So you’ve joined Twitter and you’re thinking to yourself Now What? For starters, you should get into the habit of Tweeting on a regular basis– in other words, everyday. Tweeting isn’t as tough as it seems. Remember, Twitter is a microblog only letting you share up to 140 characters, so if you’re thinking about topics to Tweet about then just consider what comes to mind easily. There are a lot of Twitter users who are passionate about specific topics and that’s all they share daily. Some people share quotes and words of inspiration, other Tweet about their products and services, and still others Tweet random thoughts and sayings. What’s most important is that you share something compelling and interesting to your followers.
For businesses using Twitter, you can opt to use Twitter as a way to increase brand awareness, sales, or customer relationships. We came up with three things you should be doing to engage more customers:
1. Follow people in your niche and geographic area.
If you are a local business owner, then look for Twitter users who can actually benefit from your product within the same region. For example, if you own a restaurant in Houston, then do a Twitter search for people or profiles in Houston so that you can start following them. In time, if you’re tweets are posted daily and are interesting, you will gain more Twitter followers in and around Houston.
If you have a specific niche, then you may want to seek out enthusiasts of that niche. Again, you can use Twitter’s search feature to find people who have details about that niche or related topics. Once you find them, you may also want to follow their followers if they have similar interests.
2. Listen and monitor.
Have you ever heard the quote “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”? The same principle applies on Twitter. Understand your target customers by listening to their conversations. For instance, if you’re a company selling specialty vintage clothing, then type in keywords like “vintage” and “fashion” into a monitoring service like Monitter to find people who are talking about your service.
3. Engage with influencers and gain raving fans.
Once you’ve found the people talking about your niche product, target Twitterers with high Klout scores who have tons of followers. Start having conversations with them on Twitter to get them engaged and talking about your brand. You can poll them, ask them to retweet, send them direct tweets so that they see and know more about your brand.
These are just a few tips that can get you started. If you haven’t set up a Twitter account yet, then we highly recommend you develop a clear, concise Twitter strategy and posting schedule so that you can consistently Tweet and gain followers.