What Should I Actually DO on Twitter? 6 Tips for UK Business Owners

Whether you are just about to enter the “Twittersphere” or you are about to embark of a Twitter campaign, it can be daunting for any business. However, the world of Twitter isn’t as scary as you think it is. Twitter is a great asset for your business and can really boost your brand awareness, SEO and (if done correctly) sales! Here we have compiled a list of 6 tips to run a successful Twitter page without is taking over your life! 

1) Watch competitors

With the majority of businesses getting accounts on Twitter, it is a great help to your own campaign if you monitor their activity.  And it is quite easy! Monitoring social media can be done using monitoring and analytic tools such as HootSuite and TweetDeck - these tools both allow you to post to your own social account easily as well as help you to monitor your competitors’ activities. However, if you are a smaller business, or have a smaller budget for your social media, then you are definitely able to keep up on your competitors for free; however it may take a bit more time. You can do this by actually following your competition on Twitter; however you may not necessarily want them aware that you are following them. This is where private Twitter lists come in handy; these can be made private so are only visible to you. Here you are able to add in a stream of all your competition, what they are tweeting about, how often, followers, and conversations they are having. Just this little bit of extra information can go a long way when looking for industry news and the types of engagement that may also work for you.  

2) Industry news  

Utilising industry news can give your Social Media (not just twitter) another dimension, where the information that you push out is not just all about you, really gives you more relevance and a real worth to your followers. Sharing news and thoughts, which you feel your followers would want to read gives your business more of a human element. This information can be gathered in a variety of different ways, including using other tools to help make finding news like this to share. This can be done by using systems like Google Alerts to send you an email alert every time there is a new news story posted under specific keywords and categories (set by you).  News can also be gathered within Twitter itself by following accounts within your industry or searching for hashtags. As an example, if you are a company that provide Health and Safety checks or equipment, then is would be a good idea to follow the Press Office of the Health and Safety Executive (@H_S_E) for the latest news and legislation changes in your area. This will also help with Tip No. 4

3) Post your content

Using Twitter is a great way of pushing your message out to the world! Tweeting is great for your business to promote new product ranges or remind your audience of an offer that is available.  The trick is with Twitter to keep your updates regular, but not excessive. Make sure you keep the content new, and aim to post at least once every day. An active account is far more attractive for potential followers than one that tweets bi-weekly or every minute.  However, like with many rules, there is always an exception; Live-tweeting from events is always a big hit. If your business is exhibiting at a trade show for example, this is a great opportunity to keep your audience updated with pictures of the event and even engaging with your followers by tweeting them if they come and see your exhibit. This combines with Tip No. 5

4) Post other peoples content

Sharing someone else’s content is a great way of keeping you relevant and present in the online community. It will also give you an edge to your social posts. This helps to ensure that not everything is about your business, giving your Twitter more of a ‘social’ purpose; not  purely sales. I used an example earlier about following the Dept. of Health and Safety to keep up on the latest industry news; remember as well as using this for your own tweets, make full use of the re-tweet button! Content that you can share does not just have to be about your industry, lots of places tweet things such as ‘Happy Monday’ and other feel good tweets. Obviously, you can make your own, but it doesn’t hurt to share some others occasionally!

5) Engage with interesting tweets and relevant tweets

Engagement is key with social media today, and it all starts with you! Don’t be afraid to start a conversation, there is no point in everything being one-sided, it gets boring!  Even large blue-chip corporations are prone to ignoring engagement be it either negative or positive. Social media does leave you prone to both praise and criticism. Don’t ignore it, embrace it! A touch of humour goes a long way; Tesco Mobile has found this out by taking a new approach to their joke-twitter responses, and have become famous for it!  Even if you don’t want to make a joke of it, respond to any complaints in a sensitive and understanding manner.  It is important that you are really seen to care about your customers, and take the time to reply to them without using a generic response.

6) Find potential customers and follow them

People that follow competitors are going to be interested and use the services of your industry. So don’t be afraid to follow them first! Putting your business out there can generate an audience that potentially wouldn’t have been aware of you otherwise. This is a great tip for smaller businesses that have not long started out, however for larger, more well-established companies it may not be suitable.

If you enjoyed this article about using Twitter for business, but have a few questions, then check this one out:  “A Beginners Guide To Twitter – Six Frequently Asked Questions”.

Article By: Katie Torrance