When it comes to online marketing, social media is now playing a bigger part than ever before. More and more people are now using some form of social media, most of which are now accessible from anywhere thanks to smartphones. Some businesses are now even relying on social media alone as their single outlet of marketing.

While all of the social media sites available have a wide range of features that will benefit some businesses more than others, Twitter is the one that can have the biggest effect, no matter what field a business operates in. Here we will take a look at what makes Twitter so effective as an online marketing tool, and how any business can use its qualities for its benefit.

Trending Topics And Hashtags

One of the great things about Twitter is that you are able to find out which topics are proving to be the most popular without having to do any research. As soon as you log on, you can see which topics and hashtags are trending at that moment. If you are able to find ways of using the trending keywords or hashtags in your tweets, then you have the chance to reach a wider audience quickly.

If you have specific keywords or hashtags in mind that relate to your business, then you can just do a little bit of research. By using the search option, you can find out how often people are using the hashtags you want to use, or are talking about the topics you want to talk about. If you find several options that work, then you can always use all of them and spread them out over a certain length of time.

In order to keep on top of things, all you have to do is keep track of what is trending on Twitter so then as soon as a topic that you think works well for you becomes popular, then you can start sending out tweets straight away. This is something that you can easily do on a smartphone, just in case you are away from the office and therefore unable to reach a computer.

A Platform To Present Your Brand

If Twitter users decide that your tweets are interesting to them and they want to see more, then they will click on your username and head onto your profile page. There you have the perfect platform to present the image your business is trying to cultivate. Everything plays a part, from your username to your colour scheme, so make sure that you make the right choices.

Many businesses tend to keep things simple when it comes to the profile and cover pictures that they use on Twitter. The majority just have the company logo for both images, which is an approach that certainly doesn’t harm your business. When you do this, however, it’s important to take note of the house colours that have been used in the logo so then you use the same colour scheme for the rest of your Twitter page.

The general aim is to make sure that everything looks professional and polished, and doesn’t look like a personal account. Something as simple as making sure that the colour scheme matches that of your logo will go a long way towards achieving that.

Drawing Attention To Your Website

Make sure that you include the URL to your site, or to a specific page, in every single tweet. This way you will be able to draw attention to your site with every single tweet you send out. If you do this, you will be able to reach a wide audience easily, and you can do it without seeming like you’re forcing advertising down people’s throats.

Whenever you share a link on Twitter, you should always make sure that the URL has been shortened. Twitter quite often is able to do that for you, so then you have a lot more characters left over for you to use. Having more characters to use is certainly never a bad thing. Tweets that contain links also tend to get more attention from people online, as do tweets that contain photos. So by including your link, not only are you promoting your business, but you are also increasing the readability of your tweets. Very much a win-win situation.

Communicate With People

Another great thing about Twitter is that it allows people to communicate with businesses directly with their questions or general comments. Getting a response on Twitter from someone or something a person likes is always deeply satisfying, and so for that reason alone, it is becoming more and more important to communicate with current and potential customers regularly.

Whenever someone sends you a tweet, try and respond as quickly as possible. This way, people will not only see that you care and you have taken the time to respond to them, but you are also hard-working and dedicated to helping the customers get what they need. It also never hurts to re-tweet some of the positive comments you have been sent, so then potential customers can see how satisfied your current customers are.

This is also a point where using the mobile app becomes very helpful. If you have the app on your phone then you will be able to keep a track of all the comments and queries that are being sent your way, and you will be able to respond to them as quickly as you would a text message.

Keep Expanding Your Audience

Always remember that even though Twitter is the best social media tool you can use to market your business, it is also a platform that requires a great deal of attention. Trends and popular topics are changing all the time, and for that reason, you need to be checking your feed on a regular basis. Make sure all your tweets are current so then they keep up with the latest topics and hashtags, and that you are replying to your followers as often as you can.

Ultimately, Twitter has all the features you need in order to keep track of all the trends in social media, while at the same time reaching out to your potential audience. If you are able to run your Twitter account correctly, then you should find the number of followers, and indeed customers you have, going up sharply.