Social media is always a buzzword when it comes to marketing efforts for businesses. However, not all social media platforms receive hype. X, formerly known as Twitter, happens to be one of the platforms that falls on the wrong side, especially in South Africa.
However, the X isn’t only for humour and hot gossip. According to Hello Yes Marketing, there were 3.65 million South African Twitter users in 2023.
While social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are effective for marketing, it’s important that businesses explore other platforms like Twitter. Because Twitter has millions of active users, SMEs can benefit greatly by strategically targeting and engaging with the platform.
In this article, we’ll have a look at the benefits of Twitter for business.
Is a X Business Account Free?
Businesses can create a Professional X account for free. A Professional account comes with a range of features for businesses. One of the features is X Shopping, where businesses can show products to their audience.
X Shopping
It goes without saying that being able to showcase your merchandise while users scroll is beneficial. However, before making use of this feature, businesses must ensure that they comply with X’s shopping policies. This includes complying with the merchant criteria and staying away from prohibited merchandise categories.
Prohibited merchandise categories include the following:
- Alcohol
- Explicit Content
- Gambling
- Medical, Health, and Therapeutic Products
- Political Content
- Financial Documents
- Malicious Hardware
- Employment and Income Opportunities
- Unsafe Products
- Tobacco Goods and Related Paraphernalia
- Misleading Behaviour
- Donations and Fundraising
- Tobacco Goods and Related Paraphernalia
- Regulated and Illegal Goods and Services
- Weapons
1. Remain Updated With Trends
It is necessary for brands to be in touch with their audiences and understand the trends they engage with. This doesn’t mean that brands should be hopping from trend to trend, but should rather evaluate how their audiences engage with these trends.
This allows businesses to be selective about the trends they engage with and can implement them based on brand alignment. The strategic adoption is not only a reflection of social listening, but also displays authenticity and shows that brands know how to prioritise their audiences.
2. Improved Customer Service
Twitter provides businesses with the opportunity to directly interact with their current and potential customers. Strategic businesses can use X as a customer support channel. Traditionally, customer support would entail phone calls, email support, or even physical visits. However, nowadays, brands have the opportunity to use social media platforms as a customer support channel, especially X.
Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter has the benefit of immediate reach. Tweets are typically very fast-paced. According to Tweet Archivist, tweets receive the bulk of their interaction within the first 15 to 30 minutes. If this is the case, businesses need to act quickly when there are queries and complaints from customers. Additionally, investing in customer care consultants to work on Twitter may be more effective than outsourcing customer services.
3. Build Brand Awareness
When you create relevant content on a consistent basis, you can leverage Twitter for brand awareness. It’s crucial for brands not merely release content for the sake of it, but to provide useful information that touches the audience’s pain points.
Ensure you participate in the real-time engagement on X and familiarise yourself with the culture of using hashtags. Using hashtags allows you to reach a larger audience. Think of it in a similar way to how users find you on search engines by searching for specific keywords that you might have used and ranked highly for.
Additionally, you must optimise your platform and maintain consistency across platforms. To optimise your platform, ensure you have a compelling bio, a profile picture that uses your company logo, a cover photo that aligns with your brand, and use your brand’s colours and tone. This allows your visitors to gain an understanding of what your brand is about. It also allows users to easily identify your brand whenever they come across it again.
4. Market Research
X can also be used by businesses as an effective market research tool. If you’re a brand that consistently engages with its audience, you can ask them questions and gather information for a specific cause.
For instance, if you’re launching a new product, you can engage with your audience to gain insight into their preference regarding features, pricing, and more. Businesses on Twitter have a front row seat in monitoring trending topics. This allows brands to understand customer needs.
Businesses taking advantage of Twitter have access to real-time listening, allowing them to quickly identify gaps in the market, putting them ahead of their competitors.
Through market research, brands can refine their marketing strategies, improve product development cycles, and ensure that business decisions are customer-centric.
5. Cost-effective Marketing
The above mentioned benefits could all cost thousands of rands respectively, but if brands use X strategically, it’s basically a free marketing channel.
While your marketing efforts are more effective when there are several social media platforms involved, Twitter’s real-time nature can produce several benefits at no cost.
Businesses looking for more advantages can access X Premium, which unlocks enhanced analytics and visibility features. However, even the standard, free version of X provides robust tools for driving engagement, building community, and amplifying brand messaging without stretching your business’s budget.
Take Advantage of Social Media Platforms
Social media platforms are more than opinions, social debates, or influencer lifestyles. Businesses can gain so much from using social media platforms, like X, in the right way. By taking time to understand a platform and studying the people who use it, you can use that to your advantage.
Twitter is a platform where there’s real-time engagement, and because of that, brands took advantage of it to use it as a customer service platform. This move didn’t merely serve the brands but also increased customer satisfaction.
Social media is always a buzzword when it comes to marketing efforts for businesses. However, not all social media platforms receive hype. X, formerly known as Twitter, happens to be Read More
