Whether you’re just starting out or you’re interested in growing your audience, follow these eight simple best business practices to build your followers, reputation and customer engagement on Twitter:

1. Sneak Peaks. Allow followers to make a connection with your business. Share behind the scene photos of new product lines, new employees, trips to see suppliers. Share tasters of projects and events you’re developing. Your followers look to you to find out the latest information, so why not give it to them.
2. Pay Attention to your Mentions. People don’t always use your handle when commenting about your business, so run regular searches on your name, brand and products to monitor what people are saying.
3. Ask Questions. Your followers are also likely to be your target audience, so use them for market research and feedback. Ask your followers questions and gather valuable insights of what they’re looking to your business for. It also shows that you’re listening and you care.
4. Respond in Real Time. As a small business owner, you’re likely to wear many hats, with social media being just one of them. This probably means that you find it hard to make time to respond to followers in real time, but it is important to try. Whether it’s a quick thanks, or I’ll look into and come back to you. Let your followers know that you’re there and you appreciate their interaction.
5. Reward your Followers. Tweet special offers, discounts and time-sensitive deals to your followers to thank them for following you. They are likely to retweet them too, which will help you gain more followers.
6. Position yourself as an Expert.Demonstrate that you keep up-to-date on industry trends and events by sharing relevant articles and links. Use your tweet to ask for your follower’s opinion or to make a comment to show your knowledge: either way you’re showing them you look at the bigger picture as it relates to your business.
7. Champion your Stakeholders. Follow your followers and customers. If they tweet something interesting, retweet it or reply to them publicly and build your relationship.
8. Establish the Right Tone. Think about who you’re talking to and how you want to appear to them on Twitter. Users tend to prefer direct, genuine and friendly tones, so make sure you think about your ‘voice’ as you tweet.

Learn from the Experts

Whether you’re just starting out or you’re looking for way to maximize your presence and focus your actions, Small Business BC can help:

• If you are new to social media we have the Social Media and Online Marketing Tactics seminar.p
• Already on Twitter but looking to grow your presence? We have the Getting Serious with Social Media seminar.

More Resources

The tips in this article are included in Twitter’s new publication: Twitter for Small Business. This basic guide, to getting started on Twitter, will take you through: setting up an account, engaging your audience, and amplifying your impact.