Given the number of consumers who use social media, your marketing strategies for various platforms can be as influential for your small business’s growth as what’s on your business credit report.

Take Twitter, for instance. Per the site’s data, it has 316 million monthly active users who send 500 million tweets each day. 500 million is a daunting number, and you might be wondering how your business is going to get noticed in such an enormous sea of tweets.

Here’s a look into how Twitter works and how you can cut through the noise to promote your business to potential customers.

Twitter Caters to Businesses

Twitter has carved out tools for businesses, including separate tips and hints for small businesses. Not only is it a contemporary marketing avenue, but it is also free if you’re using basic features.

After you set up a profile, start following other businesses and individuals you know or work with that you think might follow you back. This is a good starting point to building a follower base. Start posting tweets to update your followers on your business, or tweet content that’s related to your business and relevant to your growing group of followers.

Once you have a few tweets with good content, try to identify individuals that fall under your target market. Follow your current and potential customers, and tweet about upcoming sales, discount codes, and new products and services. Take advantage of hashtags, which are highlighted keywords preceded by a pound sign (#) in tweets that make your posts easier to locate in Twitter’s internal search results.

If you have some room in your budget, you can promote your account or use promoted tweets. These are direct advertisements that are placed in the Twitter feeds of users who may be interested in your products or services. This functionality can be paired with your customer relationship management information to better define the parameters of your ad campaigns and reach a wider base of new customers.

Marketing in the Twitterverse

Twitter is one of the many 21st century versions of word-of-mouth advertising and has unique demands if you want to use it effectively. Here are some tips for marketing via Twitter:

• Interact with other users. Retweet, favorite, message, and tweet to other users in your posts. Doing so will not only engage another user, but will give you exposure to their followers, and allow you to create alliances with other active Twitter users interested in working together to build an audience.
• Tweet often. At the very least, post one tweet per day. If your account appears dormant, customers may not be as engaged with it.
• Offer exclusive deals to your followers. Keep users interested and engaged by tweeting about promo codes or flash sales that are exclusive to your Twitter followers. Offer to send freebies to your brand advocates who promote your business on Twitter.
• Use hashtags. If you’re in the business of paper sales, users can search for tweets related to paper and find your business. However, if you use hashtags, your tweets become more visible in the search results. Tailor your hashtags to your business and current ad campaigns.
• Use news to stay relevant. Is there a breaking story or event coming up that you can twist to relate to your business? Post a tweet about it and latch onto relevant hashtags for more visibility.
• Use Twitter to promote original content. Take advantage of integration features for your own website, and always post content that will direct your followers back to your web page.

Bonus: Use Twitter Analytics for Free

Under your profile drop down menu, you can access Twitter Analytics. See how your account performs from month to month and track your growth. Understand what content is working and what isn’t by tracking your Tweets’ impressions, favorites, and retweets.

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