How to Use Twitter as a Marketing Tool

Hello ladies and gents, today we are going to tackle about the world of Twitter. Well how to use Twitter as a marketing tool to be exact. Before I jump into the topic, here are the background of Twitter. According to Wikipedia, Twitter is an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with messages, “tweets”, restricted to 140 characters

With that being said, how can you able to leverage the popular 140-character social media site to drive more traffic to your business or website? Here are some steps and pro tips that might be helpful:

• Make a twitter Account, present your brand.

While this is the most obvious step, simply making a Twitter account is the way to get started. Once that’s done, you may start designing your profile. Please keep that in mind that, it must be brand centric, so it should tell the story of your business in a single glance, select visual elements that best represent you.

• Build a strong foundation.

It is crucial to complete your Twitter profile completely. Each feature gives you more details about your business that contribute to business story. The feature you might need to fill up include:

Location. Well you don’t have to key in your company address. Just give your follower a roughly idea where you located at will do.

Website. You may insert company website here. This is a good way to provide extra information of interest to Twitter users looking into your business.

Bio. Keep in mind that you only get 160 characters to tell people who you are and what you do. Skip the long mission vision statement and straight to the point of what kind of service and benefit your company delivered.

• Connect with others, start following people.

Just like any of the social medias, it’s all about connecting with users to share content. Well if you’re newbie and have no idea who to start follow, fret not, Twitter will recommend some users as soon as you fill out your profile. You’ll receive recommendations on who to follow, whether it’s celebrities, athletes, comedians, business leaders or musicians. However, you can browse for people that would match your business’s interests.

• Start tweeting and engaged with your followers.

Finally, we’ve come to the fun part, which is tweeting! But before you do that, make sure that you are aware of some Twitter terminologies.

Tweet: This is the heart of Twitter communication where a message you send out to everyone who follows you.

Reply: a message you send out as a reply to a message you received. It shows up in the tweet stream of everyone who follows both of you.

Direct message (DM): a message that you send it privately to another twitter user. You can only DM to someone who follows you.

Retweet (RT): a message created and sent by someone else that you share with the people who follow you.

Quote from Sandra Fathi, founder & president of Affect – A PR firm “Regular tweeting is a sign of an active, healthy profile, if you only tweet once a week, or once a month, you aren’t keeping it up and folks will forget about you.”

It is not just blindly tweeting that simple. Somehow you must include some strategy in it. For example, you may set up a tweeting schedule

• Monday – feature special promotions;
• Tuesday – sharing some company photos are videos
• Wednesday – throwing a poll campaign and ask followers to vote
• Thursday – spotlight trending industry topics;
• Friday – customers service

While tweeting, try using quotes, statistics, or questions related to the link you’re tweeting as a way to people wanting to read more. Incorporate photos, polls, GIF, or even short videos. You can do so much with Twitter, so don’t try to limit yourself with the 140 characters.

To sum it up, Twitter is just like any other social media, it takes time to master. However, it doesn’t have to be a strenuous process to get out and start Tweeting. Regardless all, the most important key to being successful on Twitter is staying active. With that, I wish you all the best in mastering Twitter. Happy Tweeting folks!

Lastly, don’t forget to follow us at Twitter @MaconnMalaysia

*Marketing Connection is a digital marketing company that specializes in website design and online marketing in Penang. We love to help new businesses to grow their business further.