Twitter for Business: Everything You Need to Know

If your brand is on Twitter, you should understand the basics of the social media platform. Here’s how to succeed in tweeting for your business.

• Twitter, which has millions of users every day, has the potential to be a strong marketing tool for your company, helping you connect with clients and generate leads.
• A Twitter for Business profile is easy to set up, but to be effective, it must be utilized frequently, much like a muscle.
• Understanding how to use Twitter for commercial purposes may greatly aid in business expansion.
• This article is intended for company owners or the marketing and communications teams that are looking to include Twitter into their overall business marketing plan.

There are several features on Twitter, such as hashtags, pinned tweets, Twitter lists, and social media influencers. Businesses may utilize the platform to grow sales, build brand awareness, and enhance customer service with the correct marketing strategy.

Tweets, which may be up to 280 characters long, are a popular type of quick messaging on the social networking and online news site Twitter. Twitter was established in 2006 and is currently among the most widely used social networking sites worldwide.

When used in conjunction with your marketing efforts on Facebook and LinkedIn, this may be a tremendous platform. Here is all you need to know about Twitter, whether you’re new to it or you want to start utilizing it to grow your business.

Parts of a Twitter profile

Your Twitter handle, username, profile photo, bio, header image, and pinned tweet are the six components that make up your Twitter profile. In order for your firm to be accurately represented, each of these components must operate together.

• You’re @name, or Twitter’s way of identifying you, is your handle. This name appears at the end of the URL for your Twitter page and is what users will use to tag you in tweets. It can contain up to 15 characters and should make it simple for customers to discover your company.
• Your profile’s username, also known as your display name, can be up to 50 characters and is shown above your Twitter handle. The name of your company or brand would be this.
• Your profile photo should visually represent your company and brand as it is shown on your profile and in each tweet you send. The logo of several brands is used.
• You have 160 characters to describe your company in your bio. Include details like your location, opening hours, and website address.
• You may promote sales, events, or company news in the header image that appears beneath your profile photo. Contrary to your profile photo, this picture ought to be updated often.
• Make your pinned tweet engaging and representative of what is happening with your brand as it is the first tweet people see when they visit your profile. You have the same flexibility with your pinned tweet as you have with your header picture.

Twitter terminology

When utilizing Twitter for your small business, it’s crucial to understand these words.

@:

The “@” sign is used together with a user’s handle, just like on other social networking platforms, to tag or mention them.

# (hashtag):

On Twitter, a hashtag—represented by the pound sign—is used to index words or phrases. Twitter will automatically display related tweets when you click a hashtag. People can easily follow subjects and events as a result.

Block:

On Twitter, blocking an account prevents that user from following you, adding you to Twitter lists, or viewing your tweets. Additionally, you won’t see their tweets.

Direct messages (DM):

Direct messages are frequently referred to as “DMs” by users. You can speak privately with a specific member using this option. One of your clients or followers can message you via DM with a query. DMs have no character restriction, so you may be as thorough in your response as required. However, you might not instantly see a message from someone you don’t follow because it will by default appear in the “requests” section. This may be modified in your preferences.

Follow:

You subscribe to see a user’s tweets on your timeline when you follow them.

Followers:

Followers on Twitter can view your tweets on their timelines.

Like:

By clicking the heart icon next to a tweet, you may like it. All of your likes are shown on your profile.

Lists:

You have the option of creating both public and private lists of users you find intriguing. A user can be added to a list even if you are not following them. You may compile a list of regional media sources, authors, rival businesses, influential people in your sector, or significant clients, for instance.

Tools of Twitter

Your accounts’ organization should be your top focus. Tweet Deck and Hootsuite are two well-liked third-party programmes that can assist you in doing that.

• You can arrange lists, notifications, and your feed in Tweet Deck’s slick user interface’s adjustable columns for free. Tweet Deck is owned by Twitter. Additionally, you can manage numerous users at once by adding multiple Twitter accounts, scheduling tweets in advance (something you cannot do on the Twitter website or mobile applications), and tracking hashtags separately in other columns. You may access Tweet Deck using a web browser.
• Similar to Tweet Deck, Hootsuite allows you to manage additional social media accounts besides Twitter. You may schedule tweets, monitor responses, reply to messages and tweets, and generally automate the maintenance of your account. However, because it requires tabs for each profile you link to it, it is debatably not as slick or straightforward as Tweet Deck. You may use the premium version of Hootsuite for $9.99 a month, or you can utilize the free version.

You may add additional user profiles to Hootsuite and Twitter, both of which offer mobile apps for usage on smartphones and tablets.

How to set up a business Twitter account

As of February 2021, here are the steps to create a Twitter account for business use: Since Twitter and other social media platforms frequently update their setup procedures, these may change in the future.

1.Create an account.

Click “sign up” on the Twitter homepage. You will be required to provide your date of birth, business email, Twitter handle, and phone number in order to confirm that you are of legal age to use the site (your birthdate is not publicly available information). Choose a Twitter account that accurately describes your company, but remember that you may change it if necessary.

2.Verify your account.

When you finish the first step, Twitter will contact the phone number you supplied with a verification code. Then click “next” after entering the code in the box given.

3.Create a password.

Make sure this password is difficult to guess and not used for any of your other accounts, as you should when creating any internet account. To make it special and intricate, use a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters.

4.Complete your profile.

After providing the necessary information, you will be asked to complete your profile. For a full Twitter profile for your business, you’ll need these elements:

Upload a profile picture.

Typically, this will be the logo for your firm or, if you’re setting up a personal account to utilize for business, a professional portrait of yourself. Upload the image, which should be 400 by 400 pixels, and make any required adjustments.

Write a bio.

In the available 160 characters, clearly describe your company. One or two hashtags that are significant to your company may be included.

Select your interests.

You’ll next be asked to choose a few areas of interest so that Twitter can suggest persons to follow who share your interests. You can skip this step; however, it will be beneficial to choose interests that are connected to your company. For instance, you might want to choose “house improvement” or “interior design” as your areas of interest if you’re creating a Twitter business account for a firm that specializes in home remodeling.

Choose users to follow from the suggestions.

Then, Twitter will provide you a list of popular accounts that it thinks you should follow. If you already know which accounts you want to follow but still want to start following additional people, you may skip this step. If you want to use some of Twitter’s recommendations, choose just the suggested accounts that are pertinent to your sector or company rather than those you are personally interested in following.

Tell Twitter if you want to receive notifications.

As your Twitter profile expands, turning on alerts will help you act and reply to people more swiftly.

Upload your cover photo and other business information.

Before your profile is finished, you still need to supply a few more things.

Create a cover photo.

Upload a picture or unique graphic to represent your company. It might be your tagline, a unique graphic or artwork, or any other type of branded imagery. This graphic should have a 1500 by 500-pixel resolution.

Add your location and website.

To enter this information, go to your main profile page and click “update profile.” If your business has many branches, choose the headquarters location for the location box.

How to put Twitter to work for your business

Social networking is useful for companies of all sizes. It spreads the word about your business and crosses several demographics. You should carefully assess how Twitter will fit into your entire social media marketing strategy as a business owner.

Here are some suggestions for using Twitter for your company.

1. Use hashtags.

Hundreds (or thousands) of tweets can be found together using hashtags, which are searchable identifying words or phrases. They’re a fantastic method to make your material more visible to anyone than just your own following. Most active Twitter users are aware with a number of well-known hashtags, like #FollowFriday and #ThrowbackThursday.

In order to participate in the discourse or promote their products, many businesses seize onto popular themes. To promote your business or upcoming events, you may even make up your own hashtags.

Use hashtags only if they apply to your content. Use the hashtag #entrepreneurship, for instance, if you tweet about beginning a business. Limit the number of hashtags you use as well. People are less likely to interact with your material if you utilize it more frequently since they will perceive it as spam.

Observe the trending box daily as well. The trending box, which can be found on the search tab in the Twitter app or on the left side of your timeline if you’re using a desktop, might provide you ideas for what to tweet with your followers. Once more, simply make sure your brand is relevant and that you include the popular term or hashtag in your tweet.

2. Handle problems through direct messages.

Over time, direct communications have changed, particularly for companies. The way you communicate with your consumers is crucial since this is a significant platform for resolving their difficulties.

For a few reasons, responding to specific consumer complaints and difficulties via DMs is a wise idea. You don’t want other people to see the issue and think poorly of your business, for starters. Additionally, there is no character restriction on DMs, giving you the flexibility to assist clients as needed.

By default, you may only receive DMs from persons you follow. However, you may configure your Twitter account to accept messages from anyone, making it simpler for all clients to get in touch with you. Simply choose “receive direct communications from anybody” under Privacy Settings.

3. Use photos, GIFs and polls.

Four photographs can be added to a post on Twitter. Additionally, you may add images to your tweets. Not a master of Photoshop? There are several tools available online that might assist you in producing the required image.

A wonderful method to engage followers in conversation is by include images and GIFs in your tweets. You may find the GIF that best fits your message by searching for it using the built-in GIF keyboard on Twitter.

It’s essential to interact with your Twitter followers if you want to maintain customer interest in your company. Making a poll using these easy steps is one entertaining approach to engage your followers:

• Click the “compose” box at the top of your home timeline.
• Click the “add poll” icon that looks like a horizontal graph.
• Type your question into the main “compose” box.
• Enter your first poll response option into Choice 1 and the second option into Choice 2. You can list up to four answer options in your poll; each option can be up to 25 characters.

By default, the poll is available for 24 hours, but you may change that if you’d like.

4. Do live tweets.

Another potential method for making a topic popular on Twitter is live tweeting. Live tweeting, whether it be for entertainment or breaking news, is essentially when a user tweets their responses to an event as it happens.

Live tweeting most frequently happens during broadcast events and TV shows. During occasions like this, it’s not unusual to see the trends box populated with relevant subjects. For instance, at the Oscars, the names of famous people and movies that just won significant honours may be displayed together with the official awards show hashtag.

It’s a good idea to make your own hashtag for the event and share it with your guests so they can spread and follow it if you’re hosting an event and want your attendees to live tweet about it.

Make them replies to the initial tweet while you’re live-tweeting or utilizing numerous tweets for the same topic. Users can more easily follow the full discourse as a result.

5. Host and participate in Twitter chats.

Hosting a Twitter chat on a subject related to your business or area of expertise is another option to interact with your followers or make a topic trend. Twitter conversations are simple, but they may only be effective if you have a sizable number of engaged followers.

When numerous Twitter users use the same hashtag to discuss the same issue at the same time, it is known as a “Twitter chat.”

Typically, one Twitter user moderates a conversation with pre-written questions and discussion topics at a specified time. Participants will tweet their answers with “A1” and their opinions in response to the host’s questions, which are frequently labelled “Q1” (or whatever number the question is). Typically, a Twitter discussion lasts for one hour. They are a fantastic method to demonstrate your social media activity and interact with your fans (and theirs).

6. Interact with influencers and customers.

On Twitter, it’s crucial to engage with the proper individuals. Engaging with your consumers to keep them satisfied and with future customers to educate them about your company is always a good idea. With Twitter lists, you may easily focus on other people, such as influencers or journalists whose areas of expertise are pertinent to your company.

According to Jason Myers, senior account executive at The Content Factory, “[take] use of the Twitter list feature to establish groupings of journalists that are supportive to your cause or potential clients, influencers, [and] industry-specific trade fair attendees.” You may focus your interaction to those who are more likely to assist you achieve your social media marketing goals by filtering out the noise of random follower tweets.

7. Advertise on Twitter.

Although Twitter is free to use, there are several advertising choices available if you’d want to pay to advertise your account there.

Promoted Tweets:

These advertisements have the same appearance as ordinary tweets, with the exception that they are marked as “promoted” at the bottom and show up in users’ regular Twitter feeds even if they aren’t yet following you. Through promoted tweets, you may broaden your audience outside your follower base and boost interaction.

Promoted Accounts:

Promoted Accounts are made to make companies more discoverable and increase their fan bases. These advertisements can be shown on Twitter in a variety of places, such as the “who to follow” box on a user’s home page, the home Twitter feed, and search results. You could earn followers who actively engage with your material thanks to your Promoted Account advertisements, which target Twitter users whose interests are related to your company. To help consumers identify them from other material in their feeds, all of the advertisements are marked as “sponsored” exactly like Promoted Tweets.

Promoted Trends:

The trending topics list in the Twitter trends box starts with Promoted Trends at the top. These advertisements seem precisely like other popular topics and allow people to engage with them in the same ways, but they are also explicitly marked as “sponsored.” Promoted Trends are visible to all users throughout their promotion time, even on the Twitter mobile app, unlike Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts, which target specific people. A customized hashtag and promoted trends are effective ways to persuade people to talk about your company.

Twitter offers a variety of marketing tools in addition to these choices to assist you in enhancing your efforts.

Twitter Amplify:

You can combine real-time television programming with your business or sponsors using Amplify to distribute things like videos of sports highlights. By distributing your material to certain audiences, this might help you connect with individuals besides your present following.

Promoted Video:

Amplify allows you to share films from TV shows and other broadcasts, but Promoted Video expands your options even further by letting you utilize any form of video, giving you greater creative freedom for your campaigns. Promoted Video material, in contrast to embedded YouTube videos, is hosted directly by Twitter and is exclusively accessible as a paid marketing tool.

Mobile app promotion:

This is the tool for you if your company has released an app, whether it serves as the foundation of your operation or is an addition to your service. With this choice, you may encourage app downloads by targeting your chosen demographic on mobile devices. Users may be targeted by area, gender, language, and mobile platform, and you can build a personalized picture and app description for the advertisement. You may target users who use Twitter from particular devices, for instance, if your app is exclusively accessible on iOS smartphones. The tool also offers a special measuring system that demonstrates the effects of your campaign on app downloads, purchases, and registrations.

Verified accounts on Twitter

A user account is validated if there is a blue checkmark next to their display name. This indicates that the social network believes the user to be an influential brand or person and that the user is who they claim to be.

The website states that if Twitter decides an account is relevant to the general public, it may be verified. This often comprises descriptions of well-known individuals from the worlds of music, acting, fashion, business, government, politics, religion, journalism, and other fields of public interest.

If a verified Twitter user changes their handle or encrypts their tweets, they risk losing their verified status (i.e., make their tweets visible only to their followers). When this happens, Twitter will check the user’s account to see if it still qualifies for verification. If you do decide to rebrand, think about this.

Twitter discontinued its verification procedure in November 2017. Many users perceived that as Twitter endorsing them, and they lambasted the social media site for validating the accounts of contentious individuals. However, Twitter declared that it was reintroducing the authentication procedure in December 2020.

Twitter tips and tricks

To increase your chances of success on Twitter, you should adhere to these basic guidelines in addition to the best practices and strategies that were previously covered.

Don’t buy followers.

To increase your following, you may buy followers from several services. Making it appear as though you have more followers than you actually do may be enticing, but it’s not worth it. The followers you acquire aren’t genuine and won’t engage with your brand; as a result, they bring no value and, should you be exposed, hurt your reputation.

Go mobile.

It is practically simple to go from tweeting on your computer to tweeting from your smartphone or tablet since the Twitter mobile app is so effectively integrated with the online platform.

Embed tweets on your blog.

You may incorporate tweets into an active blog on your brand’s website to highlight any amusing stuff you posted or responses from your devoted fans. Using this method, you may easily link your website to your social network accounts.

Go to the tweet you wish to embed, then select the “more” option in the top right corner of the screen. When you select “embed tweet” from the dropdown menu, a new page with the necessary HTML code will open. Simply copy the code from there and paste it where you want it to appear.