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Elise Dopson on May 26, 2021 (last modified on March 21, 2023) • 21 minute read
Over 353 million people use Twitter each month.
Thatâs a huge volume of people who can be exposed to your business.
âŚYet with 500 million tweets published daily, youâll need to do something clever, witty, or funny to stand outânever mind go viral.
So, what makes a good tweet? And how can businesses use Twitter to generate more leads for their business?
We asked almost 40 experts for advice. Hereâs what they shared.
A Twitter marketing strategy summarizes your goals and the tactics you plan to employ to achieve these goals. Your Twitter marketing strategy should clearly outline your plan for creating, publishing, and distributing content to your target audience on Twitter.
Also, it doubles as a guide in determining whatâs working or what isnât.
Considering Twitter has 10% of the worldâs overall social media user base, companies should take advantage of this powerful social network to promote their business and build their brand image.
But to do so, it is important to have an effective Twitter marketing strategy in place.
Not sure how to create one? Here are the 7 steps to creating a great Twitter marketing strategy.
As a first step, you need to evaluate the health of your Twitter account in order to learn whatâs working and what isnât. If you already have a Twitter account, check to see how your tweets align with your marketing goals, and also, if your followers match your ideal audience, as well as if your brand image on Twitter is as you would like it to be.
Use this information to guide you when crafting your Twitter marketing strategy for optimal growth and engagement rate.
Now that you have a better understanding of what your Twitter account actually looks like, the next thing you have to do is to set clear, SMART goals. Your goals double as a benchmark for measuring the success of your strategy and how your Twitter goals will be contributing to your overall marketing success.
Before creating a Twitter marketing strategy, it is important to identify your target audience. To engage with them effectively, you need to learn about their age, gender, location, usage stats, and other relevant information. By doing so, you can tailor your messaging and content to their interests and needs, increasing the likelihood of meaningful engagement and conversions.
To get the most out of your Twitter marketing efforts, itâs recommended to write up step-by-step guidelines on creating, publishing and distributing content on this social platform. So, spend time working out how you plan to position your brand, and how to actively engage your audience.
You canât create a good Twitter marketing strategy without analyzing your competitors. Analyze your competitors’ accounts on Twitter to identify gaps in your strategy. Try to identify the areas they excel in, and in which areas theyâre not particularly performing the best.
Do they appear in Twitter searches for specific keywords and you donât? What are their followers like? What hashtags do they use most often? How do they measure up in terms of engagement?
Compare your results on Twitter to theirs over time, and use this information to develop or improve your Twitter marketing strategy.
Determine what time works best for you to post for optimal engagement and schedule your posts to go out by that time.
Good read: How to plan out a social media content calendar
Use great tools like Databox to track your most important Twitter marketing metrics. Dig in to learn more about how your efforts are paying off, and if anything about your strategy needs to be changed for better ROI using our social media dashboard software.
Before we dive in with the tips you can use for Twitter, letâs iron-out why Twitter should be at the forefront of your mind when it comes to marketing.
Twitter was rated as the third-best platform for getting leads or sales:
Steve Yanor of Sky Alphabet Social Media thinks itâs because âTwitter does not restrict organic reach to the extent that Facebook does.â
âThis means that when a Tweet is sent from an account, the followers of the account will have an opportunity to see the tweet. The same is not true of Facebook, where recent estimates put the reach of a facebook post at about 3%.
That might be why some experts see between 21% and 50% of their overall website traffic coming from Twitter:
Editorâs Note: Monitor your most valuable social media metrics in Databox through our robust integrations with major social networks.
Are you ready to make Twitter your companyâs best performing social media marketing platform?
Weâve compiled a list of the best Twitter marketing tips, as follows:
To monitor the impact of your social media marketing efforts, you may have to log into multiple tools to check how your accounts on different social networks are performing and spend hours compiling a comprehensive report. But, with Databox, social media reporting doesnât have to be a time-consuming chore anymore.
Now you can quickly assess your social media performance in a single dashboard that monitors fundamental metrics, such as:
Now you can benefit from the experience of our social media experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template showing the most important KPIs for measuring the impact of your social media marketing efforts from multiple channels. Itâs simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, itâs free!
You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.
To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Get the template
Step 2: Connect your Social Media accounts with Databox.
Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.
When we asked Shufti Pro for their best Twitter marketing tip, Damien Martinâs answer was simple: âTalk.â
âInstead of liking or retweeting, try to have a natural conversation with people. Be helpful and caring, use Twitterâs search box to find relevant tweets, people and live conversations. A combination of brand personality with paid ads can be highly beneficial.â
Olivia Newman of Giraffe Social Media agrees: âTwitter is incredible for engaging with your audience and building trusting relationships with your customers.â
âYou need to be finding companies and users to interact with, so you seem trustworthy and real (not just a robot churning out spam.) This can be extremely effective in getting leads and talking to people who could be potentially interested in your business and products, making it an effective platform for lead generation.â Use this lead generation dashboard to monitor the number of leads that come from Twitter.
Beth Gramling Sanders adds: âYouâre not going to build beneficial relationships by automating posts â setting and forgetting. Take the time to actually be there and interact with others. Listen first, then find othersâ content to retweet, reply to, and/or discuss.â
So, what kind of content should you be replying to?
Sculptâs Josh Krakauer thinks you should ârespond to high-visibility (trending) tweets by influential accounts in your niche. For instance: Sell to a tech-connected, entrepreneurial audience? Pay attention to VC Twitter.â
âReply to tweets by prominent figures (and those who they follow) by providing value, offering a perspective, sharing insights, and a linkâif it makes sense.â
âYour insightful responses that get liked and replied, especially by the original poster, will get pushed to the top of the reply thread and boost your visibility,â Krakauer continues.
âOften there will be an opportunity to position your response to drop your brand as a suggestion, just like how youâd leave a comment in a blog post. Repeat this process by searching Twitter for people asking similar questions and things start getting interesting.â
We all know how hard it can be to get Twitter followers without paying for them.
Dave Bowden of Irreverent Gent shares a smart Twitter hack: âThe biggest thing Iâd recommend is going to the Twitter accounts of your competitors and following the people who follow them.â
âBy building their own qualified followings, your competitors have already put in the leg work of creating a list of qualified leads. The best way to get those people to notice you is to simply follow them, which will create a notification for them, and immediately makes them aware of your brand.â
Bowden continues: âSome percentage of them will also start following you back, allowing you to market to them on an ongoing basis.â
Speaking of competitors, DontPayFullâs Andrei Vasilescu recommends to âfind tweets in your industry using hashtags related to your rivals and youâll always find negative remarks on your rivals there.â
âIn these cases, engage in conversations and respond with what you can offer to solve the unsolved problems of the common audience. More new Twitter audiences will be interested in your offers and youâll get more potential leads.â
âThis is a great way to get more or less relevant leads of your niche and most of these leads have potential to be your customers,â Vasilescu adds.
Growth Hackersâ Jonathan Aufray explains: âFor instance, I recommend you to find your competitors on Twitter, have a look at the people engaging with their content and start interacting with them by sending them tweets, sharing content with them, tagging them, re-sharing their content, etc.â
âBy interacting with your competitorsâ followers, youâll make them interested by what you do too,â Aufray says.
Hello Marketing Agencyâs Shawn Persons thinks you should âkeep your ideal audience or target market in mind when crafting your tweets and responding to comments.â
âTwitter is no different from other social platforms or forms of communication. Your goal should always be to answer their questions, provide helpful information, or solve a problem they are facing. Know who you are talking to and give them a reason to engage.â
Anthony Gaenzle adds: âThe more followers you have who fit the mold for people youâd love to have as customers, the further your content and thought leadership will reach.â
âThis can help drive up your authority in your field, recognition of your company or personal brand and drive business to your website.â
More importantly, use a social media dashboard to monitor how well people engage with your tweets.
âTwitter is very different from other social media outlets in that you are encouraged to post frequently,â says Womplyâs Dallin Hatch. âTweets have a lifespan of about 18 minutes, so the more often you post, the better chance your business has of performing well on Twitter.â
For that reason, Hatch adds: âYour business should be posting on Twitter at least 5 times each day, but if you can post up to 20 times a day, thatâs usually even better.ââ
Itâs easy to fall into the trap of polishing your social media presence. Sure, you want to remain professionalâbut not at the risk of sounding like a robot.
Alan Gruntz of BarkleyREI explains: âThe biggest mistake I see is when brands appear too stiff and corporate on Twitter.â
âIf something looks like an ad â whether it is or not â Twitter users are less likely to click on it. Donât be afraid to post tweets, images and memes that are goofy, snarking and a bit off-brand. Twitter is the place a brand can be rewarded for showing it can have a bit of fun.â
âI would really recommend that you experiment with Twitter video now,â Keith Keller of Global Social Media Coaching says. âItâs a very cost-effective way to extend your reach and generate more conversations with potential clients.â
Jeff Rizzo of RIZKNOWS agrees: âThe best tip we have for getting leads with Twitter is to exclusively post tweets with a videoâand that video should have subtitles included.â
âWe find that tweets with a video get 26% higher engagement (measured by link clicks) than those without a video. Even more, with subtitles included, a video on Twitter will get nearly 4% more clicks than a video without them.â
âThis makes a lot of sense if you think about the success of Instagram relative to Twitter. The major difference is a focus on graphic content rather than written content,â Rizzo continues.
See also: 13 Video Marketers Reveal The Tactics Behind Their Top-Performing Videos
âOne of the most powerful things we do on Twitter to extend the life and promotion of our content is to write up to ten different social media posts. Each one is different and highlights a different take away from the blog or video we are sharing,â says Kristy Hartman of Ariad Partners.
âWe then schedule those posts (with a link to the content) at different times of the day through the next 30-90 days for maximum coverage.â
When using Twitter, Alexander Porter of Search It Local thinks you should tread with caution: âTwitterâs ability to openly communicate with prospects and generate relationships can mask the black-hole potential of pouring resources into this social media channel.â
Because of this, Porter âwould recommend setting low goals for Twitter and leaving the idea of a âconversion targetâ behind for good.â
âInstead, use Twitter as a tool to educate and engage. Offer free value constantly. Published an in-depth blog post? Share it on Twitter. Running a course online? Offer seats on Twitter.â
âTwitter should target the top of the funnel prospects who donât have conversions on the mind but need educating. Start networking with people, whether they *may* be able to convert down the line or not. These relationships may blossom into more, but whether they do or not shouldnât be your target.â
Maybe thatâs why 83% of our experts say that Twitter is an effective platform for generating leads:
âThe more value you can provide, the more likely you will bring people into your sales funnel as a result,â Porter adds.
Copyhogâs Carla Dewing agrees: âCreate a blog post, then promote it on Twitter. Your goal will be Tweet engagements, but the bonus secondary action will be website clicks anyway.â
Lauren Walter of Online Optimism thinks you should get involved with âTwitter conversations that mention your company and offering fast, helpful, and personalized customer service to solve customer problems, keep customers happy, and highlight positive customer experiences.â
Editorâs Note: Need help tracking the volume of activity happening in Slack? Check out Databoxâs robust integration with Slack
What happens if you donât use Slack?
ExaWebâs Patrick Garde puts this into practice: âYou can use the search function on Twitter and type in âlooking forâ + your topic or keyword.â
âYou can further filter the search by adding â-filter:linksâ to remove tweets with links, â-filter:retweetsâ to not include tweets that are retweets, and âlang:enâ if you want to filter the language of the tweet.â
âThere are thousands of Twitter chats organized by specific groups, across all social groups, industries, and niches,â Emma Weatherall says.
âBy taking part in these targeted chats, you have the opportunity to get in front of the right people for your business and show them what youâre all about. They are also a fantastic place to meet valuable new connections and develop relationships.â
Weatherall adds: âThe best resource for finding suitable Twitter chats and when theyâre running is the Tweet Reports Twitter Schedule.â
You donât have to limit your Twitter chats to that list, though.
Thumbprintâs Morgan Lathaen adds: âThrough Twitter Chats your brand can showcase their expertise, engage with prospects â humanizing your brand, and further your brandâs reach. Twitter Chats are an overlooked aspect of Twitter trends that marketers should be aware of.â
âThe one tip that I would like to give to my fellow marketers looking to generate leads from Twitter is to approach Twitter influencers,â says Within The Flow.
âWhat you should ask them to do is just share your content and pin it for a day. Your content getting pinned on a famous personalityâs Twitter account would generate a lot of traffic, and if you have chosen an influencer whose audience is relevant to your industry, you will be getting a lot of conversions as well.â
Hey Marketersâ Corey Haines explains: âThreading together multiple tweets into one cohort stream of thoughts works really well to grab someoneâs attention. Itâs a great way to summarize new blog posts, talk about new features, rant about problems/challenges you see, etc.â
âTweetstorms are also more likely to be retweeted and shared, thus improving your odds of extending your reach to new audiences.â
âThe biggest challenge of Twitter marketing is its 24/7 information flow,â says Marcin NiewÄgĹowski of Digital Now.
âItâs super fast and thus itâs pretty hard to draw peopleâs attention. But on the other hand, you can turn the cons of Twitter marketing into its pros. Just start to follow peopleâs conversations and provide real true added value for them.â
Thatâs why NiewÄgĹowski âhighly recommends tweeting using Tweetdeck, a Twitter client made by Twitter [because] Tweetdeck allows you to follow threads related to your business field globally. That means you will not miss any interesting tweet (lead) regarding a given topic.â
Ellie Pearce of TJX Europe ârecommends following Twitter accounts of prospective clients. If you sell tools for trades for example, try following various trade accounts such as electricians and builders. If you own a shop, follow accounts that are local to you.â
Twitter Lists are groups of similar people. You can create your own under Lists > Create New:
âPost regular content promoting your products so that accounts that have followed you back can start to see the services you offer regularly and begin building leads,â Pearce adds.
âAlthough Twitter has a long way to go in order to be competitive with other, more efficient lead generating platforms, you can use Twitterâs advanced targeting tactics to hone in on your target audience,â says Grace Weselak of Advantix Digital.
âOnce youâve curated the perfect audience via lookalikes, handle, or keyword and follower targeting, you can use that in tandem with Twitterâs lead generation objective to serve your ads most efficiently to receive the leads youâre looking for.â
However, Best Companyâs Benjamin Smith says: âWhen they see company ads, it is very easy to scroll right past them without even glancing at the content.â
âTo ensure that scrolling users take the time to see your ad, you will want to make sure that they are drawn in quickly. This requires very few words.â
âThe most effective way to encourage viewers to pay attention to what you are promoting is providing a short 15-30 second video or a compelling photograph with a small caption. These short videos feel easily palatable to those that are scrolling and the likelihood of them watching increases the shorter that it is,â Smith continues.
âThe video should have a strong call to action that provides the viewer with the opportunity to quickly gain access to more information (providing immediate gratification).â
âThe more time you put into making sure that your ad can be easily interpreted and acted upon, the better chances you have of generating leads and sales,â Smith summarizes.
Before you run Twitter ads, Andrew Becks of 301 Digital Media advises to âleverage the Twitter insights pixel to measure/analyze visitors who enter your site from Twitter.â
âThe pixel also allows for retargeting users on Twitter, which can allow for an increase in conversation rates/decrease in costs per conversion from paid Twitter marketing campaigns.â
BrandExtractâs Kyle Smith advises to âinvest in running targeted Twitter ads over boosted posts [because] boosted posts are one-offs. They have a place in a social media strategy but are most effective in increasing brand awareness.â
âTwitter Ads, on the other hand, are campaigns that, when done properly, drive leads/traffic. Ads allow marketers to develop highly targeted content that will resonate with specific audience segments.â
âBecause they are not one-off investments and are highly customizable, Twitter Ads provide the greatest ROI in terms of driving leads/traffic,â Smith adds.
âI would use Twitter to become a âsponsorâ of a really expensive event you could never afford otherwise,â Spencer Smith of AmpliPhi Social Media Strategies says.
âExample: one of our clients has a lot of customers that like golf, and particularly, the Masters. Instead of trying to sponsor the Masters itself, we created a campaign to run during the Masters targeting only fans of the Twitter handle @TheMasters (1 million followers).â
Smith continues: âWe showed a video that had golf-related content but also focused on the clientâs business. The views are super, super cheap, and highly effective because theyâre in the appropriate context.â
Marketers can spend 12 hours per week working on their social media strategy.
You wouldnât be alone if youâre looking for shortcuts on Twitterâusually in the form of tweet scheduling software.
âTo generate leads and sales organically on Twitter, you have to find the optimal balance between automation and physical presence,â says Page 1 Solutionsâ Daniel Brophy.
âThere are many great social media marketing tools that can help streamline your efforts on the platform such as scheduling Tweets, monitoring hashtags and mentions, and using a chatbot to answer common user questions. By automating some of these monotonous tasks, you free up time and energy to invest in more demanding ones.â
Brophy continues: âAutomated tools can help expand your overall Twitter presence and ultimately reach more people. But at the end of the day, itâs all for nothing if the human element is missing.â
âOnline users anticipate a certain degree of computer automation, but they will likely be deterred if they feel as though they are solely talking to a machine, particularly if they have an immediate question or concern.â
Editor’s note: Not sure how are your automated and personal efforts commutatively paying off across several platforms? Start using social media reporting tool from Databox and don’t miss how your trend line is going up.
âThe best tip I could give marketers for generating leads on Twitter is to stay consistent and have fun,â writes Mark W Lamplugh of Influence Media Solutions.
âMany marketers starting a new platform go out of the gate on fire but lose their steam. Staying consistent will give you an overall better chance at growth and creating a social image others will follow.â
As you can see, Twitter is an incredible platform that can help businesses generate more leads.
The best part? Itâs free to use. Simply create an account, spend a few hours putting these Twitter marketing tips into action, and start seeing leads (and followers) trickle through.
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