With 330 million monthly active users, Twitter marketing is essential for promoting your ecommerce store. On average, Twitter users follow at least five brands on the social network. What’s even more impressive, is that 37% will buy from the brands they follow. Four out of every five Twitter users have mentioned a brand in their tweets. Thus, showing that Twitter users aren’t brand averse. The platform itself allows strong two way communication between users and brands. Over half of all Twitter users have taken action such as visiting a website after seeing a brand being mentioned in a tweet. The average brand responds to a customer inquiry on Twitter within an 1 hour and 24 minutes.

Twitter Example: ASOS is an online retailer who crushes it on Twitter. They share a variety of posts ranging from pictures of their clothing to promotions. Their brand has two other Twitter accounts due to their extreme popularity. ASOS Here to Help is their customer centric focused account where they respond to customer inquiries. They’ll recommend other great products if a product is sold out. They respond in different languages. Customer photos get retweeted on the account. Negative customer comments receive a calm and carefully thought out response. They also have a Twitter account specifically for menswear.

Twitter Tips:

Many brands use social media as a way to offer better customer support. It allows them to respond to customers in real-time. Getting a hold of a brand via email can sometimes take up to 48 hours. However, on social media, the response time is usually much faster. Customers will tweet at your brand and you’ll receive a notification on your phone that allows you to respond immediately. There’s a 19% lift in customer satisfaction from customers when brands have an active Twitter account. You’ll meet your customers’ needs if you respond to their tweets within the hour.

When my store was only a day old, I was desperate to grow my sales. I wrote quote articles that focused on a specific niche influencer. I then shared the article on Twitter tagging the influencer. Not only did they share the content but I drove free qualified traffic to my website. I had a Facebook retargeting ad running which allowed me to monetize my Twitter traffic, on day two, on a tiny new store budget.

Write short posts so you can include a few hashtags. Hashtags are the best way to be found on Twitter – and they work. As your social following starts growing, you’ll start getting new followers and customers by using hashtags. Use a tool like Hashtagify to find the best hashtags each time you post. If writing blog content, share it on Twitter. If you mentioned influencers in the article, tag them in the tweet. If they’re a mid-sized influencer, you’ll have a chance of getting retweeted.

Retweet positive tweets and customer photos. When a tweet is negative, respond to it calmly and respectfully. An angry customer can become a loyal one if you listen and meet their needs. It’s not game over after one complaint.

Post lifestyle photos on your account. Pictures of your product on a white background likely won’t perform well. However, lifestyle shots of your product can. If a customer posts a product photo on Instagram, share it on Twitter. Let it be seen on all your social platforms. When tweeting the customer photo, tag the customer and add a link to the product page. Without the link customers won’t be able to easily buy it. Find products by browsing hashtags. For example, if someone is looking for recommendations on where to buy a dress for a party, you can reach out to them and recommend your store if you sell dresses. You can use hashtags such as #needadress or #recommendationsneeded to find people who are looking for advice, a product or a tool. Since users are asking for recommendations, they’ll likely value your suggestions.

Your Twitter profile should have a mix of product posts and value driven posts. Having between 20-25% of product posts and 75-80% of content, engagement or value driven posts is likely the best way to build up your page. Keep in mind that this 75-80% does include you responding to customer inquiries and engaging with customers.

Make your Twitter profile presentable. Have a profile picture whether it’s a logo, a picture of yourself or a lifestyle shot. You’ll also want to have your bio and link included. Make it easy to understand what your business does by reading your bio. For example, ‘We sell the latest trends in fashion’ or ‘We sell the cutest dog accessories around.’ Your username should be reflective of your brand name. Keep in mind that usernames need to be short.

While this isn’t ecommerce specific, it very well could be. A Twitter user created several viral posts by showing off her newly done nails in a weird way. She posed her nails with food and weird products. When her nails were painted pink, she showed it off by holding a piece of ham. When her nails were bright orange, she paired showed it off while carrying orange scissors. Her nail color matched the products she posed with. Most people don’t typically show off newly manicured nails this way which is what made these posts so viral. How can you show off your product in a non traditional way to grab attention? Experiment. Try pairing your products in unusual settings or with unusual products.

How to Get Twitter Followers

There’s no doubt about the power of Twitter and the impact it can have on your business. It can help you generate leads, increase your brand awareness, and build connections with your customers and users. But before you get to reap the benefits, you need to make sure you have Twitter followers, or that you’re taking steps to increase your Twitter following.

If we’re looking at the account with the highest Twitter followers, Katy Perry takes the lead with 109 million followers. That’s a huge following. The account with the second highest Twitter followers belongs to Justin Bieber with 106 million followers, and the next in place is Barack Obama with 103 million Twitter followers. Given that all these people are world famous, it can obviously be hard to reach such numbers, but you can still take some steps that will increase your Twitter followers, and help your account and brand grow as a result.

All strategies to increase your Twitter followers can broadly be categorised into the following:

1. Making sure that the content you’re tweeting is not only interesting but is also informative and valuable for your Twitter followers This way you’ll have higher chances to get your content retweeted and shared.

2. Follow for follow strategy. This is when you follow others so that they can follow you back on Twitter.

3. Making sure your tweeted content gets seen.

4. Promoting your Twitter account. If you’ve got a blog, don’t forget to place the logo of your social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on your blog.