Q & A: How can I use twitter for my small business?

Hello!

It’s Q and A day where I answer your questions about social media, business and doing the work you love.

This week’s question comes from a small business owner who wants to be able to grips with twitter with confidence.

Can’t see the video? Click here to watch it over on youtube.

Well, I absolutely LOVE twitter and I have lots of tips to share. In fact, I’m going to give you five of my top tips so you can give your business a boost through twitter!

Tip 1  – Social Media Basics

Make sure that you link your website to your twitter accounts so that customers who find your website can see where you’re tweeting from and follow your tweets and your twitter account. And vice versa make sure you put your website address into your twitter bio stop and and put your business bio there, so the description of your business and if you’ve got it tagline use it.

Put logo or picture or whatever is your identity so that you have your profile consitent across all your social media chanell. Keep your Twitter channel open, don’t lock it down and make it hard for people to interact with you as that can put people off.

Tip 2 – Using your own voice online

Decide on your brand’s voice. What is your online voice? What what way does your company speak online? What are the distinct features that make up your company? Is your business funny? Friendly? Serious? Somber? Has it got attitude? Decide on the voice of your company and use that when talking on Twitter. This is going to help you stand out from the crowd start plus as it’s your company and you know its voice this will come naturally to you and that way you’re not pretending to be something or someone you’re not and it won’t feel forced because whatever you do you don’t want to sound like any other company!

Tip 3 – Listening on twitter

Get to know how the twitter platform works! Let’s skip how to send a tweet and how to reply, but do you know how to find out if your business is being talked about on twitter and how to listen out for twitter all mentions?

There are lots of free social media tools that will enable you to track what’s being said about you online and I’ll put a link to some of the free tools under this video and in my blog post.

You don’t want to miss an opportunity to connect with people and potential customers who were talking about you because you could be missing out on valuable business opportunities. Also once you learn how to listen on Twitter should there be a customer complaint or something negative being said about you you can respond very quickly and possibly allay a social media crisis.

I’ll add that there is nothing that will enrage an already disgruntled customer than being ignored on twitter! See what the problem is, acknowledge it, apologise, fix the problem and keep a positive online attitude!

Tip 4 – Keep your tweets varied!

Don’t only tweet when you’ve updated your blog for example, think about what other ways you can interact on twitter.

Can you share some other industry related links? How about making a short video? Or share some photographs about photographs what’s happening in your business?

Let your customers see how your business works!

But don’t only share your own content, listen to what’s your customers are saying, share some their tweets for example and don’t forget to thank them when they share your content with their audience!

Twitter isn’t only for talking about your company but also to talk WITH your audience and customers as well!

Tip 5 – Understand your customer’s expectations on twitter

For example, a lot of customers will use twitter as the first port of call when they want to interact with the company.

If you are only working three days a week or at certain hours during the day, then put that in your twitter bio. That way customers won’t feel like they are being ignored if you don’t reply to them immediately, because twitter can be quite fast moving sometimes people expect fast responses. Have a think about whether automating some of your twitter activity is a good idea for your business.

Twitter can be used to really develop strong and long lasting relationships with your customers. And there’s certainly no need to be intimidated! Twitter is a lot of fun! So just and take control of your company’s presence online.

[Tweet “5 twitter tips for small businesses”]

OK! So there are my 5 top tips for you to use when it comes to twitter. I hope that’s given you some ideas on giving your twitter account a boost for your business.

Have you got any tips for Lynn? Leave them in the comments below.

If you have a social media or business related question, you can send it to me here, and I’ll pick a question each week to answer!

If you can’t wait for an answer, you can always book a consultation by phone or in person.

FREE social media analytics tools:

• Crowdbooster have put together this google doc with over 25 free social media tools. 
• And Small Biz Trends have listed 20 social media tools you can use for business

See you next week at another Q & A!

Say Hello on twitter @karenstrunks 🙂