Twitter has established itself as a vibrant and ever-evolving social media platform, making it an essential tool for businesses looking to expand their reach. With its unique potential for cultivating relationships, reaching new customers and building brand loyalty, Twitter is one of the first channels you may look to add to your marketing strategy. We talked to Drew Balis—the mastermind behind Wix’s Twitter account—for his tips on building a successful Twitter marketing strategy.
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What makes Twitter marketing unique?
“Twitter is faster paced than other social media platforms, making it the site where trends break,” says Balis. On average, a Tweet remains active in followers’ feeds for a mere 18 minutes. It’s certainly competitive, but Twitter’s speed-of-light pacing also makes it a great platform for businesses to stay in the forefront of customers’ minds by weighing in on current events, sharing updates and consistently connecting. “Twitter is like one giant cocktail party where you can speak directly to your customers, tap into passionate communities and reach a wider base,” explains Balis.
What’s more, Twitter's uniquely robust search capabilities enable real-time content exploration based on keywords, hashtags and usernames. With advanced search operators and filters, users can refine searches and access up-to-the-minute results. “Twitter’s advanced search can help you identify previously untapped customers and find new, authentic ways to reach them,” Balis explains.
What types of businesses should use Twitter?
Twitter’s freewheeling, conversational-style platform can be useful for variety of businesses and individuals, including:
“Service-based businesses can use the platform to stay at the forefront of customers’ minds by posting relevant, informative content that demonstrates their know-how,” says Balis.
CEOs can use their personal accounts to embody their company's brand and establish a deeper connection with their audience. By acting as a mascot for their companies, CEOs reflect the human side of their companies, helping to foster more intimate brand-customer relationships. Additionally, sharing expert insights on current events allows company heads to shape their unique image while providing valuable commentary within their field of expertise.
“Entertainment or sports businesses can use the platform to comment on real-time events,” says Balis. “Starting informed conversations around relevant events is the perfect way to cultivate timely engagement with followers.”
“B2B businesses can utilize Twitter to take part in industry-wide conversations,” Balis says. By doing so, they can weigh in with their expertise and engage in dialogue with peers.
Writers and bloggers can showcase their voice and engage with readers by starting a conversation around their work, receiving feedback and growing their readership.
7 tips for growing your Twitter marketing account
After learning how to use Twitter, you can get to work developing this aspect of your social marketing strategy.
01. Optimize your Twitter profile
Your Twitter profile plays a crucial role in your marketing strategy. It's the first impression your audience will have of you, so it's important to optimize it effectively. Here are key elements to focus on:
Handle: Hopefully, Twitter will have your full name or your company's name available to use as a profile name (a.k.a. “handle”). If it's already taken, Balis recommends tagging on the keyword that's most relevant to your work. For example, if @wix wasn't available, we might've chosen the handle @wixwebsitebuilder for our branded account.
Profile image: Upload your logo or headshot as a profile picture. Choose an image that connects with your audience and represents you and the tone that you want your business to convey.
Profile banner: Use your profile banner to make a strong visual statement and effectively communicate your brand message to potential followers and customers. Consider incorporating compelling graphics, captivating images or relevant text that aligns with your brand identity and attracts attention.
Bio: Maxing out at 160 characters, your Twitter bio is valuable real estate. Highlight your unique value, showcase your brand's personality and include relevant keywords. Add a call-to-action or a link to drive traffic. A well-crafted bio attracts the right audience, sets expectations and boosts engagement.
URL: Add a URL to your homepage or a specific landing page that you want to spotlight.
02. Learn as much as you can about your audience
The key to mastering Twitter lies in understanding your target audience and developing a strong connection with them. Twitter offers various analytics tools to assist you in this endeavor, and a crucial starting point is exploring the "audience insights" page of your account. This page provides a wealth of information to help you better understand your audience and craft your message. It’s divided into four sections:
Demographics: This section includes basic information such as your followers’ ages, their gender, location and primary language.
Interests: This section shows what sorts of tweets your followers engage with most. From this information, you can craft content that better aligns with your followers’ interests.
Engagement: This section shows which of your own content followers engage with the most. It’s a great way to track your feed’s resonance and then further hone your message. Use this information to gauge your audience’s interests and develop future posts for more engagement.
Reach: This section includes information on how many times your account drives followers back to your website. Utilize this information to craft effective “call to action” statements that increase your website's visibility. Note: Wix Analytics can also tell you this with its traffic source report.
03. Hone your brand’s voice
Once you have a deep understanding of your audience, it's time to unleash your creativity and diversify the content you share with them. However, before diving in, it's beneficial to engage in brand exercises that will help you develop a distinct brand voice. “Taking the time to do some brand exercises will help you determine both the tone and voice you want to tweet with,“ Balis explains.
04. Create compelling content pillars
Now, craft different categories of content–or content pillars–that can showcase your brand from different angles. Don’t be afraid to get creative. With your audience insight and brand voice strategy at hand, you can brainstorm ideas for relevant, engaging content. What you decide to share as content will be the base of your Twitter marketing strategy, so consider what you’ve discovered about your audience and customer base. Ask:
What’s important to them?
What are they concerned with?
What do they aspire to?
How do they spend their time?
What do they need to know?
Next, ask yourself what message you want to communicate. “What are the big ideas you want your followers to understand?” asks Balis. “Think about ways to educate your audience around your field of expertise or ways to offer your expert take on current events.”
You can also showcase your brand and the people behind it in compelling ways. Understanding what’s important to your audience as well as your own business goals will help you think of out-of-the-box content ideas that resonate with your followers. Here are a few content categories to consider when brainstorming:
Customer testimonials: Share stories that highlight how your products or services have impacted your customers, fostering a sense of community and demonstrating your business's value.
Behind-the-scenes stories: Have an outstanding employee you want to show off? Sharing about your team is a great way to humanize your business and demonstrate how much you care about everyone involved. “It can provide your audience with an interesting view into your daily operation,” says Balis.
Industry news: Whether you’re a business leader or a brick-and-mortar shop owner, you’ve most likely developed a significant amount of knowledge growing your business. Use your experience to inform your audience by offering in-depth takes on relevant events.
Educational content: Provide background information and context related to your business, offering educational content that enhances your audience's understanding. For instance, a restaurant might share details about the regions where their specialty ingredients come from, while a fishing shop could provide weather predictions or tide charts.
Showcase your voice: A strong content strategy is a great way to showcase your brand’s voice and identity as well as set the tone for your brand. If it’s appropriate, you can add memes, pictures, video and other types of media, as long as you stay true to your business mission.
05. Engage customers
At the end of the day, Twitter's true strength lies in its ability to foster meaningful conversations. “Twitter outshines other social media platforms when it comes to cultivating relationships,“ says Balis. Once you’ve gained an understanding of your audience and determined the types of tweets that best represent your brand, you can begin forging connections with your customers through the brand-building content you share and the conversations it sparks.
In addition to maintaining a regular posting schedule, it's crucial to ensure that your tweets align with your brand and remain relevant. “Keep Tweets helpful, informative and enlightening,” says Balis. “Being a consistent, helpful voice on Twitter will build trust and credibility with your followers.” Providing insightful information will also encourage retweets, amplifying the reach of your voice.
Twitter is pretty noisy, so it's important to listen more than you tweet. When your followers ask questions, respond quickly. Additionally, acknowledging comments or tweets from your audience can be a great way to keep the conversation going and demonstrate that you’re engaged.
“Resolving issues on Twitter and responding to your followers’ tweets is another way to cultivate ongoing conversations,” says Balis. “Twitter [can serve] as one plank of your customer service platform.” By responding to questions that are relevant to a broader audience, you can show that your business cares and is open to conversation.
06. Master Twitter’s search engine
“Twitter’s advanced search engine is something that sets it apart from other social media platforms,” says Balis. “By mastering this function, you’ll be able to find new people to connect with and bring them into your Twitter ecosystem.” These suggestions can help you master Twitter’s advanced search function:
Utilize punctuation commands: Target your searches by enclosing exact phrases in quotation marks. For example, to search for New York specific tweets, type “New York”. This way, you can explore more focused topics, retrieve specific tweets or monitor specific phrases throughout the platform. If your search is pulling up unwanted information, you can filter it out with the minus sign. For example, if your “New York” search is dominated by New York City–related tweets rather than those relevant to the whole state, search “New York -city,” instead.
Narrow your search results: The date-range filter is invaluable for researching reactions to current events and other topical tweets. You can also use this feature to focus a popular keyword’s results. For example, if you wanted to learn more about a piece of tech, but a recent development is crowding your results, simply exclude the last few months.
Track conversations about your own brand: Set up notifications for mentions, replies and retweets of your brand’s Twitter handle to ensure you receive alerts whenever followers engage with your brand. You can search for past tweets, too, and create saved searches. Note the times when your brand is mentioned positively or negatively to gauge your real-time impact.
07. Know how—and when—to engage with followers
While some of your content should include information about your product or services, the most successful Twitter accounts focus on offering value to their audience beyond product sales and through a variety of content. “While there’s no one-size-fits-all rule on this, it’s helpful to go for a 30/70 content split, with 30% of your content being products and services, and 70% being other brand-building content,” advises Balis.
Sometimes, it’s just as important to not chime in. “Know when not to speak up,” Balis says. “Resist the urge to weigh in on every trending topic.” You don’t need to be noisy to make an impact: in fact, sometimes it just dilutes your voice. “Understand what’s important to your audience and stay relevant,” suggests Balis. “Your Twitter business account should only comment on topics that your audience cares about. ”
6 Twitter marketing tools
Growing your Twitter following can take time. “It’s important to be patient and consistent,” says Balis. Effectively and consistently marketing on Twitter can be a challenge, especially if you run a small business and have limited resources at your disposal. But there are many innovative marketing tools available to help you streamline your Twitter marketing strategy and stay on top. Below we’ve compiled a list of the most popular Twitter marketing tools to help get you started.
Hootsuite is one of the most popular Twitter management tools available. From its centralized platform, you have multiple ways to schedule tweets and track mentions and hashtags. It offers comprehensive analytics to help refine your marketing strategy as it grows.
Buffer focuses on providing a simplified, user-friendly platform that allows users to schedule tweets, track real-time performance and measure overall engagement. Known for its clean, intuitive interface, it includes options for tracking audience growth as well.
Sprout Social offers comprehensive tools to manage your Twitter account, schedule your tweets, track your progress and measure your account’s performance. It includes a unified Smart Inbox for easily managing your customer relationships through email or audience engagement without having to toggle between different platforms.
Tweet Deck is a free management tool that includes a real-time, customizable interface. Users can track mentions, hashtags and keywords. You can add multiple feeds and accounts to your dashboard to monitor them all simultaneously.
Canva is a graphic design tool that makes it easy to create visuals for Twitter posts. You can create custom graphics, infographics and other social media imagery to illustrate your branding.
BuzzSumo identifies Twitter content that’s already trending. By utilizing keywords and topics, users can discover popular content, identify influencers and develop new ideas or understand industry trends. Use BuzzSumo to refine a Twitter marketing strategy and create better content.
2 inspiring examples of Twitter marketing
The best way to improve your Twitter marketing strategy is to follow some of the best Twitter accounts. Here are two small businesses that have great Twitter accounts:
Sasa Elena is an artist and graphic designer. Keeping her voice consistent, Elena posts a mix of eye-catching visuals and her page features an appealing design that showcases her talents.
Unorthodox Roasters is a coffee shop in Scotland with a fun, informative Twitter account. “Their Twitter feed features a mix of behind-the-scenes content, educational posts and product shots of their coffee and handmade mugs,” says Balis. By keeping the aesthetic consistent, the photography captures the feel of being in the Unorthodox Roasters coffee house.