Small Business Twitter Marketing: 6 Tips for Providing Quality Tweets

Small Business Twitter Marketing: 6 Tips for Providing Quality Tweets
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6 Tips for Providing Your Followers with Quality Tweets

Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media networks and is increasingly being used by businesses as well as individuals for networking. This 3-part article series on Twitter marketing for small businesses can help you maximize your business profile and use it to increase awareness about your company. Part 1 offered 4 tips for customizing your Twitter profile page for maximum effectiveness.

Now, part 2 offers ideas for posting tweets that will both promote your business and attract followers to your account. It’s amazing how daunting a mere 140 characters can be when you are faced with generating Twitter posts multiple times every day. Consider these 6 tips for offering your followers quality tweets.

Focus on relationships rather than promoting. Social media is above all else social. Rather than providing a simple barrage of promotional material, engage your followers with posts focused on building relationships with those who might become potential customers. Approach followers in much the same way you would approach a chamber of commerce business function, for example. At a business cocktail reception, you know that interjecting your current specials into every conversation is likely to turn people off. Rather, you usually focus on casual conversation, asking questions of those in your circle. Take the same approach with your Twitter followers.

Keep it positive. We’ve all seen the social media profiles that are filled with sarcasm, criticism of coworkers or clients and links to disturbing new articles. Consistently tweeting in that vein may garner some attention, but it is very ineffective in creating positive associations for your small business. Keep your tweets positive with the assumption that any of your customers, employees, colleagues or even loan officers might read them.

Separate business and personal. Overly personal tweets diminish your profile’s professionalism. Save stories of your weekend plans or your children’s potty training escapades for your personal profiles. Focus your small business Twitter profile on more business-oriented communication.

Integrate with other media. Encourage more traffic to your website, blog or other social media accounts by tweeting links to new postings, other profiles and updated web pages. Twitter can be a great tool for expanding your online presence when used in tandem with other internet venues.

Focus on giving and sharing. Unlike many mainstream traditional marketing venues, a hardsell approach is a sure-fire ”#fail” in the Twitter realm. In addition to tweets designed to drive traffic to your own website, blog or other social media profiles, also focus some attention on promoting and helping your followers. Take time to “retweet” valuable information or links posted by followers. “Direct message” followers with specific customized information relevant to their needs. Participate in Twitter trends like “follow Friday” which highlight followers whose tweets you enjoy reading.

Offer expertise and tips. As an entrepreneur, you have expertise about business start-ups as well as your specific industry. Share some of it in your tweets. Provide simple lessons you’ve learned, tips that can be helpful to potential customers, and free advice.

These 6 tips can help you produce the kinds of tweets that will create a positive impression of your small business, solidify your reputation as an expert in your field and help you build quality online relationships. Read part 3 of this series on Twitter marketing tips to discover ways to gain more followers for your small business profile.

This post is part of the series: Twitter Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Twitter is one of the most popular social media services, and businesses are cashing in on its marketing benefits. This 3-part series offers tips for effectively using Twitter as part of a small business marketing plan, including creating a profile, posting quality tweets and attracting followers.

  1. Creating an Effective Small Business Twitter Profile
  2. Small Businesses on Twitter: What Should I Tweet About?
  3. Gaining Twitter Followers for Your Small Business Profile