10 Ways to Grow Your Business Using Twitter

One of the most common questions I get asked is, “how do I use Twitter?” Luckily for you, I’ve been around the Twitter block a few times, and have some useful answers to help you grow your blog or business using Twitter. Want to know the deets? You got it.

1. CREATE A CUSTOM PROFILE PAGE BACKGROUND

Since the visual impact of your Twitter background is the strongest tool you have available, customize it to give people an eyeful of who you are.

You can make your own image on your computer and upload it under Settings – Design – Change Background Image. The first 200-250 pixels width on the left hand side is a great place to put additional profile information and list websites.

For a quick solution, you can create just the sidebar (250×700) as your background image with “no tile” selected. Then, modify the rest of the Twitter color scheme to complement it. You can use the first 200 pixels from the top for your picture or “header” for a possible logo and tagline.

The rest of the 400-500 vertical pixels should be used to tell others what you’re about and most importantly, what you’re looking for. Are you using Twitter to get business? To gather ideas for a project? To get feedback from customers? This is the best place to reflect your interests and other facets of your professional life if necessary, so that others can see it immediately.

2. USE IMAGES IN YOUR TWEETS

Tweets with images are 94% more likely to get retweeted. Holy cow! So the next time you promote that recent blog post on Twitter, make sure to upload a photo, too. Twitter images are 440x220px, and you’d be doing yourself an even bigger favor to create an image of that size, with your post title on it. Not only will your post stand at in someone’s feed, but they’ll be able to quickly glean why it will be useful. (Here’s an example).

3. JOIN TWITTER CHATS

A twitter chat is where a bunch of people congregate on twitter at a specific time, in order to answer questions provided by a specific host. The questions are usually geared toward helping you think critically about your blog or business and I often walk away from them feeling motivated and learning a thing or two. Aside from that, most twitter chats get a large amount of participants, meaning it’s very easy to meet new bloggers and gain some extra followers, too.

4. SHARE OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK

This is a no brainer, but it’s SO important! Twitter is a way for you to grow your community and make real connections with other influencers. The best way to do this? Share other people’s work and don’t forget to “@” them with their username. Also? If you share their posts in an interesting way, they might retweet you, which will get you in front of their Twitter audience, too. Plus, your Twitter followers will get bored if you only share your own stuff. Mix it up by sharing relevant work from others.

5. TWEET OFTEN – BUT LEAVE SPACE FOR ENGAGEMENT

The more active you are on Twitter, the more likely you are to have others find and follow you. However, tweet too frequently and you run the risk of losing followers. I try to stick to one topic at a time and create pauses between them to let others interact.

Striking the right balance takes time and experimentation. Watch who retweets your updates—and which updates they’re sharing—to get a sense of your strongest advocates.

And be sure to engage with those who share your updates and those who respond to you. Thank them, answer their questions, and ask them why they likes that tweet or this post. Consider this engagement part of your ongoing market research for your blog, and your social media strategy.

6. TWEET IN PEAK TIMES

Tweeting at the times when your followers are online only increases the chances of their finding and adding you to their lists, and sharing your tweets—timing certainly affects sharing on Facebook, and if you look at your retweet stats, you’ll find it does on this network, too.

My being situated in Australia can have some positives and negatives, but one of the things I don’t enjoy about it is that I miss out on a lot of interaction with my followers who are on the other side of the world. While many social media management apps will let you schedule status updates and tweets, there’s no substitute for in-person, real-time interaction on Twitter.

7. USE IT AS THE FIRST POINT OF CONTACT FOR COLLABORATIONS

Growing your blog can often mean collaborating with others, whether it be other bloggers or Big Time Brands. If you want to collaborate with a blogger or brand, sending them a long email right off the bat (if you’ve never spoken before) might seem a little intrusive. Casually say what’s up on Twitter and let them know you’ve got an idea brewing. That will put you on their radar and will help your collaboration idea seem more personal when you pop it into their inbox in the near future.

8. HOST A TWITTER CHAT

So you learned about Twitter chats up above, but what’s stopping you from hosting one yourself? You’ll need some dedicated readers or clients to get it off the ground, but the great thing about Twitter chats is that every time someone tweets using your chat’s specific hashtag, their entire feed will see it and get curious. This is how I’ve ended up joining lots of chats myself! Lots of Twitter chats happen on a consistent basis (every week or month at the same time), but if you just want to do a one-time chat (great for learning more about your customers if you ask the right questions), then that’s totally great, too. Feeling fearful about putting yourself out there? Try partnering with a blog buddy to get it off the ground.

9. BE ORIGINAL AND USEFUL

When it comes to building a successful business – build a business that is unique and useful. If you build a business like this people will keep coming back for more. The same is true for Twitter.

There are many thousands of people using Twitter – and there’s a lot of conversation buzzing around the Twittersphere. The problem is that it’s hard to stand out from the crowd and get noticed. Providing your followers with something original and useful is one way to do this. The benefits of doing so is that you’ll get people ‘replying’ to you – which catches the attention of those who follow them and can find you new followers.

Ultimately it’s about adding value to the conversations that are happening on Twitter. When you become someone who goes beyond adding to the noise of the Twittersphere you’ll become someone that people seek out and want to interact with.

10. PIN A TWEET THAT WILL GROW YOUR FOLLOWING

Twitter now has a function where you can pin a tweet to your profile, so it will always sit at the top. Sometimes I just pin my favorite posts, but you can certainly be more strategic with this — like pinning a tweet letting your followers know that you’re killin’ it on Instagram and they should probably follow you there, too.

Tell me, what’s your favorite thing about Twitter?

p.s. Want to know four more ways to grow your blog using Twitter? I’m sharing extra details, including my new favorite tip, with my newsletter subscribers later today. Don’t miss it! You can subscribe right here. 

 

---

---

To your success,