25 Twitter Branding Tips You Should Take Advantage Of

As a business owner, you’re well aware that you need a social media presence, particularly on social media platforms such as Twitter. However, knowing you need to make a mark on Twitter and knowing how to go about Twitter branding are two different things.

There are about 330 million monthly active users (MAUs) on Twitter from all over the globe. In fact, only 69 million of those users are inside the United States. About 79 percent are international. If you want to reach a portion of those users, here are 25 Twitter branding tips for you to focus on:

1. Create a Brand Account

Your personal page and your brand page should be separate. Your first step to Twitter branding is to create an account. This account should lack personal details unless they are biographical in nature. Be sure to use your logo and a cover image that shows off your brand or product.

Notice how World of Warcraft shortens their name in their handle to @Warcraft. They also have a big W logo as their profile photo but then use their full name as the name for their official account. It all ties together nicely to create an overall brand account that is easily recognizable.

2. Follow Influencers

After you’ve created an account, take the time to follow influencers in your industry. Ideally, you’ll begin building a relationship with these people from day one. Share their tweets and grab their attention. The idea is that they will, in turn, share your posts, which will allow you a bigger reach than you can achieve on your own.

3. Add a Link to Your Website

In the description field, add a link to your website. This allows those who land on your Twitter page to find your online store or info on your company. It expands the information you offer to your followers by making it easy for them to engage with you outside of Twitter.

Check out what the Ashmolean Museum does on their Twitter page. This University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology shares a link to their website. Note that the link is clickable and has a link icon next to it to draw the eye of page visitors.

4. Know Your Target Audience

Take the time to analyze your target audience. Who are you trying to reach, and where do they hang out on Twitter? Understanding your target audience allows you to reach out to them more effectively. This will shape your advertising strategy and which influencers you reach out to.

5. Understand Your Mission

Do you have a mission statement? Your mission is your purpose for doing what you do. Understanding your mission allows you to better communicate it not only on Twitter, but everywhere. Take the time to think through the ways in which you want to change the world with your product or service.

6. Engage With Others

Probably one of the best things you can do for brand engagement on Twitter is to engage with other people. If a customer mentions you in a tweet, take the time to reply. Engage with influencers and media people in your area as well. Take the time to cultivate relationships rather than just expecting something from other people, and you’ll find more success overall on this social media giant.

Burger King does a great job of engaging with its customers on social media. Not only does it reply in an upbeat and positive way, but it’s within minutes of people mentioning the restaurant chain. Notice the cute GIF of their mascot drawing a flaming heart for some of their followers, who they mention in the reply.

7. Create an App

People who use Twitter are likely to use apps. In one survey, 58 percent of Twitter users mentioned they’d installed an app in the last 30 days. It’s a smart idea to create an app that allows people to better engage with your business model. This might be something that provides entertainment, offers discounts for loyalty or gives simple information.

8. Be Current

Take the time to study events and trends on Twitter and figure out ways to get in on the discussion. Every Twitter user sees the same thing on the left side bar when they log in to the site — a list of trending topics. Use these topics to reach people who are browsing for a specific hashtag.

Merriam Webster does an excellent job of tying in definitions to whatever current topic is trending and also to events. Notice how they add a post about the Summer Solstice and use a hashtag to draw visitors looking for this hashtag. By sharing a definition, it also highlights what the dictionary site does best.

9. Create a Promotional Calendar

Twitter is ever-changing, and to stay at the forefront of users’ minds, you must tweet a lot. The best way to ensure you’re offering a variety of content throughout each day is to create a marketing calendar for promotions. Obviously, if some big news crops up, you may need to shuffle things around, but having a plan in place keeps you accountable.

10. Host a Twitter Chat

Twitter chats center around a specific hashtag, but at a specific day and time. This is an excellent way to get your customers involved and sharing information with others. Choose a topic you get a lot of questions about and start a chat on a preset day and time. You’ll need to be present during the chat, and you’ll want to respond quickly when the hashtag is used.

11. Become More Conversational

Creating a conversation results in higher engagement. Being responsive prompts 48 percent of consumers to purchase. You can do this by asking questions and replying quickly to users. Engage them, and they’ll feel appreciated and attended to.

12. Mention the Brand and Author

It’s important to share content regularly, but make sure you mention both the brand and the author. This extends potential reach. For example, @JohnSmith @SampleNewspaper allows you to reach both those who follow the newspaper and those who follow the author.

13. Add a Photo

Want to up your clicks on a tweet? Posts with a photo get about 18 percent more clicks than posts without a photo. However, you must use high-quality photos that are relevant to the topic at hand.

Take a look at the photo Home Chef posts on their page. It is bright, vivid and clearly shows some of the amazing recipes you can try by using their service. That image just calls for retweeting, and users are also likely to stop and see what the post is about.

14. Thank People for Sharing

When others share your content, take the time to thank them. This shows everyone who follows them that you’re engaged and paying attention. It may just gain you additional followers, too, but at a minimum, it would encourage that person to share your content again in the future.

15. Choose a Strong Handle

You’ll want your Twitter handle to be something people recognize and relate to your brand, so think through carefully what you’d like it to be. You can simply use your business name, or you can come up with a play on words that is memorable. You can change your handle later, so don’t feel like you’re tied into one handle for life, but it’s smart to find something that works and stick with it.

16. Find Your Voice

What is your voice as a brand? If you don’t already know the answer to this question, take some time to think through the overall feel of your company. Is it lighthearted and fun? Perhaps it is serious. This voice needs to be reflected in all of your branding, even on Twitter. For example, a funny post isn’t likely to work for a funeral home.

17. Respond to Every Mention

Respond any time a customer mentions your brand, even if it is a negative post. This requires some effort to search for mentions, but the time investment is worth the effort. Seventy-seven percent of Twitter users have more positive feelings about a brand when they’re replied to.

18. Promote off Twitter

Promote your handle off Twitter. Include links from your website, within your email signature and on business cards. Encourage your regular customers to engage with you on the social media platform. You can also include a widget to keep your website visitors updated on your Twitter feed.

19. Avoid Bots

Sure bots save time, but they are also obviously bots and are a real turn off to consumers. Have you ever received a response that doesn’t make sense based on your question? That was likely a bot answering you. Some things simply aren’t worth saving time, and bots fall into that category when it comes to social media interaction.

20. Promote Your Account

Do you want to reach new followers? Twitter allows you to advertise by promoting your page and suggesting it to specific target audiences. If you want to reach a particular demographic, this is a smart use of your advertising dollars.

21. Use Twitter Analytics

If you want to make the most of your advertising budget on Twitter, use their built-in analytics to study what’s working and giving you the results you’re seeking, and what isn’t. You can dig in deeper and measure engagement on specific tweets, allowing you to repeat the successful ones.

22. Become Mobile Responsive

Make sure any links you share are mobile responsive and that images appear correctly on mobile devices via the Twitter app. About 80 percent of Twitter’s users access the site via mobile at least some of the time. If you ignore this important statistic, you risk losing their attention.

23. Pay Attention to Customer Service

Either hire someone or spend time yourself reaching out to your customers. If someone lodges a complaint either via direct message or by mentioning you on Twitter, respond immediately and do your best to find a solution. After friendly and helpful service, about 76 of Twitter users are more likely to recommend a brand to others.

24. Promote Your Tweets

Promoted tweets are an effective sales tool. A promoted tweet has the ability to boost offline sales as much as 29 percent. Promoting on Twitter isn’t extremely expensive, but the return on investment (ROI) has big potential.

25. Tweet at the Right Time

Take the time to study when the target audience you want to reach is on Twitter and schedule your posts for peak times. This means your posts will have the most reach possible. If you use a service such as Buffer, you can also dig into the statistics and see which posts had the most engagement at which times. Simply repeat successful timing.

Branding on Twitter

When it comes to branding on Twitter, it takes time and consistency to build a true following. It might seem like a lot of effort to reach new leads, but fans tend to remain loyal and recommend you to others. The effort you put in today could grow your base organically as more and more customers refer you to others.