Twitter, one of the most high-profile social media tools, has the potential to launch your business from obscurity to high visibility. Users often prefer to follow a business rather than join a Facebook page, since it is easier to manage.
Once someone has followed your company, that essentially means that they want to hear more from you and are open to both content and marketing messages.
Here are a few tips to getting more followers and increasing customer loyalty once you have those followers:
What Your Users Want to Hear About
All that truly matters is the quality of your content. To succeed, you need to ask yourself what your users want to hear. For example, followers of a local restaurant chain might be interested in the daily special or in special discounts. On the other hand, followers of online personalities and bloggers might want witty lines on news or quick tips on whatever topic they are writing about. Each market and each customer base has different expectations about what they will receive. Make sure you are tweeting out the kind of content that people want to hear. Do this and followers will stay followers, read your tweets and pass your tweets along to their friends.
The Dialogue versus The Monologue
A lot of businesses make the mistake of “talking at” their customers through Twitter. While this may work for some, it is not nearly as effective as having a two-way conversation with your followers. Ask your followers a question and have them respond. Welcome @replies and respond to direct messages. In short, use Twitter to host a conversation rather than just tweet out one way.
Competitive Spying
To dominate your market, you need to know it well. One of the best ways to know your market is to follow all your competitors on Twitter. Determine how your competitors are using Twitter, whether they are they having more success than you, whether they have more user engagement than you, what kind of promotions they are doing, if they are using contests or coupons, and what kind of “vibe” they have.
Knowing what your competitors are doing gives you a huge advantage. By keeping track of them, you can learn from their successes and avoid their failures. You may even be able to steal some of their followers by participating in their conversations.
It’s basic but powerful: In order to dominate your market, you need to give your users what they truly want, consistently. Aim to be in conversation with your followers rather than just having a one-way monologue. Finally, follow your competitors’ every move and aim to always be two steps ahead.
