Your business is on Twitter, right? A Twitter presence should be a no-brainer for a small business, but with so many options for broadcasting your company’s message for free, Twitter can seem like just another box to check. There’s no way your Twitter account can actually win you new business, right? Think again. With its simple and effective platform for starting conversations with customers and posting immediate business updates, Twitter has the power to get your cash register ringing. But how?
Here are 5 creative tips from our friends at LocalVox to help you stand out from the Tweeting crowd.
1. Target Influencers
Whether you’re a restaurant that wants to target food bloggers or an educational program that wants to engage the town’s most prominent parents, Lists on Twitter are a great way to get started. Simply identify an influencer (maybe someone who’s Tweeted at you, or you’ve Tweeted at), go to their profile, select Lists at the bottom of the left rail, and scroll through to find other users just like this one, whom you can engage to start the spread of positive word of mouth.
2. Embed Tweets as Testimonials
Once you’ve engaged influencers and convinced them to become your brand advocates (maybe by offering discounts or exclusive promos for Twitter followers?) how do you get their support to keep on giving? By embedding their positive Tweets on your website! When they inevitably sing your praises, simply go to the Tweet in question, select “More” from the bottom menu, click “Embed Tweet” and paste the resulting code into your site. The testimonial will include a link back to Twitter, so your readers will know it’s legitimate.
3. Use Twitter for Customer Service
This will get your customers engaging with you on Twitter, which could lead to some of the above-mentioned Twitter testimonials – think “Wow, Larry’s Carpentry responded right away to my request for a quote!” You may want to solicit Tweets first, since customers aren’t always used to using Twitter to ask a business questions or make requests. If you’re a restaurant, it may be as simple as “What should our specials be this week?” When you get responses from customers, respond as quickly as possible to show you’re listening.
4. Locate Local Users
If you’re a restaurant on Long Island, odds are you’re not interested in foodies in California. That’s where Twitter search comes into play. Go to search.twitter.com and select the “advanced search” option. You can match for phrases that users may have Tweeted (if you’re a restaurant, “food” or “hungry” might be good searches) and then you can match for places, to make sure they’re nearby.
5. Recruit Employees
We’ve only discussed ways to attract employees so far, but Twitter is also great for attracting great talent to your company. Just Tweet a job description with searchable hashtags (think #jobsearch, #resume, etc) and sit back and wait for responses.
You can read the full post from LocalVox here.