How To Use Twitter For Business Marketing

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 With so many social media platforms out there, it can be hard to figure out where to focus your marketing. But in 2019, if you want to connect with your customers and have real conversations, X (formerly Twitter) is non-negotiable.

 We wish we could sum up everything there is to know about X (Twitter) marketing in 140 characters or less. But that’s not possible—so we did the next best thing. Let’s jump into Canva’s ultimate guide to designing your X (Twitter) as the perfect marketing space to take your business to the next level:

 X (Twitter) has 326 million active monthly users and the number of X (Twitter) users who use the platform on a daily basis is on the rise; nearly half of American X (Twitter) users check the platform at least once a day, and from Q3 2017 to Q3 2018, daily active users for all users jumped an impressive 9%.

 75% of B2B business and 65% of B2C business use X (Twitter) marketing. And if you want to keep a leg up on your competition, you need to be leveraging every available resource they are to reach your customers—and that X (Twitter) marketing.

 As X (Twitter) has evolved into a more viable marketing platform—and more businesses have jumped on the opportunity—engagement has been growing like crazy. Ad engagements increased a whopping 50% year-over-year from 2017 to 2018. And while engagement went up, cost went down—during that same time period, cost-per-engagement declined 14%.

 There’s a variety of reasons why you should be marketing on X (Twitter)—but no matter what your reason, if you want to be successful, you need the right graphics. Get started with one of Canva’s X (Twitter) Post templates, like the Colorful Shapes X (Twitter) Post or the Yellow Orange Photo Bright Summer Promotional X (Twitter) Post.

 You can’t be successful on X (Twitter) if you don’t know what that success looks like for you and your brand—which is why, before you get started, you need to flush out your X (Twitter) marketing strategy.

 What are my goals? Do you want to grow your followers on the platform? Drive traffic to your website? Sell out of your new product? Different goals will require different strategies, so before you get started with X (Twitter) marketing, it’s important to know goals are the most important to you.

 How am I going to measure my goals? Whatever goals you decide to pursue, they need to be measurable—and you need a plan in place to measure how and when you hit that goal. Going for more followers? Set a goal number—and a time frame to hit that number (for example, 1000 followers in the next month). Want to drive traffic to your website? Make sure you include trackable links so you can figure out how much of your overall traffic is coming from X (Twitter). Using X (Twitter) to sell your products? Create a X (Twitter)-specific coupon code so you know which of your customers are making purchases from the platform. The point is, it’s not enough to set a goal—you need to have a plan in place to measure that goal as well.

 What resources do I have to devote to X (Twitter) marketing? Before you get started, it’s also important to take stock of the resources you have to devote to X (Twitter)—because those resources will have a direct impact on your strategy. Ask yourself how much time, manpower, and budget you have to pour into X (Twitter), and then use that information to reverse engineer a strategy that will allow you to make the most impact with what you have to work with. So, for example, if you don’t have a lot of budget but you do have a lot of time and manpower, you might want to focus on having real-time conversations throughout the day to build your following. If you don’t have a ton of time or manpower but you do have a lot of budget, an advertising campaign is probably a more viable strategy. The best X (Twitter) marketing strategies are the ones that make the most of the resources you have available. And keep in mind, that may change; continue to take stock and evaluate your resources as your strategy progresses—and if your available resources change, you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

 Taking the time the flesh out your strategy is one of the keys to success with X (Twitter) marketing. Another key? Well-designed graphics. Get started with one of Canva’s X (Twitter) Post templates, like the Cherry Cake X (Twitter) Post or the Peach Pool Summer X (Twitter) Post.

 If you want to be successful with X (Twitter) marketing, not only do you need to create content that’s going to grab your audience’s attention, but you also need to make that content easy for your audience to find.

 Promoted Tweets are X (Twitter’s) answer to paid ad placements. With Promoted Tweets, you can target specific audiences and get your content featured in their X (Twitter) stream and search results. Obviously, you don’t want to pay for every tweet you send—but if you have important content you need to get eyes on, Promoted Tweets is a great way to do it!

 Promoted Tweets will help you show up in search results—but once you’re there, you need to make an impact on your customers with an eye-catching image. Break through the clutter and grab your ideal customer’s attention with one of Canva’s X (Twitter) Post templates, like the Black and White Classy Masculine Fashion X (Twitter) Post or the Colorful Photo Exhibition X (Twitter) Post.

 People don’t want to search through 1000 tweets to find what they’re looking for; they want content that’s easy to find, easy to digest—and, if they like it, they want immediate access to more content like it.

 X (Twitter) Moments allows you to organize your X (Twitter) content into different categories—while lets your followers easily find and engage with the content they’re looking for. You can organize by topic, event, news, product...the sky’s the limit!

 Make your X (Twitter) moments more memorable (and visually interesting!) with one of Canva’s X (Twitter) Post templates, like the Simple Trees Photo Weekend Twitter Post or the Orange Watercolor Smear Twitter Post.

 Most X (Twitter) marketing happens on X (Twitter) (obviously)—but if you want to increase the impact of your X (Twitter) marketing, you should also use any other platforms at your disposal to introduce people to your X (Twitter) content.

How To Use Twitter Ads

 Look for opportunities to promote your X (Twitter) account whenever and wherever you can (for example, you can add your X (Twitter) feed to your website or share your X (Twitter) content on Facebook). The more people you drive to your X (Twitter) feed, the more people you’ll have to market to—and the more successful your X (Twitter) marketing will be.

 It doesn’t matter if you’re sharing your X (Twitter) content on Facebook, on your website, or on X (Twitter) itself—if you want it to make an impact on your customers, it needs to look professional and well-designed. Nail the professional look with one of Canva’s X (Twitter) Post templates, like the White Triangle Border Spring Promo Twitter Post or the Orange Mountain Photo Valentine’s Twitter Post.

 On X (Twitter), you can’t just send a tweet and forget about it. If you want your X (Twitter) marketing strategy to succeed, you need to use the platform as a place to have engaged, real-time conversations with your audience.

 Engagement goes both ways. So if your customers tweet at you, make sure you’re responding! You might not be able to respond to every single tweet (especially as you grow), but the more you can engage, the better.

 Think of a X (Twitter) Chat as a virtual “town hall” for you and your customers. You set a specific time, date, topic, and hashtag; invite your followers; and when the time rolls around, all your customers have to do is search your X (Twitter) Chat-specific hashtag to join in on the conversation.

 X (Twitter) Chats are a win-win for you and your customers. Your customers get your undivided attention and an opportunity to share their thoughts, feedback, and get answers to any of their burning questions—and you get to set parameters on the conversation (including start and end time) instead of just letting tweets and comments roll in at random.

 Ignoring negative customer tweets—or worse, deleting them—will just make your customers angry (and can have a negative impact on your overall marketing strategy). Instead, address their consumers with openness, honesty, and transparency. (If you feel like things cross the line and a customer is being abusive, you can report the issue to X (Twitter) directly.)

 Part of an effective X (Twitter) marketing strategy is engaging your audience. And part of engaging your audience? Including the right graphics. Get started designing high-quality images for your X (Twitter) marketing with Canva’s X (Twitter) Post templates, like the Grey Fashion Spring Sale Twitter Post or the Monochromatic Fashion Shoes For Men Twitter Post.

 When it comes to choosing a GIF, have fun with it! GIFs are a great opportunity to be funny, silly, and to show your customers that you don’t take yourself too seriously.

 Tweets with videos attract 10X more engagement than tweets without—so whenever you can find a way to insert a video into your tweet, you should definitely take advantage. Just make sure your video is relevant to your tweet content; for example, if you’re tweeting about a new product launch, the video should showcase that new product—not a video tour of your corporate office or a Q+A with your CEO.

 What you tweet is obviously important—but so is when you tweet it. An analysis from Hootsuite found the overall best time to tweet is between 3 PM and 5 PM on weekdays—so if you can send your tweets within that time frame, you’re far more likely to see results than if you sent between 3 AM and 5 AM.

 If you’re a B2C business, you also want to consider how and when your customers can check their X (Twitter) accounts (which, for many people, isn’t while they’re at work)—so tweeting before or after normal work hours can also be a great time to engage with your followers.

 Scheduling your tweets ahead of time using a platform like Hootsuite not only ensures you’re sending the tweets you want at the times you want to send them, it also frees up more of your time during the day to respond to your customers in real time.

 40% of Twitter users have made a purchase based on an influencer tweet, and 49% of users say they rely on recommendations from influencers. That’s not an insignificant number—so, depending on your brand and the audience you’re trying to target, influencer marketing might be a worthwhile strategy to try.

 And the best part? You don’t need an influencer with millions of followers in order to make an impact. Micro-influencers—X (Twitter) users with smaller but engaged followers—can be just as (if not more) effective than the Kylie Jenners of the world.

 Do a quick #hashtag search, or use tools like Hashtagify, to find the active voices in your industry—and then engage those influencers to get them on board with your brand. In many cases, a single tweet from a relevant influencer can do more for your brand than an entire ad campaign!