How to use Twitter for business
Twitter may not be the shiny new social channel, but it is proven again and again to be one of the most powerful. Most brands and businesses don't use Twitter to its best effect, simply because they don't understand how it works. If yours is one of those businesses, this article may change your approach.
Twitter by the numbers
Twitter has over 330 million active monthly users around the globe. The recommended optimal posting on Twitter for a business is up to 15 posts a day; however, brands and businesses send out an average of 0.86 tweets per day, for which they see an average engagement of 0.048%. Increasing the volume, relevance, and quality of your posts is the key to turning your Twitter page into a lead magnet.
Why is Twitter great for business?
79% of Twitter users like to discover what's new, making it the top platform for discovery. Twitter is also great for business because of its reach. Even though monthly active users on Twitter are only 11% of Facebook, 30% of Instagram, and 50% of LinkedIn, it has a clear advantage over these other channels. Twitter's algorithm ensures all of your followers have a chance to see your posts in their feed. All of the other channels place percentage limits on which of your followers see your feed, with the lowest being 3%. That may mean that of the thousands of followers you have on other social channels, only a tiny percentage see an individual post.
Twitter response times are faster
Most breaking stories appear on Twitter long before they reach mainstream media. This is why your response times are faster on Twitter, with most of your engagement happening within a few minutes of posting. This is a combination of how users engage with the channel, the power of hashtags, and the fact that the average lifespan of a Tweet is just 18 minutes. The brevity of the life of the average Tweet is something that businesses can take advantage of and which we will discuss further in this article.
The power of hashtags
Hashtags started with Twitter. It was created and expanded by Twitter users. They wanted a way to link together posts related to a single topic, and hashtags were born. Now hashtags on Twitter are a guaranteed way to expand your reach well beyond your actual followers. With the right hashtags, you can instantly expand your reach from a few hundred followers to millions.
The early bird catches the worm
At first glance, 18 minutes doesn't seem enough time to get your message across. When you consider that the average attention span is just 6 seconds, it's plenty of time. Also having a shorter life allows you to post the same message multiple times within a day. As with other social channels not all users are on at the same time. By posting the same message multiple times in the same day on Twitter, you get to further expand your reach to even more people, at no cost and without appearing repetitive.
Who else uses Twitter?
We all know certain politicians spend a great deal of time posting on Twitter. They see the power of the platform and use it to their advantage to control a narrative. Businesses have the same opportunity, as well as the chance to connect with another core Twitter user group; journalists and bloggers. Journalists and bloggers use Twitter to build their profile and credibility. They also use features like hashtags to discover stories they want to write about, and Twitter is an essential PR tool if you're going to increase your chances of engaging with journalists and bloggers to tell your story, Twitter is a great place to start.
Twitter in the mix
Even if you and your people are time-poor, you don't have to limit your social media posting to one channel or another. A solution like XL.Today™ allows you to post optimized channel posts across multi-social channels in a single campaign workflow and utilize features like hashtags like an expert, with XL.Today™ you can go even further and add targeted and personalized email and text messages in a single multi-channel campaign workflow that takes as little as 5 minutes to create and launch.
An important takeaway
https://xl.today/adapt-articulate-amplify-repeatIncluding Twitter into your marketing expands your reach to a highly motivated, potentially worldwide target audience of 330 million active monthly users… at no cost. It's a great way to build your online presence, increase traffic to your website, and build your brand credibility. And with XL.Today™ you can master Twitter and other digital marketing channels, in a single campaign workflow that you can schedule in advance.
