The first complete form of Twitter had its debut in 2007 at the famous South by Southwest music conference in Austin, TX, and it initially had trouble developing a revenue stream because, unlike other social media platforms, there was no opportunity for banner advertisements (Britannica.com). Fast forwarding to today, the platform boasts 330 million monthly active users, 186 million of which are labeled as ‘Monetizable Daily Active Users’ (Omnicoreagency.com). This means that those 186 million people view targeted promotional tweets, visual ads, and recommended posts decided by Twitter’s algorithm that maps user behavior.
So what do all of these numbers mean for you as an independent agency owner trying to generate more leads in an age where digital communication is king? To put things simply: Your business should be on Twitter. In one of Twitter’s own surveys, it found that its users were more likely to discover new information quicker than rest of the population. Now, how is that possible? It is because the people using Twitter view a wider scope of informative material than people who don’t, and Twitter automatically narrows that information down based on the users’ interaction. Basically, it does the hard work of prospecting for you by bringing people to your profile based on their likes and dislikes.
Let’s move on to how your small business can get the most out of Twitter.
Start by picking three goals to base your metrics and strategy on.
Some common goals for small businesses are:
- Increase direct sales
- Become a customer support channel
- And increase your brand awareness
These goals will help keep your content and posting focused and consistent so you won’t have to spend too much time thinking about when and what to post.
Pay attention to insurance industry trends
Remember when carriers were giving out credits for auto-policy holders because people weren’t using their vehicles during the pandemic? That is a great example of a hot insurance topic. Others could be explaining premium increases or walking through basic policy terminology, but the topics you choose to speak about should always be relevant to current happenings.
Decide on your brand voice
Your brand voice is a combination of tone and content, so how you choose to sound and what you decide to talk about. This helps you stand out from the crowd and compete with larger agencies. The key to developing a strong brand voice is consistency. Check out Wendy’s twitter for a good example of brand voice, and they tend to use a little bit of snarky humor to attract more attention.
Finally, match your profile to your goals
Remember those goals we talked about? You have to make sure people know who you are and what you’re offering in order to increase your prospects. Put your website link in your bio or pin it to the top of your profile page. Don’t forget about your cover photo and profile photo! Your cover photo should reflect your brand voice. If you want to be known as an informative, family-friendly brand, use a picture of your entire agency team as a cover photo and your logo for the profile picture.
You may not like to be on Twitter in your personal time, but now social media plays a large factor in small businesses’ recognition. Twitter is a great (and free) tool to grow your organic reach, and it’s a fast way to become known in your local community. The easy thing about this social media platform is that, at its core, it is a giant open forum where anyone can share their opinions and contribute to a larger conversation. So have fun with it! If you are creative and stay true to your agency’s values you will find that generating leads via Twitter is a lot easier than you thought.