How to Use Twitter for Your Online Business: Tips and Tricks to Boost Sales (Part 1)

Social media websites can significantly impact the business growth strategy of an online business. So how can you use social media to improve your bottom line? Our partner ecomdash published an article recently explaining how to use Twitter to increase online conversions. We’ve split up the article in two parts, and Part 1 follows.

For some of us, Twitter may feel like an off-the-wall place where millennials hang out and make Target cashiers “boy band famous” in under 140 characters. It’s true, Twitter is likely the most “social” platform, where users engage in all sorts of conversations ranging from Scandal spoilers to mean tweets directed at celebrities (who later read them on Jimmy Kimmel).

But with over a billion tweets sent every other day — online businesses shouldn’t discount all that chatter as merely social. A whopping 75 percent of buyers are influenced by social media. Moreover, before buyers reach out to a company, they’ve completed 57 percent of their decision-making process. Don’t underestimate the power of those 140 characters.

Social media expert, author and self-proclaimed LinkedIn Queen Eve Mayer suggests that brands follow the following equation when engaging with consumers on Twitter:

• 20 percent information — Share what is new with your company. Any changes made that customers or prospects need to know about?
• 20 percent entertainment – Share anything fun that you think your target audience will enjoy. Are there any great blogs that will resonate with your audience?
• 40 percent interaction – Super important. We’ll go into detail about why this matters — keep reading.
• 20 percent asking for what you want — These are your business conversions. What are your call-to-actions (CTAs)? Do you want your audience to click on a promo? Sign up for a newsletter?

Twitter representative (yes, Twitter!) Robin Wheeler says that tweets should fall into one of four categories: Everyday, Campaigns, Reactive and Live.

These categories will help you organize and better understand the content you are sharing with your audience. Here’s a look at some tweets that fall into each of these categories.

Now let’s look at the first two methods that you can use on Twitter to boost sales for your online business:

1. “Everyday” tweets are the scheduled posts your company sends out consistently. They can be updates about your company, links to articles you wrote, or any other information your brand wants to share with your audience. These tweets could be informational, entertainment or CTA.

Example: The “everyday” example featured in the grid above, is one of ecomdash’s own tweets. It’s informational, in that it directs followers to a blog explaining updates to our in-house listing software. These aren’t the most fun tweets, but they’re an essential part of your brand’s Twitter strategy.

2.“Campaigns” are tweets sent out that coincide with a specific event that you are aware of already. Are you having a major sale that you’d like to promote? How about a giveaway your company is doing? These are often your CTA tweets.

Example: “Campaign” tweets, like the example from the grid above of the RED Organization, are for a specific campaign that your ecommerce business established, or willingly participated in. In this instance, RED runs frequent campaigns and garners a lot of momentum from social media to help support its cause. For these types of tweets, don’t forget to include a CTA.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of how to use Twitter to boost your online business sales. For more ecommerce business tips, check out our Ecommerce Tips and Trends page.