When creating a Twitter account to represent your business, you may initially be overwhelmed by the number of features at your disposal. In this article, we share practices that will boost your engagement on Twitter while also gaining the attention and approval of potential buyers.
DO have open direct messages – This allows potential and previous customers to discuss things with you privately. To do this, open up your settings and navigate to safety, then ensure the box named ‘Receive direct messages from anyone’ is selected. Save these changes and you’re all done!
DO engage with your audience – For example, if you run a clothing website and someone has tweeted a picture of their package arriving, give it a like and possibly reply with a thank you (Only do this if they have tagged you in the tweet).
DO share useful or interesting content – If you enjoyed reading an article about something within your niche, chances are that your followers will too!
DO credit the source – If someone has given you the rights to reuse their content, make sure you credit them clearly. This helps to build trust as well as obviously avoiding any legal complications.
DO ask your audience questions – Attach a poll to some of your tweets to receive valuable insights from your industry. Provoking a reply will also help your tweets gain a greater visibility.
DO get involved in relevant conversations – See a hashtag that is linked to your industry? Great, get involved with the conversation to reach a highly targeted segment of users (Unless it matches any of the criteria mentioned below).
DON’T get involved in conversations that are about sensitive issues such as religion or political debates – let these be discussed by individuals. The only exception to this rule is if your niche is related closely to the topic (For example, it’s perfectly fine for a Christian based company to tweet quotes from The Bible, but if you’re selling clothing, this would not be appropriate).
DON’T allow access to unknown third-party applications. Sadly, there are a lot of spam applications circling Twitter, who seek to access your account in order to promote their website. This usually happens through direct messages and are usually easy to spot – just beware of misclicks.
DON’T respond negatively to criticism – If a customer hasn’t had a great experience with you, apologise and attempt to rectify the problem however possible. This will not only improve the experience of that individual; it will also publicly showcase how reliable your business is.
DON’T come across as too ‘salesy’ – Use your social media outlets to provide valuable content. This will help to build your audience while also establishing your authority in the industry.
DON’T constantly share the same content. In addition to frustrating your followers, this can also lead to a ‘shadow ban‘ from Twitter itself.
DON’T send messages to people without their express permission – This is intrusive and also comes with an incredibly low conversion rate (Less than 2% of people click links sent to them through direct messages).
By using the above list as a guideline, you can create and maintain a positive image for your business on Twitter, regardless of what niche you operate in. Losing followers on Twitter but you haven’t been performing any of the actions in our ‘don’t’ category? Check out this blog post for potential causes.
