Who Should Your Business Follow On Twitter?

Following the right accounts on Twitter is just as important as tweeting the right content. Following certain accounts can increase your business’ profile, both on Twitter and in your area, by connecting your business with your customers and local media outlets.

By following trendsetters within your industry, you can stay abreast of interesting and important developments that may affect your company. Also, Twitter can be used to keep an eye on the activity of your main competitors, as well as the larger companies you want your own business to emulate.

You will be able to see all the public tweets of the people you follow in your stream. Follow a diverse group of accounts to ensure that you get the most out of the service.

Industry leaders

Look for some of the bigger businesses that work in your industry. If you are opening a bakery why not check out Millie’s Cookies, Cinnabon or Dunkin’ Donuts. If you run a sportswear shop, have a look at Nike, Adidas or Puma.

You can monitor the leaders in your industry by following their activity on Twitter . Perhaps they will use the service in a way that you hadn’t thought of to promote themselves. Imitate their more successful or innovative ideas.

Follow the companies that provide you with your stock. Big brands often tweet about new product releases. Say Nike football boots are one of your sports shop’s best selling products, if Nike were to tweet about a new football boot you could retweet it on your business page, alerting your followers.

You could then make sure that your shop was one of the first in your area to get the boot in stock and tweet about it, attracting more customers to your store.

Industry Voices and the Media

Follow the accounts of those in your industry whose views are respected. Look for the accounts with the most followers in your network and, perhaps more importantly, those that are getting the most retweets and favourites.

Following these accounts could lead to interactions with them, making their followers aware of your business. Their tweets may also prove to be very informative and useful to your business, tweets that you could retweet yourself.

Search for the Twitter accounts of the media sources in your local area. To do this, you can use the “Browse categories” list in the Discover tab, or you can use websites like Wefollow, Muck Rack and Twellow.

Building a relationship with newspapers, magazine publishers and radio stations on Twitter could persuade them to feature your business in articles and reviews.

Customers

When your business is just starting out on Twitter, it is a good idea to follow some of your current and favourite customers. Ask for your customers Twitter handles or email addresses, then use this information to search for them on the site.

People use Twitter to interact with brands and business. Following your customers will show them that you want to interact with them on the site, making them feel valued. Following customers will also make them aware that you are on Twitter and, if they thank you for the follow, it will make their followers aware of your business’ Twitter profile as well.

Competitors

Use Twitter to keep an eye on your competitors. Many of your rivals will already have Twitter accounts on which they will post company information and updates. If you can’t find a competitor type their email address into Twitter’s search engine, or have a look for their Twitter handle on their web page.

If you don’t want your competitors to necessarily know that you are following them, use a private Twitter list to keep tabs on them. You can follow lists without following the Twitter accounts listed within them.

Followers

There are two opposing schools of thought concerning follow-backs. Some say that businesses should follow all the users (those proven to be humans and not robots) that follow them, while others argue that businesses should only follow those more active and influential on Twitter.

The people who think that businesses should try to follow as many followers back as possible argue that not only does it show potential customers that the company appreciates their support and cares about their opinions, it also provides users with a way to communicate with companies privately on Twitter via direct messaging – a fantastic customer service tool.

The opposing argument, though obvious, is a good one: too many followed accounts clog up a business’ Twitter stream and bombard it with lower quality information.

If your company is not already on Twitter, it is unlikely that it is well-known. I suggest following as many people back as you can (having made certain that they are people) as this will help build your profile on Twitter, as well as off it.

Suggestions

On your Business’ Twitter home page there is a small list of suggestions entitled “Who To Follow”. In this list, Twitter collates accounts that you could follow based on your interests, activity and the people you follow. Clicking “follow” on one of the suggestions opens up a larger list of options: Twitter encourages users to follow as many accounts as possible to increase engagement and networking on the site.

There is also a longer list in the discover tab with even more suggestions of who your business should follow. Often these suggestions are very good, so it is worth having a look at this list – which is constantly updating itself – every week or so.

Others

Of course, you don’t just have to follow those within your industry or the people who follow you first. Why not follow the accounts of celebrities or people who interest you? Following interesting accounts may provide you with inspiration when you can’t think what to tweet, while interacting with celebrities might lead to an endorsement.

You should be using Twitter to display how interesting and multifaceted your business can be, so following the right mix of people can really help imbue your company’s Twitter account with more personality.

Who do you follow on Twitter? How does it help your business?

Contact us on Twitter, on Facebook, or leave your comments below.Will Sigsworth

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