4 essential Twitter tips startups can't get wrong

We look at a number of essential Twitter tips to take away to promote small businesses and generate custom.

Small businesses and startups will already know that social media is a powerful tool to promote brands and drive interest in consumers. However, many fail to do it correctly.

In the right hands the 140 characters of a tweet can allow businesses to get up close and personal with potential customers. Therefore, with over 280 million monthly active users on Twitter, there’s huge potential to reach a large portion of the market.

If you’re thinking about using Twitter to attract more customers, then take a look at our top tips below.

1. Search for terms related to your business

While it might be obvious to some, but use Twitter to search for related or trending terms that you think potential customers of yours might be using on the platform. If people are searching for problems that your business provides solutions for, then you know there’s definitely an audience to target out there.

You can then tailor your tweets to either target this group or to organically provide solutions for the terms that people are searching for.

2. Get a handle on hashtags

Again, using Twitter search you can get a glimpse into what’s popular with consumers and what’s popular in your industry. Find the right hashtags to use and then incorporate them into your strategy.

If you use the more popular hashtags then you can get your tweets in front of a larger audience.

3. Competitor analysis

Have a detailed look at who or what is already out there to learn from their past mistakes. You should then know what doesn’t work and instead get an idea of the wants of your target market.

It should be simple then to share the right content, links and blogs to engage with the right audience.

4. Local small business community

Many are unaware that Twitter is great for getting in touch with other small businesses in your local area. There are a number of hashtags to use designed for just this purpose and are used at certain times of the week. Industries that get involved with the right hashtag at the right time can find like-minded businesses.

For instance, #B2BHour occurs from three to four in the afternoon every Monday to Friday. Regional hashtag hours, such as #HarrogateHour or #KentHour, take place every evening between eight and nine.