy day.

Thanks to Paige Weiners, Blue Fountain Media!

Twitter Handle: @BFMweb

#17 – Present Our Brand

We use Twitter to present our brand to the world by offering quick facts about our products and entice our audience by sharing articles related to our cause. The hemp industry is up and coming in the US and it’s moving fast. What better way to disseminate this face paced content than Twitter? We believe in a healthy lifestyle and that means keeping on the move…

Thanks to James DeRosa, Real Hemp LLC!
Twitter Handle: @RealhempLLC

#18 – Educate

When using twitter for business I use twitter to educate the public on accounting, taxes and financial literacy. Twitter tips are posted with tips in those areas and sometimes just motivation. Using twitter has made potential clients and the public aware of my business. It has also helped establish me as an expert in my industry.

Thanks to Lorra Brown, LBE Consulting, LLC!
Twitter Handle: @brown_lorra

#19 – Interact with Clients & Promote

I use twitter to interact with clients, potential customers, and to promote shoots I'm doing. 9 times out of ten whoever needs my photo services has a twitter account and I like to pepper in some social media along with my shoots. I'm a bit addicted to twitter and also do a lot of retweeting of items I think are relevant which can range from business talk to video games to that cute new droid in Star Wars.

Thanks to Rich, NY Photo NY!

Twitter Handle: @nyphotony

#20 – Communicate & Engage

Twitter is our most effective tool to communicate and engage with not just our community, but our customers as well. Apart from the usual ways of using this social media channel, like sharing, interacting and promotions, we also use Twitter to keep up-to-date about the latest in our community. Engaging and sharing is important, but what’s more important is listening. We should know what people are talking about in our industry, about our tool, our company, and our support. It’s always good to hear positive feedback, but negative feedback is inevitable. This is where Twitter has been our biggest asset. Even though our company offers phone and email support, Twitter is one of our most popular channels of answering customer queries and resolving issues. We have an amazing response rate to any problem or query that is tweeted to us, and our teams work in complete sync to resolve them. Many a times when someone requires an immediate or urgent response, Twitter is our go-to platform.

Thanks to Paras Chopra, VWO!

Twitter Handle: @wingify

#21 – Interact with Customers

First and foremost, Twitter is obviously a great tool to interact with customers and potential customers, whether its answering informational queries or proactively notifying our followers about company news. On top of that, we've also had some success using Twitter ads to drive app downloads, and the demographics and audience data can provide valuable insights that you can use across other marketing platforms. Using that demographic data, we're planning on trying out their new Event Calendar targeting feature soon, which seems promising and can hopefully drive more sales conversions.

Thanks to Ross Cohen, BeenVerfied!
Twitter Handle: @BeenVerified

#22 – Networking Is Key

At Mary Beth West Communications, we make social, personal. When I founded my agency 12 years ago as a consultant, all of our social media and outreach were distributed through my personal platforms. I was the face and the brand for our business. Through that personal experience in dealing with community members as both Mary Beth West and Mary Beth West Communications, I have seen that a fairly granular approach to networking and connecting with colleagues and business development contacts and influencers via social media, primarily Twitter, has shown great value. Although my name is still the brand, as the agency has developed, we've discovered new ways to integrate Twitter and LinkedIn in particular into our overall networking process. We place our focus on incorporating our personal profiles with our company's social profile. Our team members often serve as faces of our brand in social media. We make sure that clients, potential clients, and other public relations professionals know that there is a person behind the page. We maintain an active level of involvement with professional organizations and future public relations professionals at local universities. Employees share articles, promote their team members, participate in Twitter chats and network, all while representing Mary Beth West Communications with a positive yet practical spirit of the brand that clients have come to expect.

Thanks to Taylor A. Hathorn, Mary Beth West Communications, LLC!

Twitter Handles: @MaryBethWest @MBWCGossip

#23 – Interacting with Customers & Building Brands

Twitter has made interacting with consumers and building brands a far more direct process–it’s a powerful tool that can greatly affect your business. The first step on Twitter is simply to listen to your audiences and industry thought leaders. Listening helps your business better understand what kind of content they should be providing in order to fill a consumer need. Everyone tweets, but not everyone can tweet for a business. Building a true connection with people is where the real value of Twitter as a B2B tool lies. This won’t happen without good content, and this is why listening is so important. As social media evolves, so does its users. Social media users will always expect and demand authenticity from brands in order to build a level of trust with them. Businesses relying on scheduled tweets will not see the results they’re expecting. Since Twitter is all about communication, a two-way street to connecting with consumers is essential. Answering questions, adding value to online communities, and generally engaging is how any business can build brand equity in the social space. Twitter as a B2B tool is growing quickly, becoming an integral part of any business’ awareness and outreach strategy. Once a strategy is in place, begin evaluating consumer feedback, interaction with your followers and engagement levels, this will help your business determine what is working and what isn’t. Once an effective strategy has been established, your business will notice a bump in customer satisfaction, brand loyalty – and the bottom line.

Thanks to David Moncur, Think Moncur!

Twitter handles: @davidmoncur @ThinkMoncur

#24 – Build Relationships with People

I personally use Twitter to build relationships with important media contacts, key influencers and thought-leaders. Starting a conversation through tweeting, re-tweeting, favoriting and tagging influencers helps to build engagement organically. This, in turn, can lead to an ongoing conversation to help build a working relationship.

Thanks to David Neff, Neff Associates!
Twitter Handle: @DavidNeffADV