Twitter is a great mode of communication to use to connect with new customers, share company updates, advertise special deals and much more. Learn how to make the most of your Twitter account by reading our handy tips.
Of course, you want to encourage people to check out your website and other pages that are relevant to your tweets, but remember that you don't have much space to work with. Make it easier for people to share your content by shortening any web links that you include in your message. Links are great for allowing people to further explore your company and its services, but they can often be very long and include many numbers and symbols, which just takes up valuable character space and looks cluttered. Use the SimplyCast Twitter tool, or another similar tool, to make your links short and sweet.
Retweet interesting messages that are tweeted by others in your industry. Any follower will get bored if you only tweet about your own company and how great it is all the time. By sharing relevant information and funny or thought-provoking tweets, you are showing that you are up to date on industry news and trends. It also helps to keep readers interested in your feed.
Mix automated tweets with manual tweets. It can be a huge time-saver to schedule automatic tweets so you're not constantly updating your account. You should, however, stay connected with your followers and anyone who tweets you by responding promptly. That's one of the best things about Twitter: it allows customers to directly engage with your company and vice versa. Take advantage of that personal interaction by providing a short response to any questions and comments. The @example format makes it easy to reply.
Keep your feed fresh by tweeting often. Tweets are meant to be short blurbs that are easy to read and digest. Readers want small pieces of information that they can interact with on the go, on their mobile devices, wherever they are. The Twitter culture values messages that are short and frequent. If you only tweet every few days, followers will get bored. Keep them updated, keep them interested, keep tweeting. Aim for two or three a day and change it up if you need to.
Run contests! It's fun and it gets customers involved with your company. People use social media sites like Twitter several times a day, so these sites are the ideal setting to share a great contest with lots of people. Make sure you're following best practices: don't post the same tweet about your contest over and over again, and discourage users from creating multiple accounts to try to increase their chances of winning. Actions like these are considered violations of Twitter rules and can have negative repercussions for your company and its followers.
Keep track of who follows your company and make sure you follow interesting relevant people. Delete and report any follower who you think might be a spammer. Follow people who tweet compelling and entertaining content that is related to your industry. You can tell your customers a lot about your company by who you follow.
These tips will get you started to create an engaging Twitter account. Click on any of the highlighted words to read more about best Twitter practices. Any great tips that we missed? Let us know. Now, go forth and tweet!
