Did you know that there are 330,000,000 active users on Twitter every month, and 145,000,000 daily active users? Amazing isn’t it – that’s more than LinkedIn.
These statistics are just one of the reasons why I am creating for you this short Twitter Beginners Guide 2020. Keep reading to learn about my ten Twitter tips.
Is Twitter good for B2B or is Twitter good for B2C?
Always do your research and find out where your customers and potential customers hang out. I would say that Twitter is great for connecting you with organisations, but saying that, there are huge numbers of individuals on there too. So it’s great for both Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B), but do your research into your sector first as there may be more effective social media platforms particularly if you’re B2C.
When you know how to use Twitter effectively and have the perfect social media marketing strategy for your target audience, you’ll soon have a following to be proud of.
Why Twitter?
Tweeting and responding to Tweets is a great way of getting on someone’s radar. For instance, journalists use Twitter as a great source of live information – it’s just one of their tactics to find out what’s going on in their area or sector. So, if you want to get your story in print, follow your local journalists and interact with them – they are more likely to take notice than if you send a generic email to the newspaper.
Just like the other social media platforms, Twitter is about developing relationships. Be social!
An advantage of Tweets is their character limit which eliminates the need for lengthy posts. It encourages frequent short snippets of information. Whatever you do, don’t overthink a Tweet, any content that adds value to its reader is perfect.
Top Tips for Twitter
Here are my top ten Twitter tips on how to grow your following:
1. Be active
Twitter’s algorithms work in a similar way to other social media platforms; the more you’re using Twitter effectively and interacting on the platform the better your reward will be, and that means more visibility for your Tweets. This should be a good mix of liking, commenting and using the search bar. Simply using a third party scheduling tool isn’t going to get you anywhere. You need to be an active member of the Twitter community.
2. Have conversations.
When you see an inspiring Tweet, or one that asks for an opinion, leave a comment. Your action will get noticed by the author of the Tweet and potentially by others who have left a comment. Demonstrating that you are a like-minded person will usually result in a new follower.
3. Don’t sell all of the time.
Yes, I know we’re in business to make money, but honestly, social media is not the place for continual selling. This technique will lose your followers! Aim for around 80% of your content to be about your brand, your story, the benefits of your service or product and other short pieces of information that really add value. The remaining 20% can be sales pitches. With the majority of your posts being informative, helpful or entertaining, your followers will be more receptive to take note of your ‘salesy’ posts.
4. Use lists.
As you grow your newsfeed will become full of information from all the people you follow. Lists are vastly underutilised and yet they are a great way of finding out up to date information in your sector or targeting your customers for example to honing in on your business objectives for Twitter. If you’re not sure how to use Twitter lists I cover this and lots more, in my online Twitter workshop – the next one starts 20 October 2020.
5. Use hashtags.
Twitter is all about the hashtags and its users love to search for them and see who is talking about the things they are interested in. But a word of caution, only use hashtags that are relevant to you and your sales strategy. Using the more generic ones like #FollowFriday or #MondayMotivation will get lost as they are so over-used and not targeted enough for your market. If you’re not sure what hashtags are and how they work here’s a useful video which will explain all ‘Hashtags and how they work’. You’ll find this video useful for LinkedIn and Instagram too!
6. Follow influencers in your field.
Influencers are the people who you turn to for your up to date information and insight – they are the go to experts. To showcase that you access your information from the best sources retweet some of their Tweets that contain information that is useful to your customers and potential customers. And why not leave a comment too and get noticed by them, or you could tag them in one of their Tweets so long as it’s relevant. Fingers crossed you’ll get a follow back which will add to your credibility – at the very least some of their followers will start to follow you.
7. Tweet!
Yes, I know this seems one of the more obvious Twitter tips, but you MUST Tweet to get yourself some Twitter love! Retweeting all of the time won’t get you noticed. If you’re really serious about building your following, you need to be Tweeting about 3 times a day – every day. When you reach 1,000 followers you can tone this down, but it’s really important at the start to continually show up. Top Tip: For every LinkedIn or Facebook post you do, break the content down into smaller bite-size bits of content and create several Tweets from them.
Top tip alert! Use an image with your Tweet as on average a Tweet with an image gets 150% more retweets (according to Buffer)!
8. Don’t put a link in your Tweet.
Twitter don’t like it when you actively encourage the reader to move off their platform by clicking on a link in your Tweet. Your Tweet won’t go very far. But, if you are wanting your followers to head to your website, then go for a sponsored Tweet instead. Once you’ve achieved over 1,000 followers your Tweets with links in will get a little more reach than before but while you are growing your following opt for content that engages and attracts comments.
9. Private message your followers.
You can send a private message to any one of your followers. This is a really under-used feature on Twitter so if you think about it, when that person or organisation receives a private message on Twitter the chances are it’ll get noticed – now that has to be more powerful than sending an email and more personal than tagging them in to a Tweet. Try it out!
10. Optimise your Twitter profile.
Rule number one – consider your audience when choosing your Twitter profile picture, banner and writing content for your bio. This is essential to attract the followers you want.
And that’s a wrap – I hope you’ve enjoyed these ten Twitter tips 2020.
Do you need more help with Twitter?
Join me on my “Twitter Online Workshop”, but be quick it’s only available for a limited number of attendees. It starts on Tuesday 28th September 2021 and runs for one hour each day for four consecutive days. And don’t worry if you sign up and then find out you can’t make one of the days, I’ll record them, so you don’t miss out.
This is what we’ll cover:
- Identifying what you want to achieve on Twitter
- Finding your target audience and engaging with them
- What makes a knockout bio, profile picture and banner
- How to use the settings to optimise your Twitter account
- How to structure a great Tweet
- What hashtags are and why they are incredibly beneficial to gain a great reach and grow your account
- Ways to build a strong following
- How to generate lists and streamline your Twitter newsfeed
- How to measure your success and continually improve your performance
If this is for you, places are booking up so don’t delay and sign up here.
Final thought
I’d like to finish this week’s blog by giving a shoutout to The Base who recently Tweeted this: “good content is anything that adds value to the reader’s life.” I couldn’t agree more, this is what you need to focus on when creating your content, and it’s all covered in my workshop!
Bye for now,
Becs
Becs Bate, Social Media Executive
