Many companies use Twitter as a tool to raise awareness about their brand. Actually, 65% of B2C businesses are marketing on Twitter. That means that probably many of you are marketing there, and if you are not, you are missing out! Twitter is great for companies because it helps with open communication between business and consumer.

What do businesses need to do to reach their customers and make their brand noticeable?

Companies must understand their audience. This is crucial because if you don’t know who your audience is, you can’t possibly know what it is that will get their attention.

First thing first, you will want to make sure people understand and recognize that it is your company’s Twitter account. Choose a profile picture with your logo or something that clearly shows it is your brand. Then when it comes to sharing content, it goes without saying that you need to proof-read and make sure there are no miss-spellings or false information in your tweets. You don’t want people to think your company is unprofessional. Share things that are current and positive, make sure people have a positive view on what your company stands for. It is also important to be consistent, you don’t want people to forget about you.

So, how do you know if your efforts are working?

Twitter has a great analytic tool, namely, Twitter Analytics. Apart from seeing how well your tweets are performing, you can also see the amount of click activity when you include a link to your website or a product page. This will give you a great insight into the content shared is interesting and makes people want to know more about your business, products, and/or services. If the results show positive activity, keep doing what you are doing! If not, you may want to rethink your content strategy.  

Let’s also talk about ads. Since April 2010, businesses can promote their tweets as a way of advertising and marketing themselves. This way, businesses can reach more people, and moreover, the right people.

Among the many features of Twitter ads, one of them is audience targeting. This is where businesses can select geographic areas and specific interest of the people they want to reach. I know I have said it before, but this is another reason why it is so important to know who your audience is.

With Twitter ads, businesses can also tailor their campaigns depending on what their goal is, for example, if they want to raise awareness, get new followers, app installs or website clicks. When knowing what the goal is and who they want to reach, the businesses then need to decide how much they want to pay for each interaction.

Twitter Ads are like an auction, so the businesses can either use automatic bidding where data decides the best bid cost based on your budget and goals, or the businesses can do the bidding themselves. Either way, the businesses need to set up a daily budget for their ads.

“Competition in business is a blessing, for without it, we wouldn’t be motivated to improve.” – Nabil N. Jamal

As mentioned before, your competitors are most likely using Twitter. You can use them as a great source of information about your own strategy. You’ll want to look at who their followers are, what kind of content they are sharing, and what people are saying about them. And believe it or not, there are ways you can track them and get immediate updates without actually following them. Stalker warning? Maybe. But it is a great trick to keep track of what works!

You can also create a private Twitter List that is only visible to you. In the list, you can include the company’s Twitter account as well as employees or ambassadors. Through this list, you will get all of the content they share. If you want to take it one step further, you can also use the function of saving a search. Just type in your competitor’s name and click ”Save this search,” that way you will get updates about not only what they are sharing, but what other people are sharing and saying about them! This is a great way to see if consumers are interested in similar products or services you offer. You’ll definitely want to make sure to follow and connect with people that are liking (or even disliking) your competitor as they could be potential clients for you, and just maybe YOU can offer them a better service or product than your competitor!

“Awareness is fine, but Advocacy will take your business to the next level.” – Joe Tripodi, CMO, The Coca-Cola Company

Brand Ambassadors are essential to a company’s marketing strategy! One of the great things about Twitter is being able to build relationships with clients and employees. Companies who are loyal to their customers and employees oftentimes are equally reciprocated through reviews, shoutouts, mentions, and retweets. Brand Ambassadors are very important for any business today as they provide feedback unlike any other. A repeat customer may boast about a product which, in turn, leads others to purchase that very same product. This provides the business free marketing and the customer now becomes a Brand Ambassador! Who is going to turn down FREE marketing?! If an employee tweets something positive about the company, it provides insight of the company’s culture and values internally. What business doesn’t want their team passionately bragging about their company?! Again, FREE marketing!

The most basic and easy tactic a company can use is to like and retweet content that customers are posting. This makes them feel important to the company and that their opinion matters. It is also very important to answer any type of feedback; 85% of Twitter users said that they think it is important that a business provide customer support on Twitter.

Moral of the story? Nurture those who invest in your brand; They are your greatest asset!

“Social Media puts the ‘public’ into PR and the ‘market’ into Marketing.” – Chris Brogan

Not only should companies set aside time to nurture their Brand Ambassadors, but also spend time planning and setting goals for their controlled marketing. Apart from being a great customer support tool, Twitter is also a useful tool for PR! Leveraging Twitter for PR is monumental for a brand, especially when wanting to know the latest on trends. From breaking news to new product announcements to broadcasting corporation information, Twitter is the place to post! How a business can use Twitter for the PR advantage is simply to monitor their resources, such as major journalists, influencers in the industry and, of course, connecting with fellow peers. Businesses should also set and monitor S.M.A.R.T. goals. By doing this, they measure their current PR efforts, adapt new strategies as well as visualize expected results. Setting standards and accomplishing minor feats such as these can help a business profit tremendously beyond monetary value!

While Twitter maintains as a reputable source for the socially skilled, Twitter is also a tremendous asset for small businesses to corporate conglomerates! Using Twitter to the fullest, companies can take advantage of all the resources available just within the palm of their hands. Having customers and employees be part of a company’s story, the brand will ultimately sell itself! Setting and accomplishing goals are a MUST in creating a successful marketing strategy. Knowing who your audience is and nurturing those relationships profoundly establishes your brand as professional, trustworthy, and overall, personable.