By Jessica Swanda/SocialMediaToday
There are so many social networks available these days, and so many options for users to spend their time.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – the list goes on, and given all the different platforms to choose from, how do you know which ones your business should be active on? Not every network’s going to be right for your audience or your business, so it’s important to carefully choose where you’re going to invest your time.
Perhaps you’ve already joined one or two other social channels and now you’re wondering about Twitter. Is it worth the effort for your brand?
If you’re unsure whether the Twitterverse is for you, consider these five questions about your business.
Do you receive a lot of customer service requests?
Are your customer service phone lines always busy? If so, you may find a powerful ally in Twitter.
According to Twitter, 80% of social customer service requests come via their platform.
Twitter can be a better means of contact than email or phone for multiple reasons:
-No hold times – They can send their message, leave, and return when you respond
-More informal – Enables you to engage in a faster, shorter way
-Real-time – Users can get a quick response, and also update their question as needed
-It’s public – People know that their question, and your answer, will both be public (unless they send you a direct message), which gives you an opportunity to showcase your excellent customer service, while also giving the user the leverage of having others see your response – or lack of one.
Some larger companies have separate Twitter accounts solely dedicated to customer service, but to start with, you can just use one account for everything.
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When used right, Twitter’s customer service potential is phenomenal.
Are you primarily a local business?
If you’re looking to serve local customers in a defined area, then Twitter can introduce you to a whole new world of potential through social listening.
To see what I mean, pull up Twitter’s advanced search function.
You can use these extra qualifiers to hone in on specific tweet queries – for example, if you’re a florist, you could search for any time someone near you has tweeted the words “roses” or “apology flowers”. Then all that’s left is for you to reach out to them directly.
On a Social Media Examiner Podcast episode from earlier this year, they explained how Mark Shaefer, a business strategy consultant, tested this feature with a pizza place:
“Mark suggested the owner use advanced Twitter search. Mark showed him how to set up a stream with every conversation that was within five miles of the zip code that mentioned the words pizza, restaurant, dining out, or anything like that. On average, someone in the area mentioned pizza every 20 minutes. [One] person tweeted, ‘My parents are coming to town. What’s the best pizza place in town?’ Mark said to tweet back, ‘You know, humbly, I think we’re the best pizza place. Please come by. We’d love to meet your parents. Your first round of drinks is on us’.”
As you can see, the advanced search tool can greatly aid your organic lead generation. You can also monitor for mentions of your competitors, or other industry keywords, and keep track of relevant trends and happenings.
You can also make Twitter lists on your account, or even inside Hootsuite, to monitor what specific people, like your competitors, are tweeting.
