Renee ServinskyYour professional services firm has a Twitter account. Now what?
Not only is Twitter inexpensive, but with well over 300 million users on the platform, you can spread awareness about your firm to a very large audience.
Sounds great, right? But without followers, you won’t be reaching your full Twitter potential. Having followers is key to making Twitter a successful marketing strategy. Building your social following increases your visibility, reach, and ability to convert those followers into clients for your firm.
So how do you get people to follow your company on Twitter? Here are five strategies to get you started:
1. Want followers? Follow others.
You want to re-Tweet relevant content to your followers, so use Twitter as a way to find that content. Think about the publications you already follow and see if they have a Twitter account. Identify thought leaders and follow them. You can use the Twitter search feature to find bios that include your key words. Twitter will also give you recommended accounts to follow based on who you already follow so check those as well. People are likely to follow people that follow them, so start by following them and engaging in their content.
2. Tweet daily —and as much as your schedule allows.
What you tweeted a few hours ago will quickly get buried by new incoming tweets, so the lifespan of each post is much shorter than with other social networks. To stay visible and in front of your audiences, tweet daily and as much as your schedule allows, up to about once an hour.
And remember the 80/20 rule. People are more likely to follow an account that provides relevant and educational content. This means having a mix of your firm’s own content and other’s content. Avoid shamelessly self-promoting your blog posts and other content. Use your company’s Twitter account as another place to be seen as a thought leader.
Pro tip: Use a free service like HootSuite to help you search for and schedule posts, so you don’t have to worry about signing in every few hours.
3. Attending an event with a hashtag? Tweet it out.
If you are attending a webinar, networking event, or conference that has a hashtag associated with it, make sure you engage on Twitter! Tweet out pictures as well as your thoughts before, during, and after the event. Search for others using the hashtag and if it makes sense, follow them as well.
4. Use pictures.
An endless stream of words can get boring. In fact, tweets with pictures attached get 2x the engagement rate as those without. So liven up your tweets with pictures. Attach pictures to content or tweet pictures from around your firm. For example, consider a “behind the scenes” picture of you preparing for a webinar or a humorous picture, such as the “stress-eating” chocolate and a Coke stacked on your desk at the height of tax season if you’re a CPA.
5. Engage, engage, engage!
Twitter is a social platform, not a megaphone, so keep up the conversation! If you see someone tweet at you, make sure you respond to continue the engagement. And make sure you use other people’s Twitter handle when responding so they can see you tagged them.
Bottom Line
Growing your Twitter following takes work. Hard work. It’s not something you can set on the back burner and dust off when you have a spare moment. If you really want to boost your firm’s following, you’ll need to commit the time and resources to making it happen. But the effort is worth it.
Here are a few encouraging stats that will get you tweeting:
- • 85% of followers feel more connected with a business after following them
- • 67% of Twitter users are more likely to make purchases from companies they follow on Twitter
- • 42% of people learn about products and services via Twitter
So make the commitment and start growing your followers today.
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