Benefits of Using Twitter For Small Business
Are there any benefits to using Twitter for Small Business? We’ll take a look at the opportunities for small businesses in the social network.
One of the (now) long time players of social media is Twitter. Having gone through updates, partnerships, a public offering, and some personality crises, Twitter is still relevant and yet it may not seem totally relevant to you to use Twitter for small business. The Tweets that seem to get the most engagement are celebrities and politicians with their in-crowd micro feuds. Sure, this makes Twitter a great news source of to-the-minute released info or pages of endless gossip. So at initial look it may not make the most sense as a small business.
One of the best ways to view Twitter is like a super mini blog. A place where you can give light updates, show some personality, and create live discussion. Most of all it is a marketing and content channel where you can build your brand and SEO. There a handful of things to be aware of before deciding to finally open your business up to Tweets. While you may not reach the follow of @katyperry there are benefits to using Twitter for small business.
If you’re already active on Twitter, stop by and say hi to the Teacup team and follow our tweets.
It’s really complex to make something simple — @jack
Twitter By The Numbers
Whenever looking at social media networks, consider that they are also huge data centers of information. Twitter is no different, especially when it comes to knowing their own numbers, which may help you understand it’s popularity and reach. Internationally Twitter’s Monthly Active Users reached 330 million in Q3 of 2017 which is an four million increase in Monthly Active Users quarter to quarter. 330 MILLION! That hurts just thinking of that number.
This is a good platform to reach most Millenials with 37% of Twitter being between ages of 18 and 29, 25% users are 30–49 years old. This is also a great way to reach those not in the U.S, with 79% of accounts being based elsewhere internationally with Brazil, Japan and Mexico being the most popular. It also seems with platform improvements Twitter has gotten more attention in the last year with Twitter ad engagements 99% percent higher than it was for the previous year. Yes they also do ads!
Technical Twitter For Small Business
One of the biggest issues of understanding Twitter is not knowing how technical it is underneath the flood of micro messages. Sometimes it may feel that your Tweets get lost, that’s why you need to reply or tweet to people directly. This is the same idea of creating linking in blogs so it gets noticed by Google. Twitter likes conversion not talking AT people. So the more it is a conversation, the Twitter minds will try to make your Tweets widely visible.
Also like Google, Twitter wants relevancy so it has happier active users. That’s why they switched tweets from being chronological order to interest. The Twitter algorithm has certainly gotten beefed up in recent years. So, when it comes to Twitter for small business, you’ll need to know your audience well and keep your Tweets relevant and engaging. So the bots again can take notice and show your tweet to those with similar interest. When creatively writing your Tweets also think technically because you want to know how to get noticed behind the scenes first.
Practically speaking, don’t only think of Twitter as a place to broadcast your thoughts to customers. Try to look at customers’ tweets and engage with them — sharing your expertise and ideas.
How Does Twitter Interact With Google?
Google is a magnet for information. It made perfect sense when Google and Twitter, like Facebook, began working together. The biggest part of their partnership is that Google gained access to Twitter’s firehose — the 9,000 tweets/per second. This is so Google could more easily pull relevant tweets for searches rather than crawling through 9,000 tweets per second. Which is almost impossible even for the internet. So now Google can provide very relevant news, info, updates from Twitter as they are tweeted.
By proxy Twitter also benefits from opening their stream of info to the largest ocean on the internet. With Google, Twitter as a platform gains more exposure. This is one of the biggest reasons their use was previously dropping and now ramping up again. Thank Google for making Twitter more relevant. This partnership certainly featured in the new days of social search.
Best Twitter Practices for Small Businesses
Here are the quick tips to using Twitter as a small business in 2017.
- Always keep your Tweets to having a good balance of work and play to keep your followers entertained.
- Tweet with regularity, set up a schedule if you have to, this is to get you noticed from your activity.
- Tweet with individuals and get into casual conversation with your followers and other businesses.
- Re-posting content is Ok. Even if you have Tweets a certain blog post or link of yours on Twitter it is ok to Tweet it again.
- Re-Tweeting is also Ok. Share thought-leaders’ tweets if your customers will find them interesting.
- Video and Images work on Twitter!
- Social media is an extension of your business’s personality. Lots of tweeting means lots of opportunities to show a bit of your brand’s personality.
Twitter is not a technology. It’s a conversation. And it’s happening with or without you.
Tweet The Best and Most Helpful Version of Your Business
As simple and slimmed down Twitter is as a social platform, it can seem a bit daunting to use as non-celebrity, politician, or big business. With the the right diligence and understanding of the platform, Twitter for small business can be a great channel. The reach is massive and the technical integration happening beneath the surface is the secret sauce to getting to know Twitter. Its partnership with Google is also another way to get Google to notice you. We want to help you get noticed too with your analytics so you can get to tweeting and socializing.
