“Does my business really need Twitter?”
We’ll have to lean toward a big “yes” on this question, and one of the main reasons is SEO.
Twitter as SEO
Aside from all the practical ways that Twitter can help a business, your Twitter account, if configured and operated properly, will ultimately become a key search result for your brand. This is a major boost for your online presence and searchability, and it will likely push down any unfavorable search results as well.
If you’re building a brand from scratch, your Twitter account can become one of its first prominent search results in short order, and can act as a key conduit for traffic.
The Highway
Twitter is a global online community that has connected people and brands in essential ways, becoming a top source of news, culture, and essential information, all in real-time.
Let’s think of Twitter as a sort of fast-moving information highway. Your business’s Twitter account acts like a two-way billboard, serving not only to present your content to Twitter traffic, but also to glean essential feedback from the traffic itself.
Even before you have a significant following, you can observe the behavior and sentiment of your target audience on any given topic, helping you to formulate your content and strategy.
For an example of a trending topic you can view in real-time:
We’ve seen countless instances of news breaking on Twitter long before traditional outlets have published stories, and on any given news day, one can find stories built solely around tweets from celebrities, politicians, NGOs, etc.
By operating a Twitter account for your brand, you’re claiming your own billboard over this highway, presenting it within the context of all the breaking news and real-time updates that make Twitter so popular.
Mobile Accessibility
Along with Facebook, Twitter has become a top source of mobile traffic to websites, and with your brand’s Twitter space, you’re taking advantage of this nearly universal trend.
Even if you don’t have a fully mobile-friendly website and might be less favored by Google in mobile search, your Twitter account will eventually be a trusty mobile-friendly search result on any device.
You can learn more about methods for beating “Mobilegeddon” at our Members Club.
Marketing on Twitter
For advertisers, Twitter is an almost limitless source of engagement with potential customers, even without any paid advertising. By utilizing trending topics, hashtags, and mentions of relevant accounts, an advertiser can attain countless impressions on any given initiative, using nearly any format, from simple text “microblogs” to images to (recently added) autoplay video, all without spending a dollar.
In terms of paid advertising, Twitter has favored advertisers with more efficient (and clarified) definitions of impressions, particularly with autoplay video.
Make it Look Good
It’s not quite as simple as just signing up for a Twitter account.
Picture a billboard whose art is oddly cropped and text is either too small, too big, or improperly placed, and what that says about the billboard’s creators.
You’ll need (minimal) amounts of art and copy, which will likely need some tailoring to fit Twitter’s attributes (graphic sizes and character count). You’ll also want to pay close attention to the account name, description copy, and listed website for SEO purposes.
Once configured, there are a number of automations that can minimize the amount of time you spend on or engaged with Twitter, such as:
- Notify me of any direct messages to my Twitter account (by email)
- Automatically tweet “welcome” messages to my new followers (include a sign-up link!)
- Automatically tweet news items from any particular news source
Aside from Twitter’s internal automation options, we recommend services like IFTTT for further customization.
For more information on how Twitter can help your business, click here to subscribe to our Members Club, or contact us today.
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