Top ten Tips for using Twitter to market your Irish SME

Have you got a twitter account but don’t know how to utilise it for your business? Here, I have put together some of my top tips for using Twitter:

Some useful facts for you about Twitter in Ireland:

According to Stephen Comny There are 600,000 daily users of Twitter in Ireland.

* We send, on average, 1 million tweets each day.

* Ireland has the tenth highest number of Twitter users per capita in the world.

* Wednesday is the busiest day on Twitter in Ireland.

* 10-11pm is the busiest hour each day on Twitter in Ireland

* Users are active from 12 midday onwards.

Here are my most useful tips for marketing your SME on Twitter:

 

Goal setting

1 Be SMART!

Firstly you need to decide what you want to get out of your Twitter activity. Marketing Strategy goals can include like      awareness for your brand, staying on top of industry trends, or driving traffic to your website. You will need to have  clear  objectives and metrics to measure your success.

Orla Kennedy of Pod Umna Village advises SMES to have lists of users  on particular topics, and you can  browse  lists created by other people in order to discover new accounts to follow. This  will help you connect with people  who have a large audience on Twitter in your specific industry. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!

 

 

 

 

 

Listen, Learn, Engage, Adapt

2 Listen and learn

The individuals who follow your Twitter account are your most accessible audience. Your followers have opted-in to see your content regularly, giving you the opportunity to communicate with them for free for as long as they follow you.

Followers dashboard helps businesses understand this critical group, This useful tool provides you with a real-time look at your follower growth, demographics (such as location and gender) and their unique interests. This information is an incredibly valuable tool that can help you create campaigns and content that better align with your audience on Twitter.

 

 

 

 

 

3 Success in 140 or less

The key to Twitter is to post relevant content, content that is engaging and interests your target audience. the last thing you want is for your business to be spamming followers news feed.

140 Twitter tips in 140 characters or less

Twitter should be used  to engage with customers, forming real conversations that grow organically. Through interaction you are making your business far more personal. While you may only talk to 5 to 10 people per day, if each of these lead to a purchase, then this is time well spent.

The tone you use should reflect the platform you are on. it is not as simple as one size fits all! According to Mashable  the restriction of characters in fact makes the tone more ‘conversational’.

 

 

4 Hash tag

The Twitter Hashtag

Stephanie Buck of Mashable tells us that SME’s should  engage in conversations via hash tags that are relevant to your industry- stick to one or two and use consistently.While customers may not tweet to your SME directly, they may be talking about you still using the hashtag of your company name or else using a keyword that is related to your company. You as a marketer need to think about what search terms that are relevant to your company.

For example a celebrity endorses your brand, but you haven’t taken the time to search the appropriate keywords, and as a result has lost a fantastic opportunity to re tweet for free publicity. Use hashtags to to join in on a hot topic, or make up your own around an event, promotion, or whatever’s on your mind. The “Trends” sidebar on the Twitter desktop interface includes popular local topics, and usually includes the trending hashtags.

 

5 Share the love:

Share the love

According to Forbes, Twitter followers are more likely to buy from brands they follow (37% vs. 21%), and recommend brands to friends (33% vs. 21%. Your SME need to value  your followers.

You as a marketer need to reward your followers in form of promotions, discounts and exclusive content, Its is a two way relationship,

 

 

 

 

6 Tweets with photos:

According to Kurt Wagner of Mashable, Twitter wants businesses to think “photo first”. Tweets that include photos or video links are retweeted at a much higher rate than those with text alone, according to new Twitter Data. Tweets with pictures were retweeted 35% more often than text-only tweets, and tweets with video links saw a 28% increase in retweets.

 

7 Reach out to followers and beyond:

Facebook is where you lie to your friends but Twitter is where you are honest with strangers! Your SME needs to be actively engaging, replying, and interacting with followers once they connect with you? If not, you could already be missing out on a big opportunity to turn a potential lead into your next customer.

According to Pat Hutchinson SMEs need to identify two types of leads (those who are already engaging with you and those you should be engaging with). Then take advantage of Twitter search box to locate and organise the most important conversations. Then by using Twitter’s advertising tools to boost visibility you will attract new customers.

 

8 Tweak your tweets:

SMEs can make the most of any occassion on Twitter by using the own the event planner.. This Twitter tool allows you to tweet around key events. Marketers just select the dates they want to focus on. It is as simple as that!

 

9 Open 24 7:

open 24/7

Twitter never closes. Followers are available all the time. It is important not to shut down your twitter at the weekend just because your physical business is closed during the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

Twitter Handle

10 Take you twitter handle offline:

Don’t forget off line marketing should complement your on line marketing and vice versa.Promote your twitter page at every opportunity. According to Twitter Ad’s Research Manager, Tim Perzyk, One-third (34%) of respondents to survey regarding twitter and SME’s say they have interacted with an SME after seeing an ad that included the business’s Twitter handle. People who see a Promoted Tweet from an SME that relates to their interests or needs are also more likely (32%) to visit that business.

 

 

 

Now that I have shared my tips it time for your business to Ready Steady Tweet!