Introduction to Twitter for Business

Twitter is a ‘microblogging’ platform that allows users to send and receive short posts called tweets. Tweets are up to 280 characters long and can include links to relevant websites and images. Twitter users follow other users and if you follow someone, you can see their tweets in your Twitter ‘timeline’. You can choose to follow people, companies other organisations with similar interests to you.

With more than 145 million active daily users (Source: Hootsuite), Twitter is one of the most popular social media networks. Twitter has the potential to be a great promotional tool for your company and products. It provides an excellent channel for connecting with your target audience and bringing them tailored content to convert them into customers.

Twitter Terminology

Retweets

Retweeting posts someone else’s tweet on your Twitter feed and is like a like on Facebook. Retweeting allows information can be shared quickly and efficiently with many people.

 Example tweet with image and link. This tweet has been retweeted seven times and liked 15 times.

Hashtags

Adding a “#” to the beginning of an unbroken word (or combination of words) creates a hashtag on Twitter. When a hashtag is used in a Tweet, the Tweet becomes linked to all the other Tweets that include it. Including a hashtag gives a Tweet context. Tweets with include hashtags get almost double the engagement than Tweets without hashtags.

For example, the tweets below all include the hashtag #brexit.

Mentions

When someone includes your Twitter handle in a tweet (e.g., @hellobabydirect), they are either talking to you or about you. Twitter is also a place where customer go to contact brands, especially if they are unhappy so it is a clever idea to monitor tweets which include your handle.

Should my Business be on Twitter?

Around 76% of Twitter users already follow brands and about one-third of these are retailers. Twitter is underused by retailer to the extent that many of these users would like more content from the brands they follow. For example, 25% would like to see more offers. 46% of the retail audience have linked to a brand on Twitter and 45% have engaged in further research after viewing retail related tweets. (Source: Twitter)

Example use to tweet to promote an offer

Twitter ads

Using paid ads on Twitter is a fantastic way to reach your audience more directly than waiting for users to discover your profile organically. They allow people to discover your profile, even if they do not follow your brand or hashtags. When you promote a Tweet, it shows up in the timelines of users who share interests with your followers. Users interact with promoted Tweets in the same way as organic content.