Twitter is not just a place to share news and update followers on what’s happening. The most successful Twitterers use the platform to engage people and carry out other useful tasks. Here are my top ten ways you can use Twitter to your advantage:
1. Keep up with your Customers – Knowing your customers interests and what they are up to can help define your customer’s mind map and does wonders for better understanding them. Check out what your followers are talking about and categorize this information so it’s useful in your business.
2. Industry Research – There is a bunch of content flowing through Twitter. Set up search terms for your industry and see what direction your industry may be heading to stay ahead of its curve.
3. Competitive Intelligence – Learn what your competitors are up to and the sentiment their customers feel for them. See if they are missing the boat on opportunities to provide new offerings and beat them to the punch.
4. Customer Feedback – Ask questions to determine what’s important to your clients and address them in future updates.
5. Content Creation – See what content your ideal prospects want to devour and serve them the delicious content they desire. Don’t guess what they want, ask them and eliminate wasted content creation efforts.
6. Interacting with Customers – Some customers may prefer to interact through Twitter. If so, shouldn’t you enable them to do just that.
7. Monitor Reputation – Set up searches for you brand name. Categorize tweets based on sentiment and respond when appropriate.
8. Support Complimentary Business – When complimentary businesses do well, your business should follow suit. Promote these businesses and not only will they likely promote you, but your industry will benefit from the positive sentiment.
9. Build Creditability – A consistent voice for your business will build credibility for your company. Keep conversations going and let others know what you are up to. This will bring your business closer to your brand and show your credibility.
10. Improve Quality Traffic – Generating traffic on your site is great, but what’s really great is how this traffic can be multiplied through retweeting and subsequent responses to your own content creation efforts. These links should build your page rank and ultimately improve your chances of being found through search engines!
How have you used Twitter? What other tips do you have?