How to Find Customers with Twitter

According to Twitter’s About Us page, the social network has 302 million monthly active users, of which 53.1 million are in the U.S. Like Facebook, Twitter has started aging with 22% of its users comprising of 25-35 year olds and 21% 35-44 year olds. However, 18-24 year olds come third at 19% followed by 45-54 at 18%. As for industries that succeed on Twitter, AllTwitter reports that retailers and restaurants are the most successful while engaging clients on Twitter whereas apparel brands need to work harder on their strategies. Now this doesn’t mean that your industry can’t make it; it just means that you should try harder.

How to find customers with Twitter

In addition to sending a Twitter invitation to clients already in your database, consider the following tips to locate them on this social network.

• Search with Twitter’s Advanced Search – Using Advanced Search, you can find people discussing topics related to your industry or niche. Simply enter a keyword and specify the location along with the distance to view hundreds of tweets on the topic of your interest. Strike a conversation on each tweet and showcase your expertise. This will prompt others to respond as well and eventually connect to you.
• Target through Twitter Ads – Create ads to target your clients and reel them towards your profile. While setting an ad up though, remember Twitter’s words of wisdom: “Consider the characteristics of your potential customers. Then use those characteristics to guide your choice of targeting options so that you can reach your most receptive audience.”
• Know Which Hashtags are the Best for You – Hashtags are exactly what they look like: little windows. The difference is that they lead into larger conversations on what’s popular on Twitter and your industry. You should especially take a leaf from influencers’ books and use the hashtags they use for their tweets.

How to Nurture and Engage Customers on Twitter

To make sure that the customers you’ve gained through Twitter stay by your side, here are some tips to keep them engaged:

• Respond to Mentions and Retweets – Show your clients that you care by daily checking and responding to mentions, retweets of your content, and mentions of your brand. To add a more personal touch and prevent them from believing that an automated tool is responding, use their first name and their username in the tweet.
• Show that You Care – Follow those who follow you and send ‘thank you tweets’ whenever someone does a sweet gesture such as retweeting and recommending your post. Your ‘thank you’ can be the beginning of a good conversation that concludes with a sale.
• Initiate or Participate in Twitter Chats – Twitter Chat is one of the effective tools for engaging others and attracting followers who are interested in your content. For an hour, users come together to chat under a specific hashtag on a certain topic. You can use this as an opportunity to flaunt your expertise and reel in even more followers.

To know more about nurturing leads, I suggest downloading this guide.