Top Ten Twitter Tips for B2B Marketers

On the surface, Twitter delivers instant communication and ease of use. It is one of the simplest forms of social media. However, if you are considering Twitter as a productive element of a B2B social media initiative, it will pay to plan ahead. Here are some tips that will help you strategize, then utilize, effectively.

1. Build lists to follow people first – those who matter most to your industry. Directories, lists and other users can all help.
2. Use industry keywords in your Twitter bio, and make your hashtags small and simple, giving you more room to tweet.
3. Create unique landing pages for Twitter bio links instead of displaying short URLs.
4. Follow industry news sources, trade publications and associations for the latest information to share. Focus on content that is truly valuable to your customer base. Spamming repeatedly will just get you unfollowed.
5. Start thinking in 120 characters. Practice leaving 20 characters or more space in each tweet to improve retweeting.
6. Post links to company newsletters and blog posts more than once. Test and track different tweets.
7. Twitter can make every event better. Set your event hashtag and promote it before and during the event to the relevant groups.
8. Pay attention to the time of day your audience is most engaged by tracking clicks and retweets.
9. Tweet offers and links to your landing pages to generate leads.
10. Periodically encourage followers to subscribe to your company email newsletter.

Here are five Twitter accounts that are worth following for B2B marketers:

@DG_Report: DemandGen Report is a publication focusing exclusively on the strategies, tactics and measurements of B2B marketing.
@SocialMedia411: Links to social media articles
@Hubspot: maker of marketing software; tweets links to tips about SEO and PR
@rohitbhargava: SVP of Strategy and Marketing for Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence
@LizStrauss: Founder of Successful Online Business Conference (SOBCon) and brand strategist

References: BtoB Online Marketing
                     The Ragan Report