How to use Twitter for your business
Twitter is a marmite sort of platform. People either love it or hate it…
Whichever way you think about the platform, you can’t deny that it can be powerful for your business. I lose count of the amount of Twitter threads and screenshots that get shared on other platforms – so it’s obviously good for getting your name out there.
Here I am going to share with you how to get the most out of the platform for your business as well as some of the latest things to be announced for Elon Musk’s social media platform.
Be active
A lot of people shy away from Twitter, but it’s because it’s the one platform where you CANNOT just post and run…
You need to be active on the platform. You need to be seen. So, if you are going to succeed on Twitter, you need to get active on the platform!
Tweeting regularly and interacting with other accounts are the best ways to show the algorithm that you are active. Don’t forget to always “retweet with a comment” so that you can add your thoughts on the tweet and show your knowledge to your audience.
Short and Snappy
Twitter only allows you to use 280 characters (that’s inclusive of spaces, hashtags and emojis!) so you need to keep your content short and snappy!
The good news? Twitter is quite happy for you to post links to other sites! Just use www.bitly.com to keep those links short.
It has recently been announced that, if you sign up for Twitter Blue (for £8 per month) you can use up to 4,000 characters per tweet, and you get the famous blue tick to verify your account. Your long tweets will appear in the feed as current tweets do with a “See more” option for reads to click on to read the rest of your tweet. So if you are going to sign up for Twitter Blue (around 300,000 user have done so already) I would recommend you this about your opening line – is it enticing people to read more about it?
Home of the Hashtag
Did you know that the hashtag phenomenon originated with Twitter?
Long before Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok ever thought of linking topics with hashtags!
Make sure you’re using relevant hashtags in your tweets! It will help your content to be seen by a wider audience.
You don’t need every word or phrase to be a hashtag, but your keywords and industry-related ones are a great way for your content to be seen amongst your peers. Do some research into the hashtags that are relevant to your business and ensure that they aren’t banned on the app.
You can also use them within your tweet, rather than adding a list of them at the end of your post (as you might do on other platforms).
Different image sizes
Watch out for Twitter’s image sizes! They’re a little different…
Twitter images need to be sized correctly to work on the platform, otherwise, you’ll lose some of those wonderfully branded images! Although there are some accounts that have been experimenting with trialling Instagram-style images on Twitter, I suggest you stick to the optimum size image for Twitter.
Use images that are sized 1600 x 900 pixels (or create in Canva to ensure the images are the correct size).
What’s trending?
You can keep up to date with what is trending on Twitter.
On the right-hand side of your newsfeed, Twitter will tell you what’s trending. Whether it’s a news story or hashtag – it’s worth following this and joining in the conversations around relatable topics.
Don’t forget to create a post around trending topics that are relevant to your business. This will help you to increase your reach. You can track your reach by looking at the number of impressions you have for your Twitter account.
As Twitter is a fast-paced social media platform, be sure that you are jumping on trending topics quickly and getting involved in the conversations.
Whether you love it or hate it, you can’t deny that Twitter has its place amongst the social media platforms with millions of users and news articles about it every other week.
If you are thinking of incorporating Twitter into your social media strategy, make sure you are fully aware of everything that is going on within the platform and the changes that Elon Musk’s team are bringing into the application.
What are your thoughts on using Twitter for your business? Let me know in the comments.