Welcome to Twitter for small business As a supporter of the Shop Small Movement, we created this tool kit to help you get your business ready for the holidays. Connect with customers in real-time, then amplify your promotions and events on Twitter to drive business results. TWITTER TOOL KIT #SHOPSMALL Let s get started!
The value of Twitter Twitter is a real-time information network that brings users closer to the things they care about, including your business. Connect your message to what s most meaningful to your customers and influence conversations in a way that can help build your business. Engaging with customers on Twitter is valuable to your business when you consider the following: 1 In addition, holiday shoppers are using Twitter to help guide their purchase decisions. 2 72% 57% of small business followers are more likely to purchase after following. 73% of small business followers want to 64% get updates on future products. of surveyed shoppers use Twitter to determine what stores to visit. of surveyed shoppers have purchased a product because of Twitter. 1 Survey respondents are all self identified followers of SMBs and interact with SMBs on a frequent basis. Market Probe International Twitter Small Businesses + Twitter Study 2013 2 2 Survey respondents are individuals who reported using Twitter a few times per week or more and shopping for themselves or others during the holiday season. DB5 Twitter Holiday Shopping Study 2013
Put your best face forward Whether you re new to Twitter or just need to brush up your profile, making a good first impression is important. Your username should be obvious and match closely to your business name. 1 2 3 @ Make your bio stand out by mentioning your products or services, why people should follow you and where people can go for more information. www. Photos are a great way to tell your business story and draw in people. Think of the photos you ll use for the following placements: 1 2 3 Profile: think logo or mascot Header: feature your product or services Background: highlight your business even more 3
Get organized Set up a content calendar to excite followers and let them know what s happening throughout the holiday season. Here are a few examples of what you can tweet about each day. Give it a try! Use the examples to write some Tweets for the week. M Twitter Small Biz @TwitterSmallBiz Ask followers which holiday products or services they want to see more of, then reply back. 11 Nov Your Business T Twitter Small Biz @TwitterSmallBiz Share a photo of how you re using #ShopSmall resources like welcome mats or signage. 12 Nov Your Business W Twitter Small Biz @TwitterSmallBiz Give a behind-the-scenes look at your business like showcasing employees or your production facility. 13 Nov T F Twitter Small Biz @TwitterSmallBiz Count down the number of days until a holiday by providing helpful tips to pique interest. Twitter Small Biz @TwitterSmallBiz Promote a community event with your local chamber of commerce or business partners. 14 Nov 15 Nov 4
Engage & attract followers Now that you have your profile and content calendar ready, here is a checklist of 5 best practices to grow your community of advocates. Promote your @username and Shop Small efforts offline. On business cards, signage, advertising, delivery vehicles, and store fronts. Don t expect customers to just find you on Twitter, prompt them to follow you with visual cues. Integrate your efforts to build word of mouth. Embed a Tweet stream to show real-time conversations and a Tweet button on your website to get customers to promote your business. See how Tap into your customer base to get followers. Import your email contact list and we ll show you which of your customers are on Twitter. Start by visiting the Discover tab then click on Find friends. Get found with hashtags. Join conversations relevant to the interests of your followers by using hashtags like #ShopSmall. Enrich the experience to keep followers engaged. Create a 6-second Vine video to showcase your preparations for the big day or share with followers why you want them to #ShopSmall. Download Vine Try it out! Apply these tips by first auditing your website and the advertising you do for your business to determine where to further integrate your Twitter presence. 5
Flock to unlock To help make this your biggest holiday sales period, we ve created a step-by-step guide to doing a Flock to Unlock promotion. Essentially, you re incentivizing followers to spread your message by retweeting to unlock an exclusive offer. Your turn! Think of an incentive your followers would want to share and decide how many Retweets are required to unlock it. Your Business 1 2 3 Find an incentive followers will love by asking for their suggestions. Tweet about when the campaign will launch then follow up with frequent countdowns. Tweet the promotion specifics with clear instructions on how to earn the incentive. 4 5 Give followers a well-deserved reward when they reach the set number of Retweets. Keep new followers interested with intriguing Tweets or retweet positive conversations. 6
Welcome to Twitter Ads Now that we ve covered how to run a promotion, eligible U.S. businesses can use the $100 Twitter Ads credit to amplify their Tweets and reach more customers. Promoted Accounts Get more followers to help spread your message and increase in-store or website traffic. Your @username will appear in search results and in the Who to follow section. Set a budget and only pay when you get a new follower. Promoted Tweets Let your business go beyond current followers to target your message to more customers interested in purchasing from your business. Tweets will appear in the timelines of users or within search results. Set a budget and only pay once per engagement (click, Retweet, favorite, @reply and follow). Get started Plan out your campaign by answering these questions: What s your goal? e.g. lead generation, acquire sales, gain followers, etc. What are your metrics for success? e.g. new followers, conversions, clicks, etc. Who s your target audience and what are their interests? What s your best Tweet to date and how can you leverage the copy? 7
Get more business with Twitter Ads Set your Twitter advertising campaigns up for even greater success this holiday season with these tips and best practices. Optimize Tweets based on goals. For example, if you re trying to drive traffic to a web page or sign-ups for a newsletter, don t include @mentions or hashtags to distract users. Experiment with content. Consider the audience that you re targeting and align Tweet copy to them. Try different call-to-actions and value props against the same audience to determine which Tweet drives higher engagement. Test, test and test again. Our analytics show engagements and costs for each keyword and @username that you re targeting. Remove poorly performing keywords and @usernames then test additional Tweet copy to drive results. Find your target audience. Make a list of other businesses in your industry, the characteristics of your target customer and your SEO search terms. You can also use Twitter s interest categories to expand your targeting. Segment your audience. Split your campaigns up by audience to determine which drives the best results. Tweak landing pages for optimal conversion. Test multiple landing pages to see which converts best. Send one group directly to your homepage and another group to a specific product page. Or try Lead Generation Cards to capture email addresses directly from your Tweets. Consider device targeting. 76%* of Twitter users access the service from a mobile device. If your website doesn t display well in mobile, choose desktop-only targeting. Be agile. If certain Tweet copy doesn t resonate with your audience: Use a video or photo in your Tweets Target additional @usernames Send Tweets at different times of the day * Twitter internal 9
Targeting with Twitter Ads You want your business message to reach customers at the right time and in the right context so here are examples of how to target your ideal audience. Target by interest With over 350 categories, reach your local audience based on their passions like coffee, skiing, etc. Target by @usernames Engage users with interests similar to your own followers or of those accounts similar to yours. Target by keywords Amplify the impact of your messages by pinpointing keywords in users recent Tweets the moment they show interest in a subject related to your business. Let s practice! Create a list of interests that define your customer audience and keywords to target that relate to your products or services. 10
Get inspired @RockCreek is an independent retailer offering the very best in outdoor equipment and apparel. @Bonobos launched in 2007 and is now one of the largest online men s apparel e-tailers. Challenge @RockCreek wanted to rise above the noise around Black Friday and Cyber Monday to drive sales of their Patagonia inventory. Challenge @Bonobos wanted to quickly make room for their fall season line and acquire new customers at the time. Their Solution @RockCreek used Promoted Accounts to attract new followers interested in activities that aligned with their products. To extend their reach, @RockCreek used Promoted Tweets in the timelines of people similar to their followers and those following @Patagonia. Results 40% increase in sales #1 sales day of 2012 Their Solution @Bonobos used an exclusive Twitter sale centered around the Flock to Unlock method, where they got followers to spread the message by retweeting the offer. After a certain number of Retweets, customers were rewarded with a discount. Results 100 first-time buyers 13x more cost effective than their other marketing efforts 11 Click here to see more success stories.
Thank you! To learn more about Twitter Ads or get help, click here. For more tips and best practices, visit business.twitter.com. TWITTER TOOL KIT #SHOPSMALL Follow us @TwitterSmallBiz