How to Identify your Potential Customers on Twitter?

We all know that Twitter is fun and easy to use, and people talk here about what’s happening in the world. But do you know, business on Twitter can also help your company to grow? Let’s find out.

Twitter can help you to learn what customers want. If you can tap into this information, this can impact the bottom line of your brand. You can use Twitter insights to launch new products and significantly improve your market visibility.

Twitter currently has over 300 million active users and there are approximately 6000 tweets sent per second on Twitter. Though it is not as high as Facebook’s, still it is a pretty impressive number. Within those 300 million, there are many potential customers for your product. What you need to do is find them.

Why use Twitter to get clients?

• It allows you to personally interact with old and potential customers, and generate interest in your marketing campaigns.
• Searchable bios, public updates, and third-party tools on Twitter enable you to find clients easily.
• Many successful brands use Twitter Insights to launch new products and get feedback on what their customers love. McDonald's and Taco Bell have used this social listening post to bring back crowd favourites many times. MacDonald has re-introduced a popular soft drink, Orange LavaBurst at its US restaurants, on-demand from fans.
• Your Twitter profile will contain details about your website that will help you to drive more traffic.

How to create a Twitter page?

Step 1- Create a Twitter Account

If you don’t have a Twitter account, go to www.twitter.com or open the mobile app, and click on the ‘Sign-Up’ button at the top right section of the page. The page contains details that will guide you through the setup process.

Step 2- User Name

Complete the form and select a user name, usually your business name, to be the name of your page. Not all names are available, so select a name that is close to your actual business name. Then enter your phone number or email address. Then click ‘Next’ on the top right.

Step 3- Profile Photo

It is advised that you use your company logo or an image that represents your business. Adding a photo is important because Twitter lets users block notifications from accounts with a default profile photo. The image not only appears on your page but is also seen by people when you tweet.

How to find customers on Twitter?

You can find your target customer on Twitter through some powerful tools that we describe in this article.

1. Create a strong profile

Any potential customer would like to know who you are, and what you do. Make sure that any product that you make, or service that you render, is listed in your bio. If they are not there, click on ‘Edit Profile’, and add them.

Once you have finished, save your changes. To complete your profile, create a tweet at the top that highlights your business, products, or services. Remember, that you have got only one chance to make a strong impression on your target customers. So, make the best use of it.

2. Strategic Following

Once you have created your profile on the Twitter business page, you should start following someone. You can create a business account or even a personal account that you intend to use for branding purposes. Don’t just add random friends and relatives; start by following potential customers.

3. Look for clues

You can feel the pulse of the people who are commenting about you on Twitter. A person’s tweets and favourites give us a lot of information on what he or she focuses upon.

Twitter recently analysed billions of tweets for the last two years, to find out about the cultural changes and evolving trends that people are talking about. Brands can access this Conversation Report at marketing.twitter.com.

4. Search Features

Search for hashtags related to your small business. Let’s assume you are launching a vegetarian restaurant in Bangalore, and you want to find new customers. You can start by looking for people tweeting in Hindi, and using the hashtags ‘Bangalore’ or ‘vegetarian’. Alternatively, you can put ‘Bangalore’ as a location for your search.

5. Twitter Advanced Search

You can also use the Advanced Search feature to search for people tweeting in a specific language. It will help you to filter out the noise, so you can:

• See who’s talking about you on Twitter.
• Learn who your happy and unhappy customers are, and what makes them happy or unhappy.
• Quickly find and answer questions from your customers that need a speedy response.

Twitter Advanced Search commands can also help local businesses to generate leads and find customers.

Remember that you won’t always be tagged. So, to see tweets that talk about you or your business on Twitter, you can use these Search Commands.

6. Study the competition

Another way of finding a target customer is to browse the list of followers of a competitor. For example, there may be several vegetarian restaurants in Bangalore. You can start following the profile of those people who follow the most popular of these restaurants. Why should you follow these people? It’s a way to grab their attention. By following them, you can hope that they will follow you.

Remember, not to follow too many people at the same time, otherwise, Twitter might suspect improper activity and suspend your account.

7. Find your prospects online

You can use technology to identify your target audience on Twitter and engage with them online. Once you have found relevant tweets, interact with the tweeters. You can then arrange a real-life meeting over coffee!

8. Get Listed

Twitter Directories are like an online version of the old Yellow Pages. They help you increase brand visibility and connect with potential customers. Some of the top Twitter Directories that you can use are:

TweetFind

This is a free directory that allows you to easily find potential customers based on categories. It contains Twitter lists, social listings, and Twitter tools.

WeFollow

It is a popular, online directory, where, after registration, you will be classified and listed, based on the number of followers you have.

9. Tools

There are a lot of Twitter tools that will help you in your marketing strategy. Some of these are:

Topsy

Topsy is a free service that will help you perform very powerful researches, especially if you are searching by hashtags. It will also allow you to produce graphs showing the trends of specific hashtags over the past month.

Hootsuite

It is a social media app that helps you to manage your location to find tweets in your location. This is very useful for a local business that wants to study local interest over its keywords or phrases.

Run Twitter Ads

Twitter Ads are not very expensive and are an easy way to reach your target audience. The targeting feature helps you to target only those people who can be your potential customers. When setting up your ad campaign, you have to identify your goals.

10. Combine Google with Twitter

You can use Google to index Twitter’s data to publish tweets and send messages automatically. Twitter’s search engine will help you to find potential customers by analysing conversational phrases and keywords. You can also update all your meetings in Google Calendar and sync them with Twitter.

11. Engage with Twitter Influencers

You can interact with active profiles on the platform who can help amplify your message to reach even more users. Combining social media marketing with influencer marketing can further improve your prospects. In simple terms, you pick a person to influence people about your products.

Some important points

• Twitter isn’t a platform for all businesses. If your audience doesn’t spend their time here, then it’s not worth spending your time on Twitter.
• It isn’t the perfect lead generator for all businesses or sectors.

Though small in size as compared to say, Facebook, Twitter is a platform where you are most likely to find someone who will be interested in your brand. You just have to focus, listen in, and find that person. We hope that this article will help your business on Twitter, be more effective.

Also read:

1) Which of the Social Media Platforms is Important for Marketing?
2) How Can Social Media Help Drive Sales?
3) What is Facebook Marketing? Here's all you need to know
4) Business Idea: How to Sell Furniture & Home Decor Online?
5) OkCredit: All you need to know about OkCredit & how it works.

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FAQs

Q. How can you invite existing customers to follow you on Twitter?

Ans. You can let your current customers know that you are on Twitter, by using a Twitter account widget. This will take people who visit your website, directly to your Twitter account.

Q. Why is it important to pin a tweet?

Ans. Pinning a tweet ensures that potential customers don’t miss the message that you are trying to send them.