How To Use Twitter To Build Your Small Business

So you’ve heard of Twitter, but you’re not sure how this social networking site of tweets and follows can help you build your small business. How can you use Twitter to your advantage?

In a nutshell: follow people and build an audience, share relevant and helpful content (other people’s and yours), show up consistently, and above all, engage in the conversation with those following you and your followers.

Build Relationships On Twitter

Twitter is the perfect way to start connecting and building relationships with potential clients, suppliers and partners. Once you’ve started following people, you’ll begin to see the things they’re interested in, have questions about and learn a little more about them.

Responding to questions and comments, and helping out with sharing information useful to those following you and those you follow shows you have an active interest in them.

Also, once people have started following you, they’ll get to see the person behind your business – you! Tweet updates that let your personality shine through. Tweet informative tips, news about the industry or links to helpful articles. Doing this will build your relationship with your followers, and will help build their trust with you and your trust with them.

Engage With Your Followers

How can you cultivate the relationships you start to form on Twitter? Start conversations with your followers. When someone follows you, send them a message thanking them and introducing yourself.

You can also introduce yourself to those you’re following. Did you like someone’s recent tweet? By all means let them know by retweeting it, giving them a favorite or by direct messaging them.Have a conversation with them, just as if you were speaking with them in person. For a step-by-step example on how to do this, check out how to tweet a specific person.

Use Hashtags To Build Awareness For Your Business

Twitter is a great tool for building awareness for your business. By using hashtags included with each tweet, you can increase your visibility on Twitter. Hashtags let you get in front of a wide audience who may not yet know of you. Hashtags also let you get in front of an audience talking about a specific topic, industry, service or product. Learn more about how hashtags can help you on Twitter.

What Do I Tweet?

Please remember the 80/20 rule. 80% of the content you share on Twitter should be from other people; third-party sources. These can include blogs, articles, industry information, whitepapers, infographics and yes, famous quotes.

20% of your content shared on Twitter can be promotional. You can promote – you just need to earn the right to do so.

If you need any help with suggestions of what to tweet, write to me at jen[at]nimblequotes[dot]com, tell me about your company and audience and I’ll do my best to help you out.

So you’d like to build your small business and tweet interesting, thought-provoking things, but you’re not sure what to say? Let Nimble Quotes help. Our databases include hundreds of quotes on work, business and going after your goals. Sign up for our 30-day free trial, and you’ll get 1-8 engaging quotes per day, tweeted automatically from your account. You’ll also get the option of adding your own hashtags to each quote. Once your trial is over, it costs only about $1/day or $1/week to continue. Check out Nimble Quotes in action on @jenkellyjen or @newimarketing. Not quite ready for a trial? Sign up for the Nimble Quotes newsletter instead.