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Twitter Tips for Businesses

Twitter recently relaunched their site Twitter for Business that aims to help businesses learn how to harness Twitter in their marketing efforts. The site provides many case studies and helpful tips on how businesses might use Twitter to grow their companies and engage with customers.

We often get asked about the best ways to incorporate social media into websites. Many business owners are somewhat overwhelmed with the thought of managing a presence on multiple social networks, and how best to focus their time and energy in marketing themselves on the internet.

We like to think that developing an attractive website, with valuable information, and quality content should be your first objective. Social networks can be great tools in driving traffic to your website -- but you want to make sure your website reflects the brand messages you are trying to convey. If your website looks like it was designed 10 years ago, you really need to update and redesign it, before you start pushing traffic to it through social media.

Social media networks like Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Facebook - become incredibly useful once you have already developed a website that conveys a strong brand identity with good content. Nobody is going to "pin" your photos to Pinterest, if you haven't provided them with attractive, interesting or humorous photos. Informative or funny articles are needed if you want people to share them on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.

So after you have optimized your website, you will want to turn your attention to promoting your content and brand through social media. Think about the content you are offering your customers, and how/why they might want to share that content:

  • Are you running a contest or promotion?
  • Is there a coupon or discount?
  • Do you have interesting design ideas and photos for inspiration?
  • Have you provided a "How to" article?
  • Are you selling something unique?
  • Is your content timely and related to an upcoming holiday?

The answers to those questions should help guide you in developing sharable content.

Twitter is great for developing "buzz" - are people talking about you? Make sure they are talking about you for the right reasons --they like your product, you have great customer service, or you are offering a great deal.

When deciding what and when to "tweet", keep these pointers in mind:

  1. Keep it friendly
  2. Keep it positive
  3. Try some humor
  4. Ask a question
  5. Keep it timely related to current events
  6. Retweet positive customer experiences
  7. Keep it interesting

View Twitter for Business success stories and case studies.

 

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