Traditional advertising is so 20th century. These days, the way to market your brand is through social media. One of the best outlets is Twitter. Below are ways to make the most of the platform for your B2B marketing efforts.
Establish Your Industry Expertise
Twitter is a great way to set your company apart as an expert in your industry. First hit up Quora and Buzzsumo to find out what questions are being asked in your field. Then use Tweets to answer those questions and provide guidance.
A great way to do that is by matching up those needs with those who you count on most in your company for getting the job done in those particular areas.
Have your expert take over the company Twitter account for a day or a week, whichever you think would be most effective while enabling them to continue handling their other duties. Then they can host a Q&A, discuss relevant industry trends, or unpack their own challenges and how they handled them. The possibilities are endless.
This is a great way to showcase your company’s expertise, your top employees, and your company for having the good insight for knowing good talent when you see it.
Build Relationships
Twitter is a relationship-based medium. Unlike an opera singer squawking about “Mi, mi, mi,” your company wants to use Tweets to converse with existing and potential customers. By engaging in two-way conversations, you find out your audience’s needs and challenges in real time and figure out whether or how your company can fit into their picture.
Think of it like a chance meeting or a dinner party. You both introduce yourself and mine for common ground. Once you develop a rapport, the seeds of a friendship have been planted. Pretty soon, you’re regularly meeting for coffee and solving the problems of the world while laughing at yourselves. Before you know it, you’re besties celebrating each other’s achievements and guiding each other away from bad haircuts. You end up firm fixtures at each other’s special moments and proudly introduce each other to other members of your respective circles.
That scenario has many parallels with your business networking with Twitter. It can be fun and mutually beneficial.
Develop Your Company’s Personality
Part of developing relationships involves letting your personality shine through. That’s just as true when cultivating a following on Twitter. What do you want your Tweets to say about your company? You’re fun and casual? You’re always ready to learn and educate?
If you’re not sure what your company’s personality is, think about who your target audience is: For the most part, generations X, Y, and Z have distinctive viewpoints and priorities. Small business owners are also vastly different from large corporations. Let these distinctions guide the tone your Tweets take.
Twitter analytics is great for mapping out a host of audience demographic information. It helps you build a picture of your key and target audience is. Then all you have to do is shape your messaging tone toward that audience. What do you know? You’ve taken the first step in developing your company’s persona.
Target Your Time Zones
As long as you’re thinking about your target audience, include their time zone in your thought process. Again, Twitter analytics maps out that information for you. It also lets you know when your Tweets are getting the most attention and what kind of reactions they receive. Once you have that information, you can schedule your Tweets to ensure they get the most views.
Promote Your Company
Hang on a minute! Didn’t I just spurn self-promotion? (Cue awkward silence.) Well, yes. But I also talked about building relationships. And that involves sometimes taking the time to talk about yourself.
Twitter is the ideal platform for placing B2B marketers in front of the right set of eyes at the right time. And once you’ve developed relationships and established your industry influence, you can – every once in a while – incorporate your company’s products and services as part of the answer to questions your audience is asking.
But you want to be sparing in doing this. Otherwise you’ve come across as spammy, sales pitchy, and just plain annoying. Generally speaking, only about 20% of your Tweets should focus on your company’s brand. The rest should be informational Tweets that help your potential and existing customers find answers they’re looking for.
Make It Fun
I know I’ve talked about being informative while peppering your Tweets with a little spotlight on your company. But part of that relationship building includes having a little fun (think about the previously mentioned friendship scenario). Your B2B Twitter marketing strategy should include just engaging your audience with fun Tweets.
All you have to do is designate a day for something a little different. Add a quiz, poll, photo bomb, fill in the blank, employee pet spotlight, etc. You can even tie your Tweets into what’s going on in pop culture.
A lot of times people sneak a Twitter peek for a cerebral break. These type of Tweets once a week provide that break, enduring your brand to your audience even more.
Cathy H has years of well-rounded experience in the writing field. Since transitioning from the newspaper industry, she has written countless pieces for clients that include content for blogs/articles, website landing pages, apps, press releases, and email newsletters. While her versatility enables Cathy to adapt her tone to the need, her favorite projects are those that add a dash of fun.
