Using Twitter as a key component of your small business digital marketing strategy is a smart move. If you want to get found on line and bring more traffic to you website or blog then twitter is an excellent way to achieve that goal.

There are more than enough study’s that provide unwavering proof that your prospects are using the internet to search for information, answers and reviews related to your products and services. In fact, a recent study puts the percentage of consumers that search for local businesses online before making a purchase is as high as 97%.

That statistic should give you a clear indication as to why you absolutely need to have a clear digital marketing strategy, that utilises various digital channels. It is an absolute must for any small business that whats to grow is revenues.

As part of that digital marketing strategy for your business, you should definitely be utilising Twitter. If your struggling to come to grips with how Twitter should be used effectively, to grow your business. Then below you will find 6 tips to get the most from the short messaging social media platform. Read on!

1. Start With Your Bio

There are many ways to get your twitter page set up properly but we are going to start start at the bio section. The bio section of your twitter profile acts very much like your “about us” page on a website. Your bio tends to be the initial section that draws the attention of visitors to you profile.

What you have in this section will have a big bearing on weather or not that visitor sticks around or decides to look a little closer or even weather to follow you or not.

So therefore it is very important to put a bit of time into creating a bio that will hook the visitor by telling them what they can expect from your twitter account. In the bio section yo should convey information related to your business, background and career highlights.

Some guidelines when crafting your bio are:

• You have 160 characters of space as opposed to the 140 you are limited to in a tweet.
• Make sure your bio is relatable and approachable.
• It may be tough but try and be unique. It help you to stand out.
• Your bio will appear in the search results when people search for your name. So ensure your bio is specific to what potential clients are looking for when researching your business. (e.g. your location, niche, industry or company name)

Lisa Sasevich is an example of a bio that’s straightforward, concise and catchy. It clearly expresses what she does and how she helps potential clients.

2. Start Following people!

So now that your bio is in order it’s time to get out there and start following people. Starting with people of similar interests.

You can make this task easier by using Twitter directories such as Twellow and WeFollow. Both of these sites can introduce you to Twitter users that have similar interests.

This can be a great way to gain an insight as to what is being posted and what is popular. This will also help you to get comfortable and acclimatised to life on Twitter! So Follow other users and observe their tweets. Get a feel for what and how often they tweet.

The other thing to observe is how users they interact with their followers. What’s working for them and what feels right for you? Once you feel comfortable it is now time for you to jump right in. Using your own style to interact with other users.

You may also try following the people they are following, but make sure you read their descriptions and visit their blogs to ensure a right fit.

Staying focused on your niche or location will make it easy for you to build a community centered on similar interests.

3. Time To Start Really Interacting

So at this point you should have a savvy twitter profile all set up, you also know where to find the right type of people for you, and how to follow them. The next step is to start getting active on Twitter and begin interacting.

It’s a good idea at this point to check and see what the people you are following are up to. What are they tweeting about, what are they re-tweeting and sharing? If its of interest to you and you can add value then get involved and reply.

Lets take a quick example, if one of your followers just happens to be discussing a fashion event they are attending. They are talking about the designers and brands that will be at the event. They are talking about the exhibitions the fashions shows, maybe even the food at the event or people they will be meeting.

If this is a topic near and dear to your heart then join them expressing your excitement. Let them know how much you love a specific designer or style. By creating a common connection you will be encouraging future conversation.

Another great way to start a conversation is to reply with your thoughts or feedback.

Now that you’re actively involved in the conversation, it’s time to manage it.

The best way to manage conversations is through a third party management tool. Whether you use Hootsuite, Cyfe, Sprout Social, or Sendible. With these tools it makes it easier to manage your social interactions by logging in for jus a few minutes each day.

You can go to your Inbox, Twitter lists, and mentions to monitor and respond in real time all from the one dashboard.

4. Regular Care and Attention

Your next step is to post status updates regularly. When I say regularly, when it comes to twitter, I mean daily. This of course can seem very daunting, because people often wonder where will they get all the content they will need in order to post status updates on a daily basis.

The question you are probably asking yourself is where to find this content, and what to talk about and how to best manage it.

These are all extremely good questions and I am going to shed some light on this whole area for you. I will let you in on how social media managers for big agencies and companies find content on a daily basis and give you a few ideas on where you might have content already and you never knew it.

Dependent on your target audience, you can share anything from behind-the-scenes photos of your team to a graphic featuring your tip of the week. Many people forget that you can share photos on Twitter as well as Facebook. Twitter has also, at the time of writing this recently launched its video sharing platform.

So when it comes to Twitter, what should you be sharing? Well here is a quick list of ideas:

• Links back to your latest blog post.
• Details about an upcoming event you are promoting or a local charity that you support.
• Re-purposed evergreen content including weekly tips, quotes or how-to’s.
• Re-purposed traditional marketing materials such as flyers or newsletters into short quotables.
• Email marketing
• Company stories
• Testimonials and client success stories
• Past presentations

Think through all of your content. What have you created over the years that can be refreshed and reused?

5. Link Your Website/Blog With Your Twitter Account

Finally, to ensure the maximum visibility you want to integrate Twitter into your website and blog. If you happen to have your website built using WordPress, great! This is easily done using a variety of social plugins, widgets or embedded tweets like the one above. If not you may need to ask your developer to do this for you.

By doing this you are allowing your fans/followers/readers to connect with you on Twitter and easily follow you with the click of a button. Also if you are embedding your tweets this will bring an extra interactive component to your blog.

Done this way, Twitter is an opportunity to share each new blog post. Every time you hit publish, you can make sure you schedule your post to tweet multiple times.

So don’t let any content go to waste, you will be able to utilise it someway or the other on Twitter. Your prospects and customers want to hear from you. So don’t keep yourself and your content a secret. Tweet it out on a consistent and basis.

Conclusions:

Twitter has been the corner stone of many, many social media marketers, and with good reason. The connections, opportunities and interaction that can be made using the Twitter platform can help to grow your blossoming business.

Now that your in the know, how will you be using it to market your business? Take action today and enjoy the benefits of Twitter for your business.

And if we’re not already connected on Twitter, connect with me and let’s get tweeting today!