How to grow your business with Twitter

Today, it isn’t easy to imagine how you can promote a business without Social Media Marketing. Especially if you only just started a company and it consists of you and your accountant (who is also your mom 😆).

Not only is social media a convenient way to reach your audience, but it’s also free. The question is: which platform to choose? 

As you start developing a business, opt for 1-2 platforms in order to not spread yourself too thin. If Twitter is one of your platforms, read this guide on how to use Twitter for business marketing. It covers all the basics:

• What is Twitter Marketing?
• Business benefits of Twitter Marketing
• How to build a successful Twitter Marketing strategy
• How to set up a Twitter business account
• How to create compelling content for Twitter
• How to use Twitter for your business
• Common mistakes on Twitter
• Pros and cons of Twitter for business

Grab yourself a drink, and let’s get started! ☕️

What is Twitter Marketing?

Marketing is how a company interests people in its products and services. Twitter Marketing is pretty much the same but uses Twitter as a primary tool to achieve marketing goals. 

While with traditional marketing your instruments might vary from TV ads to printed flyers, with Twitter Marketing, all your efforts are focused on one platform. And your main instrument is content.

Twitter Marketing requires making a thought-out strategy, building a business account, and creating and planning content your audience will be interested in. At the same time, you’ll work on increasing your number of followers — your potential customers. 

Business benefits of Twitter Marketing

So, with so many platforms available, why Twitter? If you still don’t have an answer to this question, think about your audience. Is this the platform they spend time on? How old are they? Are they heavy news consumers, whether this news concerns politics or sports? 

This quick checklist might help you compare your own audience to Twitter’s:

• Age: 30-49 years (primarily Millennials)
• Location: the US, Japan, India, Brazil, Indonesia, and the UK have the most extensive Twitter advertising audiences
• Gender: 62% of Twitter users in the US are men
• Income: 60% of Twitter users in the UK earn more than the average annual income

Now, as you have made sure your target audience is on the Twitter team, let’s learn the benefits of using Twitter for business. Twitter:

• Is a cost-effective way of engaging with your audience
• Gives access to audiences from different parts of the world
• Is a platform for discovery: 16% of internet users leverage Twitter for brand research
• Is a channel for promotion of new products: 53% of users are “more likely to be the first to buy new products”
• Prioritizes quality over quantity content — the average engagement rate on Twitter is 0.045% but for the content followers care about, the number nearly doubles

Fundamentals of Twitter for business

Instagram is all about aesthetics. TikTok is considered a platform for GenZ. LinkedIn is your networking space. What is Twitter best for? And is Twitter a good platform for small businesses?

This social media is perfect for sparking conversations on different topics, which is why businesses of any size can use it for:

1. Building brand awareness: Consistent posting, active interaction with followers, and jumping on trending topics helps you get noticed on Twitter.
2. Delivering customer support: Sharing broad updates to customers and reaching your customers via direct messages is quicker, less formal, and provides public branding.
3. Gathering insights: When Chris Messina invented hashtags, he asked his followers for their opinions in a Tweet. You can do the same with new products or services you’re launching.
4. Cultivating a community: Twitter is a platform for discussing different topics, not only your business, which can help you build a community of like-minded people. 

Do you think Twitter might be the right fit for your business goals? This guide will help you understand how to use Twitter, from building a strategy and setting up your account to content creation and audience growth. 

Steps to grow your business on Twitter

1. Define your strategy
2. Create your Twitter business account
3. Design and publish your content
4. Take care of your growth

1. How to build a successful Twitter Marketing strategy

Before we even start on how to build your Twitter Marketing strategy, take a look at our guide to marketing strategy. It’ll help you better understand how to achieve your business’ ultimate goal. 

Building a solid Twitter Marketing strategy requires that you:

1. Identify your customer persona
2. Research what your competitors are doing
3. Set goals: What do you need Twitter for?
4. Create a content schedule
5. Analyze your results

Identify your customer persona

When it comes to Twitter, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. 

You need to research your audience.

• Who are these people? 
• How do they spend their free time?
• Which accounts they are following on Twitter?
• What types of content do they like? 
• What hashtags do they use?

This information will help you identify your customer persona. 🧛 

A customer persona is a fictional character who represents your audience or subsets of your audience, perfectly. The concept includes details about sex, gender identification, age, job, location, interests, and challenges. The more details you assign to your persona the better. Keep your customer persona in mind with every tweet.

Research what your competitors are doing

To stay at the top of the competition, you need to constantly check what other companies in your niche are doing. 

Start with creating a list of competitors to research on Twitter. Analyze their audience (maybe, there’s a segment you failed to target). Also, see what type of content and how often they post, and how they engage with people (questions, polls, or comments). 

Remember to work smarter, not harder. You can always leverage tools created exactly for competitor analysis on social media: Unbox Social, Socialinsider, or Vaizle.   

Set goals: What do you need Twitter for?

You’ve probably already heard about SMART goals, which should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This is one of the approaches you can apply to set goals for your Twitter Marketing strategy.

For example, if you need Twitter to build brand awareness, then your SMART goal will be: “To increase the number of followers 2X by the end of the year.”

Other goals you might set on Twitter are: 

• Improve brand engagement (replies and shares)
• Increase traffic to your website (clicks)
• Generate leads (email address or mobile number capture)
• Boost sales (sales from Twitter)
• Improve customer support (response time, positive customer feedback)

Create a content schedule

This one is essential. We’ll dive into schedule creation in greater detail when we discuss content creation.

Meanwhile, a quick reminder: 👉 Your success on social media requires consistency. It won’t improve your Twitter performance if you post 10 Tweets today but then go silent for the rest of the week. That’s why you need a plan on how often you post, what types of content, and in which formats.

Analyze your results

Track your metrics, analyze them, and adjust your strategy accordingly. With social media, it’s not that difficult. Each platform has its own tool. On Twitter, it’s Twitter Analytics. 

Twitter Analytics will provide you with information, such as how many new followers, mentions, comments, likes, and shares you got. But you need to set up a business account to get as much information as possible from the platform.

2. How to set up Twitter for your business

Want to use Twitter Analytics to its best? Then, you need to convert your personal account into a business one. Here’s how you do this: 

1. Sign up with your name and phone number.
2. Customize your account by choosing interests, accounts to follow, and setting up notifications.
3. Log in to convert your account to a business one by clicking on your profile photo and choosing “Twitter for Professionals”
4. Add a profile image, a header design, a handle, and a bio.
5. Add business information, such as your address, contacts, and hours of operation.

Twitter Profile tips for business

Your profile is the face of your business. So, including Twitter profile basics is as important as having an appealing, user-friendly website. There are essential aspects to include and consider carefully, namely:

• Use your logo as a profile picture.
• Communicate your brand’s look and feel with the help of a header design.
• If your brand name is already used as a handle, consider adding a call-to-action to it (e.g., “@GetCoke” instead of “@Coke”).
• Update pinned tweets regularly (e.g., use them to tell about a seasonal sale or a new product line).
• Make sure your name and profile picture are consistent across all your public platforms and customer touchpoints.

Verified accounts on Twitter

Why do you even need to verify your account? The blue Twitter verification badge proves that your account is real, credible, and authentic. This way, new followers will know they can trust your content.

Who can get verified on Twitter? ✅

• Companies and organizations
• Celebrities and content creators
• Media and journalists
• Government and political figures
• Sports and esports representatives
• Activists and other influential individuals

To get verified on Twitter: head to your Settings, find the Account Information page, and scroll down to Request Verification.

But first…

Ensure your account is active, your profile is optimized, and your Tweets are open to the public.

3. How to create effective content for Twitter

Twitter is a lot like a micro news blog: people read it to find out who won last night’s football match, if Elon Musk has colonized Mars yet, or what’s new with their favorite brands. 

This social media platform is perfect for sparking conversation. So, forget about constantly promoting your products and adding CTA to every Tweet — it won’t work on this platform. In fact, 77% of Twitter users prefer community- and social-focused brands. 

With this in mind, let’s talk about content — how you should build your content plan to grow Twitter followers and what types of content work better. 

Essential Twitter terminology

• Bio: a short description of your business in the profile (up to 160 characters)
• Bookmarks: a feature that helps you save Tweets in your timeline
• Engagement: how people interact with your brand (likes, Retweets, mentions, comments, etc.)
• Explore tab: a tab where you can find the latest trendiest topics, Moments, and events relevant to you
• List: a feature that allows you to create lists of other Twitter accounts by topic (for example, competitors, top followers, inspirational businesses)
• Pinned Tweets: important posts are pinned to the top of your page so your followers can easily find them
• Thread: a series of Tweets on one topic
• Timeline: a feed of updates from other accounts you follow on Twitter, equivalent to Facebook’s NewsFeed

For more Twitter terminology, go to Twitter’s Glossary.

Content tips for Twitter

Content Marketing goes far beyond social media. It includes emails, blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, ebooks, and more. Check out our small business guide to Content Marketing to see how you can use other platforms for promoting your business.

Meanwhile, back to Twitter… Once you’ve defined your Twitter Marketing strategy and set up a business account, the real fun begins — content creation! Let’s start with basic content strategy tips that can help you grow your Twitter account:

Create a posting schedule

Marketers advise posting to Twitter 3-5 times a day, especially if you’re only starting to develop your account. Use platforms like Buffer, Hootsuite, or even VistaCreate to schedule your tweets in advance. 

Also, mind the time of posting: the best time to tweet is noon to 1:00 p.m. local time.

Use the 4-types-of-content strategy

You should optimize your tweets to 4 types only. This will make it easier for you to come up with content ideas.

1. Website link: information about your industry, business, or products — and a link to your website, landing page, or whatever you’re promoting in the post
2. Quick question: a question relevant to your business or industry for an engagement boost
3. Industry buzz: your expertise or opinion on the industry you work in
4. Networking effort: starting a conversation (a compliment, a comment on a thread, etc.)

Experiment with formats

Use different content formats to see what works best for your business. Polls are perfect for questions. Contests can boost your engagement rate. Threads are great for sharing your experience on entrepreneurship or making a series.

Here’s a list of different Twitter formats to try:

• Polls and questions
• Contests
• Tips and tricks
• Inspiring quotes
• Memes
• Tweets with links
• Threads
• Trending topics
• Fun facts
• User-generated content
• Quizzes
• Guides
• Behind-the-scenes
• Twitter chats

Use multimedia tweets

Diversify your Tweets. Mix videos, images, emojis, infographics, and GIFs. No one wants to see the same “text-CTA-link” type of tweet over and over again — it’s boring! (Unless this is strategic to your brand and target audience.)

In fact, Tweets with video get 10 times more engagement than those without. So, use teasers of new products, behind-the-scenes information, and live streams of events to create videos for your tweets.

Jump on trending topics

Twitter is where people share their opinions on what’s going on in the world. You can leverage trending topics for your benefit as a business, but be careful with sensitive issues. Use a marketing calendar to plan tweets related to holidays, sports games, global events, etc.

Content types that work well on Twitter with examples

Content creation is not easy: you need to keep up with trends, follow other accounts for inspiration, and do lots of brainstorming. Save yourself some time with our cheat list! It includes tried-and-true types of content that perform well on Twitter plus helpful Twitter examples.

1. Ask questions to spark communication.

2. Share tips to deliver value.

3. Post product updates to encourage sales.

4. Share industry news to keep your audience tuned in.

5. Use polls to boost engagement.

6. Leverage memes and GIFs… just because it’s fun!

7. Offer discounts or promo codes to improve sales.

8. Use theme day Tweets and weekly recurring hashtags to reach new audiences.

9. Share blog content to increase website traffic.

10. Write threads to reveal the topic.

4. How to use Twitter for your business

Content is essential, but it’s not everything in terms of your success on Twitter. You might post witty tweets and helpful threads, but without proper promotion and maintenance, people won’t see them. 

Tips and tricks for Twitter success

So, how do you make sure your content reaches your target audience? Start with these tips and tricks on how to use Twitter for business. They might help you manage your page better.

Research and use trending hashtags

Hashtags can help you reach more people with your content. You can find the trending ones in “Trends for you” or with the help of the search bar. Level up your game with platforms like Tweet Archivist or RiteTag for trending hashtags research. Always keep hashtags relevant to your business!

Big brands also create their own hashtags and make them viral, but this might be challenging for a small business with a limited budget.

🥸 Pro tip from VistaCreate: Use 1-2 relevant hashtags for a tweet, otherwise, it will look spammy.

Promote your Twitter account on the website and other social channels

Most likely, you have different audiences on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Why not use them for cross-promotion? Repost your best content (memes, screenshots of followers’ answers and reviews, GIFs) to other social media channels.

You can also add a pop-up with a call-to-action to follow your brand on Twitter to your website. OptinMonster will help you with this — no coding needed. 

Use Twitter for customer support

Twitter makes it so much easier than many other platforms to reach out to your customers. Use it as a platform to build a genuine relationship with your audience. 

How can you do this? Answer people’s questions, help them fix problems, double-check if they’re happy with their orders, and collect feedback. This will help you understand what you can improve about your business.

Stay consistent with your branding

As a brand, you have your creative assets, such as a logo, color scheme, fonts, tone, and voice. Use them across different platforms to build a trustworthy brand. If you start posting memes on Twitter, although you never joke on other platforms, this might look like it’s not your account.

To make it easier for you, build your own Brand Kit in VistaCreate! Add your logo, colors, and fonts to the Brand Kit and apply it any time you need a branded design.

Building your audience

Followers are your potential customers. That’s why brands crave more and more of them. Let’s figure out how to get Twitter followers with a limited budget.👇

Engage with your audience daily

Engaged followers are more likely to become your customers. So, answer people’s questions, comment on their reviews, and retweet relevant content they share. You can also use Twitter Spaces (a Clubhouse analog) to communicate with followers and other brands in real-time. 

🥸 Pro tip from VistaCreate: To make it more structured, make a list of 30-50 people (with 300-2,000 followers) and engage with them on a daily basis.

Engage with other communities in your industry

You can find many communities by hashtags (for example, #PRTwitter or #Marketing Twitter). They are perfect for sharing experiences, getting business advice, and introducing yourself to new followers.

Tag influencers and other brands

Interaction with other brands and influencers in your niche might benefit your business. This is a sure way to get noticed and maybe even create collaborations. Respond to their thread by sharing your experience, commenting on their Tweets, and tagging them if relevant. The only rule: is don’t get too spammy.

Tracking results

Make sure your content strategy, posting time, and hashtags usage work with the help of analytics. Check your metrics weekly or biweekly to adjust your strategy to them.

Start with creating Google Sheets for your Twitter data. These might aggregate metrics like profile visits, mentions, Tweet impressions, engagement rate, conversions, and Top Tweets. 

If you want to step it up, check business progress on Twitter using platforms such as Hootsuite, Buffer, or Tweepi.

Advertising on Twitter

If you’re ready to go further with your Twitter growth and invest some money in it, use Twitter Ads. It can help you reach a new audience, drive conversions, and increase sales.

One of the most significant advantages of Twitter Ads is its unique target options: 

• By conversation: Select a particular topic and target its participants.
• By followers: Reach highly converting users who have similar interests as your audience’s.
• By events: Rarget events (before and after) to reach attendees. 

To start your first ad campaign on Twitter, follow these steps:

1. Set up your Twitter Ads account.
2. Select your advertising goal.
3. Define your ad group and budget.
4. Target your audience.
5. Pick your ad’s placement.

Best tools for Twitter

Conducting competitor analysis: Unbox Social, Socialinsider, and Vaizle 

Creating a content schedule: Buffer, Hootsuite, and VistaCreate

Hashtag research: “Trends for you,” Tweet Archivist, and RiteTag

Integrating Twitter feeds into your website: Curator, Hootsuite, and OptinMonster

Track analytics: Twitter Analytics, Hootsuite, Buffer, and Tweepi

Common mistakes on Twitter

A few more notes and we’re almost done! 🥳 Are you excited to implement this new knowledge into your Twitter strategy?

While doing so, avoid these common mistakes:

• Posting too much brand content: Aim for an 80/20 ratio, where 80% of your content has value to followers and 20% is brand content.
• Using different hashtags with every Tweet: It’s important to develop consistent hashtags associated with your brand, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiment with trending hashtags.
• Not responding to mentions: This can cost you your brand’s reputation.
• Overusing Retweets: Remember, your followers subscribed to your page for unique content.
• Using too many hashtags: Opt for 1-2 hashtags per Tweet, so you don’t look too spammy.
• Not being consistent: If you want to grow your Twitter account, you need to post content and engage with people daily.

Pros and cons of Twitter for business

Twitter is not perfect. It might be a great way to promote a business for one company and the completely wrong choice for another.

Let’s discuss the pros and cons of Twitter for business!

Pros of using Twitter for business

• Twitter has 206 million daily active users worldwide.
• It’s a platform where people value quality over quantity content.
• It’s a perfect place for building a community around your brand.
• You can use the platform to improve your customer support.
• You can collect customer feedback and improve your products accordingly.

Cons of using Twitter for business

• You need time and patience to grow your follower number.
• It covers a narrow age group: 30-49 years.
• Character limits: With a 280-character-limit, you need to be precise on Twitter.
• Twitter ads are more costly than on other platforms.
• Twitter is time-sensitive, and it could take a while to understand what posting time works best for you.

Is this a lot to digest? 🤯  Our advice: Take one step at a time. Maybe, today, you can work on your Twitter Marketing strategy, and tomorrow you’ll focus on content planning. And next week, you’ll think about how to grow your Twitter.

Save this guide, so you can easily reach it for specific details and tips as you go along.

Also, don’t forget to check out our articles on marketing strategy and content strategy.

• The essential marketing strategy guide for small business
• The essential small business guide to Content Marketing

Stay tuned — more helpful articles, practical advice, and inspiring examples are on their way!