9 Ways to Use Twitter To Build Your Brand

Football Sunday is the most popular day during football season. But, this week, instead of being obsessed with which teams are playing and checking my fantasy league every five minutes, my marketing ambition has taken over.

Every time a commercial comes on, all I see is #SNF this and #fantasyfootball that. Awesome marketing strategy, right? Who doesn’t love a Twitter hashtag? But, what if your brand can’t afford commercials or TV commercials aren’t meant to reach your target market? Can Twitter help you? Absolutely! Here’s how.

How to Use Twitter To Build Your Brand

1. Content Promotion– Let’s start with the basics. The first and most important way that Twitter can impact your brand is through sharing your content with your followers. Publish a new blog? Share it. Record an awesome video? Share it. Your content won’t do anything for you sitting on a page collecting dust and not generating traffic. It’s up to you to make sure your content gets in front of your readers.
2. Ask for Retweets– Yes. I said it. I know it’s seems pushy, but there is nothing wrong with asking your followers to RT your blog posts, infographics, and videos. And guess what? It actually works! Tweets that specifically ask followers to RT them are 4 times more likely to get retweeted. And that is how content can go viral.
3. Twitter Contests- Create an exciting Twitter contest that pulls your followers in. Then, make sure that one of the requirements to enter is to share the post with their followers. This, in turn, creates a ripple effect, and then next thing you know you have hundreds or thousands of entries (and new followers!).
4. Following Your Customers– This seems simple, but it’s something that most businesses forget to do. Whatever your excuse, forget about it and start following your customers. Each user you follow will receive a notification that you are now following them that, in turn, may lead them to follow you back. This helps to increase your followers and expand your content reach.
5. Advanced Search- One of my favorite aspects of Twitter is the ability of brands to use it for direct lead generation. By using Twitter’s advanced search you can type in a keyword that is relevant to your brand and geographic location and use it to find users talking about that keyword. This helps to drill down tweets and find users that are inquiring about your services. Once you find them follow them, respond to their tweet, and send them a direct message about your brand.
6. Twitter Chats– Twitter chats are another great way to build your brand on Twitter. Why? Because Twitter chats are conversations centered around a targeted keyword that happen once or twice a week on Twitter. These conversations are highly targeted and are full of experts and professionals discussing topics of interest in your industry. By becoming actively involved in a Twitter chat both industry professionals and experts are more likely to get to know your brand, follow you, share your content, and recommend and/or use your services.
7. Twitter Ads– Similar to Facebook ads, Twitter ads are designed to target a specific audience and encourage users to click the ad. To increase your click-through chances, make sure your ad is interesting and entertaining.
8. Industry Specific Hashtags- Use branded and keyword heavy hashtags in your posts to increase your search visibility. Just make sure not to use too many! Too many #hashtags are #annoying and can actually turn users off. #Theyknowwhatyouredoing
9. Stay Active- Last, but not least, be sure to stay active on Twitter. Twitter will only help your brand if you maintain an active presence online.

So, there you have it. 9 simple and easy tips you can use to help Twitter build your brand! What other ways does Twitter help to build your brand?