How To Grow A Business Twitter Account Organically

By Tony Restell

Twitter has undergone significant changes since Elon Musk bought it in October 2022. Many businesses are re-evaluating if they want to spend their advertising dollars on the platform. But one thing that hasn’t changed is that it’s still a great place to grow a business account organically, that’s to say without spending anything on ads.

As our various Social Hire twitter accounts have now amassed over 200,000 followers - all achieved organically - we thought it was time to share what we've learned about growing an engaged and relevant twitter following for a business.

Here are six things you can focus on to build your business an engaged and relevant following on Twitter...

1. PLAN TIME TO ENGAGE ON TWITTER

Twitter is all about the here and now. Unlike email, where you can continue a relationship with someone weeks after initial contact, opportunities to engage come up suddenly and then just as quickly can disappear. So it's important that you set some time windows for yourself each day when you'll be active on Twitter and looking for chances to strike up relationships (and then stick to that timing commitment).

2. DEVELOP A STRATEGY FOR YOUR TWITTER PRESENCE

As with other social media channels, it can be easy to become distracted if you don’t have a clear plan of action you are trying to adhere to. If you have no strategy for Twitter, you'll get distracted and time will get devoured without you having any clear results to show for it.

Consider:

1. Who is my target audience on Twitter? Are you targeting candidates to increase your candidate pool for your open vacancies? Or potential clients to help fill your business development pipeline? Or perhaps journalists to give your business a shot at achieving some wider business exposure? Be clear about this from the outset, so that the time you spend on the platform is laser-focused.
   
   
2. In order to get a return from increasing my twitter following and engagement leves, what business results do I want to achieve X months from now? (eg. X candidates have registered their CV / resume, or Y potential clients have booked in a call time...)
   
   
3. What content and updates would appeal to my target audience... plus, what steps do I need to take and what processes should I follow to encourage people to take the desired next step?

3. CONTINUALLY TEST AND REFINE YOUR STRATEGY

You'll undoubtedly find some things work better than others as you use Twitter more frequently. Keep in mind that what works will change as your account becomes more established and credible. Note that people will follow and interact with a businesses twitter account a little differently than they would with an individual's account.

Also keep in mind that Twitter and its users are continuously evolving, so what gets results today may not be applicable a year from now. Keep testing and improving your strategy – don't be afraid to try something new if things aren't working out.

The final point is crucial--you must pay attention to your numbers and to the resulting outcomes. Be meticulous about tracking client leads or candidate registrations, so you can ascertain how successful your tweets are and if they are helping you to achieve real business outcomes.

For example, what percentage of people who visit your profile decide to follow you - has this conversion rate been optimised by testing different profile bio wording?

Then there’s attracting users to your profile each month- how can we increase that number?

What methods have been most successful in getting people engaged so they take the next desired steps (and have you thought about A/B split testing that?)

4. FIND WAYS TO SEGMENT YOUR TWITTER STREAMS SO THAT YOU CAN FOCUS YOUR ENGAGEMENT EFFORTS

Create lists on your Twitter account to focus your attention on different groups of people, depending on what you're currently trying to achieve. For example, if you want to increase sales, create a list of potential customers. If you want more Twitter followers, create a list of influencers in your industry. The key is to figure out how you can laser-focus your attention on the part of the total twitter stream that will be most valuable to you and help you achieve your goals.

5. KEEP YOUR TWITTER STREAM POPULATED WITH RELEVANT CONTENT

If you're inactive on Twitter, people won't find you in their twitter feeds and consequently will never have the chance to engage with your content. Therefore, it is vital that you come up with a plan to make sure your twitter account is always full of interesting and engaging content.

Using tools like Buffer and Hootsuite, you can easily schedule your tweets so that you’re active even when other demands within your business are keeping you from going onto Twitter yourself. Balance breaking news and developments in your market with some evergreen content to make sure you always have something valuable to share with your Twitter followers.

Also, keep in mind that the ideal number of tweets per day is far greater than eg. the ideal number of posts on LinkedIn (where one post a day would be considered the maximum for most users). It's important to note that this volume of posting requires effort--which is why social media marketing isn't really "free."

6. USE TWITTER TOOLS AND PROCESSES TO INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY AND TIDY UP YOUR TWITTER FOLLOWING

There are many tools that can help you identify which of your twitter interactions would be most beneficial to follow up on. Twitter tools can also help you evaluate the people you follow and suggest accounts that seem to be dwindling in importance (like those that never engage, tweet only new content in an automated way, or are no longer active users).

Using these tools for a few minutes each week, Twitter will become more valuable to you because you'll be able to focus your attention on the most important relationships; and prune out any dead wood from your following list to make room for other, potentially more useful contacts.

By turning your daily tasks into processes and schedules, you can complete more in a shorter amount of time. Some great tools to help with this include Audiense for analyzing twitter users and BuzzSumo which provides insights about influencers and content in the niche markets many of you are serving.

7.  Mix up the types of tweets you share

There are a variety of different types of tweets that businesses can post in order to mix things up and keep their followers engaged.

Think about:

1) Including links to blog posts or articles: This is a great way to share valuable content with your followers and help them learn more about your business.

2) Images or videos: Images and videos can be a very effective way of capturing attention and engaging followers.

3) Quotes: Sharing inspiring or motivational quotes can help you connect with your followers on an emotional level.

4) News updates: Keeping followers up-to-date with news and happenings in your industry and / or your business is a great way to build trust and loyalty.

5) Promotions and discounts: Offering promotions and discounts is a great way to drive traffic and sales.

6) Contests: Running contests is a fun and engaging way to get followers involved with your business.

7) Questions: Asking questions is a great way to get engagement and feedback from followers.

BONUS TIP! MAKE A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO FOCUS ON HELPING OTHERS AND INTERACTING PERSONALLY

The temptation to post promotional tweets can be strong, especially when you're trying to make sales or looking for new hires. However, if you turn into a monotone account like many small businesses do (posting nothing but job listings or promotional tweets), people will tune you out. It is the same case when trying to encourage people to engage with your own content as opposed to that of other businesses.

If you want to be successful on Twitter (or any social media platform), my number one tip is to focus on helping others and building relationships. Personal interaction goes a long way in making people like and trust your business, which is essential if you want relationships to flourish and turn into real business relationships.

As well as strengthening your relationships with others, personal interactions on Twitter make people more likely to share and recommend your content and fundamentally finding your business more appealing. So whenever you have the chance, express gratitude for retweets or responses, etc.

Also, when retweeting something yourself, try adding new thoughts instead of just simply retweeting--it doesn't take long but goes a much longer way in making someone want to continue following you and engaging with you! It also strengthens the authenticity of your business.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Twitter has exposed both me personally and our wider business to an incredibly supportive and tight-knit community of business owners, recruiters and job seekers who have had a tremendously positive impact on my business and career. I sincerely hope these tips will help you not only build a relevant twitter following but also begin seeing tangible business results for your time investment.

If you'd like to really accelerate your results, do check out our free guide and webinar showing you the two ways we’ve seen businesses get real results from social media. 

  Back to Small Business blogs