There are plenty of reasons to use Twitter as a business publishing platform, not least because it’s very popular. Statistics indicate that Twitter has around 2.8 million users in Australia alone, and that it is used in both B2B and B2C spheres.

In that sense, Twitter can provide some wide-ranging opportunities to engage with existing and potential customers, and to do some effective online marketing.

MORE: Choosing the Best Channels for Promoting Business Content

Why use Twitter?

Twitter can be used in a number of ways:

• To show your business’s human side: Twitter enables you to communicate directly with large numbers of people and build relationships.
• To generate more leads: Business2Community claims that 34% of marketers effectively use Twitter to generate leads.
• To check out the competition: With Twitter you can easily track what your competitors are doing, all at no extra cost!
• As a multiple-use platform: Twitter can be used for a variety of tasks, including posting offers and special deals, business networking, posting job offers, directing people to your website blog, sharing relevant and valuable information with your audience, starting conversations, posting alerts, and conducting opinion polls.

How to use Twitter

Twitter is a microblog, which means your Tweets need to be very succinct, to the point, and without wasted characters. While the 140-character limit might seem like too much of a restriction, it can also have some advantages – an insightful pithy tweet can really impact audiences that are time poor or have a short attention span.

You might want to turn your mind to how Dr Seuss wrote some of his bestsellers based on the challenge of using as few words of the English language as possible! The restriction on Dr Seuss actually enabled him to really harness and hone his creativity, and it worked so well the first time that he decided to reuse it for subsequent books.

Some tips and ideas for Twitter include:

• Use good timing: While there are no hard-and-fast rules about timing your posts, according to Hubspot, the best times of day for B2B appear to be during ‘down-times’ between 12pm to 3pm and during commutes at around 5pm, while for B2C the weekends seem to work best. In addition, click-throughs have been shown to be higher on a Wednesday for both B2C and B2B – which might have something to do with it being mid-week when the working rhythm is more settled. Test this out for yourself to discover your best times for posting.
• Post links in your Tweets: By including links you can direct readers to your website or blog for more information.
• Use relevant visuals for greater impact: Twitter claims that people are three times more likely to engage with Tweets containing images and videos.
• Make use of hashtags: Hashtags are used to direct users to relevant discussions or events that align with your business or strategy. They should not be overdone however – one or two hashtags per Tweet is usually enough.
• Use Twitter for research: Asking questions and running polls can enable you to find out more about your target audiences and also generate conversations.
• Retweet the good stuff: Such as when you find something that you consider might be valuable to your readers.
• Track your progress: Twitter Analytics provides insights on how much engagement your Tweets are achieving.
• Repost positive comments: Use Twitter to find positive feedback about your business and repost as testimonials.
• Twitter tools: Power users tap into a range of tools which supercharge Twitter’s features, analytics and real-time monitoring capabilities.

And if you encounter negative feedback, remember that you can turn it around –graciously and politely responding to and dealing with complaints shows that you take your customers’ needs seriously, and that you will always do your best to ensure their satisfaction.

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Have an ecommerce business that relies on visual appeal to sell products? The next post in our series makes the case for using platforms with high visual impact – Pinterest and Instagram.