10 Twitter tactics to increase sales

Many of the most popular social networking sites started out as a more personal place for friends to socialize, but quickly became powerful tools for businesses to market their products and services.

Statistics will tell you that participating in social networks can increase your business by leaps and bounds. Social media is now the number one activity on the web and can bring more power to your business than ever before.

Over 90% of marketers use social media for their business. Twitter is the second most popular social networking site and should definitely be a part of your social marketing arsenal.

Below are ten tactics you can use to help increase your sales and make your business more successful.

1. Be consistent – ​​Nothing can kill a social media account like an inactive user. Don’t think you can post once or twice a month and still keep an active following. You have to be constant and you have to participate. Make a schedule for tweeting and stick to it. Retweet items of interest. People are active at different times, so tweeting things of interest once won’t get you the results you need.

2. Always reply to comments: By always replying to a comment, you acknowledge that person and let them know that what they have to say is important to you. This will encourage more people to engage with you and build the relationship necessary to form a lasting business connection. By responding promptly to all comments, your credibility will flourish and your reputation will become known. Ignoring the comments will make the potential customer for your business disappear.

3. Develop leads from giveaways: Giving away on Twitter can not only bring you new leads, it can also improve your search engine rankings. Have people go to a signup page and send a specific tweet. This tweet will contain your link and relevant keywords. You can also search for people who would be interested in winning your giveaway to get more possible entries. If you’re giving away a natural beauty kit, use those keywords to find people who want to win that prize. Let them know about your giveaway and what they need to do to enter. Once your giveaway is over, you can use the list of entrants to select viable leads for your business.

4. Use Photos or Images – As you probably already know, images and photos can greatly increase the response to a post or tweet, so you should definitely keep that in mind. Emotions greatly influence what we buy and don’t buy, so use photos to highlight the emotions needed to trigger a person’s decision to buy your products and/or services.

5. Special offers and discounts: Regularly tweet discounts, coupons and special offers. Let your followers know that you always have something going on that they will benefit from. Get creative and make these specials unique. The holidays are a great time for fun promotions and contests. One that I have always loved is the Easter egg hunt. Be the first to find the hidden Easter egg on our site and get 50% off your first order. You could go one step further and have different colored eggs with each color offering a different prize.

6. Hashtags – By simply using hashtags, you can increase the chances of your tweet being found and read. People looking for specific tweets can find you through your hashtag. Your hashtag can also build your brand. Hashtags can generate buzz about a specific business or marketing campaign. For example: Domino’s Pizza asked people to tweet with the hashtag #letsdolunch. Once a certain number of tweets were posted, Domino’s lowered its prices by 50% for an allotted time. You can also use hashtags in your contests and giveaways.

7. Make it mobile: Make sure it’s mobile-friendly. More people use mobile devices every day and you need to ensure that your sites and pages can be viewed correctly on mobile devices. Be sure to take advantage of Twitter’s mobile features.

8. Share Testimonials – Regularly tweet short new testimonials from your customers. For example: Thanks John who says: using #ZitBeGone has given me more confidence to make every day a success! Tweets like this can help give a potential customer the push they need to visit your site and possibly buy your products.

9. Schedule Tweets: It’s impossible for us to be on Twitter tweeting 24/7, so it’s best to schedule your tweets regularly. When scheduling tweets, the first thing to do is determine the best times to tweet. A free tool that can help you find the best times to tweet is Tweriod. They will analyze the tweets of your followers to know when they are active on Twitter and when you should be too. If you find these times are tough to tweet, you can use tools like Hootsuite to schedule those tweets. By using such tools, you can stay active at all times keeping your Twitter account more alive thus attracting more potential customers.

10. Customer Search: You can use your Twitter account to search and find customers. By using keywords that relate to your products, you can find people talking about these products, and then you can offer them the solution they are looking for. Get involved in these discussions so that you can be available to help find the solution. Use Twitter’s search function to find these potential customers. You can also use a tool called Tweetdeck to set up searches. Respond to these people quickly and make a connection. Many people will go to the first business to answer their needs.

These ten tactics are just the tip of the social media iceberg. Make the most of social media and take the time to map out your strategy. Social networks are here to stay, so don’t resist, embrace them!