Iain, owner of the Etsy shop IainSByrne, shares with us great tips on growing a strong Twitter following.
I have been using Twitter now for six years and for the last two years have been using it to promote my Etsy shop. During this two year period I have had sales that I can directly attribute to Twitter and there are probably many others where followers have purchased pictures from my Etsy shop. Here are a few of the things I have learned during that time:
Learn who your target audience is and follow them. Finding your target audience is not always easy, I create wildlife and nature images so my target audience will be others who appreciate wildlife and nature. Knowing your target audience makes marketing so much more effective.
Begin by networking. Don’t just blast out updates about your new products but converse with your followers. Continually tweeting sales plugs will alienate many followers who will unfollow or block you.
Be imaginative and engaging. I post regular tweets about wildlife and conservation, or a jewellery shop could tweet fashion and creative news. Share articles related to your craft, the idea is to inform, entertain, and start conversations.
Learn how to use hashtags, as these will help people find your content. For instance, #wildlife would connect you with users searching for content about wildlife. The strategic use of hashtags will help your brand, business name, and tweets attract the right attention.
Use images with your tweets as much as possible, I think the following graph explains why:
Be mindful of your brand when choosing the tone and language of your tweets. They might be the first impression a prospective customer has of your business.
Conduct your customer service as carefully as you would in real life. Be available and authentic, and show your customers you’re genuinely invested in their satisfaction. This is an opportunity to find out what’s working for them and what isn’t.
Use third party apps to multiply your contacts and streamline your process. I use Twitter-fu to post regular tweets of my products but there are many others such as Buffer.
Finally, reward those who retweet you by thanking them publicly and retweeting their content in return. Building relationships is ultimately what Twitter is all about. Be a good citizen of the Twittersphere and you may be surprised at the benefits it returns to you.
Remember it takes time to build a Twitter following, it has taken me over two years to build my 8500 Twitter base. You can take shortcuts like buying followers which is fine if you want to be followed by faceless, bland bot accounts but these are unlikely to buy your products!!!
Happy tweeting.
