The Twitter Strategy All Businesses Need to Know About

Politicians have built campaigns on Twitter. Are you using a Twitter strategy for your business? If not, fear not – here’s the top strategy to know about.

To build a successful business, all you need is customers, right?

Not exactly. To really get your business off the ground and growing, you need to build a loyalty with your customers and create a fan base.

To achieve brand loyalty, you will want to take full advantage of social media.

Are you on Twitter? You should be. And we’re sharing the best Twitter strategies to help you build a rabid following.

5 Twitter Strategies to Create a Loyal (and Huge) Fan Base

1. Be Real and the Followers Will, Well, Follow

The most simple Twitter strategy to follow? Be yourself.

While it sounds cheesy, it’s also easy. And better yet, a tactic that truly works!

Being true to yourself is what separates regular, everyday bloggers from those with a fan base.

There are plenty of bloggers and topics to be explored on the Internet, and only those that are unapologetically themselves rise to the top.

What does this mean for you?

Don’t stick to what you think you should say and how you should say it, but rather, embrace your own way of expressing yourself.

Use your own unique wit. Be goofy, or laugh at yourself. Tweet about what you love.

Moral of the story—just be you and do it as publically and frequently as possible.

In addition to being yourself, replace automation with honest engagement to let your followers know you are legit.

Since a lot of Twitter business profiles are full of automated tweets promoting their latest blog posts, services, or scheduled holiday messages, honest engagement can help you stand out.

While automation is a simple fix to get info out, it won’t develop loyal fans.

Try to rein in the automation. Instead, replace it with social commentary, day-to-day tweets, and pictures.

Because loyalty comes with your followers knowing who you are as a person or business and liking you, it’s important to honestly engage with your fans.

Think about it—it’s hard to build a relationship with or loyalty to a profile that is simply automated.

2. Get Talking—Personalize Responses and Fans Will Flock

Get personal with people and engage in actual conversations.

Most bloggers will need to engage in some back and forth with followers to build brand loyalty and a fan base. However, that’s what most businesses don’t know.

Instead of forming relationships, most businesses and bloggers go wrong by focusing all of their energy on Twitter to tweeting out deals and announcements.

Twitter is a reciprocal platform in nature, so use it wisely.

One way to do this is to use Twitter Video Reply.

This feature is massively underused and overlooked, when in reality, it can prove to be incredibly effective when used correctly.

Instead of taking the normal approach to replies by tweeting them as you normally would, send a video their way!

You can record a clip up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds in length and send in response to quickly build a more personal connection.

Similar to platforms like Snapchat, Twitter Video Reply allows you to put a face and voice to your message. And, since hardly anyone takes full advantage of this Twitter feature, if you start now you’ll be sure to stand out!

People on Twitter don’t just want to consume. Instead, they want to be a part of the process.

A little recognition and validation will go a long way and people will be more likely to continue engaging with you and lead to more loyal followers.

Remember to respond to only legitimate tweets, and to do so in a timely manner.

3. Focus on Friendships, Not Followers

Instead of stressing about gaining followers, take the easier approach—make friends.

To do this, engage in actual conversations. Better yet, be the one to initiate conversations!

Stop treating your followers as numbers, and start seeing them as friends.

Creating real-time tweets will allow people to connect with you. Instead of using the platform to simply send out sales messages or links or quotes, focus on forming friendships.

Expect building brand loyalty to take time. To speed up the process, think of your followers as your friends, and be genuinely friendly to them.

Furthermore, be receptive to direct messages.

Have one-on-one conversations with your followers. You can also use Twitter direct messages for customer support.

Twitter now allows any users to send you a direct message, so check to make sure you have the feature enabled. Click on your profile and see your settings to make sure followers and passersby alike can reach out to you.

Use the feature to have private conversations without moving them from their chosen platform of Twitter.

Be aware that there is a lot of spam in Twitter direct messages, but showing you’re open to private discussing and interacting with them one-on-on is well worth it.

4. Target Your Audience for a Sure Bulls-eye

While you may be able to find easy ways to increase your numbers when it comes to followers, that isn’t necessarily what you want in order to build brand loyalty.

Having a mass amount of followers doesn’t mean much to your business if those followers are not engaged.

Keep in mind, if your followers aren’t engaged, they won’t be sharing your work and helping you grow your following and your business.

Think about the kind of followers you would like to gain, and focus on appealing to that audience and giving them the kinds of content they are looking for through your Twitter.

Make sure your tweets fit well with the mentality of your site and your business to create and appeal to an avid audience.

Twitter Strategy Quick Tip: It’s better to be hyper-targeted than too broad. Since you can always expand from your base once you get going, having some kind of theme is crucial.

Once you have your theme down, you can get as creative as you want within those confines.

5. Team Work Makes the Dream Work

Guest posting, co-branding, or whatever you may call it; it’s worth a shot. Help others out, and you are sure to benefit from it too.

A highly effective Twitter strategy to grow your following and create brand loyalty is to team up with or regularly give press to another blogger or business.

Working with another individual or business not only gives you awesome material for your Twitter feed, but it also exposes your work to the audience of whoever you’re working with as well. I mean, who doesn’t want a wider audience?

While not everyone in such audiences will be apt to follow you, if you pick a partner whose interests parallel your own, you will likely gain a great amount of not only followers but also interest!

What steps have you taken to increase your fan base and build brand loyalty through social media?