Stuck for inspiration on Twitter?
If you use Twitter for your business it’s important to put some thought into what you tweet. To create engaging content, start by asking yourself a few simple questions about the type of person that is following you.
Why did they follow you?
What type of content do they want to see?
How can you offer them value?
You can create high-quality content by answering those questions in your posts.
Research
All aspects of your business can be improved by cultivating a deeper understanding of your customers, both current and prospective. Product development and sales benefit greatly from research that helps you know precisely what your customers are looking for.
Similarly, this type of information can be used to drive your marketing campaigns — right down to the content of your future tweets. Once you have a reasonable Twitter following, ask your followers directly what type of content they want to see from you on Twitter.
Engage
Questions are a valuable means of crowdsourcing information, but also as a way of encouraging your followers to respond and open up a dialogue. Follower engagement is advantageous because it means that you have regular followers with an invested interest in your business. As an already-captive audience they will be responsive to the tweets you send, as well as any special offers and/or new products you wish to communicate or release.
Your engaged followers will post responses and retweets on their own timeline, which means you will enjoy exposure to Twitter users who would not otherwise have seen your content. All of this can help you steadily build your Twitter following.
Share
No matter how good you are at producing your own content, never rule out sharing content from outside of your business/website. This is called content curation. When you see content that is really high-quality and written by respected people within your industry, don’t hesitate to share it with your followers. Share links to content, retweet useful posts, and follow people on Twitter who regularly share high-quality information. When you do share, remember to include the author of the original information and/or mention the source website’s @username in the tweet, in order to credit them for the content. People appreciate this; plus, it’s a good way of opening up a dialogue with other companies and potential contacts within your industry.
The golden rule of sharing content is never share something that you wouldn’t be happy writing yourself. Authenticity is key and your followers will expect a certain degree of quality from you. So, if you share content that is below that standard or doesn’t align with your true values, it can reflect poorly upon you. One way to identify shareable content is when you read a tweet and find yourself enthusiastically nodding along with the author’s words.
Offer Opinion
Remembering that your followers look to you as a leader in your field. You have an inside knowledge of the industry that you are in and the products or services your business offers. This means that others will be keen to hear your opinion and are likely to have respect for what you say on certain topics.
Express your opinion by commenting on relevant news stories or even sharing blog posts that offer an alternative stance relative to a hot topic. Look for ways to impart fresh insight to your readers. If you become good at this you will find that more people are likely to retweet your posts and share your content. Furthermore, if you inject a bit of controversy or humour (where appropriate) you will almost certainly trigger a discussion, or maybe even a debate where people will then feel compelled to share their own perspective on the subject.
Be Human
Customers often want to get to know the person behind an organisation and this makes a business more relatable. Whilst you should avoid tweeting about everything little thing you get up to, you can inject some personalisation that is relevant to your industry, your products, and your business. Always be friendly and on occasion where it works, be conversational.
Twitter is usually quite an informal platform and means of communicating, so take the opportunity to humanise your brand and create a deeper connection with your followers, customers and potential customers. This also offers transparency and helps to build brand trust.
And finally…
The key to Twitter is conversation and creativity. Brainstorm your goals, create content, experiment with different formats, analyse your performance, update as necessary, and watch your community grow.
Create tweets that will induce a reaction or spark a conversation. You should probably avoid expressing strong political views but sharing your opinions on industry related topics can create a talking point. Allow your personality to shine through and make your brand relatable and bear in mind that positive language and tone make people feel good so will always go down well.
If you get this right, you will help your profile visitors quickly decide if they want to engage with your profile further.
As always, if you would like some more specific advice about using Twitter for your business get in touch with us here at The Digital Studios HQ.
