We’ve been on a bit of a Twitter trail over the past week at Happy HQ. Engaging more with new followers, joining in various hashtag debates and generally getting to grips with a social platform that prides itself on being the ultimate engagement empire.
But can you remember a time when Twitter wasn’t around? Next year the social media platform celebrates its 10th year and is predicted to have more than 350 million active daily users, generating leads for businesses across the globe.
As an information service, it is certainly gathering pace. Twitter seems to be one of the first places for breaking news, celebrity endorsements, fashion faux pas, humorous anecdotes and important announcements from a variety of different sources.
Add to the appeal
And yet business owners have been slow to react to the appeal of Twitter through either denial the world is moving at an ever quickening pace or because they are unsure of how it works. Having 140 characters at your disposal has never been so important, but you have to know how to use those characters in order to achieve your goals.
Thankfully, Twitter itself is very helpful when it comes to preparing the business owner for its compact world. Its self-promoting guide offers a wealth of guidance into getting your strategic marketing spot on and is well worth a read but for small businesses the basics of Twitter shouldn’t be ignored.
#engage
Joining in conversations in order to engage with others is also a great way of generating potential business. Using hashtags (e.g. #businesshour, #AskTwitter etc…) is the best way to do this as it joins conversations together and, if you’re lucky, you might even get more people talking to you through trending topics.
Twitter doesn’t need to be confusing and, if used correctly, can be a vital marketing tool for your business and in personal use. Many Twitter handles are used for business and pleasure which shows off your personality and can portray your business in a good light. There is nothing worse than a dull tweet, there are plenty of parody sites for that so if you want to portray yourself as a bright and breezy business then tweet that way!
Twitter really does offer an exciting way of getting your business noticed on social media and is the tool of choice for thousands of small businesses, largely due to its simplicity and the potential reach it has to target audiences. While household names have used Twitter to their advantage a lot of them tend to use its competitors due to the amount of content it can share amongst its followers but Twitter’s USP for getting a quick message out there instantly and sharing it by using hashtags cannot be ignored in this modern world.
As one of the big hitters, Facebook’s march and meteoric rise will no doubt continue to profiteer through businesses while Twitter’s careful treading of the social media boards will mean it might become the most important social media channel for businesses large and small.
Follow Happy Creative on Twitter @Happy_Creative
Nick Hyde is PR & Marketing Manager at Happy Creative, a full service marketing and creative agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
