X (formerly Twitter) can be useful for real-time conversations, customer service and industry networking. Whether it deserves your time depends on where your customers are active and what results your business gets, rather than historic user-growth headlines.
Below, we’ve rounded up some of the simplest and most effective ways to improve your X presence and get more people to follow you, interact with you, and click through to your website.
Update your biography
Your X biography is your one chance to demonstrate who you are as a business owner and give potential followers an insight into what you do.
You’ve got to keep it short and sweet, as there’s a character count, but you should think about including hashtags, emoji, and other distinguishing features to help you stand out and put across your brand’s personality.
Your X bio will also show up when people search for your business on Google, so consider it as a “meta description” of your social media account and incorporate necessary keywords to rank.
Use visual media
With hundreds of new tweets appearing on your followers’ timelines every minute, you need to do everything you can to stand out and attract attention.
Relevant images and videos can help a post stand out. Test them against text-only posts and compare meaningful replies, clicks and enquiries rather than expecting a fixed engagement uplift.
Or speak with a designer and have some attractive quotes and adverts created, featuring your branding.
Tweet often
As we’ve already mentioned, your followers probably have a very active timeline.
A busy feed makes consistency important, but there is no universal posting frequency that suits every business.
To make sure people see your brand appear on their timelines regularly, you need to get tweeting.
X is useful for timely conversations, but quality and relevance matter more than publishing as often as possible.
Think about using a scheduling tool to automatically post new material, even when you’re not on your computer, and use analytics to determine when you’re most likely to attract attention like replies and retweets.
Follow new people
Following new people on X is a great way to boost brand awareness, put your business in front of potential customers, and grow your network.
Avoid bulk following and unfollowing to inflate your audience. Follow relevant accounts, contribute useful replies and build relationships without promising a particular number of followers.
Just make sure you’re targeting the right people – potential customers who might be interested in your products and services.
Take part in X hours
X hours are a great way of networking with businesses and individuals; think of them as the equivalent to a real-life networking event, only more niche and streamlined.
Check that a hashtag chat is still active before joining it. Look for recent, relevant discussions and genuine participation rather than relying on old lists of weekly chats.
Respond to every tweet
Finding success on X is all about engagement, so you should respond to every single reply that you receive.
Doing so will not only improve your customer service (more on that later), but it will also ensure that potential customers can build a relationship with your brand before they reach out and buy from you.
If you’re not active on X, consider turning on push notifications for new @replies and direct messages to increase your response times. You’ll be glad you did.
Ask questions and run polls
Engagement can also be increased by running polls and asking your followers questions that relate to your products and services.
You can create a X poll in just a couple of seconds, and they’re usually a pretty popular method of interaction.
You can use polls to guide content decisions, like new blog post ideas, or to involve your followers in important brand decisions.
Jump on trending topic bandwagons
Trending topics are a great way for you to get involved in wider discussions on X, and have your brand show up when people search for those topics on their devices – even if they don’t follow you.
If you run a taxi company, for example, and one of the day’s trends is about poor service on trains, then you could capitalise on that by tweeting along and offering disgruntled train passengers discounted taxi fares in your town.
Experiment and see what works best.
Deliver customer service
Big businesses have been offering customer service on X for years, but today’s consumers expect a first-class service on whatever network they’re active on.
Being responsive and offering customer service on X not only helps you resolve customer complaints and keep patrons happy, but it also shows other followers that you’re proactive and care about user experience.
Encourage user-generated content
User-generated content is another great way to increase your brand’s presence online; but the hard work is getting your followers to interact and create content that you’d want to share.
For businesses that offer photogenic products, it’s often easier to persuade your customers to jump on the UGC bandwagon, promising to enter them into a prize draw if they share a snap and use a hashtag related to your brand.
For less glamorous products and services, consider running a competition, offering the best entrant a product or service. People will do anything for a freebie!
Wrapping up
Being active on X is the best way to increase your brand presence, so head to the network and get tweeting!
Best of luck with your strategy, and remember that we offer affordable social media management for those that are too busy to work on their own social media campaigns.
Before investing more time in X, consider whether X is a good fit for your small business. Keep an eye out for fake profiles too; our guide to business impersonation on X explains how to help customers find your real account.
