B2B Marketing on Twitter
Since 2006, Twitter has attracted the attention of businesses and consumers alike, although admittedly not always for the right reasons. Known for its short-message style and rapidly moving feeds, the social platform is established as one of the major social platforms although its standing has taken a tumble in recent years. So, is it worth developing a B2B Twitter strategy?
Not only do users turn to Twitter to learn more about the news, to follow Twitter trending topics and stories, or to engage with friends, they also communicate directly with brands.
Users on Twitter send an average of 500 million tweets each day, with 330 million active users in Q1 of 2019, making this social platform a powerful means to engage with customers.
The average Twitter user also follows five businesses, indicating that they have an interest in engaging with organisations on the platform.
People are 31 percent more likely to recall what they see on Twitter, making it a great place to share information that your Twitter followers will value and showcase your products.
If you want to learn more about how to leverage the power of Twitter for business, let's dive into some ways you can employ a strong social media marketing strategy and build a compelling channel for your followers.
Twitter can help improve the customer experience
Building a positive experience for clients and prospective customers will help you to grow. In an age of micro-moments Twitter can improve your ability to engage with your users by providing them with accessible, snackable, on-the-go content while demonstrating your commitment to improving their experience through maintaining an active and responsive presence.
Pay attention to the types of content people enjoy. For example, 79 percent of customers report that they would rather watch a video that showcased products rather than just read about them, and tweets containing images receive 150 percent more retweets than those that do not. These stats indicate that to be a brand people want to interact with, you should incorporate pictures and other visuals like GIFs and videos into your posts when possible.
Tracking your statistics will help you to identify the types of content of interest to your audience. Measure how many clicks you get on links back to your site, as well as retweets, likes, and replies to your messages. Analysis will help you uncover and replicate the formula that works best for your organisation.
Twitter helps brands actively engage with PEOPLE on their terms
Think of Twitter as a water cooler. It is where people go to discuss the latest news, gossip, and the products they've bought or are considering buying. With a profile, you have the chance to join in the conversation and engage with customers on their terms. Recognising that you are entering the customers' conversation, however, will help you become a welcome and active participant, rather than a brand who uses the channel as an advertising soapbox.
Actively engaging with customers on Twitter can help you build relationships and connections. When people mention you in a tweet, respond to let them know you're paying attention. Eighty-five percent of followers report that they feel more connected with businesses after following them, so actively engage with users to maximise this potential. As B2B marketing becomes more conversational, Twitter will be an important part of any B2B Marketing Campaign.
Remember that positive engagement can have an impact on your bottom line and interest in your brand. Sixty-seven percent of Twitter users say that they are more likely to buy from brands that they follow on Twitter. Being available to existing customers online could also help boost customer retention, a valuable tactic as just a 5 percent increase in retention can increase business profitability by 75 percent.
Twitter can help with customer service
Your social media strategy can include customer service as well as B2B brand campaigns. You can also look to Twitter to help you establish a positive customer service experience. As already discussed, customers use social media as a type of water cooler. When they have a question or problem, they often turn to social media to discuss it with others or to try to solicit a response from the organisations themselves. An estimated 67 percent of customers say they turn to social media when interested in receiving customer service or support. Given that 75 percent of B2B businesses market on Twitter, it is clear why so many customers feel confident in using social media as a means of reaching these organisations.
The problem that many businesses run into, however, is that only about 3 percent of customers will use the @ symbol on Twitter when making a complaint. In other words, they don't 'mention' the brand, and say negative things about it without deliberately calling out the organisation while doing so. You need to pay even closer attention to discussions online to ensure that you do not miss potential moments when quality customer service is required. Most of what happens on Twitter is visible to other users. Resolving a customer’s issue well provides social proof and raise awareness of how well you treat your customers.
View Twitter as a channel to provide customer service. Set up the tools to engage in social listening, as discussed below, and use official handles to address questions and concerns that arise. Remember to focus on providing value and rectifying any discomfort that customers may experience. Twitter is a very public space, meaning that others can see how well you respond to complaints.
To learn more about using social media as a customer service channel, check out our other piece on the topic.
Use Twitter to improve social listening
B2B content marketers find that social listening, rather than social monitoring, has become a critical component of any social media marketing strategy across all platforms, but it's particularly easy to implement on Twitter.
Customers turn to social platforms to discuss purchases they have made, problems they encounter, to seek advice about solving pain points, and related discussions surrounding products and services. With social listening, you empower yourself to follow the conversations most relevant for your organisation. You want to pay attention to mentions of your brand, the competition, products, and relevant keywords for your business.
To get started, use a simple Twitter Search. In the search bar, type the keyword, hashtag, or company or brand name you want to investigate and see the latest tweets on the topic.
To get even more precise in your searches, you can also click on the three dots to the right of the search bar to find the Advanced Search option. Advanced search gives you even more opportunities for narrowing your search.
As this information comes in, carefully analyse it to see what, if any, action you need to take. Are there questions you can proactively answer? Are there accounts you can add to your target list because they're expressing an interest in your products? It is this action that separates social listening from simple monitoring. With social monitoring, your goal is to gather data, with social listening, you use the information you collect to serve customers better.
Monitor ROI
As you launch social campaigns, monitor how customers respond to it and compare the success of different social strategies.
Find influencers and brand advocates
Forty-nine percent of customers rely on influencers to help them make purchases. You need to know what these influencers say about your organisation and uncover ways to gain positive feedback through these power-users.
See how people view you compared to the competition
You want to know how customers view your products and services compared to those of your competitors. This will help you develop marketing strategies that accentuate your unique benefits and help you find ways to rectify areas customers might have viewed you falling short.
Learn more about people's struggles
The better you understand where people's struggles lie, the easier it will be to create campaigns specifically to address these pain points. You will also know the language people use when articulating these struggles, helping you mirror it in your advertising.
Acquire new leads
If you engage with people discussing their struggles on Twitter, you can also gain new leads. Answer people's questions as they arise by looking at important keywords. Branding yourself as a thought leader and a proactive, helpful organisation can help you start to nurture new leads.
Help people learn about products and services
Forty-two percent of Twitter users report that they use the platform to learn about products and services, making it an excellent way to showcase what you offer. Create a helpful narrative that makes it clear how what you sell can provide value for your users.
You can combine these promotions with in-stream video ads, which can result in a 6 percent higher purchase intent. The key is to remember that users on the channel want to see value and an active participant in the platform's conversation - not endless streams of commercials. Instead choose a type of video that is designed to be shareable.
Twitter ads also are 11 percent more effective than TV ads during live events, empowering you to engage with customers during meaningful cultural conversations, such as the World Cup.
Building a great Twitter strategy
To take advantage of these powerful Twitter capabilities, brands must create an active and engaging profile. Here are the steps you should take to make the most out of Twitter.
Write an excellent company biography that captures your brand's voice
You only have 160 characters, so think about your bio like a mission statement. What point do you want to get across in these couple of sentences?
Get verified
Twitter verifies the official accounts of many celebrities and businesses so that users can trust the authenticity of the tweets. When Twitter makes this service available, ask Twitter to verify your account as well to add that element of trust to everything on your platform.
Outline your goals from the beginning
Before you begin publishing tweets, you want to have a concrete understanding of exactly what you want to accomplish with your strategy. Do you want to extend your reach? Find influencers? Knowing what you want to accomplish will help you identify KPIs that allow you to gauge progress and the success of your strategy. Do not neglect the importance of Twitter analytics as you build your strategy.
Decide what tools you want to use.
Remember that social listening remains an essential component of proper Twitter usage. The Twitter conversation moves very quickly - the half-life of a tweet is only about 24 minutes. Therefore, businesses generally want to tweet regularly and consistently. Tools can make both tasks significantly easier for brands. Native Twitter search and advanced search can offer some insight but monitoring and scheduling tools, such as Hootsuite, will enable automation and take these capabilities even further.
Send out tweets that focus on value.
Ninety-two percent of users report that they want to see more value-focused content over product-focused. Using Twitter to frame your products in terms of the value they offer will help you engage this audience. The call to action need not always be to try to make a sale, for some brands Twitter can be a great place for showing support for a cause that is aligned with their values
Tailor your content instead of linking accounts across platforms.
Twitter is not LinkedIn, so you will want to optimise your Tweets to the platform. It’s a great place to share brand videos and blog posts so long as you mix this with participating in the flow of conversation.
Remember where your users access the platform.
Eighty percent of Twitter users are on mobile devices, and the content you promote should keep this in mind. For example, users note recent research as one of their favourite types of content. Linking to excerpts from your report, however, will help mobile users more than a lengthy research report. Forrester provides an excellent example of this. Their Twitter account maintains a unique brand voice and promotes quality research - and their users respond as they have nearly 400 thousand followers.
Consider using Twitter Promote.
Twitter Promote will help you gain followers and showcase what you offer to other people who might be interested in your brand. Gaining a few more followers and extending your reach will help you capture the full potential of the platform. It’s a great entry-point into Twitter advertising without having to develop an entire Twitter ad campaign. If you have a piece of thought leadership you can raise awareness of it through Twitter Promote. With 1827 Amplify tools you can have your text made into a promoted video, which will get even more response.
Finally…
Regularly evaluate if Twitter is the right platform for your organisation. Debates sometimes arise about the ability of Twitter to provide an inclusive space people. We use Twitter ourselves, including Twitter Promote. However we keep our use of Twitter under constant review because we feel its tolerance of threats and hate speech conflicts with our own values. As paying advertisers we want Twitter to work harder at being a convivial environment where people are open to ideas rather than anger, and we want every type of person to feel welcome on it. You will need to consider this when deciding if the platform is the right way to reach your users and its ability to mirror your brand values.
Despite its issues, Twitter can be a powerful way to reach and interact with your audience. Entering into a two way conversation with clients and prospective customers can help brands promote not only their products, but also their expertise, company culture and ethos. Consider the Twitter marketing tips offered above and see how they can help you get the most out of social media.
Get in touch if you would like to see how our marketing automation platforms can help you to schedule Twitter posts, and use social listening to understand and respond to what your customers and competitors are saying. Our AI-supported tools can help you get the most out of Twitter promote by amplifying your message on Twitter as well as other social platforms.