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 – Sales Effort
Many might view that as an odd or certainly inflammatory statement especially since Twitter use is down. I find, however, that when used correctly Twitter can give you the insights into topics of interest and the pain points that you should be addressing when calling on prospects and clients. I like Twitter as a listening tool more than as a vehicle for pushing out content (although I do use that feature as well). One of the great ways to listen is to check in on a Twitter Chat that your target audience might be participating in. You don't have to contribute, just listen. You can also see what content someone is sharing to get an idea as to what their company is all about. Then take that information and wow your prospects and clients with your understanding of their company and industry on your next sales call.
Thanks to Anne Kleinman, Ad Infinitum
#2 – Visual Posting
One of the biggest mistakes I see in brands is not using visual posting on their products or not using what is truly “social”. It is very important for business profiles to do an image or video sharing not only because this is the future, but also visuals always catch people’s eye more than text. Moreover, professionally taken photos are making your profile to look more professional of course and this stimulates people to follow your content. Also one of the main keys to success is when you are taking part in the socials with a social or general topics, not only to tweet your products all the time because people want you to be close to them, in their everydays, not only talking about your products.
Thanks to Billie Jean Bateson, Amazing Wristbands
#3 – Content Promotion
I use Twitter for my business every single day. We do daily giveaways. We reach out to influencers. We follow people in our industry. We share other people's content. We promote our own blog. We promote all the content sources we love. I try to Tweet at least 10 times a day and respond to all Tweets from others within 24 hours. Activity and engagement are the keys to Twitter growth and lead generation. Provide value first, business will follow. It's not the other way around.
Thanks to Derric Haynie, Rebrandly
#4 – Storytelling
By trade, I am a Luxury Real Estate Advisor in Monmouth County, New Jersey but if you check out my profile on Twitter, @TheFindelGroup, I do not try to push some hard sale home-buying tactic or try to educate the consumer. Although useful, I feel there's enough education going around on the Internet without me adding anything extra. I would consider myself an amateur storyteller by vocation. I share pictures and give a brief description of the scene at hand. I can only sell you the dream if my pictures evoke an emotion deep within. Can you see yourself on that farm in Colts Neck? Can you feel the waves splashing in your face as you run freely towards the waters at the Jersey shore? I know what brings a smile to MY face when I take those pictures. I try to share that with my followers. If they choose to use me as their real estate advisor, then I know that there is a synergy between us and we will get along well during what can be an arduous buying or selling process.
Thanks to Sarah F. Findel, Engel & Völkers
#5 – Engage Brands
Twitter is incredibly important for our business, it's the perfect platform to engage with members, and brands alike. As our network is a mixture of advice, support, and events, it's a great way to get real-time insights into the events that are happening all over the world. Members regularly tweet us pictures which we can then share on, and we can also engage in discussions about issues that matter to us. It's the ideal tool for being part of conversations with organisations and individuals. It’s this connectivity that makes it so powerful as you can hear from various sources at once. As a company that's all about connecting and empowering women, it's a vital platform for us.
Thanks to Áine Mulloy, GirlCrew
#6 – Finding Conversations
Our company uses Twitter for a number of reasons. The main thing we focus on at the moment, for the company specifically, is to go out and proactively find conversations with people tweeting about the areas we deal with and providing our own unique insights into the areas. This includes marketing and customer service, and is done with the aim to raise our brand awareness and trust. As an outsourcing company, we also have a number of clients who we specifically use Twitter for to deal with inbound customer service enquiries. Using social media for customer service is vital with the companies we deal with, and it's one of the areas we specialise in.
Thanks to Andrew Hart, FM Outsource
#7 – Publicize Our News
Twitter is the perfect place to publicize all the many great things your business does, both product and service-wise, as well as non-commercial ventures. For example, we are currently donating syringe drive bags, handmade by our seamstresses out of our excess fabric, to many hospitals and hospices throughout the UK to aid cancer sufferers. We always make sure we post photographs of the nurses holding the bags, tagging the relevant cause in the tweet, which then gets shared, gives us exposure and also invites other worthy causes to make contact with us. It’s the ideal platform to promote your sales and special offers, and thanks to hash tagging, you have the potential to reach a very wide audience. The same technique can be used to promote blog posts and other content for your target market.
Thanks to Darren Green, Roman Blinds Direct
#8 – Build Exposure
I use Twitter to build exposure and visibility for my business and brand, drive traffic to content on my blog and elsewhere, attract leads and build authority and influence. Content published to my blog will be shared multiple times through the Twitter account over the course of several weeks, picking out different aspects of the content each time. I'll also share content I've repurposed and published elsewhere, such as LInkedIn Pulse, Medium, etc.. For lead building, I have a link to a lead magnet on the Twitter profile, and also send out periodic Tweets linking to content upgrades that I've previously used in blog posts and content repurposed and published elsewhere. My main long-term goals with Twitter are to build authority and influence, to boost SEO (albeit indirectly) and to create a new traffic source that's independent of search engine traffic and makes the business more resilient.
Thanks to Steve Shaw, vWriter
#9 – Early Start
When I started my business as an unknown – social media was my only outlet to reach out and make connections with my $0 budget. I started with Twitter, using relevant hashtags and connecting with people. As people started following me, I would thank them each one of them for the follow and ask them to check out my book – and they did! I also found chats with authors in my genre, book clubs or just writing discussions that I would participate in making further connections. This was one of the most fundamental tools in growing my name and brand – I still use Twitter daily but I have transformed my use of it to address my current needs and goals. The great thing about Twitter and social media is it doesn't just have one function and with some creativity and hard work it can grow and support your business through every step and transformation.
Thanks to T.S. Krupa
#10 – Building Connections
My company is a subscription box based company that sends packages full of hygiene products, candy and yummy goodies to girls when they are on their period. Customers have the ability to pick the date they want their package to arrive each month that way they can choose for their package to come right when they know they need it most. We started building this company through numerous parody Twitter account. Long story short, I would pay owners of the Twitter accounts to trade (ReTweet each other) ads about my company, eventually pushing info about my company to millions of people each and every day. In just 3 months working through Twitter, I was able to grow my company Twitter account to over 110,000 followers. I had these connections and knowledge of Twitter influencers because i used to be one myself before I started my company. I used to own over 10 Twitter accounts ranging from 100k-800k followers.
Thanks to Luke Buchy, The PMS Package
#11 – Leverage Hashtags
I often tell my clients that Twitter is not something you can just set and forget. It has a lot of moving parts and requires time and attention. For my firm, I post up to seven times per day scattered about two hours apart, using the 80/20 posting rule, which means I post 80 percent of news and articles I see and 20 percent of my own content. The content posted for my firm is from the blog posts – current, past, and trending, as well as lead-generating items, like books, downloads, video, etc. In addition to pushing content, I leverage key hashtags and on occasion ad placements and sponsored posts. As part of our marketing plan this year, there has been a more focused effort on growing our Twitter base, mostly due to speaking engagements and book releases.
Thanks to Becky Livingston, Penheel Marketing
#12 – Industry Content
Twitter has really helped us build strong relationships with partner universities, media contacts, and current and potential students. It's a perfect platform for reaching out and starting conversations, and that's what we primarily use it for. We also use it to distribute content on our industry, along with study abroad tips and news that we write about on our blog, which helps us build brand awareness and thought leadership in the education space.
Thanks to Daniel Bjarne, SchoolApply
#13 – Interest Influencers
As a virtual assistant firm, we're looking to build relationships with entrepreneurs and small businesses that want to increase productivity and influencers interested in new productivity tools. On Twitter, we focus on providing this audience with useful content including productivity tips and how-to posts. We also post links to our blog, which includes our own tips for productivity such as how to efficiently use virtual assistants, software that can be used with remote teams, and effective management techniques. Finally, we seek out influencers that post similar content and like or share their posts. Our goal is to cultivate an interested network of like-minded businesspeople, rather than to simply grow our number of followers.
Thanks to Eric Wall, Equivity
#14 – Two Way Dialogue
Twitter is great for business, primarily it is great for connections. The best way to use Twitter IMHO is for two way dialogue, it's not a broadcast channel where you set it & forget it. IE schedule content & never go back to engage with people. Specifically, it can be a great way to add value to a webinar, by having Twitter conversations, and Q&A during or after. Or creating a Twitter Chat for a group convo, or simply following & engaging with interesting people or someone you'd like to meet.
Thanks to Peg Samuel, Social Diva Media
#15 – Connect with Motivators
When it comes to using Twitter to promote my business as a Powerful Thinking Coach and Motivational Speaker, I utilize it in 2 ways. First, I have connected my blog, Instagram account (@motivationalphilosopher), and YouTube channel (Motivational Philosopher) all to Twitter. Since these are 3 completely different platforms, Twitter acts as my medium, capable of harboring them all so I don't have to come up with any more separate content for Twitter itself. My other Twitter strategy is using it to connect with other motivators, spiritualist, and self-help individuals. I share their content and in turn they do the same for me. This is my best strategy for sharing online content of other business owners and building relationships with them.
Thanks to Mel Jones, Motivational Philosopher