Startup Guides > How To Maximize The Power Of Twitter - 10 Lessons Learned.

With Twitter having over 300 million users around the world, it has become an important network for companies to reach out to their customers. There are well-established and successful brands that have come up with best practices companies could emulate to attract a loyal following and transform customers into brand advocates.

Here are ten marketing lessons for successful utilization of Twitter:

1. Don't be afraid to apologize and send a personal message to a customer.

Most companies have hundreds of thousands of followers, the more established and well-known brands, probably millions. Instead of only replying to positive feedback, learn to acknowledge criticism and complaints as well. An apology does more than simply ignoring a tweet. Yet they manage to acknowledge customers who have criticisms or complaints and educate them in the process as well.


2. Twitter isn't just a place to announce your sales or new products. Use it as a real-time response tool to create conversations with your customers.

Conduct a live trivia contest on Twitter. This is a great way to engage customers, generate buzz on a product launch and make new connections with new followers.

3. Whenever possible, take advantage of multimedia to showcase your brand's personality.

With Twitter having updates regarding sharing, uploading and tagging pictures, it has become easier to showcase different sides of brand's personality with pictures - take advantage of it!

Use pictures to convey messages to customers and to engage them. Don't use pictures to promote products but use them to ask questions, wait for feedback, start conversations and even highlight customers' favorite products.

You can also promote your products/services with social media automation sites like 40Billion.com, which specializes in the promotion of small businesses by broadcasting and promoting to its large network of several million users across the most popular social networking sites for small businesses - including Twitter, LinkedIn, 40Billion, and even Facebook.

Innovative services like tweet ads and promoted company listings were created for entrepreneurs to tap into a growing, active network online without spending thousands on pay-per-click ads or traditional advertising.

4. Twitter celebrities are great endorsers.

Celebrities often have larger followings on Twitter than most company brands, engaging them will help you increase your follower count. Celebrities can easily influence your brand too, so choose well.

5. Twitter is not about you, it's about your audience.

While you can always use the network to promote, figuring out what your audience wants to hear and tweeting about it is a better way to build loyalty and following.

6. Your end goal should be not to increase sales but to bring value and service to your customers.

Try to educate your customers. e.g. if you are in food business, talk about nutrition and supplements in your products. This kind of dedication might unlikely bring new sales but is a surefire way to build customer loyalty.

7. If your brand is supposed to be fun, it would help to showcase a sense of humor in your Twitter feed from time to time. Embrace negative comments and highlight the positive ones.

Try to inject humor in your Twitter feed. Embrace constructive criticism and turn them into a good humor. Acknowledge the feedback and offer incentive for feedback. Turn negative into positive. This will help create goodwill.

8. Know the technicalities of Twitter so you can use it to your advantage.

Learn about hashtags, trending topics, and managing lists. This will allow you not only to reach a broader scope of followers and gain new ones, but will allow you to manage your account better. Host Twitter chats around relevant hashtags.

9. Think global, but post local.

Big brands waste their chance of engaging customers by treating Twitter like a mass mega-phone for announcements. Post targeted messages based on active followers' locations from time to time, especially those who are engaged with your brand.

10. If you offer a product or service that goes beyond business hours, it is good practice to figure out a way to be responsive on Twitter whenever a customer needs help.

Communications between clients and businesses have become much easier through the development of social media networks. With our in-depth knowledge on the processes included in social media, you can earn not only successful transactions, but a more precise system of monitoring and managing of online campaigns, stronger brand loyalty, and generally an improved customer engagement, among others.

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