How to Use Twitter to Promote Your Business

By Jonathan Nuñez

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When I got started using Twitter, I was super excited about the possibilities. The sun was out and I could see the horizon. The sky was the limit.

Little did I know that it would be such a roller coaster of emotions.

I ran a search about social media dashboards (I published a Hootsuite review and wanted to promote it). I started engaging with the tweets I found any I got many people writing back.

Great, right?

Not so much. 

Most of them didn’t care about my review.

And who can blame them, we all have problems, the only difference is how those problems present themselves in our lives.

And guess what?

You care about your problems at least a hundred times more than you care about mine.

Here’s the thing.

At that time, I focused on how great my review was and not on how it could help the people I was trying to serve.

In other words, I had it backward and that made people look the other way and ignore me.

It’s not a nice feeling.

I got depressed and quit the platform for around a year.

So why am I telling you this?

If you are the type of person who loves control, has gone through something similar, and don’t want to feel like that again.

This article is for you.

I’m going to teach you how to promote your business with Twitter.

Let’s get started.

How to use Twitter to promote your business

One of the mistakes I see most people doing on Twitter is following the advice of giants on the platform. They go out there and start tweeting articles to their stream, replying to content they find, and thinking it will all work.

Only to realize that it doesn’t. Why’s that?

It’s simple.

They can get away with those strategies because they already have the attention most people dream about. Also, having no strategy whatsoever isn’t helping.

Here’s what you should do:

Forget about your Twitter stream.

According to RivalIQ’s 2017 social media benchmark report, the average engagement rate on Twitter for brands is 0.049% (that includes likes, retweets, and replies. Not clicks).

That means that if you tweet to an audience of 10,000 followers, on average, you’ll get 4.9 engagement behaviors.

Now, I’m not saying to completely stop sharing tweets, what I’m saying is to not make it your primary focus.

I have a 3.6% average engagement rate on my stream, and between 40-60% click-through rate on the links I share. That’s not because I’m so great, or anything like that. It’s because I understand how Twitter works.When people use Twitter they have a particular mindset. They want to give their opinions, know what’s happening (the news), find like-minded people, keep in touch with their friends, and/or get reaffirmation.

 

Why people use Twitter

 

As marketers, we can see this as an opportunity to create content that engages people. That’s where our strategy comes into place.

What tools do I need to get started?

There are many paid tools that are useful but in this case, I’m going to focus on free tools we can all use. That way, you’ll have no excuses. :) 

Tool #1 - TweetDeck

TweetDeck is my go-to dashboard for Twitter. It’s easy to set up streams and search for what you want. TweetDeck is Twitter’s property so you won’t have to worry about infringing their ToS.

Tool #2 - Nuzzel

Nuzzel is a freemium tool you can use to search for content that trended on your Twitter network. It’s essential to this process. 

How to find people to engage with

There are many ways to find people to engage with on Twitter. The one I’ve found most effective is to connect with people who have an interest in what you have to offer.

Here’s how it works:

 

How to promote your business with the Twitter outreach model

 

Step #1: Listen to your social media

This is where Nuzzel comes into play. Head over to Nuzzel and use the search bar to find an article related to what you want to promote.

 

Listen to your social media 01

 

Scroll down the search results until you find an article that’s related to what you want to promote.

 

Listen to your social media 02

 

After that, all you have to do is copy the link to the article. We’ll use it to find people who have shared it.

 

Listen to your social media 03

 

If you’ve never used Nuzzel, you’ll need to set up your account. Here’s a link to their blog where you can read all about their platform and how to use it.

 

Step #2: Run a reverse search

Do you Remember TweetDeck?

 

Here’s where it becomes useful. Head over to TweetDeck and click on the search bar. After that, type in “url:your-link.com”.

 

Here’s an example:

 

url:https://www.social-hire.com/blog/small-business/marketing-on-social-media-is-a-marathon-not-a-sprint/

 

TweetDeck search 01

 

After that, press enter and a new stream will appear. You should be able to see every person/brand that has shared the article on Twitter.

 

TweetDeck search 02

 

Step #3: Make a list of targeted people

By now you should be able to see a list of tweets that mention the link you wanted to search for.

 

Make a new Twitter list for your outreach. Have in mind that if you create a public list, people will get a notification saying you added them to said list.

 

I recommend you set your Twitter list to private. If you do that, people won’t get a notification every time you add them to a list.

 

Here’s how to add people to a Twitter list on TweetDeck:

 

Click on the name of the account, it should be next to their Twitter handle.

 

TweetDeck search 03

 

After you click on the Twitter name, a new window should pop up. Click on the ellipsis on the right and then on “Add or remove from lists...”.

 

TweetDeck search 04

 

Select the list you want to add them to and then repeat the process as many times as necessary.

Step #4: Engage and connect

The ideal thing would be to interact with the tweets that appeared on your search stream. You’ve already read the article they shared so you’ll be able to make a comment about it. Ask open-ended questions (get their opinion about something).

Use questions like:

  1. What do you think?
  2. How did you do it?
  3. Where did it happen?
  4. Why did it happen?

Another thing you can do is to read their latest tweets and find something you like and can comment on. Be genuine and don’t lie because if you do, at the first sign you are deceiving them you’ll lose them forever.

Step #5: Make a small request

Finally, the time we were all waiting for.

Make your request.

Use your content to engage with them and get them to connect. If you are promoting a video, infographic, or a blog post, you can ask them if they want to check it out.

If you want to promote your product, ask them if they’d like to read an article (make sure to mention your product).

It all comes down to your creativity and your funnel.

Conclusion

Twitter is one of the best platforms available to us today but misinformation about Twitter marketing is widespread. Make sure to always remember the cornerstone of Twitter and you’ll be fine:

Conversations. 

Now, get out there and find people to connect with. There are millions of people on Twitter waiting for you to talk to them. :)

Jonathan Nuñez is an entrepreneur and inbound marketer, founder of John’s IMSecrets where he teaches content based customer acquisition and relationship programs that emphasize content marketing, social media marketing, and link building. Follow him on: TwitterLinkedInPinterest and YouTube.

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