Where to start?
Do you know how to use Twitter for business if you’re a local entrepreneur? If you don’t then you should and we can show you how to use Twitter to really gain business from this busy social network. Using Twitter for local businesses will increase visits to your website and ultimately create more of a buzz around your business.
There are apparently over 300,000,000 people active on Twitter and more and more businesses are getting their information up there – it isn’t just for celebrities and teenagers – Twitter can be used by all.
The great part about Twitter, unlike some of the other social platforms, is that you don’t have to have someone following you for you to engage with them which is a massive bonus. Simply find someone that you’d like to start engaging with and you can message them directly by simply @mentioning them in your Tweet.
So let’s go over some initial easy strategies in the exact order your should follow them, as a local business owner.
Twitter Bio
This is the first thing a new potential follower is going to look at next to the second tip to follow. Don’t make your bio boring. Standout and give someone a reason to want to follow you. You can be humorous, share your company mantra, be personal, (not too personal!) highlight your accomplishments and many other ideas. Make sure to tell a story and don’t just stuff your Twitter bio with keywords associated to your business. A Twitter bio does NOT need to have hashtags. It does you absolutely no good. If you’re doing it because you see other people doing it, then please don’t.
Twitter Profile Picture
You’re a local business and your face is part of the community. People don’t necessarily care about your logo; people like to do business with people they know, like and trust…..so show yourself off to them! However a nicely created logo can work, especially if your cover photo is of your people.
Twitter Cover Photo
Your Twitter cover photo should be a clear picture that either represents your local community or preferably your business. If you have a team of employees, get them together for a group shot at work. Even better is to take a photo somewhere local that’s popular so everyone looking at your Twitter cover who’s local will connect with you immediately. Lastly make it easy for people to contact you by including your company contact information in the corner of your cover nicely.
Want to Market Your Location?
Fill out your geographic location in your Twitter profile for 2 reasons: To do this simply go to your Twitter bio on your profile home page and in the location area fill it out. It’s searchable on Twitter and if you have it blank, which many do, you won’t come up in the search results all the time. The second reason to do this is that when you have time and you’re on Twitter you can just click your location if Twitter identifies it and you’ll see all tweets going on locally in your geographic area.
Now some are nonsense but there are loads that are really relevant to your business. This is HUGE and an amazing opportunity for you as a local business owner to jump in and have a discussion if relevant (don’t be a stalker though!). For instance if you’re a local restaurant with an offer on and see people talking about where to go, jump in and offer them your deal. Any business can do this locally because tons of discussions are going on live in your area all day that can be applicable to your business. This however could be a bit of a time waster so perhaps just check it once a day…
Pinned Tweets
You should have one tweet you want everyone to look at, pinned to the top of your Twitter profile. When people visit your profile they look at your Twitter bio, your profile picture, your cover photo, location and then they start looking at your Tweets. Here, you have the power to show them what you want them to see first, so make it something inspiring. You can make it an offer for your service,discount for your store, eBook offer and so much more. Be creative and test different pinned tweets regularly. This will probably be one of your most retweeted tweets and you can change it as often as you like. To pin a tweet simply look at any of your Tweets you’d like to include and next to where you see how many times you’ve been retweeted or favorited are 3 little dots. Just click on those 3 dots and in the short drop down you’ll see an option to “Pin to your profile page”.
Tweet with Images
Tweets with images apparently receive 150% more retweets than Tweets without images. You want to make sure that your images are sized correctly to get the best impact. So if you’re Tweeting live and not scheduling your Tweets, make sure to hold your camera sideways to get the best sized image when taking the photo and creating a tweet. If you’re scheduling your Tweets, the perfect image size is 440 x 220 or 1024 x 512.
Include Video in your Tweets
Tweets with videos, similar to Tweets with images, can really help you get much more Twitter engagement. You’ve always been able to include links to a video, but now you have the ability to actually shoot a 30 second video right from inside Twitter. This is huge and really gives you the opportunity to connect one-on-one with your followers. Another great way to use video is to send a personalized messages to your new followers, customers or even prospects you just met.
And finally…
These are the real basics when starting to use Twitter for your local business. Keep tweeting regularly, ensure that images look great once tweeted. Try and include links to relevant pages of your website where necessary and use hashtags where appropriate but do not overstuff!
More detail on using Twitter for local businesses to follow. Happy reading!