Twitter tips and tricks: a beginner's guide for small business

With millions of users, all potential customers, Twitter shouldn’t be ignored. Here’s how to get started, from hashtags to management tools.

“I don’t get Twitter” is a common statement among small business owners. Typically lone rangers traversing the terrain of social media with little guidance, they cite limited resources as the main obstacle between them and an explosive Twitter feed.

In truth, success on Twitter is dependent on little more than social media savviness. And with more than 316 million active monthly users engaging in instant conversations, the social platform shouldn’t be ignored.

Here are some tips to turn your Twitter trepidation into a fantastic tool for winning customers.

1 Make connections

Twitter offers the opportunity to find people who are interested in your industry and turn them into customers. But it isn’t enough to blindly fire out tweets each day.

Get creative. A quick search using Twitter’s free search bar will give you an idea of the kind of topics your target audience is engaging with.

Think laterally. Are you a bed company? Perhaps you want to target those complaining about a bad back or a sleepless night. A removal service? Look for someone excitedly tweeting about their impending move.

Active Twitter users will tweet about most aspects of their lives, making Twitter a huge database buzzing with real-time information. Searching keywords such as “bad sleep” and “house move” will pull up a stream of tweets. You can then do an advanced search on location and actively identify your ideal customer.

Twitter allows you to interact with anyone with a public account, an opportunity not afforded by any other social platform. Avoid becoming spam by offering useful content and tips to your followers, based on your business expertise, or even reply to their tweets – generic responses won’t cut it.

2 Develop a personality

There are a range of successful business accounts on Twitter, some with hundreds of thousands of followers. No matter what their industry, they have one thing in common – they develop a unique personality rather than a stream of self-promotion.

Your Twitter feed should be a combination of useful content, such as “how to choose the right mattress for you”, and tweets that demonstrate your personality.

Innocent Smoothies used Twitter to catapult their brand. Their Twitter account is chock-full of witty repartees and quirky stories that don’t always relate to their product, but ooze with brand personality. They are just about the best example of a business doing Twitter well.

Use images to create more of an impact – Tweets with images get on average 35% more engagement than those without. The ideal image size for Twitter is 506 pixels by 253 pixels.

3 Have a content strategy

Twitter is fast-paced. With thousands of tweets on any one topic being fired out every minute, messages get lost easily and it can get overwhelming.

Having a clear content strategy with an editorial calendar is a good way of keeping on top of the day-to-day feed, leaving you free to interact with customers. Your editorial calendar should include events, blogs, brand messaging, sales and products or services you wish to promote throughout the month.

This is a good opportunity to offer discounts exclusively to Twitter, or run competitions to create engagement – one tactic that works surprisingly well is asking people to follow you and retweet your tweet for the chance to win a prize.

When The Salt Room launched in Brighton, they used Twitter to organise a city-wide treasure hunt under the hashtag #SaltSearch. This generated publicity for the restaurant before it had even opened. This hashtag spread across the world, with thousands of retweets and competition entries.

4 #Newsjack

If something big is happening, it’s happening on Twitter and the chances are, it has its own hashtag.

Hashtags are used to centralise a conversation. Searching a specific hashtag in the search bar will bring up a stream of any tweet that contains it. Hijack the hashtag, get involved in the conversation, and watch your engagement levels grow.

Hashtags can also be a more general link to a topic, person or interest – so if Twitter users are searching for tweets on a certain subject, a hashtag can alert them to your tweet. For example, when we tweet about our campaigns at Bozboz, we may use the hashtag #contentmarketing or #digitalcampaigns.

You can also get involved with, or even facilitate, #hours. These are conversations that happen on Twitter at specific times around a specific subject. There are Twitter chats for cities, industries, hobbies, sports – #UKrunchat is a great example of a sports chat that grew from nothing to over 20,000 followers in just two years.

To find relevant hashtags, look at the trending stream to the left of your profile, or check out what your competitors are doing – are they interacting with a specific topic? If they’re doing it, you should too.

5 Stay organised

Twitter can be a lot of work. Make things simpler by streamlining your processes. Use the list functionality to organise individuals into helpful lists. Having a list for customers, influencers, prospects and even competitors will make monitoring and targeting easier and much more effective. If you don’t want the person to know you’ve added them to a list, make the list private.

There are a range of Twitter management tools, such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, that will help you keep on top of your social activity. Meanwhile, Twitonomy helps you measure return on investment – you can track follower growth over time and the number of clicks on links. 

Many of these tools are free and will quickly become an invaluable part of your social strategy.

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Growing complaints about UK’s banking firms

UK banking firms saw complaints rise by 8 per cent in the first half of the year, mainly as a result of packaged bank accounts, new research has found.

Barclays, RBS and Lloyds TSB have shared payments of almost 732 million pounds in order to compensate customers who may have been mis-sold packaged accounts.

Packaged accounts, otherwise known as premium accounts, charge customers a monthly or annual fee in exchange for insurance policies and better deals.

However, banks have seen complaints about packaged accounts rise by 8 per cent, causing concern that it may turn into another compensation problem.

Last year, banks faced criticism over the mis-selling of PPI, and new complaints have seen the total rise to 94,091 complaints in the past 6 months. PPI complaints account for 55 per cent of all banking complaints, according to the financial ombudsman.

Banks have paid more than 28 billion pounds in compensation for PPI mis-selling, with 13.4 billion being paid by Lloyds Banking Group alone, making it the most expensive scandal in the industry.

Besides from PPI, all other complaints revolved around financial products, including packaged accounts.

The total number of new complaints in the six months increased to 173,994, in contrast to the 161,649 complaints in the July-December 2014 period.

The majority of the complaints were successful, as 57 per cent of customer found that their complaints were upheld.

The number of claims is slowing, but not as fast as banks had expected, as firms that were set up to claim on PPI cases have now switched to claiming on packaged accounts.

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11 productivity tricks small-business owners can use to get more done every day

When you own a small business, there are dozens of people and projects vying for your time and attention. It’s hard to figure out where to focus your resources and easy to become overwhelmed.

But your personal productivity helps determine your company’s productivity, so it’s crucial that you stay efficient.

To help you out, we scoured the web for the most practical and insightful advice on getting things done. Read on for tips on prioritizing tasks, managing digital distractions, making decisions, and more.

1. Schedule monthly 80-20 analyses.

Productivity guru Tim Ferriss used this technique to increase sales and cut his hours when he was running a small online supplement company called BrainQuicken.

The point of the exercise is to highlight the most important things you should be focusing on. First, you figure out the 20% of activities that are producing 80% of desired results. Then, you figure out the 20% of activities that are taking up 80% of your time.

Finally, you look at the overlap, or lack thereof, and eliminate the activities that are keeping you busy but aren’t producing key results.

“As a business owner, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of being busy, and being busy is not necessarily productive,” Ferriss told Business Insider.

2. Keep your list of priorities short.

When you’re in charge of a small business, it might seem like your to-do list is endless and everything needs equal attention.

But Chris Licata, owner of Blake’s All Natural Foods in New Hampshire, told Entrepreneur that his best productivity tip is to “embrace the reality that there is no such thing as a list of 10 priorities.”

Licata advises that entrepreneurs come up with a very short list of priorities in order to keep their teams focused on truly important projects.

3. Sideline nonurgent emails.

It’s important for small-business owners to keep abreast of the latest news in the area where they work. But reading every newsletter the minute it arrives in your inbox could be hurting your productivity.

Instead, Jonathan Long, founder and CEO of Market Domination Media, suggests creating an “offers” email address for newsletters and promotions that don’t require immediate attention. Check that inbox a few nights a week so it doesn’t distract you from focusing on important tasks during the day.

4. Restrict meetings to 30 minutes.

Most calendar software defaults to one-hour meetings. But according to Jeff Haden at Inc. Magazine, most issues can be addressed in 30 minutes or less. Make it a habit to schedule 30-minute meetings unless you know a subject will require extra attention.

5. Spend at least one day a month thinking about the long term.

GoodData CEO Roman Stanek told Business Insider that strategic thinking often gets lost in the shuffle of day-to-day calls and meetings.

He advises business leaders to go for a bike ride or do something else alone that allows them to clear their mind. That way they can concentrate on “where is the industry going, where is the company going, what should we do differently, what should we do better.”

6. Plan your day around your emotions and energy levels.

Depending on how much flexibility you have, you can schedule your workday according to typical fluctuations in your mood and energy levels. It can make all the difference between a super-productive day and a wasted one.

For example, if you notice your energy tends to flag in the late afternoon, arrange to answer emails from 4 to 5. And if you know you’re always super-pumped after 10 a.m. team meetings, plan to work on a creative project for the rest of the morning.

7. Learn to delegate.

Overwhelmed? Don’t take on the entire burden of moving the company forward. Instead, figure out which tasks should be accomplished by someone else and distribute them among your team.

“Make sure you delegate to people who often are better equipped to make decisions in a particular area than you are,” Shayan Zadeh, cofounder and CEO of online dating app Zoosk, told Mashable.

8. Avoid analysis paralysis.

According to James Waters, who served as the deputy director of scheduling at the White House, sometimes you have to make a decision with imperfect information — as uncomfortable as that may feel. In fact, Waters said it’s something that the White House has to do all the time.

In other words, do as much analysis and data gathering as possible, but don’t delay the moment of decision-making.

“That’s frustrating for everyone,” Waters said.

9. Have one meeting-free day every week.

If you allowed them to, meetings could probably take up all 168 hours of your week. That’s why it’s important to designate one weekday when meetings are verboten, so you can work on big tasks without distractions.

Dustin Moskovitz, cofounder of Facebook and cofounder and CEO of Asana, said he clears his schedule every Wednesday. It's "an invaluable tool for ensuring you have some contiguous space to do project work,” he said.

10. Create a comfortable workspace.

Research cited on 99U suggests making your own decisions about the way your workspace is set up is linked to improved productivity.

Whether you’re working from home or an office building, the little design features matter. Personalize your space with photos of friends and family (or at least personalize your desktop background). Keep things tidy by using a basket to hold your papers and books. And make sure there’s enough light by placing a small lamp on your desk.

11. Make your health a priority.

Finally, don’t invest in your business at the expense of your personal well-being. Research suggests that poor nutrition and lack of physical activity is linked to lower productivity at work.

Encourage your team to maintain good health habits, too. If they’re sitting hunched over their computers all day, they could end up with health issues in the long term, which will only hurt your company’s performance.

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Is your business geared up to be very responsive on Facebook?

If until now you’ve been reluctant to embrace Facebook as a customer service platform for your small business, then you may wish to read on.

On August 5, Facebook dropped a megaton announcement that looks like it could change the face of customer service communication for the foreseeable future.

For as far back as one can remember, reliable customer service has primarily taken place either face to face or over the phone. Facebook and Twitter have steadily drawn people away from these methods with the premise of convenience; the only downsides being the public broadcast of your conversation and a lack of immediate response.

It’s been argued in the past that the open nature of Facebook business pages was a positive as it allowed people to see first-hand how the company dealt with complaints. In the coming weeks, Facebook page administrators will be able to communicate to page posts in discretion, allowing both parties to resolve any issues efficiently and in private.

Little has changed in the way customers initiate a conversation and others will still be able to see their initial post – the main difference occurs in the resulting transaction. The page admin can now click ‘Message’ under the post and continue the conversation in private with the customer.

Best of all are the new business page accolades, which award the most responsive and efficient business pages with a “Very Responsive” badge. Businesses will have to respond to 90 per cent of all customer messages on their page with a median response time of less than five minutes.

This could well cause businesses to take their Facebook far more seriously and allocate a committed individual to monitor the page at all times. A race to achieve the “Very Responsive” award is expected, with many businesses already gearing up to accommodate this game changing update.

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Employment laws could be damaging UK SMEs and jobs

New market research by consultants Citrus HR suggests UK employment laws could be damaging small business and preventing them from taking on more staff.

Three-quarters of respondents said keeping abreast of legislation was a "significant drain on their time". When asked whether current employment law affected their decision to hire, 39% of small business respondents said they would take on more people if employment law was less complex. Only a quarter thought employment law was acceptable as is.

The research also suggests a marked lack of understanding of UK employment law among respondents. Less than a third knew the current National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates – despite the risk of a fine of up to £20,000 for employers who do not pay at least NMW rates.

Respondents said calculating holiday for part-time staff and those working "casual hours contracts" was particularly difficult. Changes to flexible working rules was a common answer when respondents were asked for examples of a recent legislative change that had made small business employment law compliance more difficult.

Almost a fifth (18%) of respondents didn't know which countries are in the EU, which, according to Citrus, means there is a risk of sanction for not carrying out checks to find out if workers are allowed to work in the UK legally.

Among the employment laws respondents most wanted to change included not being able to pay employees for unused holiday unless they leave (37%), followed by removing the compulsory retirement age (29%), employees being able to claim sick leave when unwell while on holiday (21%) and women on maternity leave continuing to accrue paid holiday (14%).

More than half (60%) of respondents used HR support, although much of the support aimed at small businesses was viewed as "expensive and cumbersome", which is a key reason why 36% of respondents did not use HR support.

In July, the government unveiled plans to launch "ambitious reviews into burdensome red tape" in key sectors (energy, waste, agriculture, care homes and mineral extraction) – its first step to working with British businesses to "axe unnecessary regulation and its poor implementation" by a further £10bn over the course of this parliament.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid commented: "I'm determined to take the brakes off British businesses and set them free from heavy-handed regulators. The government's pledge to cut £10bn in red tape over the course of this parliament will help create more jobs for working people, boost productivity and keep our economy growing. For the first time, these reviews will look not only at the rules themselves, but [how] they're enforced. We want firms to tell us where red tape is holding them back."

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