Twitter has been around for a full nine years – 21 March 2006 and has grown in popularity for many years since. Although the business’s social media market share places it in fifth (after Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram), it’s still used by millions of people daily. Those who have been tweeting for a while know that the days of, “I’m eating soup. It’s great” updates are still as commonplace as ever.
How I love to see someone’s dinner and where they ate it :). However, there are a lot of interesting posts and good-quality sharers out there who can tell you what’s going on in the world, where your favourite band are playing, when the next series of American Horror Story will be filmed and that kind of thing.
Of course more and more businesses are using Twitter to reach and engage with their customers too… but why, you might wonder? What on Earth could they possibly gain from bleating out (oops, wrong animal) messages to the world?
Well here are seven very good reasons:
1. Better brand awareness
On the surface a Twitter user can be a faceless face without any personality, but don’t become one of them! You have words, images, video and websites at your fingertips. All of these things you share adds a great big personality to your brand’s identity. Using your business’s voice in messaging and saying the right things – i.e. not bad-mouthing anyone or any organisation – provides the reader with a clearer picture of who they potentially could work with in business. It’s not that uncommon to have your Twitter handle on business cards these days either.
2. People buy from people, even online
That website you have is amazing. No, it’s awesome and your logo says so much about you and your business! Yes, these things are important when tweeting your news to clients or prospects. But if you’re self employed or an SME, your personality and how you talk to people online needs to shine through. It’s quite simple – be friendly, approachable and un-sales-y and you’ll see those relationships build over time. And one day, you might even get some business by just being a great person to know 🙂
3. Provide good customer service
Most larger corporations and enterprises use Twitter 
to field customer service enquiries. Many will not go into too much detail about customer problems and issues publicly, but will happily answer any quick and simple questions. Asking followers to send direct messages or emails to customer services is a good way to employ Twitter, as it is increasingly becoming the go-to-place customers look for answers to questions from the brands they follow. A great way to make and engage in first contact 🙂
4. It’s akin to networking
This may sound a little unusual, but if you see Twitter as a virtual version of a networking event, it’s a less scary place, and one where you can thrive and learn about people and what makes them tick. Think of following as a way to start communicating and engaging with new people. Like any effective networking event, meeting and listening to people – instead of overly selling to them – makes Twitter a great place to connect.
Too many Biz to list at Ely but @AsInBoat, @jillcoachyou & @AthenaBusServ will be on hand to say hello http://t.co/zcemN3lwSv
— 4N Cambridgeshire (@4NCambsShire) March 23, 2015
5. Share all your news
Read All About It! See Twitter as your billboard for the latest happenings in your business. Promote your latest blog post, get brief client testimonials out there and tell your followers about new additions, features or bugs that were squashed (if you’re a software developer). News breaks first on Twitter – you only have to set up alerts from the BBC News app to see what’s happening in the world, so why not share your business news there too.
6. See what your competitors are doing
How would you like a free resource that shows you what your competitors are doing every day/week/month? Well, you have it available to you right now. If you add all your competitors’ Twitter handles into one list (and make it private) you will have an up-to-date stream of what they are doing, and particularly what they are doing well. So you can do it better. Sometimes new ideas flow when you get a bit of inspiration.
7. Get your tweets in Google search
Not that long ago Google and Twitter fell out and Google stopped showing tweets in search results. That is about to change later this year and Google will again start featuring tweets in search online. What does that mean for businesses? Potentially, users will no longer need to be following you on Twitter in order to see your tweets. Instead, tweets will be searchable on Google and that means more exposure to a larger audience for your brand. This isn’t going to happen straightaway, so prepare your business and your Twitter feed for what’s about to come.
So those were 7 reasons why you should use Twitter for your business. I hope you found this article informative and that you learned something. If you have, please share it – with me and anyone else you think could benefit 🙂
