Building a Twitter Marketing Strategy Before You Tweet

Most businesses that fail on Twitter did not fail because the platform does not work for them. They failed because they started by creating an account and tweeting, without ever deciding what the account was for. Here is the process to run instead, in order, before you post anything.

Step one: decide who runs the voice

Before anything else, decide who inside the business will write the tweets and how much personality they are allowed to show. Twitter accounts that read like they were written by a committee or a legal department get ignored. Accounts with a consistent, identifiable human voice, even a fairly formal one, get followed and replied to. If you run a small business, this is often you. If you run a larger one, pick one or two people and give them real latitude rather than a script.

Step two: set up the account properly

Fill out a complete bio that says clearly what the business does and where it is located if that matters to customers. Use a real photo or logo, not the default egg avatar, since an unfinished-looking profile signals that nobody is paying attention to the account. Add your Twitter handle to your website, email signature and any print materials so existing customers know where to find you.

Step three: build a following list before you build a follower list

Spend real time finding and following the accounts your customers, competitors and industry peers already follow: local news, industry publications, complementary local businesses and vocal customers if you can identify them. Following is not passive. Twitter’s own search and the third-party tool TweetDeck, which has quickly become the standard way serious users manage multiple Twitter streams at once, let you build saved searches for your business name, your competitors and relevant industry terms so you can see what people are already saying.

Step four: establish a posting rhythm around three kinds of content

A sustainable Twitter presence mixes three things: useful information relevant to your industry or customers, genuine responses to what other people are saying and the occasional direct promotional update. The ratio matters more than the volume. An account that is ten percent promotion and ninety percent useful or responsive content earns attention that occasional promotional tweets can then convert. An account that is mostly promotion gets muted or unfollowed quickly. Use a link shortener like bit.ly, which also gives you basic click tracking on anything you share, a meaningful upgrade over posting raw links with no visibility into whether anyone clicked.

Step five: build the listening habit before you need it

Set aside time, even fifteen minutes a day, to search your business name and reply to anything you find, positive or negative. Most businesses only think to search their name after a public complaint has already gathered attention. Businesses that search and respond routinely catch problems small and turn them into visible examples of good service.

Step six: give it real time before judging results

Twitter’s compounding value, an audience that trusts your account enough to retweet and recommend it, does not show up in the first few weeks. Commit to the process above for at least two to three months before deciding whether it is working, and judge it by engagement and mentions rather than raw follower count, which is the easiest number to chase and the least meaningful one on its own.