How Local Businesses Can Get Started on Twitter

Building a strong Twitter following for a local business is tough. It seems like only big brands, politicians, and celebrities get attention.�

There’s also a ton of information on how to do it, making you feel lost and out of sync with what you really need: a guide on how to use Twitter for local businesses.  

And before we dive into this guide, here are a few stats showing you why Twitter isn’t only for big brands, politicians, and celebrities…

1. Culturally relevant businesses influence 25% of buying decisions on Twitter
2. In 2019, the cost per ad engagement reduced by 12%
3. 24% of U.S citizens use Twitter as their primary social media platform
4. 32% of Twitter users use the platform to watch videos

Now, let’s say you’re sharing video content (either as ads or organic posts) that is relevant to the culture of the locations your business is serving. What’s going to prevent your followers from buying and becoming loyal customers? 

Let’s dive into how to use Twitter to help your local business grow. 

Getting started with Twitter

When you’re getting started on Twitter, you want to make sure that your customers are already using the platform. 

This way, you’ll avoid investing time and money, only to realize that you could have invested the same into other platforms to get a better ROI.

Determining if your local business should use Twitter

Here are four questions you should ask yourself to make sure that Twitter is right for your local business:

1. Do your existing and potential customers use Twitter?
2. Whom do they follow, and what content do they share?
3. Does your demographic information resonate with Twitter’s user base demographics?
4. Are your competitors on Twitter? If they’re present on the platform, analyze how they’re engaging their followers, so you know how to position your business to stand out. Things to look out for are things like the type of content they share, their posting frequency, number of followers, and level of engagement.

If you don’t know the answer to these questions, you should talk to your customers to create a detailed customer persona.

Setting up your profile

Once you’ve verified that Twitter is a great platform for your local business, you’ll need to set up a profile. 

If you haven’t created an account, head over to Twitter’s signup page and sign up using your business name and email address. 

Choosing a username (including sources to check for available usernames)

Next, choose a memorable username. 

You also want to maintain brand consistency among all other social media platforms you’re active on, so use a similar username to what you’ve used on other platforms such as Facebook. Make sure you use a tool like Namechk to see if your desired Twitter handle is still available.

If someone has already taken it, there’s no need to worry. You might choose to get around this by including a location in your username. Kumon, one of BrightLocal’s clients, has done this for a specific location on Twitter. However, their Facebook page has the company name without tagging any location:

Now take a look at their Twitter account:

It has three different handles targeting different locations, meaning that you’re not limited to the amount of Twitter handles you can create for your business based on the locations you serve. 

This is an especially helpful strategy when expanding your business into global markets, or even just opening up additional locations. 

Just bear in mind that this won’t always be worthwhile, depending on how many locations you have. For example, if you just have a couple of locations, then it may make more sense to streamline them into one account unless there are major cultural/language differences between the two audiences.

However, if you have multiple locations and the resources to manage the accounts without letting them go to waste, then this is definitely a strategy to look into to grow your business’s reach and awareness.

Optimizing your bio for local business

Your bio should communicate what you do in a brief, yet clear, manner to help customers understand what’s in it for them in the shortest time possible.

You also want to use relevant keywords to increase the chances of the profile showing up in search results. While your username should act as a branded keyword, you can use your bio space to say what your handle alone cannot. 

The key is to think of search engine optimization (SEO) best practices when writing your bio, and make sure it is good for search. In other words, don’t be afraid to use keywords and hashtags!

Here’s a great example of this from Growth Hackers:

Choosing a header and profile photo 

Your header and profile photo should have a similar color scheme to what is used on your website. This makes it easy for potential and existing customers to recognize you on Twitter and pay attention to what you post. 

One suggestion is to use your logo as your profile photo and a picture of the team as the header photo, as Sterling Sky Inc does:

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