Do you need more customers? Despite being 9 years old and having 316 million active users, Twitter is still a mystery for business owners. Most still can not grasp how to navigate through the noise and find their target audience. What makes Twitter a great place for any business is the ability to search status updates and user bios based on keywords.
The following 5 methods will teach you how to find new leads and potential customers for your business on Twitter today.
1. Search For Your Name
Take the time search your business’s name on Twitter. The result? You may find a number of unbiased tweets regarding your company’s products and services. Some tweets may come from current customers detailing their experiences, but you can also find potential customers who are mentioning your brand. Use this as an opportunity to engage potential customers in conversation that can land them on your website or in your store.
2. Find Complementary Businesses
A quick search for businesses that your target audience might use in conjunction with your products or services is a great way to find potential customers on Twitter. 51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products on social networks, so this should be an easy task to do. Follow their followers. Chances are, if they follow a complimentary brand on Twitter they will be willing to follow yours. For example, LYFE Marketing, a social media marketing company, might want to follow the Twitter followers of Infusionsoft, a popular CRM and email marketing software used by business owners.
3. Search For Your Competition
There are a number of tools and techniques that allow you to spy on your competition via Twitter. Your ability to search through tweets allows for a super easy way to not only spy on your competition, but also helps you to get an inside look at what people are saying about your competition. The good, the bad, and the ugly can be found here. Look for signs of dissatisfaction, uncertainty, and interest as your chance to steal customers right from under your competitors’ noses.
4. Use Twitter Advertising
Twitter’s advertising allows you to be laser targeted and reach a larger potential customer base in a short amount of time. 34% of users interact with an SMB after seeing an ad with their Twitter handle advertised. When using twitter advertising, you can choose from a number of campaign objectives. Objectives include, followers, website clicks or conversions, tweet engagements, app installs or engagements, and leads on twitter. Regarding targeting, Twitter advertising allows you target based on specific keywords, followers, interest, and tailored audiences (eyour website visitors that use Twitter). For a low cost, this could be an effective way to find and convert new customers and increase offline sales by 29%.
5. Search Bios
Did you that what users put in their bios are also searchable? Since most people include things such as occupation and interests, bio searching is a great way to find your target audience. People also tend to put their location in their Twitter bios. Searching based on location can be very beneficial to local businesses who need to search for customers within a specific region and mile radius. There are a number of online tools that can make bio searching a breeze for you. Social Bro, Follower Wonk, and Twitter’s Advanced Search are just a few tools that can make the search easy for you.
Twitter Caveat
The above 5 techniques allow for an easy way to find potential customer on Twitter, but finding them is only the first step to truly making Twitter work for your business. Don’t stop there. After you successfully find your target audience, be sure to continuously engage in one-on-one conversations, tweet valuable content regularly, and stay abreast of new and useful Twitter tactics.
Photo credit: Quinn Dombrowski / Flickr
