After learning about the basics of Twitter in Part 1 and how to create a Twitter account for your business and how to customise your profile in Part 2, you can now start learning top tips for engaging with your customers and industry contacts on Twitter.

Start Tweeting

Join in the conversation and start tweeting! To post your very first tweet, type your text in the ‘Tweet now’ box. Alternatively, click the Tweet icon, positioned on the left hand of the screen, then start tweeting! Remember, be succinct, you only have 280 characters in which to tweet!  

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Adding Photos or Videos

Including photos and videos in your tweets will help to engage your followers. You can upload media directly through Twitter, as well as other third-party sites. To upload an image or a video on Twitter, first click on the tweet box entitled ‘What’s happening?’, click on the small blue camera icon below the box, you will then be able to upload a picture or video  from your files. You can upload any image of up to 5MB; or any video of up to 512MB with a maximum video length of 2 minutes and 20 seconds.

Make sure all photos and videos are clear, high-quality, and create visual consistency.

You can upload photos in JPG, GIF, or PNG formats. Twitter currently supports MP4 and MOV video formats on mobile apps. On the web, Twitter supports the MP4 video format with H264 format with AAC audio.

Using Links

It can be difficult fitting in long URLs into a 280 character tweet. Twitter’s link-shortening feature means that any link will now be shortened to 19 characters. Alternatively, you could also use one of the link-shortening sites, such as Bitly or Owly.These websites will automatically shorten a long URL to a more manageable shorter link. You can also customize the URL to add in tracking keywords that will help you analyse the performance of your Twitter activity.

Your pinned Tweet

This is what you want your followers to focus on — your biggest, latest news. It’s ok if you have the same focus for several months in a row (e.g. if you’re raising money over a six-month period, then the same Tweet will do), but you should check in each month and ask yourself if you have a more pressing message to highlight. This can be:

  • Your ongoing sale or promotion. Start promoting and teasing it a few days in advance to stir up buzz.
  • Your latest product launch. Reinforce the excitement and keep the momentum going.
  • A cause or charity you’re supporting. Showcase your company’s latest humanitarian efforts and show how you give back to the community. 

To pin a Tweet, simply click the 3 dots at the top-right corner of the Tweet and select “Pin to your profile”.

Top-tips for posting great Tweets!

Give your business a personality: tweet staff and customers recommendations. 

Give your followers exclusive content: live-tweet an upcoming event. 

Reward your followers: run Twitter competitions or events.

Engage with your unique followers: share exclusive photos from fairs and shop events through your Twitter page.

Listen to your followers: use Twitter as a research tool and ask for customer feedback and suggestions. Polls and surveys are a great way to do that!

 

Enhancing Your Twitter Experience

 

Tweet a poll

One less-used aspect of Twitter but certainly the most engaging one is the Poll feature, which allows you to tweet out a poll for your followers to fill out:

  • Click Tweet, then add your question to the tweet box’s main text box.
  • Click the bar graph-shaped "Poll" icon.
  • Add poll choices in the "Choice 1" and "Choice 2" text fields. You can add more choices by clicking Add a choice as well.
  • Set a time limit by clicking 1 day and then selecting a day, hour, and minute value (you can select up to 7 days in length).
  • Click Tweet.

Using Twitter Lists

You can organise and streamline your Twitter experience by using Twitter lists. This function allows you to group other users into a public or private list.  Twitter lists allow you to follow certain topics or groups of people more easily, for example you could create a list of all your UK suppliers, or your potential customers. When you view a list you will be able to see all the tweets from that group of users, in all one place. Please note that you don’t have to be following a user to add them to a list. 

Following Other Users’ Lists

You can also follow other people’s lists, to do this click on their profile, then click on the Lists tab. A drop-down menu will then appear with a selection of the lists that they have created. Click on your preferred list, view the followers and then select ‘Follow this list’.

Tweeting With Location

You can set your Twitter account to tweet with location information which can help to add context to your message. In order to do this, you must first activate the location feature in your Twitter account settings. In the side menu, tap the 3 dots icon, then tap Settings and privacy. Click on Privacy and Safety. Under Data sharing and off-Twitter activity, tap Location information. Within the Location information page, click on Add location information to your Tweets and tick the box to activate the feature. Once you have activated this feature, you will then be able to add your location to your tweets with the name of a specific business, landmark, or other point of interest. These locations are provided by Foursquare and Yelp.

Twitter For Facebook Integration

It is possible to integrate your Twitter account with your Facebook account, this means that you can post your tweets directly to either your Facebook profile (timeline) or your business Page. Integrating both pages does save time and means you do not have to duplicate messages. However, it is important to consider that Facebook & Twitter are both two very different mediums of communication. A good tweet is one that is succinct, whereas a good Facebook post is one with detail and context, as well as visuals. So Twitter for Facebook integration is not always appropriate.

You can use Twitter to do this, alternatively you can also use a third-party site such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, which work in a similar way.

 

Useful Resources

Owly automatically shortens long URLs.

Bitly can be used to shorten and customise long URLs.

Hootsuite is a Social Media dashboard which enables you to control and manage multiple social networks, schedule posts and tweets, and analyse statistics.

Tweetdeck is a social media dashboard which allows you to control, organise and manage multiple Social Media accounts. You can control Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others all through Tweetdeck.

Mashable is a Social Media news source and is the go-to resource for all things digital.

ImageShack is a free image hosting service that allows anyone to save their images online. It has become one of the most popular sites for users to store their images.

 

Now that you’ve set up your Twitter account, and learnt top tips for engaging with your customers and industry contacts on Twitter, you’re ready to start your Twitter journey!

Follow us on our Twitter pages for Bira and BAGMA and don’t forget to tag us in your posts so we can re-share your content!

As a Bira/BAGMA member, you can benefit from Free digital training and 30-day free trial to benchmark your social media performance and help you increase your footfall and sales with our digital partner called Maybe*. For more information, visit our dedicated page for Maybe* 

 

Additional Guidance and Resources