7 Reason You Should Use Twitter to Market Your Small Business

There are lots of great reasons to use Twitter to market your small business. I’ve listed my favourite 7 below.

1. It’s Versatile

Twitter is incredibly versatile. You can post images, links, videos, or just plain text. This means you can share any type of content, from a short form news item containing just a couple of sentences, to a tweeted link containing a long form blog post with images and even a video. So, whatever you have to share with your community, you can use Twitter to do it.

2. Local Hashtags e.g. #GreenwichHour

If you’re a local business, then community hashtags are the way to go. Just log on and search the hashtag at the advertised hour (usually one hour at the same time every week). Then chat to your local community online. People buy from people they like, so the idea is to get to know people, start conversations and share useful information relating to your business. Don’t sell. It’s a big turnoff. Just chat and network and be present as often as possible. The rest will come later. For now…Connect. Chat. Give.

3. Industry Hashtags e.g. #WeddingHour

If you’re in business, the chances are there’s a hashtag relating to your industry. If your products or services are wedding related for example, there’s #WeddingHour. For locksmith’s there’s #SecurityHour and for social media people there’s the general (hashtag always relevant, not just at a specific time and day) hashtags #socialmedia and #socialmediamarketing (plus many others).

So, if you’re a Greenwich locksmith, or a local Greenwich shop, for example, you may want to join in the conversations happening on Tuesday evenings on #GreenwichHour and also on Friday afternoon’s on #SecurityHour. Those two hours could be the most productive time you spend on social media all week. Remember…Connect. Chat. Give.

4. Quick Content Creation

Using 3rd party apps such as Hootsuite or Buffer, it’s really easy to top up your Twitter content. When you find an article online that you think your community might find interesting, you can add it to your feed with a couple of clicks and add your own comment. When you think of things you’d like to share about your company, products or staff, you can add those by typing them into these apps and clicking to post. It’s quick and easy to keep your Twitter profile cooking.

5. Reach the Right People With Twitter Ads

Twitter Ads are easy to use and allow you to show your tweets to profiles chosen on geographical location, keywords, interests and behaviours. This allows you to reach a targeted audience, who are more likely to be interested in what you have to say.

6. Lists for Community Organisation

I’d go so far as to say you should only consider using Twitter if you’re going to make use of the Lists function. Twitter is a considerably noisy platform. Timelines move so fast that it’s almost impossible to keep up with what’s going on. The good news is you can quieten things down significantly, or in fact as much as you choose to, with Lists. You can create Lists with several profiles on each, perhaps organised around different subjects. For example, I can create a List of profiles centred around search engine optimisation and another List of profiles centred around social media. I can then interact with one group at a time and join in the conversation. The timeline for a list of around 40 or so profiles is obviously going to be far quieter than my entire timeline of around 3,000. It makes it much easier and less time consuming to find the conversation you want to contribute to.

7. Easy, Invaluable Analytics

Twitter’s analytics are very easy to understand. You get a quick summary at the top of the page telling you how many tweets you’ve sent in the past 28 days, how many profile visits and mentions this content has generated and by how many followers your profile has increased in the past 28 days.

This is followed by some monthly stats which tell you what your top tweet was that month, who your top follower is (an influencer you may want to capitalise on), your top media tweet and your top mention. Plus the 28 day breakdown of information for each month.

Really simple, really useful and easy to look at. Good stuff!

So, there are my 7 favourite reasons to use Twitter to market your small business. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line at lorraine@socialmatrixhub.co.uk. I’m happy to help in any way I can.

Speak soon.

Lorraine :-)