Here are some tips on how to effectively use Twitter for your business
Define Your Goals
Firstly, you'll need to decide what you want your Twitter account to do. There are many different uses for Twitter, including customer service, sales, marketing and promotion of a particular brand. It can be tempting to sign up just because it's expected of you, however if you don't have a clear aim for your Twitter account, it could promote a negative image of your company to prospective clients.
You should also decide whether you have one account for your entire business, or several individual accounts for staff within your company. One account is easier to control, however having several individual accounts can lend a personal touch to your tweets, which is important to engage clients.
Connect With the Right Audience
There are so many businesses and individuals using Twitter that it can be difficult to know where to start. The important thing to remember when it comes to how many followers you have is quality over quantity. There's no point having 2,000 or even 20,000 followers if none of them care about the services offered by your business.
Following your staff, as well as colleagues in related industries, is a good start. From there, you can also follow relevant brands, journalists and even your competitors. It's polite to follow people, and it can lead to more followers for you in return.
Build Your Reputation
It's good to tweet regularly, and provide information which is specifically about your business. However, it's not a good idea to only tweet about your company, otherwise people may lose interest. Providing useful information, opinions and links is a good idea to keep people engaged with your account. Giving your followers relevant things to read regularly will make them all the more likely to be interested in your promotions when they happen.
Interact With Your Clients
It is important to have a conversational approach to your Twitter account. It shouldn't sound too "business-like", or your clients may find it difficult to identify with you. Individual Twitter accounts can help with this, as well as the promotion of items which aren't directly related to your business. The more your clients feel they can interact with you, the longer they will continue to follow you and the more likely it is they will suggest you to their friends.
Listening to your clients is equally important, as well as remembering to retweet when someone mentions your business. You don't want your entire feed to consist solely of retweets, although by writing short responses to each one you can keep things fresh and original.
Be Unconventional
Lots of businesses have already used Twitter in interesting, innovative ways to engage with their customers. A publishing company created an alternate reality game, a drinks company in America allowed their customers to choose a new flavour, and several businesses reward their customers when they mention them in their tweets. There are lots of different ways for your business to engage with clients, so it's worth thinking outside the box when it comes to working out strategies for using Twitter.