Why Twitter’s good for business

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Dec 5, 2013 / by
Why Twitter’s good for business

Many businesses, small and large, are using Twitter to generate followers and more business. Whether it is to inform people about your latest offerings or share news about new blog postings, you can make a strategic use of Twitter to promote your business.

If you aren’t on the Twitter bandwagon yet, let us explain why implementing an effective Twitter strategy can benefit your business.

According to Twitter:

“Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Now, people are turning to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to businesses, too. From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter.”

Customer feedback

Tweeting awayYou can find out what your customer thinks of your service and products via Twitter. If they’re delighted with the customer service you’ve given, they’ll be sure to tweet about it with their friends. Or, if the feedback is disapproving, you have a chance to interact with them and identify what they see as the shortcomings. You can then make the necessary improvements so that next time when the customers tweet about you, they’re in effect advertising your brand.

When clarifications are provided on Twitter itself, people get to see that you care for what the customer thinks about your business. As the saying goes: “The only thing better than a customer problem solved is a customer problem solved in public.”

Latest updates

Opening a new store? Introducing a new product or service? Giving limited time offers for some products? Tweet what’s new and happening in your business to your followers. Tweets are one of the fastest ways to get them informed. You may also use Twitter to get the latest news regarding your main clients. If there’s something major happening in their lives, Twitter gives you an opportunity to get involved and benefit them in some way. The more you engage with your customers, the more opportunities will arise. Also, you may check Twitter to find out what your competition is up to and respond appropriately.

Branding

You can showcase what your brand stands for to the world and build it up further by way of tweets. Do not think of brands as big time names and fancy logos strewn about on TV or online. Brands are nothing more than reputations. Every person is his or her own brand. So, when you tweet regarding aspects of your business or your life, the friends who follow you form a certain perception over time which can be monetized later in times of a new venture.

In other words, you can develop an ongoing interaction with a community of people who are actively interested in your brand and for whom you can develop specific promotions and offerings at appropriate intervals. The music industry offers many examples of artists keeping in touch with their followers through Twitter – to promote ticket sales and even get audiences warmed up while waiting for a show to start!

Going viral

Tweets can easily go viral, that is re-tweeted on and on till many people get to know of the hot issue in the news or in an exclusive circle of followers. As the popularity of a Twitter user increases, i.e. as you get more followers, the viral aspects of the service can be exploited as one of your marketing strategies. Re-tweeting on Twitter is like a never-ending tree. Use tweets for promotion, giving discount coupons, and so on.

Wider reach

Reach more customers through Twitter. Active Twitter users might come upon your tweets by chance and if they like what they see, they’ll start following you and recommend you to others. Through hashtags, re-tweets and followers, Twitter allows you to network and connect with contacts you might not have had otherwise.

Twitter liveTwitter is quick, free and frequently updated. When used efficiently, the opportunities for social networking through Twitter are hard to beat. So merely having an account is not enough; you need to use it frequently and effectively to make a difference. Of course, we promote blogging and the use of newsletters to promote your company and products in other contexts. But with tweets taking up only 140 characters, they are extremely concise; only just enough to get the word out and create that excitement or anticipation often employed by marketing agencies. You may tweet your followers every time you post a new blog or occasionally to highlight a blog post you particularly want them to see. And, from the opposite angle, a blog post with a lot of tweets and retweets showing up at the bottom is more likely to do better, due to social reinforcement.

In conclusion

Be careful not to go over the top and follow just about everyone. Follow the people who you think will be interested in your company and services. And don’t make your tweets exclusively about the business. Remember to thank people for their tweets and retweets, and engage clients with a human touch. Taking your time to tweet about your business should be both fun and productive; if it’s not, you’re probably doing it wrong!

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