5 Best Practices to Grow Your Company’s Twitter Audience

Written by Mike Barbre, contributing writer, Intermedia

So you’ve set up a Twitter account for your company. Now what? In this post, you will learn how to network and engage with your audiences effectively in order to grow your Twitter following and hopefully your customer base. By following these 5 simple tips, you can use Twitter to its full potential.

1) Be responsive

The easiest and most vital step in growing your audience is to communicate quickly and cheerfully. If someone shows an interest in your company, let them know you’ve heard them. Your Twitter feed may offer the first impression future clients have of your company. You want customers to perceive you as approachable, customer-centric and professional. Answering questions and responding to comments is the best way to do that.

2) Stay positive and avoid the critical (Sometimes, there’s a fine line)

The informal nature of Twitter lends itself well to tweets of all types. Remember that your company’s feed becomes a public face and make a conscious effort to stay positive. While a few off-the-cuff remarks can endear you to your followers by making your company seem friendly and outgoing, watch your tone. There is a world of difference between “Beautiful day in #CityName! Wonder if #CompanyName can work outside today?” and “Beautiful day in #CityName! Wish I was outside instead!” The former implies that your company values both work and enjoyment; the latter sounds like you would rather be outside than working. It’s a subtle difference that can have a big impact on your audience.

3) Give people something to invest in

Asking your followers to invest a small amount of their time and creativity can forge tighter relations between you and your customer base. For example, first look for the products or services that you offer and find one that appeals most to your existing followers, then base your promotion around it. Then consider how you execute the promotion. While a simple “retweet to enter!” strategy can be fast-moving and widespread, it won’t convey any useful information to potential customers. Instead, consider asking your followers to tweet about your products using a specialized hashtag for entry. Not only will you get responses, but likely more positive and unique feedback that you may not get otherwise.

4) Gain followers through shared, common interests with your brand

The best way to accomplish this is to create a unique and memorable hashtag and use it often. It should reference either your company name or your most popular and recognizable product, and be short so that it doesn’t take up too much of the 140-character limit. Hashtags create a page which stores every recent tweet using it; potential customers who click on your company hashtag can be provided with a wealth of information. Be sure to also use situational hashtags, like the hashtag for a trade show you’re attending, or one for your city. These can draw in new followers who are monitoring those tags or use them regularly.

5) Engage with popular “influencers” in your industry— their followers could become yours

Be sure to tweet at and strike up conversations with influential individuals and companies in your field. If you can offer on-topic, interesting tidbits for their followers, you may receive a share of the wealth. You may also attract the attention of other big names. Soon you may find yourself in an inner circle of industry experts, and the benefits for your company could be enormous.

Remember that the public nature of Twitter requires you to be warm, approachable and responsive while remaining professional with your peers. Implement these tips and listen to your current followers, and your company could become the next big trending topic.

Mike Barbre is a contributing writer for Intermedia’s Exchange Hosting, a full-service web hosting company. Coming from the public relations industry, Mike is now a social media community manager. When not on the web, you can find him rooting furiously for his Seattle-area sports teams. You can follow him on Twitter @MikeBarbre.